WD My Passport Ultra software

C_W · January 31, 2016, 1:13am

I have been reading the User’s Manual & have a question that the manual doesn’t cover.

I am not going to use the Backup or Security software, but I will use the Drive Utilities & possibly Quick View. If I install the Drive Utilities & Quick View to my hard drive, can I then erase the Passport drive (the software has been copied elsewhere already) & still be able to use the Drive Utilities & Quick View installed to my hard drive?

lluna · January 31, 2016, 6:55pm

Hello, you can erase the hard drive as the drive utilities and the quick view both run from the computer itself.

C_W · February 4, 2016, 3:37pm

Thanks for the reply. Planning to attach & start using the drive today.
Another question. I shouldn’t need to format the drive, just an erasure is all that’s needed, correct?

lluna · February 4, 2016, 4:01pm

Hi, if you bought the Passport Ultra, then yes you will need to format the drive to be used on a Mac.

C_W · February 4, 2016, 11:31pm

It’s going to be used w/a Windows PC.

lluna · February 5, 2016, 2:37pm

Then you will be alright.

C_W · August 16, 2019, 9:13pm

Thank you lluna, the instructions worked just fine, but there is another problem I have.

When I finish copying files to the drive & I am certain everything is finished using it; I try to eject the drive, but get this message:

I’ve opened Task Manager & made sure nothing is using the drive & I’ve ended & restarted Explorer.exe w/o any luck. No matter what I do, I cannot eject the drive.

I do have a process that starts up w/the computer (which I don’t think I even need) named WDDriveUtilitiesHelper.exe, could this be the culprit? If not, how do I safely eject my drive?

lluna · February 9, 2016, 6:00pm

Hi, sometimes when you are unable to eject it, the culprit could be your antivirus or the computer indexing the drive. Do you see the LED of the drive blinking constantly?

If you need to eject the drive and you don’t mind shutting the computer down, just shut down the computer and it will force to do the same thing that the safely eject does.

C_W · February 17, 2016, 12:28am

Sorry for the delayed reply.
I make sure to wait about a minute after the light stops blinking before I try to eject the drive.
I forgot how to check if the drive is being indexed correctly, can you remind me?
If this does happen again, I’ll try turning off my antivirus (Avast!) just to check. Thanks for the suggestion.

Also, I now have this new startup entry named WDDriveUtilityHelper.exe.
Is this really needed during computer boot up?

lluna · February 18, 2016, 5:18pm

Hi, the indexing setup changes from version of Windows, please let me know what version of Windows are you running to be able to help you.

Honestly I do not know that the WDDriveUtilityHelper.exe does on the system and would’t know if its necessary to open on boot or not.

Another thing that you can check is the settings on Windows that allow to optimize the USB for quick removal.