3TB MyBook Essential Unlocker freeze-up

My system is detecting the Unlocker program, but when I try to run it, instead of brining me to the password screen (which it used to, and I’ve easily used, for months) it doesn’t open anything and my task bar freezes up (when I access it from the start menu).

When I open a My Computer window and access it that way, that and the taskbar freeze up.

I get the same issue when trying to run Help and Support too, so I’m not sure if it’s a WD issue or not (I may try unplugging it to see if that still happens) but I’m hoping someone here might help anyway.  What issue might cause both programs to freeze up?

I’m also having trouble running Pidgin. It doesn’t freeze the taskbar when I click it, but it doesn’t open anymore.

Also my other 2 previous hard drives (each older 1TBs by ComStar and and LaCie) aren’t even being detected at all, in spite of being plugged in and on. I have had all 3 external drives plugged in, connected, active and able to browse all of them for months.

This is a sudden issue that as far as I can tell may have occured after the last Windows Update (I am on Vista) so I wonder if it was corrupt? When I open WU it freezes up and doesn’t tell me anything.

All I can think is to try a system restore. I’m worried though because I’ve downloaded some things which I fear that may delete and I don’t want to lose them. It’s all I can think to do though. If Microsoft’s Update is bad, perhaps they’ll fix it and a restore might give me a new one?

Could this be a WD issue though? Have people had this happen, where the Unlocker is detected, but not useable, and freezes the Taskbar and Startup menu? If I hadn’t enabled the Unlocker (I use it for privacy and so people can’t blackmail me by just adding a password so that I’d have to get the pass from them to get my data) would I be able to see the drive, or would it be hidden just like my other 1-TB drives?

You might have some corrupted files, unlock the my book and then run a test with DLG. If the test completes fine, then you need a data recovery program like recuva or testdisk to recover your files. 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/940