WD kill my My Book Studio

[KurreS]

Hi,

I got the 2 TB My Book Studio for Mac, the date of purchase is 04.03.2012 and so far so good utill this “Maverick” issue, the 10.9.x

I got mail from WD and warnig so I dissconnected the drive. Yesterday I got mail from WD that I can do an update:

• WD Drive Manager for Mac Version 3.1.0.
• WD SmartWare Version 1.3.6 for Mac 10.5-10.9.

So I did that and then I got an message to update the Firmvare too - so I did that too.

And voila, next to the end I got an message - “sorry” and go for the Exit. So I did just that. And THAT vas the " kiil switch"!

I lost the power to the drive! It is dead as dead cvan be!

I am not happy at all, not that I had to pay for that device back then € 299.00!

From the WD I know that I have an Warranty untill 12/13/2014 - it is if I can get to the WD - and so far no phone number is working, and nothing ells - only way to get to tehm is this discussion forum.

So WD, PLEASE advise me ASAP as the Finnish reseller can do nothing, after the one yer period.

And Please NOTE, YOUR Firmvare update made the Kill!

[kurty]

Sorry, can’t help, however, I expereinced today exactly the same issue. My MyBook Studio Edition II is deat - no power at all. Any idea how to resolve the issue would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

[KurreS]

Hi, and THANK YOU for your reply!

So, I am NOT ALONE in this un wanteed issue!

It is. Firmwarupdatee will KILL your HD.

[KurreS]

4 me, next business day, on monday I just MUST buy aan new one. And I hope that WD will get me back the one I got. It was € 300.

So I will have two - it is OK - but not to loose the € 300.

[Ali_red]

Same here, no power after the dumb update, if you get any news let me know. I am so bummed out man.

[harrytx2]

I have also had the same problem after the update.

no power, no lights, no sounds…dead.

i would love to know if there is some way to recover from this, not just get a new drive.

[Ali_red]

same here,I have spent a great deal of time and money archiving classical music on my western digtal HDD and as  soon as I update the firmware, as they “strongly recommended” me to do so in an offical email : 

**** Please do NOT reply to this email ****

Dear WD Registered Customer,

As we previously announced, Western Digital received reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9). Our investigation to date has found that for a small percentage of customers that have the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and/or WD SmartWare software applications installed on their Mac, there can be cases of a repartition and reformat of their Direct Attached Storage (DAS) devices without customer acknowledgement which can result in data loss. We have an updated version of the software that fixes this issue. We strongly recommend that you install this updated software. Please  contact our service and supportteam with any questions.

Below are links to download the software:

• Sincerely,

Western Digital"

now all my data is lost and the hard drive does not even power up,it is as dead as a dodo, all thanks to Western Digital’s own firmware upadate which they strongly recommended the registered users. this is simply an outrage! I ask for an explination and a a solution for my lost data at once. why did you not test your new firmware to see if it corrupts or kills external Hdds on the Mac? why did you strongly recommend something that has only killed my HDD and all my data? I hope you have a good explination for your paying and offical customors. 

[Bangadad]

Same here, backed up all my data and followed the instructions to the letter but the drive now seems dead!!!

[saga32]

I had a working My Book Studio 3TB and followed the email instructions and got the message to update the Firmware. Followed the Firmware update instructions and the update started and looked to be progressing fine and then got message saying it can’t find the drive. It had disappeared from the system. Tried to mount it again but it was dead, Using Mac OSX 10.6.8. 

A few days later I connected another My Book Studio 3TB via USB and found that it disconnected without any system warning and regardless of the Sleep setting on the drive. It does not sleep but unmounts with no warning message from the Mac system.

A much earlier 2010 My Book Studio 1 TB goes to Sleep, Wakes properly and does not disconnect using the same USB connection and cable. 

Has the current MY Book Studio got a problem with its USB connection and is this the cause of the Firmware update failure and the dead drive?

[Ali_red]

Saga32 , this  issue is entirely caused by WD’s new software. hardware has nothing to do with it! your choices nw are to either await for WD to make a response(don’t hold your breath) or to ask for a RMA, and finally to break the warrenty seal and back up your data using a thid pary company since WD doesn’t concern itself with end users losing all their data.

I have asked for a RMA myself,I will wait and see what happens. 

[ScottyT]

saga32 wrote:

I had a working My Book Studio 3TB and followed the email instructions and got the message to update the Firmware. Followed the Firmware update instructions and the update started and looked to be progressing fine and then got message saying it can’t find the drive. It had disappeared from the system. Tried to mount it again but it was dead, Using Mac OSX 10.6.8. 

…

 

Yes, I experienced the exact same problem with my MyBook Studio 3TB. The firmware update failed, and the drive is no longer recognized via USB or FireWire.  I don’t know if there is a way to fix it other than get a new drive. Unfortunately, I was notified today that this drive is out of stock, and they offered a newer “Live” model, but I need the FW800 interface for best performance on my older iMac.

[mpark525]

I had this same issue happen to me.

Open a support ticket, and once you have a case number, call tier 2 support.

I spoke with a rep yesterday, and they are not only recovering the data from the old drive, but replacing it with a new unit as well.

The rep couldn’t tell me over the phone if it was Western Digital’s fault or not, which makes me think it was the software’s fault.

The Tier 2 support reps are super helpful, so I recommend giving them a call.

[ScottyT]

mpark525 wrote:

 

The Tier 2 support reps are super helpful, so I recommend giving them a call.

Thanks mpark525 - I did receive a very prompt response message from Tech Support; impressive.  I am hoping that they will find a solution that lets me keep the FW800 interface, which worked very well.  Perhaps there is some way to update the firmware to restore the original drive’s functionality without replacing it.

[Ali_red]

keep us uppdated man, I could not wait so I just asked for RMA, hopefully all my nagging will do some good. 

[ScottyT]

UPDATE: I am very happy to report that Western Digital promptly responded to my concerns and replaced my 3TB MyBook Studio drive with an identical model - which is working fine now. 

The tech’s recommendation was to format the new drive using Apple’s Disk Utility, which I did.

Apparently, the latest (as of December 6) firmware update will BRICK a WD 3TB MyBook Studio.  If you have one that works now, DON"T APPLY THE FIRMWARE UPDATE, even if it asks. 

–ScottyT

[KurreS]

Sorry to say but here in Finland the Tech Data Finland is just doing nothing - just nothing.

And I am starting to look for an law Office in the US to help me in this issue.

WD is responsible for this - not me - they pay - not me. And if their representative in Finland is not correcting this - it is that WD is not correcting this.

And I am very upset!

[KurreS]

Thank’s Scotty - too late for me :-( 

And no help for me so far, here in Finland.

[coxorange]

KurreS wrote:

Hi,

I got the 2 TB My Book Studio for Mac, the date of purchase is 04.03.2012 and so far so good utill this “Maverick” issue, the 10.9.x

I got mail from WD and warnig so I dissconnected the drive. Yesterday I got mail from WD that I can do an update:

• WD Drive Manager for Mac Version 3.1.0.
• WD SmartWare Version 1.3.6 for Mac 10.5-10.9.

So I did that and then I got an message to update the Firmvare too - so I did that too.

And voila, next to the end I got an message - “sorry” and go for the Exit. So I did just that. And THAT vas the " kiil switch"!

 

Hi, Would you please confirm if this is exactly the same drive which I have:

http://support.wd.com/product/download.asp?groupid=114&lang=en

Did you use firmware updater version

  Mac release 3.2.4.4  (updated 12/19/2013)?

Many thanks.

[ScottyT]

Another update:

For those interested, the Firmware Updater version that killeb my 3TB MyBook Studio was WD Mac Universal Firmware Updater_v3.2.0.10D, created on Oct. 5, 2012, which my WD software automatically downloaded on November 28, 2013. 

It looks like they’ve had many more updates since then - wondering why the automatic firmware download retrieved a year-old updater…

–ScottyT