I’m getting the same issue as many others who have bought this product. It is stopping Windows 7 from fully initializing (it appears to be checking the drive first).
I have mine set up for quick removal and have noticed that if you unplug the device when it hangs up, Windows 7 instantly springs back to life. I then re-connect the drive, 9 times out of 10 it re-appears fully functional, but occasionally it re-hangs or I get a message saying it needs re-formatting, if I ignore the reformat, the drive appears OK with all files intact.
I’m guessing there is a driver issue, with some callback functions response not being interpreted correctly, possibly through a timing/initiating malfunction.
Is there any way to prevent the drive from initializing until after Windows has loaded?
It’s not data corruption, I’ve checked the drive and its contents.
some times it works for hours, other times it freezes after a few minutes.
I tried the tool you sugested and the quick test says the drive is Ok, It says the full test will take over 7hr to complete? so I’ve not run that yet.
My guess is it’s the USB interface WD have decided to use isn’t worth **bleep** and is having trouble convincing my version of Windows 7 64-bit to use an old 1990’s ATA drive.
I noticed that there are quite a few posts, all telling a similar story on the forums, so hopefully WD are working hard on providing a stable solution, until then I guess I’ll be purchasing a Seagate drive to store my media on…
