I recently purchased a WD My Book elite with smartware. I have 2 small passport external drives and have had no problem with them.
However the same cannot be said of the new drive with ‘Smartware’.
It seems to slow things down and even has a hand in ‘crashing’ some applications.
If I run Windows 7 restore to a date previous to my adding the ‘smartware’ will this remove the problem or just hide it?
If the problem WD ‘Smartware’ IS removed is it then possible to use the ‘My Book’ drive purely as an external, back-up drive without loading the ‘Smartware’?
Or will I end up with a very expensive, black ornament…good for neither man nor beast?
after laboriously reading through the online instruction book…I worked out how to retrieve the ‘drivelock icon’ which disappeared after I updated the firm/software 2 days ago.
Also in the instruction is a small note on how to ‘uninstall smartware’. With the warning that the ‘ses driver’ would have to be downloaded manually if the external drive was going to be used without ‘Smartware’.
Unfortunately I had to dig for this information through copious pages…making lots of notes on a note-pad so I wouldn’t forget where the heck I was.
I still don’t know if I’m game enough to try to ‘uninstall’ Smartware…I don’t want the whole drive to throw a hissy fit if I tell it I don’t want to re-install SW…I’m 60…I don’t put up with tantrums
ok…I’ve uninstalled the Smartware using the ‘Programmes & Features - uninstall’ facility of my Windows7.
Then I plugged the ‘My Book’ back in to the usb port…followed a complicated list of instructions (had written these down from the on-line instruction book) and down-loaded the ‘WD ses device driver’.
I then did a manual back-up of one of my files and it worked:dizzy_face:
I have now set up a schedule for Windows to do a daily back-up.
The external drive appears to be ok and no implosions at this stage…more to the point…no sign of Smartware
It is now possible to remove the external drive after going through…‘safely remove drive etc’
Before I had a big tussel with Smartware…it kept running in the background and kept telling me that the drive was still in use and not safe to shut down.
So…if I wanted to pick up the lap top and move to another room…I couldn’t because the drive was still attached!
So…I would shut down everything, unplug drive and then sprint from the room with the lap-top under my arm before the SW knew what was happening:wink:
not a happy bunny…I wanted to use my lap-top in another room last night…went through ‘safley remove drive etc’ to be told that drive was in use and not safe to remove.
I was back where I started from. No SW visible on my computer as I had uninstalled it (so I thought)…so…what was making the drive work?
Had to turn of computer, wait for everything to top then detach WD drive…now known as ‘Chucky’
