I just bought a My Book Essential usb 3.0 for my new Sony Vaio Windows 8 all in one desktop PC. When I first plugged it in to the USB 3 port, it seemed fine. It automatically loaded its drivers. I formatted the drive using Windows and manually backed up a few files without issues. I downloaded the Smartware that came with it because it says it uses that to control the power management of the drive. I tried using that to backup but I couldn’t find how to get out of category backup and into specific file backup so I decided to use the Memeo Backup Premium that I’ve been using with two of my old WD My Books on previous computers for years. It started up the back up but seemed very slow. It ended up taking 8 hours to backup 233GB of data. Just as it finished the backup, it says back up complete for about 2 seconds before it starts verifying other files I haven’t touched in years and re-backing those up. Then it jumps from 2 files pending to 133 files pending within seconds when I haven’t changed or done anything and no other programs are running. I paused the software and tried restarting it. It just did the same thing. I quit the program and tried to eject the drive but it said that some program called ‘wsearch’ was using the drive so it couldn’t be ejected. I couldn’t find such a program in my task manager though. I tried using the power button on the back of the drive but it wouldn’t shut off. I ended up having to manually unplug it instead. I restarted the PC and started the Memeo without plugging in the drive and it did the same thing, pending and backing up 100s of files for no reason. I only have documents, videos, pictures, and music selected for backup. I quit the program again and plugged the drive back in the USB 3 port. Now it keeps downloading its drivers every time it’s plugged in. Under the Devices and Printers menu on my control panel it gave me an error saying my PC and the hard drive needs to be troubleshooted. I did that and it said that the drive might have incorrect drivers and that the usb port on my PC was disabled because of an error. I tried troubleshooting both via Windows but they came up with no options to fix it. I restarted the PC again and the errors went away. Again, the drive re-downloads its drivers upon plug in then starts ejecting itself within a minute or two and Windows says there is an error and the drive can’t be read. I then plugged the drive into a USB 2.0 port in the back of my PC and was able to access the drive. It did stop working once when transferring files off of the drive to another drive but I restarted it and it was ok in the USB 2.0 drive. I have tried formatting this drive twice in Windows and using the WD Quick Formatter that came with the drive. I went on the WD website and updated the firmware and downloaded the latest SES drivers. None of this fixed it. However when I use an old USB 2.0 portable drive in the USB 3.0 port I have no issues. I don’t understand why the WD drive keeps installing its drivers like I just plugged it in for the first time or why it made the backup software overrun or why I am never able to eject the drive from the USB 3.0 port. Can you help me fix it?
Check if you have the latest USB 3.0 drivers for your computer.
It’s a brand new model Sony Vaio Windows 8 pc that I just bought. I figured the drivers were up to date. But I tried searching it anyway on Sony.com. I can’t seem to find anything tho.
