WD external my book 1TB hard drive

Portable Drives My Passport
1

I am having real problems with my external hard drive.  On my old Windows XP machine it worked but the WD Smartware [“Smart” it definitiely isn’t!!] software never really worked properly and the machine would often freeze.  I now have a new windows 7 machine and the ext hard drive just will not work.  I have asked technical support and they suggested uninstalling the WD smartware and then using a link to format the disc.  Whilst that will be my last resort (as I think the data on it is also elsewhere, I would rather not. However, the computer isn’t really recognising the hard drive.  When I open my computer the drive is there but the computer constantly tries to scan my computer then just freezes.  When I try to install the wd smartware, it gets to 25 seconds remaining for installation and then freezes.

Can anyone help?  I really think next time I buy an external hard drive it will not be a WD drive!

2

That is really weird.  Tried one last time and managed to get into the WD Smartware directory and install the software.  Seemed a different process and worked really easily - installed x64 rather than x86 (wouldn’t let me even though I have Windows 7 not Vista or XP!).  Anyway seems to work although I haven’t tried to back up yet.  I can see my files, which is the important thing!

3

I was wrong!  Hard drive looks like it’s working but it isn’t. I think it must be the rubbish "smart"ware software, which really is a waste of space.  Seriously will think carefully before buyin any other WD product in future

4

Have you tried checking the drive status on disk management and device manager?. Also try updating adobe flash player, java and microsoft .net framework.