WD Ny Book Essential

[fedgun]

Recently purchased and installed on Win 7 64 bit. Connected and seemed to install.  First time the drive had to start after the computer in sleep mode overnight started flashing several password screens. Next a small DOS window started opening with a blank screen - just the blinking cursor.  Then it seemed to conflict with itunes as they were both starting at same time (I think)…Initially emailed WD and got some joke response and gave up on them…Do they actually read the problem before they respond or do they have an office dart board…??? Enough of a rant…

Can I uninstall all the related WD software and still use the drive as any external and use other backup software?

[Joe_S]

This is just a users forum. You do not need to install the Smartware if you don’t want it. You should be able to use the dive like any other external HD. Just drag and drop or copy and paste or use third party software. If you used a password make sure you remove it before uninstalling the software.

Joe

[Abbadabba2]

Then why doesn’t WD explain that… ?

[RoofingGuy]

Abbadabba2 wrote:

Then why doesn’t WD explain that… ?

Gee… my manual has:

"…

8. Continue to “Getting Started with the WD SmartWare Software” in the next section. If you do not want to install the WD SmartWare software, go to “Getting Started Without the WD SmartWare Software” on page 15 instead."

…

If you do not install the WD SmartWare software, you can still use your My Book as an external hard drive. In this case, however, you will not be able to:
• Protect your data with automatic continuous backups (see “Backing Up Your Computer Files” on page 16)
• Retrieve earlier versions of lost, or damaged files (see “Retrieving Backed Up Files” on page 23)
• Secure you drive and all of the files on it with a password (see “Locking and Unlocking the Drive” on page 27)
• Customize your software and drive settings for the best possible performance (see “Managing and Customizing Your Drive” on page 32)
• Check the operational condition of your drive with built-in diagnostic features (see “Checking Drive Health” on page 42)

To forego these performance features and get started without installing the WD SmartWare software:
1. Click Do Not Install at the What would you like to do? prompt to display the
Continue without installing WD SmartWare?..

"

etc…