So, to continue the Saga…
-Asus finished defrag faster than the Toshiba (perhaps it’s not the processor)
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Determined no new drivers for Seagate hard drive
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Restarted WDFME…immediately began to grab memory at a linear rate. Terminated the process when it got to 1.5 GB RAM
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Uninstalled WD SmartWare
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Applied all outstanding Win 7 patches (about 4 or 5 .Net Framework 3.5.1 Security Patches)
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Reinstalled WD SmartWare from external drive (version 1.4.1.1)…memory usage was stable/reasonable.
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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.
