WDFME.exe RAM hog

I bought this to backup my music making work. It’s only a hobby, but thought it was a great solution. Only now, my music making software won’t even run properly because all the RAM is used up.

At first I thought my main hard drive was dying so purchased a new on, ready to reinstall EVERYTHING from scratch. I then thought to download some disk checking utilities and no errors could be found. I even bought a new heatsync graphics card so that the sound of the fan on my old one wouldn’t disguise the noise of a dying hard drive.

I was going to buy another of these drives for my folks since the bundled software would suit them down to the ground. This would have killed their very basic machine.

What worries me here is that I consider myself a moderately experienced computer user - I’ve used forums to get rid of some pretty nasty virus in the past, have built the system myself and tweaked it. I just figured the first backup put too much strain on my original hard drive. It’s only by chance that I decided to look into the resource monitor while looking for another service for my music software that I found this to be the source of the problem. People all over the place will be taking their machines into local computer repair places and getting ripped off to have a repair done which isn’t required…it’ll be “you need more RAM” or “your hard drive needs replacing” or “the motherboard needs replacing”.

I’m pretty sure I registered my product when I purchased it and it certainly did a software update after installing - so tell me…why haven’t WD done a very simple thing of emailing the people who have registered? and why not even an incremental software update which simply has a popup message to tell  people about the issue? Nevermind the rants about whether this is free or not - simple communication on this issue would help a lot of people.

Go to  SERVICES and look for WD File Management Engine, WD File Management Shadow Engine, and WDDMService and stop them. I set mine to Manual, and it was like adding 3 to 4 Gig of memory.

I use Norton Ghost for backup, but you could use the Windows backup instead. The WD software is not worth running.

I did the same for Vista 64. Stopping the WD services freed up my RAM considerably. Thanks for the memory!

I will buy a new HD that not pretend to be anything else. I will select my data folders, and copy it to the HD using the date as naming.

I’m tired of all those process that run in the background and taking ressources and causing everything to slow down and my fan to run at max.

ASUS G50V, 6 Go RAM, XP

Hope my experience will help others to keep it simple and more happy.

I am another disgruntled cutomer. WD simplly dont seem to have the customer services or hospitality in place to take us seriously! I decided to buy WD Studiobook after reading through many reviews, they must have a seriously large amount of ghost review writers out there because it is a nightmare to run!

It is not slick, easy to use or even work properly.  Having to stop WDFME.exe manually the whole time when it starts to kick up a fuss when i havnt even got the drive attached is a serious design flaw, its been mentioned in many forums already why the *&%^ arnt WD listening and doing something about it pronto? I wont be buying WD again, im looking even at getting another 1TB drive and just ditching this one. I can’t be arsed to go through the hasstle of deleting stuff off it etc etc and reselling it. Segate here I come!

    I am a software engineer with 20+ years of experience.  From the postings in this forum and discussions with WD support, I am 100% convinced that the WD software developers do not understand the cause of the problem or how to solve it.

    Is there some way I can have a dialog with knowledgeable WD software developers to discuss the cause and solution?  If possible, please send me an email to get a dialog started.  As one support person had said, “Western Digital is a hardware company.  Software is not their forte…”

    I am frustrated like many other customers.  If WD does not resolve this problem soon, I will be forced to throw away my My Book Live and buy another back-up drive from a competitor.

Hey rg_9999, I’m an IT professional w/ 25+ years experience, so I’ve got you beat.  8-)

I think I know why WD can’t figure out the cause of the problem. Here is what I’ve got going on.

2 Laptops running WD Smartware version 1.5.1.6. In Laptop #1, wdfme.exe uses 5.5 MB RAM. In Laptop #2, wdfme.exe uses as much RAM as it can get (~3.1 to 3.3. GB)

Both laptops have:

  • Windows 7, version 6.1, build 7601, SP1

  • Seagate ST9500325AS drives

  • HD driver is Microsoft, date of 6/21/2006, version 6.1.7600.16385

  • 4GB RAM

So what is the difference between the laptops?

Laptop #1Laptop #2

Data85 GB100 GB (many more picture files from digital camara)

Disk Frag13 %7%

MakeToshibaAsus

Processor4xI3 M380 2.53Ghz2xPentium T4400 2.20 Ghz

So is it the extra files? Toshiba vs. Asus? I3 quad vs. dual Pentium?

After stopping the wdfm service on the Asus I am running defrag on both laptops. I’ve noticed it is taking significantly longer on the ASUS.  Could it be the Pentium processors? (can’t believe 15 GB extra data would cause a significant defrag delay).

After I defrag the ASUS (still waiting…on pass 7)  I’m going to restart WDFM. If it still hogs, I’m going to see if there is a new MS driver for the HD.

If that still doesn’t work, then I’m going to punt.

Hope this helps you and/or anyone else on this board.

So, to continue the Saga…

-Asus finished defrag faster than the Toshiba (perhaps it’s not the processor)

  • Determined no new drivers for Seagate hard drive

  • Restarted WDFME…immediately began to grab memory at a linear rate. Terminated the process when it got to 1.5 GB RAM

  • Uninstalled WD SmartWare

  • Applied all outstanding Win 7 patches (about 4 or 5 .Net Framework 3.5.1 Security Patches)

  • Reinstalled WD SmartWare from external drive (version 1.4.1.1)…memory usage was stable/reasonable.

  • Upgraded WD SmarWare to latest version (1.5.1.6)…first 1/2 hour memory usage is stable/reasonable.

So, in my case, the last 4 steps fixed the problem. Not sure if applying recent security patches for .Net Framework is needed or if just an uninstall/install would have done the trick. At this point, I don’t really care as it appears I’m good to go.

Again, hope this helps folks who are experiencing simiar issues w/ this software.

well the support page for smartware states

NOTE: To update to this version of WD SmartWare, you need the following minimum requirements:

  • Windows XP 32-bit Service Pack 3, Windows XP 64-bit Service Pack 2, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher installed on your computer.

If you don’t already have the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your computer, you will be prompted to install it.

so having the most current net 3.5 probably is a good idea…

rg_9999 wrote:

    I am a software engineer with 20+ years of experience.  From the postings in this forum and discussions with WD support, I am 100% convinced that the WD software developers do not understand the cause of the problem or how to solve it.  :cry: I don’t think WD developed this software themselves, so they can’t provide proper technical support.

 

    Is there some way I can have a dialog with knowledgeable WD software developers to discuss the cause and solution? see my response below.  If possible, please send me an email to get a dialog started.  As one support person had said, “Western Digital is a hardware company.  Software is not their forte…”  hehe, I have said that in other posts, but I don’t know if you’re quoting me, lol

 

    I am frustrated like many other customers.  If WD does not resolve this problem soon, I will be forced to throw away my My Book Live and buy another back-up drive from a competitor.  now that’s a bit rash, WD makes good hardware.

I was a software developer 40 years ago developing IBM mainframe operating systems and “new” mini computer communications software.  I can’t talk details of what is going on here, but after using a comparable backup system called Genie Timeline it has become apparent that WDFME has it’s hooks in the wrong place and does not index changed files and do batch backups.  It apparently rescans all your files whenever any one is changed, as if it does not know which file was modified.  From Genie Timeline I can see (because it keeps a queue of files to be backed up) that Firefox is making constant changes to its Profile data and I believe this is something or one of the reasons that WDFME runs all the time.  When I used Smartware Wdfme was not much of a probplem when I used the Chrome browser, but was a big problem when I used Firefox.  Genie Timeline keeps an index of files that need to be backed up and does a periodic backup on an hourly basis (free edition, minimum 3 minutes for paid version) or can be forced at any time.  Ergo, there is no constant scanning and or catagorizing like with Smartware.  With Genie you can mix catagory and specific file/folder backups and with the paid version you ca exclude files/folders from the catagorized portion of the backup.

@oldguy61.  See my response above to rg_9999.

I wanted to post an update here.

We are releasing two new versions that will solve different problems.

The 1.5.4 code line will add support for new product and also have maintenance items within including a better installer to resolve most install/uninstall problems seen.

The 1.5.5 code line will have significant back end changes related to the categorization and copying of files that will significantly reduce the amount of resources used including memory and hard disk i/o.

The time table on both of these releases is not certain yet.

This is great to hear… that there MAY be some fixes coming soon…dont know what they are…and dont know  when.  But a Good Start!   Lets see if their upper tier management knows enough to support their efforts to become ultimately and quickly successful at  resolving this issue.

In response to this issue…and because of managements not responding intelligently to this audience…I have already purchased another backup software product.   This product knows enough not to be running at 81% full blast when im using my computer.  I have had the opportunity to vote with my money on this issue… I just purchased 2 competitors hard drives for Christmas gifts this season based on this issue.

This particular software problem and managements handling of it…  has so strongly and negatively affected my loyalty to WD… that I was relieved to be able to try someone elses well regarded products in place of WD for the first time.  Im sorry to say their handling of it has driven me so far.  I have 11 WD drives in my collection…and this software response by managements choices  has been the reason.

I support WD third level upper management doing something significant and very effective.  Best Wishes.

BBBBBrandon wrote:

I wanted to post an update here.

 

We are releasing two new versions that will solve different problems.

 

The 1.5.3 code line will add support for new product and also have maintenance items within including a better installer to resolve most install/uninstall problems seen.

 

The 1.5.4 code line will have significant back end changes related to the categorization of files that will significantly reduce the amount of resources used including memory and hard disk i/o.

 

The time table on both of these releases is not certain yet.

good luck to all of you hangers on.  you don’t have to wait for WD’s maybe fixes, just use genie timeline if you don’t need the smartware security locks.

BBBBBrandon, can you detail what any of those ‘backend’ changes are?

Suzzie12 wrote:

This is great to hear… that there MAY be some fixes coming soon…dont know what they are…and dont know  when.  But a Good Start!   Lets see if their upper tier management knows enough to support their efforts to become ultimately and quickly successful at  resolving this issue.

 

In response to this issue…and because of managements not responding intelligently to this audience…I have already purchased another backup software product.   This product knows enough not to be running at 81% full blast when im using my computer.  I have had the opportunity to vote with my money on this issue… I just purchased 2 competitors hard drives for Christmas gifts this season based on this issue.

 

This particular software problem and managements handling of it…  has so strongly and negatively affected my loyalty to WD… that I was relieved to be able to try someone elses well regarded products in place of WD for the first time.  Im sorry to say their handling of it has driven me so far.  I have 11 WD drives in my collection…and this software response by managements choices  has been the reason.

 

I support WD third level upper management doing something significant and very effective.  Best Wishes.

i wonder how many ‘likes’ your response would get on facebook?  i bet it might shock wd.

are you guys with high overhead memory problems using the “category” backup, or file/folder specific backups?  I’ve got to believe that when you narrow down the scan to only a few folders the service won’t run wild scanning your whole machine…

cman548 wrote:

are you guys with high overhead memory problems using the “category” backup, or file/folder specific backups?  I’ve got to believe that when you narrow down the scan to only a few folders the service won’t run wild scanning your whole machine…

So I can drive my race car as long as I don’t drive it fast? :dizzy_face:

I had my backups set to files and folders and had maybe 40 folders out of my 150 folders selected.  It took two weeks to backup 300gigs of files for a baseline…and it would run from 40%-80% of memory in the background almost continually. 

The program doesnt know how to stop, or how to throttle itself down, or how to respect that there is another user on the machine besides itself.  The minute it sees cursor movement or a program launch…it should absolutely stop itself, release the resources, and wait for 20 minutes with NO activity to begin running again. 

It would also be better if the designers figured out that I might want to set a specific window of time for it to run… ONLY from 1-5am. 

The program was also notorious for creating many duplicate folders and contents that had already been saved.  It had a bad memory and it seemed to scan ALL the files and folders to try to figure which ones had been updated instead of having some intelligent way to find updated files without having to start over from scretch. 

These are my impressions…I could be wrong…this is how I felt it acted because of its behavior. 

cman548: If I wanted to save just a few folders…I would have backed up things myself manually…and yes…it would keep on being bothersome with just a few or many files.

Maybe others may have some specific behaviors that they would like to share to be helpful to the “fix it up” crew that is trying to correct this issue. 

@Suzzie12   Do you use Firefox?

George:  I use Firefox…Yes