WD Smartware or Time Machine

[Greysquirrel]

Having a WD Studio My Book coming next week and want to know what to use with it, WD Smartware or Time Machine.
The reason I and is that I have read both positive and negative posts on both.
Some say to not load the WD software into your machine as it will cause your problems but do not state what they will be, others say to use the WD software as you he more option for back up.
Others say that Time Machine is the only way to go, and others say stay with the WD software.
I want to know if either of them is better than the other or it's just a case of either or as both do a good job and it is a matter of personal preference.
I appreciate any advice anyone can give me.

 

[bobsax]

I know very little but since nobody has replied to you, my 2cents.
I use time-machine , my computer crashed and the Genius at the Apple store restored it from TM . Not sure if they'd do it with SmartWare.
btw Smartware is extremely controversial , lots of bad talk on the web.
It's an evil rootkit ,
......or not.
I took mine back and got a Seagate.

 

[greenmind]

I also just purchased a WD drive. 1 GB, and it's as small as a wallet. It makes no sound, and you don't have to plug it in to the wall. Just plug into your mac, and your ready to go. Almost, you have to remember to partition the drive. Something that wd didn't tell you how to do. I knew that this drive was small enough too place in your pocket, so I was drawn to it having a password feature, so I installed smartware. At one time it installed on it's on, and was a resource hog. I think that smartware is getting such a bad wrap, in the wd community, that don't even tell you how to find anymore, when you purchase the drive. I downloaded it. This is where all my good thoughts on the product end. It immediately failed to back up to time machine, and I lost the drive from my desktop. smartware apparently is it's own time machine of sorts. I don't care, what it can do. I have an imac wt a time machine, and it disabled it. I phoned wd, even spoke to a supervisor, and they had no idea, what the problem was. They suggested returning the drive. I didn't. I just uninstalled smartware, turned the computer off, unhooked the drive, turned it back on, and reconnected the drive. I had to repartition the drive, but it backed up again. Do Not Install Smartware! Does anyone have any ideas, on placing a password on the drive w/o smartware.

Thanx,

Jim

 

[bobsax]

Hi Greenmind

Thanks for posting your story.
It sounds like the SmartWare was the problem.
I think it's strange that WD continues to offer SW to Mac users when Apple has far better backup solutions.

 

[Lehuanani]

No WD Smartware

IMO, the WD Smartware is like a virus--it hogs all of your CPU memory. My iMac was running agonizingly slow, so I upgraded the memory and the hard drive, which did not help. After researching for a long time, I finally figured out it was the Smartware and uninstalled it. But the uninstall did not remove all of the software, which continued to hog my CPU memory. I finally found the solution here on MacRumors forum, under WD Smartware, and removed the remaining software from my system. I am speedy once again! Now, without the software, I run Time Machine through my WD Smartware external drive for back ups. No problem!