I was struck too by the bug Maverick earlier this month. I have lost a total of 2 TB of files shared between a HD WD Green 1TB and one Iomega UltraMax with 2 Seagate 500GB HD mounted inside. As there is no solution yet, I decided to format my iMac and make a downgrade to Mountain Lion. I tried in vain to recover my files with Data Rescue and Filesavage but the recovery has happened way too messy and inaccurate.
EDITED - problem tracked to bad power cord.
Honestly I cry for you all on data loss, I have seen enough data loss in my life from other people to re-sink the Titianic
Ive had guys bringing me their drives long ago saying they either will or have lost their jobs because all their years of work is just gone. Wife and kids to feed, bills. Its not bad, its not awful, its **bleep** tragic as heck. 
Just to let you know I feel your pain, but for the sake of all thats holy, why are some of you trusting years of priceless data to any hard drive???
Its painful to even think of, its like a digital horror movie. A real life disgusting horror movie. Yeah, just park all those years of priceless data on one external hard drive thats about as fragile as an egg.
All hard drives are like buying a fish at the market, use it and expect them all to soon rot and stink. What about your data redundancy?
If you havent got at least 3 or 4 copies of years and years of data, then youre sticking your head in the lions mouth and teasing him.
People at IBM were preaching “End of the world!!! Death and despair” about data redundancy 25 years ago.
Why hasnt that message got thru yet to people? Why why why why why. Its a senseless tragedy anyone should have seen coming 100 miles away and everyone could have avoided it.
Spend another $200 for 3 or 5 more hard drives to protect your years of work! Makes me want to scream! Arghhh 
I really like your comment, but this is not normal, what happened is unprecedented and is totally unpredictable. in fact it is very unlikely to lose the data from 4 or more disk at the same time!
but this is not normal, what happened is unprecedented and is totally unpredictable.
All HD data corruption is “normal” in fact it is the working premise from any professional that will warn you about ferromagnetic storage.
This not unprecedented, stuff like this has happened before several time, …not recently at all however relating to Mac or WD.
It is 10,000% totally predictable. All data archiving expertise will tell you that there are only two types of HD, those that have crashed and those that will soon.
The holy grail of protecting your data is redundancy, second: redundancy, and third: redundancy.
And fourth is platform redundancy, i.e. online, HD, DVD burns for small-media files (documents, etc.), multiple autonomous server farms.
I still have nightmares from stories Ive heard firsthand in the past about data loss where someone lost their job, family ended up on the skids, contemplating home foreclosure and homelessness.
People who have the cash to buy life insurance, darn well need to wake up and think about data insurance.
Cheap data insurance is buying a box of hard drives and a private website and stashing your lifes work away EVERYWHERE all the bleeping time like a chipmunk and his nuts preparing for winter.
Hello MacGuru100
Redundancy! I agree, disk failures are relatively rare, but they happen. I work with PCs and Macs since they have been invented, privately and at work. It happened to me once in more than 30 years, that I heard some clicking of a disk and I immediately called an expert. More than 99% of the disk contents could be recovered. I had many more problems with the network storage of the company I worked for. Frequent human errors of the IT guru…
Most users are aware of potential disk failures, aim for SSD system disks - any piece of electronics may malfunction but they are not prone to mechanical failure - and set up archive drives for RAID 1. So in case of a disk failure, there is a mirrored disk available. The majority of users could not imagine that a software glitch can “unraid” or repartition a drive! The computer industry has now to act accordingly an define more rugged standards.
I had a noisy iOmega 2x1 TB drive, where the RAID status was set on a well protected microswitch. I guess that hardware control is more robust than software but may have other disadvantages. For website or cloud storage I have little confidence. The time to transmit my many terabytes is still much too long, the cable networks are regularly unreliable, and the costs would be higher than for a bunch of external drives.
Like your chipmunk I had prepared for winter and stored away some nuts at different places as I did for many years. Some nuts I found, but did not take into account that an Apple software bulldozer one day would penetrate the place and turn around the soil where I had my nuts hidden!
@Wooley:
Redundancy! I agree, disk failures are relatively rare, but they happen.
any piece of electronics may malfunction but they are not prone to mechanical failure
but did not take into account that an Apple software bulldozer one day
Wrong on all counts.
A: Drive failure are not rare at all, Ive got at least 20 dead drives in the basement. I used to get 10 dead laptops a week and a half or so with dead drives from folks
B: Who told you the giant lie that “not prone to mechanical failure” ? SSD even by Toshibas own technical letter, though having no moving parts, are NOT rated for any longer than a conventional HD. SSD failure makes data recovery a pure disaster. Anyone that NEEDS data recovery didnt practice data redundancy.
C: When you BOTH said “but I did not take into account that an Apple software bulldozer one day”… and then said you practiced data redundancy, that was a massive contradition.
When you said “Some (not all) nuts I found (ie data)” this validates you didnt have redundant copies.
I can say “I didnt expect this wierd nightmare to happen…but so what, Ive got copies of it here and there”
When your HD either mechanically fails or you get data corruption, your response needs to be “so what” “who gives a darn” or “big deal let me grab my copy of that drive over here”
When you cry out “oh heck and hades!” , then you werent prepared at all.
I didnt mean any of that to sound like “tough cookies”, I really really didnt. I have horrible feelings over anyone devistated by data loss,
I have recently heard stories about data loss that Ive cried over, it gets to me honestly. Honest and true, no joke
I wont argue about redundancy or the many dead drives in basements. I really cared about my archives, and was probably more careful than 99% of all casual PC or Mac users.
But there is something wrong about software standards : My Raid crash just happened while I copied an 2x1 TB archive to a bigger 2x4 TB drive. Triggered by an iMac lockup during a CD burn with iTunes. Both drives became illegible after this.
I always thought that having two duo drives for each archive (each set up for RAID1) is more than sufficient. Four copies on four disks. That a software glitch was able to make for disks illegible is unforgivable. No airplane would be allowed to take off with the software standards of the PC industry. It’s not only WD, it applies also for Microsoft and Apple.
Just to echo another fact with more than 15 years of network computing in the company I worked. A few severe data losses happened due to system changes and overstrained IT experts…
dafroggie wrote:
the new software released by WD doesn’t fix the issue, although they explicitly stated that it fixes the issue. They might have fixed the vulnerability issue but **bleep** no, it doesn’t alleviate any of the data loss issue.
Do you mean running the new software with WD drives is safe now under Mavericks?
I would need the new WD software at least *temporarily* to set my Studio II to RAID 1 mode.
Unfortunately this can only be done in conjunction with a formatting by same WD software.
I’m afraid it’s not possible to use RAID 1 and format via Apple Disk Utility.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Thanks.
Woodley43 wrote:
If you have a DUO, partition it with Apple Disk Utilities for RAID1 to mirror the two disks. No data loss has been reported by WD users who formatted or partitioned their WD drives with Apple Disk Utilities.
I’m not sure if a Duo is the same as a Studio II (with two HDDs inside). I though it wouldn’t be possible to manage RAID 1 via Apple software, bacause my RAID 1 drive (managed internally) appears to OS X as ONE drive.
?
Woodley43 wrote:
That a software glitch was able to make four disks i llegible is unforgivable.
Just to echo another fact with more than 15 years of network computing in the company I worked.
As Im sure youre aware, “if its CONNECTED to the computer” youve got your head in “mouth of the beast”
Or “a string of firecrackers (HD) next to a fire (computer)”
If its important, its gotta be copied somewhere at ALL times UNconnected
@Ferdo. Since I have the exact same problem, final cut files needing the file structure, I was wondering if you had any succes yet?
thanks
Hi, did anyone have issues with the drive not being recognized at all after this “software update” form Western Digital??
Bill,
In reading your posts elsewhere, I just realized that WD SmartWare Version 1.3.6 for Mac was released on 11/25.
Is that what you were referring to as “the fix” in your message below?
With data losses from two external WD drives (data in a RAID 1 configuration and then the time machine backup of it), I am actually more interested in recovering from the disaster. Can you help clarify whether or not WD is working on a tool that will attempt recovery from drives already damaged?
Thank you!
yz2000 wrote:
Bill,
In reading your posts elsewhere, I just realized that WD SmartWare Version 1.3.6 for Mac was released on 11/25.
Is that what you were referring to as “the fix” in your message below?
With data losses from two external WD drives (data in a RAID 1 configuration and then the time machine backup of it), I am actually more interested in recovering from the disaster. Can you help clarify whether or not WD is working on a tool that will attempt recovery from drives already damaged?
Thank you!
Yes, that was the fix I was referring to. As for the data losses, we have been helping those that have been affected. Have you not been contacted? Private message me, and I’ll see what can be done.
Response to mpark525: “Hi, did anyone have issues with the drive not being recognized at all after this “software update” form Western Digital??”
Yes,
The firmware update bricked my FW800 MyBook Studio.
I filed an RMA, but they say this drive is “out of stock” and offered a newer USB model. Unfortunately, the newer models don’t have FW800 interfaces -the fastest interface for my iMac is FW, and the newer USB MyBooks will only run at a slower USB 2.0.
[edited for update: I received a very prompt reply from WD about this issue, and am hopeful that they will be able to either fix my original drive or find a replacement with a FW800 interface. --ScottyT]
Hello from France !
A few days ago I suddenly had the issue with my Elements Desktop 1.5 To although everything was fine since I installed Mavericks many weeks ago.
Today I installed WD Smartware but my Elements is still not recognized. I have a MyBook which appears, but SmartWare don’t indicate my Elements.
So I’m still stuck with my problem : the files are on the drive but I can’t access them :cry:
Thanks for your help
My MacBook shows my WD MyBook as “Not Mounted” I installed the suggest fix and nothing. Anyone have any advice?
UPDATE: Apparently, the latest (as of December 6) firmware update will BRICK a WD 3TB MyBook Studio. However, I am very happy to report that Western Digital promptly responded to my concerns and replaced the drive with an identical model - which is working fine now.
The tech’s recommendation was to format the drive using Apple’s Disk Utility.
JUST DON"T APPLY THE FIRMWARE UPDATE, even if it asks.
–ScottyT
WD replaced both of my drives a thunderbolt duo 4tb and a 2tb mybook studio .
i have only used the studio thus far for time machine back up it seems to be going ok.
the drive was already formatted and came with application .dmg file which i opened and put the applications into application folder. the software was not upto dates so current apps were downloaded and updated.
My firewire studio was only replaced with a usb3 studio enclosure,.
WD has over this period never advised me in anyway as to using their software or using apples disk utility.
and nothing about firmware.
Was the tech who advised you a senior guy , was his advice off the cuff or did he say that was WD policy now.
Still not sure how i can proceed to use my external drives if firmware updates are causing dramas why don’t they put a hold on them.
Can we totally do without the wd software.???
After i received my replacement drives i was sent a WD survey basically asking if i was happy with their product and their software. STRANGE.
