WD MyBook's using propriety formatting?? Anyone?

[UltraNEO*]

So.. For a brief while I've been using some of those My Book Essential drives as a online backup and they've worked like a charm. However, today I removed on from the factory housing and tried installing it into my MP only to discover the drive 'appears' NOT to be formatted

- but according to the ePaper it's about 70% full! What gives?

My question... Does anyone know, does WD MyBook series use a propriety formatting table on it's drive?



BTW.. Before anyone asks.
I've not being using WD's SmartWare, it's been disabled.

 

[PenguinMac]

The MyBooks are formatted in FAT32 to allow them to work as both Mac and PC external drives. FAT32 is not a native MAC format for an internal drive, but is ok for an external drive. Mac users should format these drives into HFS and PC users should format them into NTFS before using them. I'm guessing you didn't do that, so now you have to put the drive back into an external USB case, copy the data off, and then put it back into the Mac and reformat it as HFS.

FAT32 is very old, and is now only used for external drives. Not only is it easy to corrupt campared to HFS or NTFS, but it has a 4GB file size limit that's easy to hit when working with video files.

 

[UltraNEO*]

The MyBooks are formatted in FAT32 to allow them to work as both Mac and PC external drives. FAT32 is not a native MAC format for an internal drive, but is ok for an external drive. Mac users should format these drives into HFS and PC users should format them into NTFS before using them. I'm guessing you didn't do that, so now you have to put the drive back into an external USB case, copy the data off, and then put it back into the Mac and reformat it as HFS.

FAT32 is very old, and is now only used for external drives. Not only is it easy to corrupt campared to HFS or NTFS, but it has a 4GB file size limit that's easy to hit when working with video files.

Sorry.. but non of that you've said applies. Those drives have been manually reformatted to the GUID Partition Table and Mac OS Extended (Journaled), see images:

(BTW, this one is emptier)

However, taking the HD's out of their case and physically mounting them into the MP through a spare bay, then booting up; the system will inform me the drives are not initialized..

Any more suggestions?

 

[DoFoT9]

yea theyve made them so they are only available for using within their casing. no idea what their logic is behind that

 

[UltraNEO*]

yea theyve made them so they are only available for using within their casing. no idea what their logic is behind that

Yeah.. I've already come to that conclusion (thus title ) but I wanna get conformation from someone in the know... such as nanofrog.

 

[666sheep]

This is more firmware related, not formattting matter. My guess is, that drive format type "info" is somehow stored in casing's firmware (or some rewritable chip) and when you take out drive - it's missing. Drive is still formatted, data are still present on it but without lacking "info" your computer wil not recognize drive's format.

 

[UltraNEO*]

This is more firmware related, not formattting matter. My guess is, that drive format type "info" is somehow stored in casing's firmware (or some rewritable chip) and when you take out drive - it's missing. Drive is still formatted, data are still present on it but without lacking "info" your computer wil not recognize drive's format.

I'm not doubting this at all!! I actually know the data is still there!! As when the bare HD is replaced in it's original case, everything returns. However, isn't annoying that the data is automatically 'encrypted' and the encryption option according to WD SmartWare is disabled!?

Well... I'm gonna attempt to return these drives to my supplier, hopping they'll allow me to make an exchange for units with less junk between the storage medium and the host computer.

 

[Kebabselector]

Well... I'm gonna attempt to return these drives to my supplier, hoping they'll allow me to make an exchange for units with less junk between the storage medium and the host computer.

That's what I did with the 1tb WD My Book Studio (mac edition). The annoying WD smartbloatware it loaded on connection wouldn't go away. They did produce an app to remove it, but it didn't work with newer firmware drives. So it went back to Apple who refunded me

In the end I bought 4 1tb drives and updated my Freecom Datatanks. They supported 1tb drives so the update was easy (don't know why I didn't think about doing it in the first place!)

 

[Xappux]

It's true, the WD My Book World 'features' full-time hardware encryption, which is always switched on.

The WD SmartWare software gives the option to add your own password to prevent unauthorised access; nevertheless the drive's firmware always scrambles the incoming data.

In other words, the raw 2.5in HDD can only be read when it's mounted in Western Digital's enclosure...

 

[UltraNEO*]

It's true, the WD My Book World 'features' full-time hardware encryption, which is always switched on.

That SUCKS!!

 

[666sheep]

Seems that all WD "My" drives are affected. WD My Passport Studio acts that same.

 

[smithrh]

Any chance these drives were used somewhere else?

I have some WD MyBooks with the Paper display. I'd be right unhappy if I couldn't recover the data if the enclosure were to die.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Any chance these drives were used somewhere else?

I have some WD MyBooks with the Paper display. I'd be right unhappy if I couldn't recover the data if the enclosure were to die.

OK.. Here's the deal. I have two of those ''Mybook.." things and as far as I see, I can swap the drive controller between them and they seem to work without any issues. So.. I'd assume that'll be the same for you... but.. what happens if the user uses an additional password? Then I'll have no idea.


However... I dunno how anyone with USB units manage to cope, make complete backups in less than a day, cause mine take a bloody day to shift less than a third of the drive!! I'm seriously thinking of building another PC, just to run linux and use it as a storage bin!!

This is farkin' ridiculous!!!