If like me you have a multiple hard disk drive system, with many folders containing mixed media/document type that you are backing-up, caveat emptor on the MyBook product if you are expecting to use the provided Smartware software - WDSW.
Product Purchased: WDC MyBook Essential 2TB.
This product is attached to a WinXP SP3 Net 3.5, 3+Ghz Intel, 3.2 usable RAM, 1.5 TB 10K spin WDC HDDs across 5 drives.
I purchased the MyBook because I’ve become a WDC proponent having found their drives more reliable than other brands, and learned that WDC’s support tops the chart in the way they responded to a single drive reporting hardware errors, while the data was still accessible on the drive. Plus, I have recently successfully recommended and installed a small megabyte size Passport for a client who is very happy with what was accomplished with that backup drive, and “HOW NUISANCE FREE” it was to install, and is to use. (Little does he know…)
Problem 1: After installing the WD Smartware from the new MyBook, followed by a reboot, WDFME.exe will immediately consume 40% to 70% of CPU resources as soon as this executable loads. This causes havoc with speed, even on my FAST desktop.
WORKAROUND: On the WDSW Settings tab, Software Settings, select Backup Speed and check the box to pause the app until the computer is idle. PRO: You’ll be able to navigate WDSW somewhat normally. CON: You won’t see WDSW doing anything.
Problem 1 fixed, and after a lot of fiddling, I had backup plans for all 5 of my HDDs, then I realized that I hadn’t clicked the software update button. Yes, that’s kind of backwards, but, looking back, I was fortunate to have reversed the process because the new version has its own problems in the interface.
Next, I performed the UPDATE SOFTWARE to 1.3.0.16 by clicking on the Home tab located button. A reboot and I’m officially running v1.3.0.16 according to WDSW.
Problem 2: Updating the WDSW to v1.3.0.16 and running the updated WDSW was followed by WDFME.exe throwing error message boxes, and dumping data and dialogues that ask permission to send the error package to Microsoft. The version of WDSW replaced by the update may have also thrown these errors; there are postings on this board by folks who rolled back to the original install version supplied by the drive without fixing this problem.
At first, 1.3.0.16 WDSW came up and I could navigate the tabs and selections confirming the update didn’t change anything. Clicking the start backup button didn’t appear to increase backup activity until I unchecked the “pause backup until computer is idle” box (see problem 1 above) and rebooted my computer. That’s when the WDFME.exe errors began. The first one quickly. The subsequent many not so quickly, so that I’d find them on the screen when I would walk away for awhile, returning to find another WDFME.exe error message. Three nights I let my system run overnight to arrive and find that WDFME.exe had once again failed, and that little progress had been accomplished towards a full backup. After close to 36 hours of completely idle time with ONLY WDSW and the MyBook running on my system this past week, only 2GB of a total 800GB of data had been moved to the MyBook, but, my frustration level was approaching “FULL.”
SOLUTION: (my solution may not apply to you) Working from safe mode, the un-install of WDSW wasn’t allowed. So, disabling every service that has the potential of locking onto a file, including but not limited to anti-virus/firewall, every app in the system tray not essential to video or connectivity, and related processes including the FIVE WDxxxxx.exe processes that run under WDSW, I rebooted, un-installed WDSW, rebooted, then installed the updated WDSW alone (not over the prior install) as suggest by a couple of other posts in this forum. Another reboot and I had WDSW in front of me with WDFME.exe hogging resources again, but I was able to navigate the WDSW app haltingly. It showed the same number of files and GBs “Data for Backup” (on the Backup tab, for the C drive) as before the reinstall, but the MyBook side said zero and zero, rather than the fraction of files and 2GB that had appeared before the update. Navigating to the MyBook HDD in Windows, I could see that the partial drive backups accomplished before the update were still there. Everything else was set the way I wanted, so I clicked on Start Backup about 3AM today, and an hour ago awoke to WDSW saying I had a complete backup of C drive.
Problem 3: This problem #3 is really part “B” of problem #2 above. As I noted, the updated WDSW seemed to work fine after the installation of the application from the MyBook and a reboot of my system. Once “Start Backup” was launched, however, the hard drive selection drop-down on the Home tab quit working altogether!! I couldn’t select any of my five drives, “C” to “G,” except “C.” Unless you can select a different drive, you can’t see what’s going on with that system drive on the Backup or Retrieve tabs!!
WORKAROUND: It took DAYS to realized the following. The selector drop-down on the Home page beneath the ‘screen icon’ captioned with the Windows name for the computer on which WDSW is running, appears to be DEAD, or stuck on the “C” drive if you try to drop-down the box by clicking the down arrow on the right of the drop down. (Yes, it is REALLY SUPPOSED to DROP DOWN, and did for the short time before the original install version was overwritten by the update. A single down arrow DOES mean “drop down.” An “up-down” arrow combination means “use your arrow keys.”) As you repeatedly click anywhere within this box, you will see that the color changes slightly from a lighter gray to a not so light gray. On my version, if the color is “not so light gray,” i.e. “darker,” you can’t select anything different that what is showing in the drop down. Click the drop-down box again to make it the “lighter gray,” and you can use your up/down arrow keys to change the drive reference that appears in the box, which selects that drive, and changes the content you’ll see on the Backup and Retrieve tabs of WDSW. (Ohhh, I could be SOOOO SNARKY at this point…)
Okay, now that I have a REAL and COMPLETE backup, AND know how to navigate between system drives included in the backup, I can see how “RETRIEVE” works. And this is where WDSW becomes completely UNUSABLE for my purposes!!!
Problem 4: It seemed curious to me that WDC used SIX BROAD CATEGORIES of file types for setting up the “Backup” in the Backup tab of WDSW. But, what does it matter since one of the six is “Other,” which I assume captures everything that isn’t one of the other five. When you get to the “Retrieve” tab and start trying to select files to restore, you will probably be like me, wishing they had added one more button to the selection choices, a button for “ALL.” The reason is that to retrieve a complete folder using WDSW means you have to restore that folder SIX TIMES to be sure you get ALL the files that were captured by the backup!! (and I haven’t tried that to see what you really get, whether everything is really there – that’s backup FUD for you.) You have to retrieve the folder after first selecting “Pictures,” then after selecting “Music,” then after selecting… you get the idea. Six times.
Problem 5: EARLY POSTSCRIPT: At this point in my writing, WDFME.exe just popped-up a new error dialog with new data to send MSoft. “WD File Management Engine has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.” I’m sure you’re sincere about that! – And of course, when WDFME.exe fails, WDSW fails, too, returning all reported information to NULL. Restarting the File Management Engine from Windows Services brings data back into the open WDSW app within a few seconds, without a reboot of the system. The WDSW application is not listed as a service, but from experience I know that if you exit the application after a WDFME.exe failure, the icon in the system tray will close and will not return when the WDSW app is restarted from the All Programs menu.
Problem 6: It is only AFTER WDSW had reported the completion of a “C” drive backup that I figured-out the solution to the drive selection described in Problem #3 above. So, everything shared about problems 1 through 4 relates only to a single drive backup for “C.” Looking at WDSW settings for the other drives, once I could change the drive selection, all of those drives backups were stopped, and file/byte count was zero for each drive, though through Explorer I could see partial backups (this discrepency probably due to un-install, re-install above). Unfortunately, I had not restarted those backups before starting to write this novel, so I don’t know for sure, but suspect that the failure of WDFME.exe just documented as Problem 5, would have stopped all of the backups!! Which means, that a great deal of attention MUST be paid to this software by anyone using it to be sure that backup plans are correctly set in a “START” state, especially after WDFME.exe fails. (And, on reboots, too? There are too many problems with this app for it to be considered “reliable.”)
Well, I was determined to get this software working on my system, and I’ve done it, though this product is probably going to be returned as defective because of the problems described here!
At least this experience has prepared should the time come with my one client whose WONDER at what I did with a Passport install morphs into a need to retrieve a file, folder, or two. He’s an attorney, and kind of picky about these kinds of things, as they say.
Finally, for WDC: You can do better than this! And I’m expecting exactly that from a company of your caliber and quality.
My second post describing why I uninstalled Smartware is here.
My third post after I found out that Smartware is the MyBook driver is here.
