I'll try to sum this up as succinctly as possible....
I bought a WD MyBook Essential 1TB, one of the new ones with the crappy Smart Ware "soft" ware. I know, my first mistake. I downloaded a ton of movies to it (400+, around 500 Gbs) in about three weeks. At this point everything is gravy. The drive is loading on my iBook G4 running 10.4, its also recognized by my WD TV and is playing all of the files. The computer and TV are in separate rooms, so obviously there is a fair amount of plugging and unplugging and transporting. I am not ripping the cables/AC adapters out of the computer/wall without ejecting the disk and pressing the "off" button on the MyBook.
After about three weeks, all of a sudden the Smart Ware software mounts, but not the actual drive. As soon as this happens, the drive fails to load on the WD TV or any other computer. I run Disk Utility - doesn't show up. I run Disk Warrior, and it tells me the directory is damaged because of a disk malfunction.
At this point, fine. I'm pissed, but whatever I look around and it seems like the answer is "some drives just do this you couldn't have done anything hope you backed up yada yada yada." I bite the bullet, head to Best Buy (another mistake), purchase the exact same hard drive. another mistake.
I spend the next two weeks in Disk Warrior's preview mode, transferring the files one by one (I tried in bunches and found out quickly that randomly, and not because of specific files, Disk Warrior would freeze in the middle of a transfer and not respond. I would have to manually reboot the computer, and all the data transfered during that session would be lost and I'd have to start the 30 minute process of rebooting from Disk Warrior. You can imagine how much time and effort it would take to successfully transfer 400+ movies in this fashion.)
I call WD, the guy I talk to you is an idiot, they give me a RMA number, fine I'm going to end up with two hard drives that I'll back up the movies onto.
Here's the best part: while the first hard drive is being processed by WD, I'm using the external to seed on Vuze and watching movies on the WD TV. AND THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPENS. I finish watching a movie - about an hour later I unplug the hard drive, take it over to my computer, doesn't show up (one difference, there is no "disk not recognized by my computer" window popping up, like there was the first time) and when I take it right back to WDTV it's not recognized there either. I run Disk Warrior and its a damaged directory again.
I know I know my drive is toast. What I'm hoping is someone here who has had the patience in reading through this might speculate as to why this is happening to me. Is it my computer? My WD TV device? I'm having a very hard time believing that I just happened to get really unlucky with two hard drives in a row. I don't believe any of the files were corrupted - I played every single one of them and they worked fine about a week ago. I've had the second hard drive for about two weeks. WD is closed when I just went to scream at them. Is there anything I can do in the future to prevent this from happening?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, you guys are the best on here and while I haven't registered or posted before now I frequent this site alot.
I bought a WD MyBook Essential 1TB, one of the new ones with the crappy Smart Ware "soft" ware. I know, my first mistake. I downloaded a ton of movies to it (400+, around 500 Gbs) in about three weeks. At this point everything is gravy. The drive is loading on my iBook G4 running 10.4, its also recognized by my WD TV and is playing all of the files. The computer and TV are in separate rooms, so obviously there is a fair amount of plugging and unplugging and transporting. I am not ripping the cables/AC adapters out of the computer/wall without ejecting the disk and pressing the "off" button on the MyBook.
After about three weeks, all of a sudden the Smart Ware software mounts, but not the actual drive. As soon as this happens, the drive fails to load on the WD TV or any other computer. I run Disk Utility - doesn't show up. I run Disk Warrior, and it tells me the directory is damaged because of a disk malfunction.
At this point, fine. I'm pissed, but whatever I look around and it seems like the answer is "some drives just do this you couldn't have done anything hope you backed up yada yada yada." I bite the bullet, head to Best Buy (another mistake), purchase the exact same hard drive. another mistake.
I spend the next two weeks in Disk Warrior's preview mode, transferring the files one by one (I tried in bunches and found out quickly that randomly, and not because of specific files, Disk Warrior would freeze in the middle of a transfer and not respond. I would have to manually reboot the computer, and all the data transfered during that session would be lost and I'd have to start the 30 minute process of rebooting from Disk Warrior. You can imagine how much time and effort it would take to successfully transfer 400+ movies in this fashion.)
I call WD, the guy I talk to you is an idiot, they give me a RMA number, fine I'm going to end up with two hard drives that I'll back up the movies onto.
Here's the best part: while the first hard drive is being processed by WD, I'm using the external to seed on Vuze and watching movies on the WD TV. AND THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPENS. I finish watching a movie - about an hour later I unplug the hard drive, take it over to my computer, doesn't show up (one difference, there is no "disk not recognized by my computer" window popping up, like there was the first time) and when I take it right back to WDTV it's not recognized there either. I run Disk Warrior and its a damaged directory again.
I know I know my drive is toast. What I'm hoping is someone here who has had the patience in reading through this might speculate as to why this is happening to me. Is it my computer? My WD TV device? I'm having a very hard time believing that I just happened to get really unlucky with two hard drives in a row. I don't believe any of the files were corrupted - I played every single one of them and they worked fine about a week ago. I've had the second hard drive for about two weeks. WD is closed when I just went to scream at them. Is there anything I can do in the future to prevent this from happening?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, you guys are the best on here and while I haven't registered or posted before now I frequent this site alot.