After almost a year of diligently backing up my data weekly using My Passport/Smartware, I have today removed all WD software that I can find on my computer.
Why? No, not because the backup process while initially credible, after being “updated” once became very unreliable and inconsistent, sometimes infuriatingly taking hours to actually start.
Likewise, not because the tech support offered no help whatsoever via email or phone.
Not even because, due to the problems above, I feared that should I ever need to use the WD product to restore after a drive failure (the very purpose for which it was purchased), I now feared that this was almost certain to result in further disappointment and frustration.
Having noticed that my laptop was performing increasingly poorly, I happened to open Windows Task Manager and found that even without the portable drive connected, the so-called Smartdrive consumed around HALF of the total CPU usage and FIVE times .the memory usage of anything else.
All this has reminded me of a comedy skit on TV during the 80s about a company that developed products aimed at irritating consumers which was named “**bleep** Incorporated”. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeShQ25-z7M)
At 58 years of age and having bought my share of lemons, I find it hard to believe that WD is guilty of incompetence rather than deliberate mischief and will never again buy anything from it.
