Beware the WD MyBook Studio 2TB External HDD

Buy a nice quad interface enclosure and your choice of quality drive to put into it. Or buy the bare drives and one of the "toaster-type" drive holders which you can plug bare HDDs into as desired. I've quit buying enclosures myself. A good bare Hitachi or Seagate 1TB is highly reliable. I think it's still pushing the envelope a little to go with 2TB, even though I have a couple of them and they have worked well so far (Hitachi & Seagate).
 
MacDawg said:
Please post back and let us know if the new firmware is installed and you are able to do this... I would love to hear it has been resolved
Click to expand...

Got my WD My Book Studio 2TB today
Its actually lighter than my WD 1TB equivalent

Sure enough as soon as it mounted on the desktop, the VCD popped up too :(

Went to WD site to update firmware, which DOESNT recognise the My Book Studio ??

But they have also included a VCD removal tool that DOES work :)
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilitiesmac
Go here and download the VCD Manager, but ignore the firmaware update.

Removed it straight away, problem solved
 
Ok, So I tried this command out and it worked for my WD 1TB Studio drive.

copy the text below

sudo sh -c "echo UUID=`diskutil info /Volumes/WD\ SmartWare/ | grep 'UUID' | awk '{print $NF}'` none hfs rw,noauto 0 0 >> /etc/fstab"

Open terminal, and paste it in.

Type in your password and log out+log in.
 
ayzee said:
Got my WD My Book Studio 2TB today
Its actually lighter than my WD 1TB equivalent

Sure enough as soon as it mounted on the desktop, the VCD popped up too :(

Went to WD site to update firmware, which DOESNT recognise the My Book Studio ??

But they have also included a VCD removal tool that DOES work :)
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilitiesmac
Go here and download the VCD Manager, but ignore the firmaware update.

Removed it straight away, problem solved
Click to expand...

Ok I just realised that the firmware update didnt work because I didnt install the Smartware application before I removed the Virtual CD. My advice is install the Smartware from the virtual CD, apply firmware update then use the virtual CD removal tool :)
 
I have also just bought 2x2TB My Studio II (e-ink screen on the front). This software is pathetic. It is rubbish and useless. I have not had a problem of removing the crapware, simply format the drive and it all disappears. What I have a problem with now is updating the e-ink screens on the front, for that I have to install this piece of **** program which really, really winds me up. I am going to see how it goes, otherwise I'm sending this back to Amazon - since last time I tried the software stopped working and WD support did not help.

*** Edit ***
One thing I forgot to add, if anyone has the SmartWare Installer, could you please upload it somewhere as I want to try it out one more time, but because I formatted the drives I do not have the installer any more. Thanks
 
Adapsys said:
I just brought the 2TB mirror edition (with the two 1TB drives) and it didn't have anything like this. It came with all software on a separate CD.
Click to expand...

I have 2 of those drives. These, however, are a bit older and don't have the display on front. The older s/w load also didn't include the SmartWare feature.
 
Smartware still showing up

Hi, I just purchased a 2TB Western Digital My Book Essential External drive for my Mac Pro.

When I plugged my External drive into my Mac I installed the smartware software thinking that I would be able to remove it. I followed the directions like it said on the western digital site.

I installed the firmware and then the Virtual CD Manager but the Smartware is still showing up in my Menu bar when I plug in my External Drive. I'm losing patience with this drive, I'm ready to return it.

Please help
 
I use "Do Something When" to automatically unmount the CD when the Hard Drive mounts:

http://www.azarhi.com/Projects/DSW/

swtmwh.png
 
I appreciate the help. How come the Virtual CD Manager didn't remove the Smartware from the drive?
 
I wonder what would happen if you removed the HDD from the external enclosure, then connected the HDD to a PC and ran a program like KillDisk. Would it completely erase the HDD? Curious.
 
I'm sure once you remove the vitual cd, the smartware program sirs in tour mac so just send it to trash and delete.
 
ayzee said:
I'm sure once you remove the vitual cd, the smartware program sirs in tour mac so just send it to trash and delete.
Click to expand...
AFAIK, you can't just delete the Virtual CD.

You either need to update the Firmware or use their utility app for removing it.

The reason that I asked about KillDisk, is that it wipes the HD and I was wondering if it would wipe the Virtual CD. It all depends on how KillDisk accesses the HD.
 
Update: I uninstalled the Smartware Software

Hi, I found out that I could uninstall the Smartware Software from my computer, supposedly there's an uninstaller included with the Smartware Software.

unfortunately I trashed the Smartware Software from my Application folder which means I trashed the uninstaller as well. yet the smartware still shows up in my Menu Bar. I went to the Western Digital Site and downloaded the Smartware Software Update.

I installed it and I saw the Smartware Software in my Application folder with an Uninstaller next to it. I uninstalled it and the Smartware in my menu bar immediately disappeared. I'm glad that it's gone now :)
 
Stay away from LaCie

I have a collection (5 OR 6) of Lacie 1 and 2 TB external Firewire drives that are worthless. They don't mount and all of my digital data that they were supposed to protect are gone. Gone but not forgotten. I am thinking of making the drives into art. So stay away from Lacie.
BTW: My 4 TB MyBook works great.
 
Beware WD in general in my experience :( Bought 2 x MyBook Pro 500GB, one failed, it got replaced by a MyBook Studio, it too failed... what's that, a 33% success rate? :p

Still finding the 1TB PassPort SE extremely tempting...
 
I mean its cool, its a great drive. Some have awesome drives in them. But seriously, you can remove the virtual CD but the backup software you can't. Your stuck with the taskbar icon, the ever running software and the popup window at logon. Hate it. Thumbs down for these drives.

I had the 500gb my passport thing and it was a good, fast, great drive.

Software is uneeded by OSX though. It was even marketed to a Mac on the box, but they should have cleaned the software out of the firmware though. Jeeze. : )

I heard Lacie drives are good though. Right now, for back up I have 2 drives. I popped the 160gb hdd out of my macbook and popped in an SSD. I put that 160 in a mini portable enclosure and that I use as my traveling companion for my itunes and storage. Then at home, I have a bigger desktop drive USB based enclosure. Got both enclosures for under 30$. In that I have a 7200 travelstar and absolutely love it! 320 gigs, and got it for 35$ shipped. That's the time machine drive. It stays at home.

If anyone is considering getting a drive for backup, and has 250$ to spend-ish, then consider your options! You don't just have to get a crappy backup drive. You could spend that 250$ and get yourself a blazing fast SSD and then a little 2.5" external drive for your macbook (if thats what your using). So you have a decent backup, and a blazing boot drive!

Just my two cents. Anyways I loved the WD drive.. software was a pain though. The other thing was the mini usb jack on the drive was loose and if you even touched it it would eject improperly! Anyone else had that problem? =)
 
I'm kinda a WD fanboy, but I've had no problem removing the 'Smart'Ware in the past. While it is a nuisance, almost every HDD is coming with this crap now-a-days.
 
Abyssgh0st said:
I'm kinda a WD fanboy, but I've had no problem removing the 'Smart'Ware in the past. While it is a nuisance, almost every HDD is coming with this crap now-a-days.
Click to expand...

True. I really liked my WD drive though. Excellent drive. Just wish the jack was better and the other thing. I would buy another if it was barebones right out of the box. WD has always treated me right in the past, and the Scorpio 7200 I had before this SSD was pretty damn good too.
 
If you get rid of the software the drives are actually awesome. I own the previous generation drives and I'm very heavy on them and they perform every time. Also, the thing I don't like about these new ones is that the LED on the the WD drives wont work unless you use their dumb software. I love mine.

I got 3 2TB WD's, all daisy chained.
 

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The VCD can be disabled easily with software you can get from WD's site.

The SmartWare software exists on the controller card, not on the drive itself. You're not losing any storage space to it (or so I'm told.)

Nor does the software install itself automatically on OS X. The VCD just appears. Nothing more.

One you disable the VCD software, you've got an excellent WD drive. The current line of MyBooks tend to use WD's Caviar Green drives, which have gotten great reviews. Quiet, cool-running, low-power.

I've got a MyBook Essentials 2TB Second Edition (black) on my bookshelf acting pretty much as a bookend (it looks like a book, very nice), and beside it stacked one on the other, two WD My Passport Second Edition drives (black), one 500gb (Time Machine) and the other 320gb (only mounted when needed for large downloads.) The My Passport drives are very small (considering their high-capacity) and quite stylish.

They look gorgeous together. WD really nailed the design.

Here are a few quick photos:

http://img682.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=img2352g.jpg
 
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