I bought this on 12-27-2010. The WD SmartWare worked, but was a resource hog. I upgraded. Then the drive wouldn’t work at all.
I called support. We got the drive to work. Then I complained about the WD SmartWare. Their answer was simple:
Go to the Control Panel → Programs and Features → right click on the WD SmartWare and select UNINSTALL.
I did, and that worked.
Then support recommended that I use a third party backup solution. I choose to use the Windows 7 Backup.
I did, and that worked, too.
Though the support person had a non-English accent, he was clear and supportive… and he answered all of the questions.
If I were to rate WD before I called… well I did go out, even to their site and discovered that there are a lot of complaints regards the Book Essential and the WD SmartWare… I would have given them an F. In fact, I was getting out my receipt to take this thing back, when I said well I will give the phone support a chance.
Good thing for them. I now give them an A-. Why? the information I got should have been found on their web site, support site, and/or documentation.
