I just bought a new Studio Ed II with the intention of storing my huge Aperture library and I encaountered several problems since the beginning:
1 - the very moment I unboxed the drive and plugged to my MacBook 2.53 15" it made no sign of life. I tried to unplug and reconnect the FW800 cable but no solution. Then I unplugged and tried on another power plug for the power adapter in order to clearify if it was my UPS device causing malfunction. No luck in other power socket until I started turning the small AC power plug that fits in the drive’s backside. So, from what is seems, this initial failure was caused by some sorte of “power contact” inside the drive. I then tried again on the initial placement nearby the laptop and finally started to work.
2 - I then installed the Drive Manager and set up the Raid 1 preparing the Aperture lib transfer. And this operation toke a lot of time in the beginning. Trasfer rate was terribly poor and it took 10 mins to accelerate to a stated and proper speed.
3 - After completing the transfer I started working quite fine (not suprisingly fast but acceptable) with Aperture for at least 4 days. After this very short frame of time, after a night with the MacBook operative and Aperture kept running I found, the next morning, the Studio Ed. completely off and of course not more visible through the finder. Aperture had several warning messages stating it was unable to find the library and then no chance to save the last progress I made the day before. I pressed the power on button on the backside of the drive and it went online but since then the drive now, after about 15mins of inactivity or after the MacBook turn off the display (witout going in sleep mode since I disabled it) the MyBook disconnects.
This is the most disturbing problem ever since I cannot relay on working on it with a delicate archive like the Aperture lib. Also, even if the drive gets back online after I press the button, the WD Drive Manager icon on the menu bar ain’t showing up, even after a log-out / log-in. The only way I have to bring the Manager active is to reinstall it from the original CD (ver. 2.25).
Originally the MyBook was connected with FW800 directly to the MacBook Pro and another FW400 drive was connected from the MyBook. Even if the MyBook disconnects and turns off I can still see and work with the FW400 device so I’m quite sure is not a problem of power but of some sort of internal drive feature.
Of coure I downloaded the latest firmware and installed it with no problems during the process. I Also disabled the “sleep disks option” in the Energy Saver Snow Leopard preferences but no luck so far.
In the end I’d like to know if I have to consoder this one a defective unit I have to ask replace of or if there’s a sort of hotfix or conflict I have to consider but since it really worked without these problems for at least 4 days I’m quite clueless.
Thanks.