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WD drives famous for periodically not mounting?

BJB Productions

BJB Productions

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Hi all,
I recently bought a WD 1TB My Book Studio. I love it and it's really fast. But it's started to unmount it's self periodically. It also once in a while does not mount, and it takes me forever to get it working again. I have some friends who have a WD drive as well, and they said sometimes theirs won't mount either. Is this something I should be worried about? Or is it normal?

Thanks!
 
My mybook always had that problem when connected to my Mac Mini that I use as a server or my Airport Extreme (same thing). It was a royal pain, and I finally ended up ditching it for matching MiniMax.
 
It's a pain in the neck. My My Book Studio Edition II has the same problem (PowerBook G4 1.67, Mac OS X 10.5.6, Firewire 400 or Firewire 800 connection) but only when the Western Digital Drive Manager software is installed. No problems if the Drive Manager is uninstalled. However, without the software, there seems to be no way to monitor the drive status or change the RAID configuration.

No problems when the drive is connected to a MacBook with the same Drive Manager version. Problem is duplicated with another My Book Studio Edition II drive -- doesn't work properly with the PowerBook, okay with the MacBook. No problems with other FireWire or USB drives.

Western Digital deny the problem is theirs. They say it's an Apple problem. Funny that it should happen only when their software is installed, and only with their own drive.
 
Is there a different 1 TB external that you would recommend to serve as Time Machine for an iMac? G-tech? It seems that all externals get bad reviews.
 
Hmm... Well now I know it's not just me. I've heard good reviews on G-Drives. I did not install any of the software that came with mine.
 
What? I have a MyBook 500GB, and I can leave it connected to my MacBook for days and it never unmounts...
 
When did you get the WD external and did you install the software update on it? Or, did you just plug it in and that's it? Many people said that in order for the drive to work properly with Leopard it is critical to download the update from the WD website, unintall the drive manager software and reinstall the new drive manager software. It seems like a pain to go through this task with a brand new drive.
 
What exactly do you mean by mount?
swing.gif
 
I bought it about one month ago. I have leopard too. Maybe that's my problem. Yeah, I was stupid and just plugged it in without installing any of the software... I already registered it on WD website, so it's under warranty and I can download all the stuff for it again.

jamoctopus said:
What exactly do you mean by mount?
swing.gif
Click to expand...

I meant that it won't come up on my desktop or on disk utility.
 
I bought the 1TB WD drive as well recently, but have yet to hook it up because of all of the negatives I continue to hear. Something tells me that the installation of the updates will not effectively solve the issues (and it also seems like it may be a pain to perform the updates). Has anyone done this?
I am leaning towards returning the drive and purchasing something more reliable for a little more money.
 
Delray said:
When did you get the WD external and did you install the software update on it? Or, did you just plug it in and that's it?
Click to expand...

I installed all software updates. And the firmware update. Nothing helped.

Delray said:
I am leaning towards returning the drive and purchasing something more reliable for a little more money.
Click to expand...

You might get lucky. It might work for you. Our drives work well with our MacBook, but not with the Powerbook, & only when the Western Digital software is installed on the Powerbook. Who knows what the problem is?
 
Mine works fine. It even turns itself off when my iMac sleeps and then mounts again when the iMac wakes.

I have it connected by USB and didn't install any software.
 
Delray said:
Is there a different 1 TB external that you would recommend to serve as Time Machine for an iMac? G-tech? It seems that all externals get bad reviews.
Click to expand...

Just buy an internal drive and a separate enclosure. Not only will it probably be cheaper, but you can pick the hard drive brand of your choice (WD uses WD drives, but I remember LaCie used to use Maxtor). Just make sure if you get a SATA or IDE drive that you get a SATA or IDE enclosure.

Construction really isn't that difficult- unscrew the casing, put all the plugs in, reassemble. Takes 5 minutes tops.

I usually stick with Seagate drives and Bytecc enclosures.
 
skubish said:
Mine works fine. It even turns itself off when my iMac sleeps and then mounts again when the iMac wakes.

I have it connected by USB and didn't install any software.
Click to expand...

I think the part where you didn't install any software is the important part. Unfortunately, if you have a My Book Studio Edition II (the dual hard disk, RAID version), then you have to install the software to monitor the drive & to change the RAID configuration. There isn't really any alternative.
 
bcarpenter said:
I think the part where you didn't install any software is the important part. Unfortunately, if you have a My Book Studio Edition II (the dual hard disk, RAID version), then you have to install the software to monitor the drive & to change the RAID configuration. There isn't really any alternative.
Click to expand...
That probably is it. In general, I avoid hardware that I have to run specialized software for. Hardware manufacturers don't have a clue how to code software properly.

In the OP's case I recommend just getting an internal drive and a generic enclosure.
 
I too have problems with WD drives. I had a WD Passport that I use at uni (on Windows computers) and when I try to use it with my Macbook Pro it mounts but as soon as I try to copy files to it it unmounts...Royal pain in the bum.
 
I haven't encountered any problems with my two different Mybook drives with all of my machines. This is with the software installed and also without it installed.
 
I have only had it dismount once, and i've really only had it not connect like twice, but still, do I dare install the software? (running leopard)
 
skubish said:
That probably is it. In general, I avoid hardware that I have to run specialized software for. Hardware manufacturers don't have a clue how to code software properly.
Click to expand...

Still straying a little off-topic here, how are other RAID drives configured without software? Via dip switches? Little LCD displays? What RAID 1 drive system would you recommend?

The WD MB SE II drive was good because it was dual 1TB disks at $A550, a few hundred dollars less than the nearest competitor. Now, it's a pain.
 
No problems

I've had the WD Studio Edition 1TB since Chtistmas.. played around with it and I've only had problems formatting the HD into 2 partitions (1 HFS+ and 1 NTFS). I finally gave up and formatted it in FAT32 and HFS+ (Cant seem to download the software from WD to format the Drive, so i gave up 🙁 ) But other then that, I've had no problems, and my computer is pretty much turned on, day and night. I updated the firmware 2 days ago, can't find any difference in speed or anything though... I do recommend, downloading the TURBO drivers from the WD site... It made a huge difference! I transferred 1GB in 13 seconds(FW800 - single file). I use it as my Timemachine backup, and it hasn't unmounted yet... I've heard someone say, that WD changed the controller in the newest models, but don't know if thats correct.

Overall, I would say: Good speed, Very silent, and FW800 😛 at an acceptable price 😀
 
Straying a little more off topic just for a second, but can I back up time Machine even if it isn't partitioned and there other files in it?
 
ToxicWaste -- I plan to set up my WD 1 TB external today with my iMac to serve as Time Machine. Did you download the update to the drive from the WD website prior to setting up the Time Machine? Or, did you just plug it in and start the backup? I am hesitant to just plug it in and set up with Time Machine prior to downloading the updates from the WD site, but if the newer drives being sent have corrected the problem (i.e., you don't seem to be having any issues with a newer drive) then maybe I will avoid the downloads and just plug it in. Thanks.
 
Delray said:
ToxicWaste -- I plan to set up my WD 1 TB external today with my iMac to serve as Time Machine. Did you download the update to the drive from the WD website prior to setting up the Time Machine? Or, did you just plug it in and start the backup? I am hesitant to just plug it in and set up with Time Machine prior to downloading the updates from the WD site, but if the newer drives being sent have corrected the problem (i.e., you don't seem to be having any issues with a newer drive) then maybe I will avoid the downloads and just plug it in. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I just plugged it in, and started timemachine. It wasn't until 2 days after my first backup I saw the firmware update. By that time, I had already used timemachine to backup my computer and do a clean install of OSX(my computer was acting up), without problems.

I found the update and installed it on the drive... So you should be able to update the drive, just make sure timemachine is inactive (System preferences --> Timemachine --> OFF).
 
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