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WD drives famous for periodically not mounting?

BJB Productions said:
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?
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I believe you are talking about a factory formatted drive, with files you copied to the drive yourself??? Which means it's formatted in HFS+ in a single partition. This should be fine, timemachine ignores any files on the drive, and doesn't write over them... It will only use the free space available. When the drive is full (from your files or backup files) timemachine will delete the oldest backups.. you can choose to be warned about this when it happens (System prefrences --> Timemachine --> Settings --> checkbox "warn me, when old backups are deleted") (hope the path is correct, i had to translate from danish to english)

The only reason i partioned my drive, is because i want to use it to store windows games and movies. :p
 
Toxic -- this may sound really stupid, but when you plugged in the drive for the first time did you do anything in terms of downloading software from the drive (WD Device Manager or anything else?)? Or, when the prompt came up asking if you wanted to use the drive as Time Machine you just clicked "yes" and let it fly? Also, were you using Firewire or USB? The firmware update says that you need to first uninstall the WD Drive Manager from the system. Does that mean uninstall it from the drive? How do you do that? This entire process seems complicated (at least to a beginner like me). Any help would be much appreciated (basic help). Thanks.
 
Delray said:
Toxic -- this may sound really stupid, but when you plugged in the drive for the first time did you do anything in terms of downloading software from the drive (WD Device Manager or anything else?)? Or, when the prompt came up asking if you wanted to use the drive as Time Machine you just clicked "yes" and let it fly? Also, were you using Firewire or USB? The firmware update says that you need to first uninstall the WD Drive Manager from the system. Does that mean uninstall it from the drive? How do you do that? This entire process seems complicated (at least to a beginner like me). Any help would be much appreciated (basic help). Thanks.
Click to expand...

I didn't download any software for managing the drive. I plugged it in and when promted to use as timemachine, I clicked yes. Normally I would leave it at that, there is no reason to install something i wouldn't use. But when i found out there was new firmware, I updated that(Firmware updates are pretty important for Drive stability, and I like to update my drive on a "just in case" principal). [Define:firmware = In computing, firmware is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device, for example a microcontroller]. (MEANING: firmware is not something you install on your computer).

I then installed the TURBO drivers from the WD website, and now since you asked I have installed the WD drive manager. But everything I installed, I installed after setting it up for timemachine and after the firmware update... But in theory you don't have to install anything if you don't want to.

If you really want the firmware update... I can't see why you would have to uninstall the WD drive manager before you update the firmware, but since the firmware update clearly wants you to, it's a pretty simple process... just open the WD drive manager install image and choose unistall. (I've attached a screenshot) (If you don't know where it is located, you can download it off the WD website)

I use Firewire 800 since it's about twice as fast as USB, and is the reason i've installed the TURBO drivers. Which makes it (as Steve Jobs would say) a screamer! :D

If you have any problems, just ask :p because of the time difference, I will must likely only be able reply every other day :S But, I'll try to check the thread more often :)

1231013947.jpg
 
Toxic -- thanks for the detailed response. As you thought, I could not find the WD Drive Manager, therefore, was unable to uninstall it and decided to hold off on the firmware update. I partitioned the drive and successfully set up one of the partitions as Time Machine. Now I would like to do the firmware update, but do not know where to begin as I am unable to find the WD Drive Manager (it also says that the WD Anywhere Backup must be turned off in the system tray -- not sure what that is all about). Please let me know how you suggest I proceed to get the firmware update on the drive successfully. Thanks.
 
Delray - Apparently you have the whole bundled package installed on your computer. I didn't recieve a CD with the drive, so i downloaded everything i needed from WD's website.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=113&lang=en


This is the site, where all downloades associated with the drive, are located.But, some of the downloads require you to register your product, if you havn't already. And I have had problems downlaoding some files, because of some kind of server issue WD is having.

WD anywhere backup, is also software that is associated with the drive, probably intended for those who use OSX tiger or older, or for those who prefer anywhere backup. I myself havn't installed it, because I prefer timemachine :D but it should be as easy to uninstall as WD drive manager... same principal, download from WD's site, open the file and choose uninstall.

I hope this was of some help to you... If you are still having issues, you'll probably have to explain exactly how you installed the drive and the software ? :)
 
Never encountered mounting problems with my WD drives. Have three of them. Only issue I have is that sometimes the one with my Time Machine backup will fail to backup but then does so on the next cycle.
 
Its not just WD drives, I think it may be a Leopard problem. My Fantom Drives disk does the same thing. More often than not though it will spin down (even though I told it NOT to) causing the system to hang until I switch it off then back on.
 
Toxic -- I have installed the firmware update and the updated WD Drive Manager (which the instructions on the firmware update say you need to download). Hopefully this will enable the drive to run flawlessly. Note that the drive caused my Mail application to hang 2 days ago and the system was totally frozen. I had to power it off and restart it without the drive attached. When I reconnected the drive it worked fine, but clearly there was an issue. The firmware has now been updated, so for now things look good. I will let you know if things go bad again. Thanks for all of your help. Much appreciated.
 
I have two, My Books, a 1TB Essential (Fat32) which is six months old and a 500GB Essential (reformatted to HFS+) which is about 2 years old.

Neither are running any WD software nor have any firmware upgrades

Both connected via USB 2.0 and neither have skipped a beat and always sleep & wake on cue when my iMac does.
I'll be buying a portable Passport once Amazon have stock again to go with my WD HD TV Media Player :D
 
just bought a 1TB WD My Book Home edition..hooked via firewire..no problems at all..Time Machine runnning fine..i deletd all the WD garbage that came on the drive..and partitioned it so one partition is used for TM and the rest for my files
 
these plug in ready to go external hard drives are garbage.

its better to buy a quality 3.5 internal and custom enclosure.
my wd caviar black is top notch and i have an aluminum antec case for it.

very quiet and black series are business quality products with 5 year warranty.
 
wd 1TB mybook studio does not mount

My external drive - WD MyBook Studio for Mac - will not mount. I have followed every suggestion (twice). The firewire 800 will not mount, the firewire 400 adapter and the usb will not mount. I downloaded all the wd software and updates and it will not mount. I uninstalled all the updates and it will not mount. I restarted a dozen times. I unplugged every single cord on my imac (smc reset) and it will not mount.

I have spent many hours on this and am very frustrated. I am ready to give up either 1) WD or 2) Mac (or both).

Any additional advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Weird solution that works for me when everything else fails - I think don't remember which forum I picked this up from. I shutdown the Mac, and unplug the power cable for at least 5 minutes. Plug it back in and turn it on, plug the power into my WD drive, then the FW800 cable, and somehow it works. Don't understand it at all, but after reinstalling the WD manager and trying all sorts of things, this does the trick.
 
We've had a lot of trouble with WD drives. We've since ditched them and started purchasing G-Tech drives with which we've had no troubles.

We found that when we connect to the WD drive using a USB cable they would work fine (although a little slow compared to FW800). It was only when we connected via FW800 that they would mysteriously unmount....usually at very inopportune times. :)

The worst offenders were the buss powered drives (My Passport Studio 500GB). We have a ton of those and about 50% of them have had problems.

Live and learn! :)
 
You all might want to take a look at this:

http://www.amazon.com/review/RKGM60AB7M1S0/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RKGM60AB7M1S0

Seems there are issues with firewire and WD drives. This is consistent with the comments above about USB working, and FW800 not. Obviously, why not use the latter if possible since so much faster, esp. on macs? One wonders, as I've also heard of problems with seagate, if this issue goes back to leopard something about the mac FW800 implementation.

Either way, leaning toward separate enclosure and better internal drive.
 
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PHP: 
bjewett You all might want to take a look at this:

http://www.amazon.com/review/RKGM60A...#RKGM60AB7M1S0

Seems there are issues with firewire and WD drives. This is consistent with the comments above about USB working, and FW800 not. Obviously, why not use the latter if possible since so much faster, esp. on macs? One wonders, as I've also heard of problems with seagate, if this issue goes back to leopard something about the mac FW800 implementation.

Either way, leaning toward separate enclosure and better internal drive.

Me and my Brother in Law have these drives and both are constantly dismounting. I have tried installing updates and the WD Manager software and nothing has helped. We have talked about connecting them via USB and I will give that a try tonight. I finally just unplugged it due to it constantly dismounting.. Drives me crazy. I have a 320gb WD Drive and I have never had any problems with it what so ever... We both had decided we wouldn't ever purchase another WD Drive. If USB works I will be a little more satisfied even though I paid more for the firewire connection. We both use ours on Windows computers...
 
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