After uninstallation - cannot reinstall

The other day when I plugged in my WD passport into its USB 3.0 port and double clicked on the WD SmartWare icon I immediately got an error from windows saying the program wasn’t working and would be shut down.  I don’t remember exactly what the error message was, but it was something like that and it would happen immediately after double clicking on the icon, but the icon remained and I could double click again to receieve the same error.

I have no clue what was causing that problem, but because I needed to backup my files I figured reinstalling the drive would fix it - WRONG!!

After uninstalling the drive now when I go to install it I get a message saying it can’t find WDSmartWare.exe on the C drive.  Umm, of course it’s not going to be there…I’m trying to install it!!

At this point this drive is a $90 paper weight.  I can’t install the software from the drive and I can’t reinstal Windows because I need to back up my data first.

How the **bleep** do I install this software???

Would it be a better idea to just wipe the drive and not even bother with Western Digital’s crappy software and let Windows 7 take care of the back up?  If so, how do I do so?  I just tried to disable VCD which I don’t really know what that is, but you have to have WD SmartWare installed in order to do that…WHICH I CAN’T DO

What can I do here??

Just forget about Smartware.

Can you see your drive in Windows explorer? Your external drive DOES NOT needs any third party driver to work with Windows XP SP2 or later. If you can’t see your WD drive in explorer, you need to look inside Device Manager.

Press WinKey + R and type devmgmt.msc on RUN dialogue box. Once device manager opens look under disk drives. It should show the complete name of your WD external drive with “USB Device” suffix.

If this is not the case, you need to diagnose USB connection conditions and the drive conditions. Visually check USB cable and “Four” USB connections. (Two plugs & Two Ports). Make sure they are firmly connected. Don’t over stress.

Once connected, check whether the drive is spinning. You can hear this. If you can’t hear the spinning sound or able to hear clicking sound for more than 2 seconds, the drive has to be considered faulty.

If you can see the drive in device manager, you need to look in to Disk Manager.

Press WinKey + R and type diskmgmt.msc on RUN dialogue box. When Disk Man

ager opens, look for your WD inside right side of the window.

If you can’t see WD disk drive means your disk drive is corrupted or faulty.

Try these steps and post your findings. I’ll continue base on your input.