I can’t believe the company has not replied! I agree with the last poster. This is NOT free software. I bought three disks, one for each computer, because of the advertised fact that they came with software that would automatically backup my disks so I wouldn’t have to think about it. Now not only does the software disable my machine, but there is no acknowledgement from the company that they have screwed up and need to make good on it. As someone else said, I will not buy another WD disk and I will tell all of my students about the problem. This is no way to treat yor customers!
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Speaker wrote:
Sorry… this is not FREE software… this is PROPIETARY SOFTWARE BUNDLED WITH A PRODUCT I BUY!!!
It must work or, as WARRANTY the company must have to make it work (as is not a third party soft).
Dispite of this, i never use the backup software of WD, but i have installed it because of the security access (password), and it’s functionallity.
I can not disable anoying ram and disk hog, or disk caching, dispite i DO NOT use (ever!!!) the poor “free” backup software included…
The PATCH i managed to get this work, is to disable WDFMEService and WDRulesService…
I can mantain password access, without any hog (running WD Smartware in startup).
THIS CAN BE A SOLUTION (it is really only a patch, try and avoid).
Nothing of the post of honored contributors, or apologies of moderators could help angry costumers.
Sorry WD… but this is not the way to treat old customers that think you are a big and responsable company.
It is actually FREE proprietary bundled software because WD drives that come WITH Smartware (MyBook Essential) cost exactly the same as drives WITHOUT Smartware (MyBook 3.0 and MyBook AV), just so you know…
As long as they don’t add the difference in price to drives that come with Smartware, then Smartware remains as TRULY free software since there is no price difference, go to a WD retailer and see for yourself.
So what did you ever expect? Don’t you guys know that your computers ALREADY have the ability to do automatic backups on its own? It’s even REDUNDANT of WD to even provide Smartware at all… But no, people in here have been gun-pointed to want to use Smartware like their lives depend on it 
It costs the same as the one without software, so that software has to be an insignificant, minuscule bonus that can’t surpass the functionally that I ALREADY have on my computer (Windows Backup/Time Machine). 
I am very sad to get this answer from a “serious” company (assuming ThePizzaMatrix is not just another customer, and represents WD).
As i said, the fact that the software is “FREE” is not a excuse to make it work just like a virus.
The company have to be responsable for the products (software in this case) they distribute.
Yes… i know that there are another software for backups, and know that every windows has a backup software bundled with it.
In fact, i use another software. Because neither those works for me.
I just use password protect for WD Passport Drive, but… the virus cames out, and i just need to manage to get rid of it.
Is not a serious software, is not a serious answer.
If the company know this, all they need to do, is apologize, and “retire” this software (free software) from the market, as the company looks bad through it.
Be lucky!!!
People should just uninstall the software and get over it, like I did and like most people do. After 20 minutes of use I knew I would never need it again and FORGOT about it, just exactly as with any other Software on my computer I don’t link for any reason and like MOST people do. But you guys are taking this to a way new personal vendetta-like level; have you received physiological harm or something over this or what?
3 years ago WD was flooded because they didn’t provide a proprietary software for backups (The old drives came with Memeo software), now that they do (And don’t charge for it) people don’t want it.
Be careful what you wish for? No wonder why my new Passport Studio came without Smartware; WD is starting to permanently remove the software from their end as you guys wanted…
Just get over it and move on, don’t buy WD ever again in your life if you don’t want to and just move on. Some will move on, some others will not, others just don’t care and others will remain with WD. So just do yourself a favor and remove Smartware from your computer and get over it, and learn to do the same with any software as well.
I won’t post again on this thread, so please feel free to have the last word if you may.
No it isn’t a virus heck, those guys actually know what they are doing they design the virus to do exactly what they wish. You guys ad Western Digital on the other hand can’t get your software to do what it should to, you know the whole design step. look i have been backing this company and its products for a long time and i guess i backed a loser, i am tired of the ■■■■ that goes on in the custmer service industry any longer. i will be phazing out my WD door stops better known as live book and plain book, wish they were real books i could actually get some reliable use out of them then. Seagate makes a great product and they just came out with 4 g external drive and i can honestly say i have never had trouble with their products in fact i bout another one this week a 3g. i guess i got all hung up on how cool the WD stuff looked. Well good news it still looks good, just worthless is all, i can’t use it and to think i have waited this long to see if you guys would striaghten it out and instead i see people on this form with real issues being given ■■■■ about everything from being unhappy with a product that doesn’t work right to people making excussses for the companies slackness to down right ridicules suggestions as patchs passed off as real fix`s. we shouldn’t even have to complian or bring it up, your [Deleted] product testing should be catching all this themselves. Shame on you Western Digital, you disappoint and surprise me. I think i am going to box up the 2 newest WD book purchases and try to return them for the seagate product then sell my older ones and do the same. I’d even be better off with a stupid huge netgear network setup using internal drives as a network solution with pogoplug software to access everything i could possible want.
delamons083067, the WD Community was created for Users -such as yourself- to help one another and to share your experiences and ideas with one another. As Moderators, we are simply here to facilitate and oversee the Community; we will be happy to respond and assist you if you have a question or issue related to the WD Community itself.
However, if you are looking for technical support from WD, or if you would like to provide direct product feedback, you will need to contact them directly since active WD Staff participation would defeat the purpose of the WD Community.
To Contact WD for Technical Support or Product Feedback:
http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en
Regards,
I can understand people getting frustrated, but this thread has gone way off topic. Please keep this thread on topic, otherwise I will have to shut it down.
If you are having issues with SmartWare utilizing too much RAM or CPU, it may be helpful to keep posting, but add more information about your system. What kind of computer, OS, motherboard, hard drives, etc. are you using? This gives us more direction in our investigation into this issue.
Thank you.
Please shut it down… all the info you need, and the “patch” (solution) i apply is there too.
The only thing that i am waiting is somebody that do not read the issue tell me that the problem is that there is no data there.
What is more… see the date of the first post… and receive my thanks to get involved so soon.
As has been already stated by Trancer, we are here to moderate the community - to make sure that users stay within the community guidelines, and that users are not having issues with how the community software functions. When we see issues like you have had here, we do escalate them, but we do not act, or speak, on behalf of our product people. I can assure you that this issue is being worked on, but we, as moderators, do not have any time frames, or special insights, into when this issue will be fixed.
And since this is a user to user community, please understand that WD’s interaction in here may be sporadic. However, it may do you some good to read, or reread, the firmware thread I created for this version of SmartWare. It’s stickied at the top of this board. In there, you will find one of our staff people posting over this very issue.
Reread two message down there… another angry customer… i unsucribe…
As a re-patch to my patch, if you unlock the drive, you need to kill wd smartware, restart the disabled services, run wd smartware, get to config it again, re lock it with new password and then disable again the services (WDFME, and WD Rules)…
Hope any of the text i post will help other user and WD finally find any solution…
I stopped all the WDFME services and set them to manual What a resource hog!
I bought this to backup my music making work. It’s only a hobby, but thought it was a great solution. Only now, my music making software won’t even run properly because all the RAM is used up.
At first I thought my main hard drive was dying so purchased a new on, ready to reinstall EVERYTHING from scratch. I then thought to download some disk checking utilities and no errors could be found. I even bought a new heatsync graphics card so that the sound of the fan on my old one wouldn’t disguise the noise of a dying hard drive.
I was going to buy another of these drives for my folks since the bundled software would suit them down to the ground. This would have killed their very basic machine.
What worries me here is that I consider myself a moderately experienced computer user - I’ve used forums to get rid of some pretty nasty virus in the past, have built the system myself and tweaked it. I just figured the first backup put too much strain on my original hard drive. It’s only by chance that I decided to look into the resource monitor while looking for another service for my music software that I found this to be the source of the problem. People all over the place will be taking their machines into local computer repair places and getting ripped off to have a repair done which isn’t required…it’ll be “you need more RAM” or “your hard drive needs replacing” or “the motherboard needs replacing”.
I’m pretty sure I registered my product when I purchased it and it certainly did a software update after installing - so tell me…why haven’t WD done a very simple thing of emailing the people who have registered? and why not even an incremental software update which simply has a popup message to tell people about the issue? Nevermind the rants about whether this is free or not - simple communication on this issue would help a lot of people.
Go to SERVICES and look for WD File Management Engine, WD File Management Shadow Engine, and WDDMService and stop them. I set mine to Manual, and it was like adding 3 to 4 Gig of memory.
I use Norton Ghost for backup, but you could use the Windows backup instead. The WD software is not worth running.
I did the same for Vista 64. Stopping the WD services freed up my RAM considerably. Thanks for the memory!
I will buy a new HD that not pretend to be anything else. I will select my data folders, and copy it to the HD using the date as naming.
I’m tired of all those process that run in the background and taking ressources and causing everything to slow down and my fan to run at max.
ASUS G50V, 6 Go RAM, XP
Hope my experience will help others to keep it simple and more happy.
I am another disgruntled cutomer. WD simplly dont seem to have the customer services or hospitality in place to take us seriously! I decided to buy WD Studiobook after reading through many reviews, they must have a seriously large amount of ghost review writers out there because it is a nightmare to run!
It is not slick, easy to use or even work properly. Having to stop WDFME.exe manually the whole time when it starts to kick up a fuss when i havnt even got the drive attached is a serious design flaw, its been mentioned in many forums already why the *&%^ arnt WD listening and doing something about it pronto? I wont be buying WD again, im looking even at getting another 1TB drive and just ditching this one. I can’t be arsed to go through the hasstle of deleting stuff off it etc etc and reselling it. Segate here I come!
I am a software engineer with 20+ years of experience. From the postings in this forum and discussions with WD support, I am 100% convinced that the WD software developers do not understand the cause of the problem or how to solve it.
Is there some way I can have a dialog with knowledgeable WD software developers to discuss the cause and solution? If possible, please send me an email to get a dialog started. As one support person had said, “Western Digital is a hardware company. Software is not their forte…”
I am frustrated like many other customers. If WD does not resolve this problem soon, I will be forced to throw away my My Book Live and buy another back-up drive from a competitor.
Hey rg_9999, I’m an IT professional w/ 25+ years experience, so I’ve got you beat. 8-)
I think I know why WD can’t figure out the cause of the problem. Here is what I’ve got going on.
2 Laptops running WD Smartware version 1.5.1.6. In Laptop #1, wdfme.exe uses 5.5 MB RAM. In Laptop #2, wdfme.exe uses as much RAM as it can get (~3.1 to 3.3. GB)
Both laptops have:
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Windows 7, version 6.1, build 7601, SP1
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Seagate ST9500325AS drives
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HD driver is Microsoft, date of 6/21/2006, version 6.1.7600.16385
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4GB RAM
So what is the difference between the laptops?
Laptop #1Laptop #2
Data85 GB100 GB (many more picture files from digital camara)
Disk Frag13 %7%
MakeToshibaAsus
Processor4xI3 M380 2.53Ghz2xPentium T4400 2.20 Ghz
So is it the extra files? Toshiba vs. Asus? I3 quad vs. dual Pentium?
After stopping the wdfm service on the Asus I am running defrag on both laptops. I’ve noticed it is taking significantly longer on the ASUS. Could it be the Pentium processors? (can’t believe 15 GB extra data would cause a significant defrag delay).
After I defrag the ASUS (still waiting…on pass 7) I’m going to restart WDFM. If it still hogs, I’m going to see if there is a new MS driver for the HD.
If that still doesn’t work, then I’m going to punt.
Hope this helps you and/or anyone else on this board.
So, to continue the Saga…
-Asus finished defrag faster than the Toshiba (perhaps it’s not the processor)
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Determined no new drivers for Seagate hard drive
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Restarted WDFME…immediately began to grab memory at a linear rate. Terminated the process when it got to 1.5 GB RAM
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Uninstalled WD SmartWare
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Applied all outstanding Win 7 patches (about 4 or 5 .Net Framework 3.5.1 Security Patches)
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Reinstalled WD SmartWare from external drive (version 1.4.1.1)…memory usage was stable/reasonable.
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Upgraded WD SmarWare to latest version (1.5.1.6)…first 1/2 hour memory usage is stable/reasonable.
So, in my case, the last 4 steps fixed the problem. Not sure if applying recent security patches for .Net Framework is needed or if just an uninstall/install would have done the trick. At this point, I don’t really care as it appears I’m good to go.
Again, hope this helps folks who are experiencing simiar issues w/ this software.
well the support page for smartware states
NOTE: To update to this version of WD SmartWare, you need the following minimum requirements:
- Windows XP 32-bit Service Pack 3, Windows XP 64-bit Service Pack 2, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher installed on your computer.
If you don’t already have the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your computer, you will be prompted to install it.
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Click here to download the Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework SP1 updater
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Follow the instructions as prompted.
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Rerun the WD SmartWare software updater.
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Internet Explorer 7 or higher.
so having the most current net 3.5 probably is a good idea…
