Ghosted tabs? help.....?

Dear community.

I recently went to the “settings” tab and erased the 500 gig backup drive, so i could go back to the “backup” tab to do a fresh backup.  Now, however, the “backup” and “retrieve” tabs are ghosted out, and on “settings” the hard drive icon is ghosted out.  

I have updated the firmware and software, and am now categorizing files on the “home” tab.  How, when will the software recognize and allow me to access the external drive?

thanks much.

SAME PROBLEM. I HAVE A PASSPORT ESSENTIAL. ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS REFUSED TO ANSWER MY QUESTION TELLING ME THE SOFTWARE DID NOT COME WWITH MY DRIVE.  IT OF COURSE DDID COME WITH IT. IT AUTOMATICALLY LOADS. OTHERES ON THIS FORUM ARE EXPERIENCING SIMILAR PROBLEMS AND ALSO ARE NOT GETTING ANSWERS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU GET ANY HELP.

THE ALMOST COMPLETE LACK OF DOCUMENTATION, PRINTED OR ONLINE FOR THIS SOFTWARE IS AMAZING.

thanks for the reply!

i did get it to work. i had to re-format, and re-partition. i would be happy to fwd the links WD sent me to help. could be worth a shot?! 

thanks,

tim

ps. i will not be checking this blog, now that i have my passport running. however, if you would like me to fwd the docs that helped me, please contact me at [deleted for privacy].

I would like an answer to this as part of the problem I am having with the drive which does not appear to work in any way similar to the way WD describe it.

Under WD Smartware, when the page opens I only have the Home tab and the Settings tab light up.

THe Backup and Retrieve tabs are ghosted.

Only the C drive displays, even though the WD manual says the C drive and the Passport should both display.

I have just noticed a drop down box that allows me to display one or the other. This would suggest that my drive is completely blank. Yet I have no way to get it to back up. I have been able to ‘synchronise’ by going into My Computer opening the drive, then opening the zip file WDSync and only then am I offered the chance to synchronise through something called DMailer Synch. This seems alot of work for something that should be simple. After performing the above a synch symbol appears on the tool bar,

I have zero confidence that anything has been stored, synchronised or backed up ont he drive at all.