I bought a new Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II last week to beef up my storage. It cost me €522. Unfortunately it was a dud. Didn’t work, out of the box. I wrote a quick post about the fact that it didn’t work last Monday.
A Google search for the term “My Book Pro Edition II” (without the quotes) shows my post complaining about the drive at search position number 2!
Any company worth its salt should be monitoring RSS Searches for its product names (and its company name, and its competitor names, and its competitor’s product names, and…) – here look, I’ll make it easy for you WD, here’s a link to a Google blog search for My Book Pro Edition II.
Keep an eye on that search through an RSS Reader. If someone complains about one of your products, respond to the complainant. There is no surer way of generating loyal customers.
By ignoring the complaints, there is no surer way of annoying your (soon-to-be former) customers. You won’t find me buying or recommending a Western Digital product anytime soon again.
In my experience WD make the best drives by a very long shot.
Your attitude in this post appears to me to be one of “waaah, give me what I want and give it to me now or I’ll cause a huge fuss”. You do not mention if you have called them, emailed them or tried to contact them in any way? Just because a company doesnt do things your way and refresh google for new references to them every few minutes doesnt make them are a bad company who sell crap products.
You bought the drive from komplett – does the onus not lie with komplett (who you gave money to) rather than WD? If so why are you generating what looks to me like negative press for WD?
I’d have to agree with Hostyle. First go through the proper channels and if that doesn’t work then you can throw the rattle out of the pram.
Proficiency at watching RSS feeds is not high on my list of criteria for judging hard-drive manufacturers. The quality of their disks would be much higher up the list! Anyway, most of what you’d see on the RSS would just be bloggers having an un-fair go so I’m glad WD don’t waste their time putting rattles back into prams.
Bart and Hostyle, thanks for your feedback. If that’s how my attitude comes across, that is unfortunate because it is certainly not how I intended it to be.
In my previous post I mentioned that WD’s warranty info which came with the drive doesn’t give any contact details for Ireland only a UK freephone number which doesn’t work from here.
The company doesn’t have to refresh Google every few minutes – that is the beauty of RSS. You set up an RSS search, add the feed to your reader and the search results come to you. Any company interested in its brand perception needs to be doing this. And I would submit that a company not interested in its brand perception won’t be in business for long no matter how good its product is.
I posted about Komplett as well – they have since issued an RMA and the drive has been returned (at my expense).
I disagree that I am generating negative press for WD. I think I am providing them valuable feedback to them.
Hi –
I am from Western Digital Europe based in Munich. Please provide me with a serial number I will investigate. The WD MyBook Series has been awarded more than 50 times allover EMEA and is one of the most successful external drives.
We are taking customer complaints very seriously and we are monitoring blogs as good as we can as well. Why are you not going through a proper RMA process if you don’t want to return the drive to komplett?
Kind regards,
Daniel Mauerhofer
EMEA Public Relations
+49.89.9220.0646
Daniel,
thanks for your email and comment here. As I have mentioned in my email to you, I applied for an RMA on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week from Komplett. I received the RMA on Wednesday and returned the drive to them.
If Western Digital are interested in customer feedback, you should include contact details in the warranty details. There was no phone number for customer support for Ireland in the packaging.
Tom
I would suggest that if buying from a supplier such as Komplett that the drive you purchased may not have been specifically packaged by WD for the Irish market.
Your RMA procedure is first and foremost with Komplett not WD. In fact I’m surprised WD are willing to get involved at all, to my mind they would be entirely within their rights to tell you go through proper procedures via the supplier.
I’m looking at this from the opposite side, that of reseller. If I supply goods to a client and they are faulty, I expect to be the one contacted to sort it out. Furthermore I wouldn’t expect my client to have to recourse to dealing with the manufacturer directly. But there again that’s why I’m a VAR. It’s what you are paying for in the difference in my price for an item and Kompletts price.
Do you not think you are looking for your cake and eating it to expect the keenest price with little or no markup yet expect the best possible service? If you were dealing with a local VAR who added 15% on top and got that level of service I could understand your frustration but you didn’t. You went to a supplier who undercuts everyone in the market (no problem with that, it’s their business model) but yet expect VAR type response for an RMA.
As for the manufacturer setting up an RSS reader searching for specific instances of their brand name or company name I think you’ll find that they already do perform searches on their names etc. but that doesn’t mean that just because a blogger complains about it that there is going to be an automatic response from the manufacturer. To be honest that smacks of egotism to expect that level of response from “I wrote a quick post about the fact that it didn’t work last Monday�
John, thanks for the comments.
On the VAR vs. Komplett models – absolutely I expect the same level of service (or better) from Komplett than I would from a local supplier even if my local supplier charges 15% more. Why? Komplett’s margins may be lower but their turnover is orders of magnitude higher and their purchasing power means they can negotiate better purchase prices from their suppliers.
I’m not trying to be egotistical in my posting, the fact of the matter is that my post is at position number 2 in Google for a search on the product name. If I were in Western Digital, I’d be damn sure to get a comment on that post making Western Digital smell absolutely of roses – then anyone who clicks through the link, sees Western Digital are responsive, proactive and customer focussed. Win, win.
Tom
I would be hugely suprised if even with volume discounts and aggressive purchasing Komplett’s margins are anything other than super slim. Something has to give to maintain a profit and customer service is the hardest to maintain or easiest to let slip depending on your view point.
Just for the record as well, I have found Komplett’s customer service to be very efficient, in case anyone thinks I’m bashing Komplett.
I take your point about the number two slot in Google. I’m just not sure it’s a realistic expectation. Sensible yes, idealistic yes but that might be just me having had the idealism beaten out of me at this stage and viewing the world through a jaundiced eye 🙂
I’m not sure it is either John but I’ll keep hammering away saying it is what I expect. If you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it!
I want to thank Tom and all the responders for this discussion, as it has been helpful to me in choosing a course of action in dealing with my own woes with a ‘my book 500g premium’.
I bought 2 of these My Books (Costco), to use as external backup (and then a redundant 2nd backup to keep offsite).
One works well, reformatted (Mac Os extended), and drag n dropped all the files I needed to copy (340g) over firewire 400. Great.
Attempted to daisey chain the 2 drives together – Shazam! The 2nd My Book kicks off the 1st drive. I get an error message ‘improper removal of drive…. be sure to select drive icon and eject prior to unplugging the unit to prvent data loss….’. Then neither drive is recognized. I have to power down, fully unplug the firewire from the My Books, and replug and reboot just to get in recogized again.
Ive tested this on differenct ports, separate ports, even another computer…. Exactly the same. Surprising but repeatable.
This has not been my experience with my old 80 G Lacie (frak that was expensive 4 years ago), and a Vantec shell with a Seagate 320g drive inside. With them it was Daisy chain in any order, hot swap, drag and drop, rock and roll!!
I’ve got my call into Tech support for North America… they were nice… if stumped. The quiet European man in advanced support was stumped as well. He said he will call back in an hour or so.
All I want is a set of drives that works… I dont need blinding fast, fancy colors, nor backup software. I just need stuff that works, intuitively and reliably.
I’ll report back later with the results… I’ll this process 3 days then return them both (and go back to what I know).
Thank you for your help Tom.
I also have had issues with Western Digital Support regarding the My Book Pro II.
Just so this does not get written up as sour grapes, I’ve included the dialog of the support contact.
—————————————————————
Response (Don S.) – 12/12/2006 08:48 AM
Dear Jeffrey,
Thank you for your reply.
I am sorry, but there would be no compatibility testing at this point since our
drive appears to work. I have looked into this issue and we have no reported
compatibility issues as it relates to our hard drive. I would consult with the USB
manufacture for additional support on this issue.
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Don S.
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com
Customer (Jeffrey Knodel) – 12/12/2006 07:56 AM
So, no debugging a compatibility problem between your device and a USB
chipset?
Your device works with another USB chipset, so the problem is not yours.
The USB chipset works with a myriad of other devices, so the problem is
not theirs.
jk
>
Response (Don S.) – 12/11/2006 11:01 AM
Dear Jeffrey,
Thank you for your reply.
I apologize for not properly addressing all your questions to your satisfaction.
However, as you stated if the drive works in the computer you already mentioned, and
not other systems, then the drive is not likely the cause of your issue or the same
thing would occur on all systems.
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Don S.
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com
Customer (Jeffrey Knodel) – 12/09/2006 01:40 PM
I’m so glad I waited the 10 days for your response. Please note that I
dropped $500 on your product, which is a chunk for a home use retail
storage product. I spent hours searching the internet, the FAQ, and the
knowledge base, and everything I could find your support site before
contacting you.
Please note also, in my original request, I told you that device works
fine on my laptop, and I gave you very specific results under very
specific conditions that the drive does not work under. Notice how I gave
details about how your raid manager software, and its device driver do not
recognize the device identifier number that is shown by the device when it
connects to the bus.
Now, let us analyze your reply.
First sentence: “Western Digital pre-formats your drive in a FAT32 File
System.”
No, you don’t. This drive, and note I had to specify everything from its
model number to its frigging SERIAL NUMBER to open the case, comes
preformatted NTFS, not FAT32.
Next: “make sure you have the latest BIOS updates and drivers”
Yes, I probably should have explicitly stated that I am at SP2, fully
patched, and have all the most current drivers, but considering how far
down the problem I had already diagnosed, including to which specific USB
chipset I am trying to use, and which alternate usb drivers I had tried,
you could have probably assumed that I had tried the basics.
Next: “Windows ME, XP, and 2000 have full driver support for external USB
hard drives.”
Yes, they do, but they will not natively support this device, as you need
to load the western digital raid controller driver before you can then see
the USB Storage device. It is the raid controller, not the usb storage
that is not being identified properly. And I had to specify what
operating system in order to open the case.
Next: “If you feel the drive may be the cause of your problem, I would run
our diagnostic program to see if the hard drive has problems.”
The diagnostics will tell me that it works fine on the computer that I
already told you it works fine on, and won’t run at all on the computers
that don’t see it as a disk device!
I really expected to be blown off by WD support with something like “we
don’t support using this product with the USB chipsets that we don’t
automatically work with. (It even says “this might not work in your
computer” in the manual.) But I at least expected, after waiting 10 days,
that the reply would at least be on topic, and contain a little more
information that what came in the quick install guide.
Please note also, that the 750 GB Segate external drive, with a 5 (not 1)
year warranty, that I went out and bought for $200 less is working
*fine*. The only questions left are can I get this one to also work, or
can you make me wait around long enough for an answer that I miss the
return deadline.
Thanks for your attention.
jk
>
Response (Don S.) – 12/07/2006 10:50 AM
Dear Jeffrey,
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.
Western Digital pre-formats your drive in a FAT32 File System. This File System is
recognized by most computer operating systems, but in some cases, you need to make
sure you have the latest BIOS updates and drivers installed for your system or
motherboard, and any Windows updates and service packs. Windows ME, XP, and 2000
have full driver support for external USB hard drives. However, if you are seeing an
unknown driver listed in device manager under other devices or USB mass storage
controller drivers, you would need to update or reinstall your USB port driver
supplied by your system or motherboard manufacture before the drive will be
recognized.
If you feel the drive may be the cause of your problem, I would run our diagnostic
program to see if the hard drive has problems.
Please test the drive for errors by running the extended diagnostic test on the
drive using the Win DLG program available from our webpage.
If there are no errors detected with the software, then the drive is working
properly and is not likely the cause of your problem. Make sure you have the latest
BIOS updates and drivers installed for your system or motherboard, and any Windows
updates and service packs.
Sincerely,
Don S.
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com
Customer (Jeffrey Knodel) – 12/06/2006 07:26 PM
MY ISSUE HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED.
>
Response (Nik T.) – 12/06/2006 10:54 AM
Dear Jeffrey,
We apologize for the delay in responding to you. Due to heavy volume, we are
currently beyond our normal turnaround of 1 business day.
We realize that some of you may have already found the answers to your questions. In
an effort to respond to your needs more efficiently, please do one of the following:
If you have already found the answers to your questions and DO NOT REQUIRE a
response from us, please DO NOT REPLY to this email.
If you have not found the answer(s) to your question(s) and DO REQUIRE a response
from us, please REPLY to this email. In your reply, you can just state that you
still need an answer to your questions. If you do not respond to this email, we will
assume that you do not require a response from us.
Thank you for your patience and understanding
Sincerely,
Western Digital Service and Support
Customer (Jeffrey Knodel) – 11/28/2006 11:32 PM
It shows up as unidentified ‘usb device’ with device identifier USB\Vid_0928&Pid_ffff.
Device driver is not configured for that device id, and so does not get assigned to
the device.
I have tried multiple usb cables, and have two duplicate machines with same
behavior. (works OK on my laptop)
USB controller is SIS 7001. Have tried both SIS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host
Controller Driver, and Standard OpenHCD Host controller drivers for USB Controller.
Motherboard is a SunPCi IIpro, Celeron 733 mhz with 756 mb memory.
I attempted to create a new inf file for the driver that would identify the deviceid
that the MyBook is showing, and this allows me to assign the driver to the device,
and will allow me to read from the device, but not to write to it, or to have the
MyBook Raid Manager detect the device.
USB controller works fine for other devices, usb-keyfobs, usb printers, and an IDE
hard drive in a generic ide-to-usb external bay.
Thanks
jk
Assistance getting this resolved would be appreciated.
I bought a WD Passport external 120gb drive that failed within 6 months of purchase. No warning, no grinding or unusual noises. Just crapped out in the middle of a regular file copy.
I stupidly used the Passport for temporary offline storage of some critical data only to find it totally inaccessible.
Having had several experiences with good drives inside defective external cases, and desperate to get my files back without waiting days for Drive Recovery “free estimates” (and who is to say those drive recovery people can even be trusted when they charge $500-800 MINIMUM for basic file recovery?) I opened the external case and swapped the bare drive into a case I knew worked. The drive was still pooched and the partition inaccessible.
Knowing now that the drive was defective, I then called Western Digital for a warranty replacement. Giving the “customer service” person the serial number on the bare drive, he informed me that it was supposed to be an external drive, and by opening the external case I had voided my warranty. I argued this point for 10 minutes (this, after a 25 minute hold time) and asked to speak to a senior CSR.
Scott, the supervisor of the RMA department, was polite but nugatory, and completely unwilling to budge on this essentially semantic policy point. I had opened the external case, it did not matter that the drive was defective within a YEAR of manufacture and 6 months of use. The warranty was void.
I argued my case for another 15 minutes that I NEEDED to determine that my data was accessible, and it was unnecessary, almost blackmail to potentially pay HUNDREDS of dollars to a third party, since WD would not check the veracity of my drive, nor repair it. The result was silence and/or “I’m really sorry, you voided your warranty.”
I asked to speak to Scott’s supervisor, who unfortunately/conveniently wasn’t there, but he offered to “pass along” my request to speak to him.
I’m not even sure I want a WD drive as a replacement at this point, after now reading dozens of Googled “Beware WD” messages. But the principle of this thing indicates they still owe me a replacement for the defective drive, if only the bare drive itself.
Buyer beware indeed.
Long stor Short. I bought the Western Digital My Book Essential USB2. It worked on one of two of my laptops (both same model & OS Dell Inspiron 8500 XP Pro SP2) but not the other laptop or one of my desktops that I tested it on. I searched WD Support for 2 hours then called WD support. After 45 minute hold (due to “heavy volume -no big surprise there) recived similar treatment and WD told me to call Microsoft because no one else has reported a similar problem.
I took it back to the store that I bought it and returned it. I’m getting the Seagate!
I don’t yet have a problem with WD support since I just contacted them via email today (though I’ll be calling tomorrow), but my My Book Essential Edition 250GB that I just bought already has a problem. Every time I turn it on, it takes approximately 70 seconds for my computer, which is running Vista, to recognize it, even after the drivers were installed. Now I know that it very well may be the drivers that are the problem: I tested this external harddrive on a computer running XP SP2, and *that* computer recognized the drive in about 8 seconds. Yet, WD says that it should work with Vista. Obviously not. I’ve found absolutely no information on Vista-specific drivers, so that worries me that they may not have one. If that’s the case, I’ll gladly return their product for that of a competitor’s.
Just came across this website conversation while trying to identify why my workstation suddenly stopped recognizing the WD Pro II – 1 terabyte.
My chances for getting this back up and running don’t look too good. Sure wished I had checked out WD before I bought.
They used to be a good company with good support.
hostyle
this hdd sucks, a friend bought it two days ago and we have the same complaints.
if i spend heaps of money on any kind of technology it should work.
right out of the box.
immediately.
imagine you buy a ripped shirt.
oh wait, you can sew it, what an idea.
noone spends money on something that doesnt work right away.
you pay, you get what you paid for.
well thats the way it should be
IM HELLA PISSED!!!
grrrrrrr
bought 1 TB Western Digital My Book Pro II a week ago and cannot see it on any computer. For those of you in Europe who paid much more, I paid $399us at Costco, but alas, mine also does not work. I do not have time nor tech skills to troubleshoot as many of you have done, so I’ll just return it to vendor and let them deal with it.
PLEASE HELP ME…..
I just purchased a My Book Essential 320GB and I’m operating a Dell XPS 410 with Vista Home Premium. IT WON’T WORK! It won’t load a driver and i can’t find one on the F*@#$@#ing support.wdc.com site
I’m not too much of a Tech person, but i’m not stupid! could you help me???????????
Update:
For any of you willing to keep your WD drive, I’ve contacted both WD and Microsoft support, and Microsoft finally agreed with me that Vista’s driver for the WD drives wasn’t coded very well, and so they should try to fix it. Of course, they didn’t give a date or even a time frame as to when it will be finished . . . . As I said in my previous post, it takes around 70 seconds for my WD 250GB Essential Edition external harddrive to be recognized on both of my Vista Home Premium computers, while it takes less than 10 seconds to be recognized on both of my XP computers. I knew it was a driver issue from the beginning, but Microsoft must always assume their customers don’t know what they’re talking about, so it took a while for them to admit what I’d been saying all along. Anyway, I don’t know if all of you use your WD drives on computers running Vista, but for those of your who are, just know that the drive should work–it just takes over minute to be recognized. If you don’t want to wait for updated drivers, it’s probably best for you to get a refund and search for a harddrive that is guaranteed to work properly (and I don’t consider having to wait extraordinary amounts of time for the drive to be recognized ‘working properly’) with Vista.
hello chris. i hava a question for you. I have windows vista Slovenian(i’m from slovenia) and i have bought wd mybook essential 500gb 3 days ago….i don’t know what to do, but i won’t work…i looked all over the net and i don’t know how to make it work….it just wont recognize it and i waited over an hour…but i didn’t do nothing….it just keeps asking me for drivers….where did you get the driver
“Every time I turn it on, it takes approximately 70 seconds for my computer, which is running Vista, to recognize it, even after the drivers were installed”
i read this…so i figured….
tnx in advance….damjan
Damjan, the very first time you connect the harddrive, a small window at the lower-right corner should appear that tells you it is searching and installing the drivers. If this window didn’t appear, try disconnecting the harddrive (after Safely Removing it), waiting 10 seconds, and then reconnecting the harddrive. Wait a few minutes. Sometimes the window will freeze, and in that case, you will have to disconnect and then reconnect again.
Chris, here’s another one. I bought my WD Essential 500GB from The States while I was on holiday. Now I’m back home in New Delhi, India. WD doesn’t have any sort of support system here. So I thought I’d ask you.
My drive was working fine on my Dell Inspiron laptop (Vista Home Premium). Then one day I accidently pulled the USB wire out of my laptop while the drive was still on and not removed safely. Now it doesn’t seem to be recognized on ANY laptop or desktop! I tried it on my friends laptop (Vista Business) and my desktop (XP). Nothing seems to be working. I can’t lose so much information! And obviously I would have to take great panis to return it back to the US.
Oh hey, one more thing. I went to the DISK MANAGEMENT option on my laptop, the when on which my drive was connected at the time of the unfortunate forced disconnection of the drive, and I saw that my first partition was a “EISA” partition. What the hell is that?!?!? Is it affecting my laptop in any way? Is it the reason why my drive is not connecting onto my laptop?
As long as you didn’t change the external hard drive’s policy (which you probably didn’t), then unplugging it before safely removing it shouldn’t produce the effect you’re seeing.
When you plug the external hard drive into a computer, have you tried opening Disk Management to see if the computer recognizes it at all?
Also, where does it show that the first partition is “EISA”; is that listed under the partition’s type?
Disk Management does not recognize the drive at all.
Hey I have no idea what EISA is. No its not under Disk Partition Type or anything. The drive doesnt have a letter assigned to it. Its “layout” is Simple, “type” is Basic, “File System” is blank, and “Status” is Healthy (EISA) Configuration). This is all I got.
So an item without a drive letter doesn’t show up in Disk Management at all when you plug the external hard drive in?
From what I understand, EISA actually is a precursor to PCI, which are expansion slots in desktop computers that allow users to add functionality to their computer, like network access and stuff. I don’t know how it ties in to a hard drive, though.
Would you be able to send me a picture of your Disk Management while your external hard drive is plugged in? If you had to wait a while for the external hard drive to be recognized when it *did* work, wait the same amount of time before taking the picture with the “Print Screen” button. You can use a free file hosting website, like , to upload the file. Then just give me the web address it gives you.
It looks like this page doesn’t want web addresses in it. The website I was referring to in my previous post is FileFactory. You can just Google it, and it should be the first result.
No no I think you’ve misunderstood. The EISA drive is there even when the WD is not connected. It just appeared one day and I have no idea why. It wasn’t there earlier. It has nothing to do wit the WD. It just seems weird that it’s not there when I got the laptop and its there when I check it on another day. It doesnt show on My Computer or anything. There is absolutely no change in the number of drives when I plug the WD into my laptop. Infact NOTHING seems to change ANYWHERE in my laptop.
Hey other thing is that my WD used to be recognized immediately. Now I try even for 15-20 mins and nothing happens.
Do you know what the EISA drive used to be before it said it is EISA?
Also, have you plugged the external hard drive in and checked the Device Manager to see if *that* detects the hard drive? The hard drive may be listed as “Unknown” if the Device Manager recognizes it.
The EISA partition never existed before. I always has 3 partitions. This one is a 4th. It was never there earlier.
The Device Manager doesn’t detect the drive at all.Like I said, NOTHING changes.
I’m sorry for the late reply–I didn’t realize you had replied to me already.
At this point, I think you should send me a picture of your Disk Management window. I don’t know if there’s a relation between your external hard drive not working and this new EISA partition, but maybe I’ll find something if you can send me the picture.
I have 2 500gb My books (1 premium the other the std) and they have actually both worked fine for about 6 months. I then bought the 1TB about a week ago and set it up as backup volume. About 2 days after i set it up, I tried to offload files from the 2 500gb to my upgraded main drives (750GB Seagate x 2). After offloading files from the std 500gb with no probs, I started doing the same with the premium and it started to hang – (blue light constantly on) – varies in terms of how long it takes to hang – longest iw 2-3 hrs, shortest 5 minutes. I have 1TB on firewire 400 and the other drives on usb. Is there some kind of resource conflict going on with firewire and usb? The drive tests fine (when not hung) although current test seems to be hanging after 35 mins! (estimated time is 6 mims) and doesn;t appear when hung (so can’t test it). I am reformating it to NTFS (FAT32 when it shipped) and have pulled the 1Tb drive connection – seems to be formatting ok altho very slow….
I am running XP (all up to date) ann all drivers are up to date. I saw a firmware upgrade for the 1tb (fan problems?) – mine is quiet. Any help appreciated, WD customer support not very helpful…
Jon
First, let me confirm the timeline: first, you bought two 500GB Western Digital MyBook external hard drives, one Standard, the other Premium, which you connect via USB; six months later, they have both been working as they should, and you bought a 1TB Western Digital MyBook external hard drive, which connects via FireWire; two days after that, when you tried to transfer data from both of your 500GB external hard drives, the Standard one transferred successfully, but the Premium hung before completing the transfer. Is this all correct?
Second, I’d just like you to know that I have no experience with Firewire devices and how they interact with USB devices, so I don’t know if there is any interference going on. I would assume (and hope) not, but I don’t know for sure.
Third, has reformatting made any difference with the performance of the external hard drive?
Timeline is right
I tried the 1TB on USB – still the same problem
The reformat failed about 90% through and when I ran WD diagnostics it indicated bad sectors after 5 minutes so the drive is going back…
Luckily I got all my data off – I guess they are pretty useless as a storage device – I will be buying another big internal disk…
Well, I suppose it’s at least nice that you’ve found out what was going on. It’s interesting how the Premium 500GB started malfunctioning two days after getting the 1TB, though.
Ahhh the joys of WD devices. I have a My Book Premium II 1TB model that worked great the first time i plugged it in and set it up (RAID 1 mode). I copied around 100GB of data to it and shut PC down.
Next time i restarted my PC the drive did not show up in windows. What does show up is an unknown USB device “USB\VID_0928&PID_FFFF\5&1FF9E3F3&0&2”.
I have now tested this on a laptop and another PC all with the same result (All are Dell computers with Intel USB controllers).
Has anyone else come across this issue? Any resolutions?
I have taken one of the drives out of the case and directly plugged into a PC, i can see the data on disk (So i havent lost anything thankfully)
I haven’t ever had my MyBook not show up on a computer; it just takes a little over a minute for it to be recognized. Which version of Windows are your computers using?
Hi Chris,
Im running Windows XP Pro (SP2) on all PCs..
Ive tried pointing it to the drivers on install CD with no luck.
Very frustrating as this was working initially and now not.
I wonder if theres a way to reload the firmware (ive tried a firmware upgrade but the upgrade program never see’s any drives)
That’s odd. It’d make more sense if the external hard drive was having troubles with Vista.
I have to be honest . . . I’m not too familiar with the ins and outs of RAID, especially for external devices. Do the instructions say anything regarding which cables you can use while having the external hard drive set up as part of a RAID array? I would imagine that eSATA, being the closest to the way internal hard drives would connect, may be a better way of connecting the external hard drive to your computer if you use it in a RAID array. However, I don’t know a whole lot about this, so you should consult the instructions. Let me know what they say.
Yep ive heard of all sorts of Vista issues..
Im pretty upto speed on RAID..The My Book has a RAID controller chipset (An Oxford soemthing..) that it talks to the disks through (Cabling is all taken care of inside the box). When you plug the usb or firewire cable into a PC the controller is picked up by windows and this is where everything goes wrong..
I suspect i might just have to take the disks out and use them in another external enclosure (Main PC doesnt support SATA).
Have you tried using an eSATA cable to connect the external hard drive to the computer, though? I’ve never used eSATA, but it may be worth a shot. You can just get an eSATA PCI card or something. If you don’t feel that that would be worth it, though, you can just try what you said.
I bought a WD Passport 160 GB (Black). It has too many bad sectors. When I try to copy stuff to it.. after a few Mbs worth I get a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) error. Never expected this. Don’t know what to do? And, no, WD support is good for nothing. Do they not test before selling their stuff. Anyways.. have been browsing to see if someone has a solution!
I’m not too sure about a CRC. Is it still possible to get a refund or exchange?
I, too, have a WD Mybook 500GB USB external. I have been using this for 9 months without a problem. However, 2 days ago, I cannot find it in my PC anymore I tried to restart, change the USB cable, tried to my friends and office pc, but still there is no solution of how to work out this problem. It seems that there’s no problem with the HDD coz’ it has a power and vibrating. When I turned on my PC, it goes on also. Is there any solution for this kind of trouble? Thanks guys!
I also purchased two 500 Mb Western Digital Premium external hard drives. The first one worked very slowly for one backup and then my system couldn’t recognize the drive and the system slowed to a crawl. The tech support (3 of them) were nominally helpful, especially the first who was enormously eager to throw me a suggested fix and get off the phone. My callback took over 40 minutes to get another live body on the line. The end result was that they determined my drive was defective. “Take it back” they said. So I did. My second drive makes my XP and Vista systems slow to a crawl, so much so that the OS wouldn’t load today. I think there are signficant bugs in these drives. I am taking my second one back and looking for another vendor!
I just recently purchased a 500GB MyBook Essential Edition 2.0. This was after having loads of great experience with a 160GB Essential and 500 GB Essential (prior to the recent case design overhaul) for two and one year respectively. However, this newly purchased MyBook has been an absolute pain from the start. I took it out of the box, started transferring files, and after about 30 minutes my laptop (dell inspiron – with Windows XP) gave the “a USB device is being unplugged” sound. Obviously, I hadn’t touched the cord, and could see that everything was still connected and the device (and blue indicator light) was still on. The transfers stopped, and the drive was no longer visible to my computer. I thought that perhaps I had overloaded it by doing two transfers to two separate locations on the drive at once, so I tried the usual – unplugging/replugging the USB (in multiple ports) and power cords (since there’s no on/off button), restarting the computer, repeating the multiple variations of connection order. Nothing works. So I decide to just unplug the power cord and let it sit for a few hours. Tried all of my connection methods then, to no avail. At this point, I sent an e-mail to WD tech support, detailing the situation, and waited a couple of days to try connecting it again (since the reply took a great deal longer than expected). I also bought a new USB cable (I didn’t have any of the newly required mini-B type cables around) to try, with no luck. After several days and no response from tech support, I tried again, and the device was instantly recognized. I take it easy on the drive, transferring files in small portions, and never to two separate places on the drive. The response from tech support finally arrived two days after this, and was completely irrelevant to my situation. Their suggestions included the following:
1) They’ve apparently “seen” similar cases when the drive was disconnected improperly (without the use of the “safely remove hardware option”). Great, except I had explained in my e-mail that it was brand new, out of the box, and I had simply connected it, started transferring files, and it, unprompted, disconnected itself even though all physical connections were still secure. To top it off, their solution was to reformat the drive…my computer won’t recognize it, so how am I to accomplish that?
2) “If [I] feel the drive may be the cause of [my] problem, [they] would run [their] diagnostic program to see if the hard drive has problems.” Again, I CANNOT SEE THE DRIVE. How is the diagnostic program supposed to analyze a drive that, for all intents and purposes, is not connected?
At the very end, it appears as though they *may* have actually read my e-mail, as they proposed using a WD endorsed data recovery company in order to retrieve my data if the drive isn’t accessible. Overall, though, it appears as though the support simply scanned the e-mail for key words and gave a list of possible problems relating to the finds.
Regardless, at the time when I received the e-mail, the drive was working properly, so I assumed whatever issue was simply a hiccup and was now cleared. I thereby ceased contact on the issue, as it was clear that they weren’t all that invested in the issue anyway. So the drive worked well for about 3 weeks, until last weekend. I had to travel for 3 days, and took my laptop with me. Before leaving, I (properly) disconnected both hard drives (the old one, that works like a charm, and the new one with the earlier problems) with the safely remove hardware option (I’ve done this thousands of times, so I am certain that it was performed correctly and successfully). Both drives shut off upon being disconnected from the computer, as expected. I packed up and left. Upon returning 2 days later, I found that the new hard drive was running, with the blue light on. Odd. So I set up my laptop and connected the drive. Much to my dismay, it was not recognized, just as 3 weeks earlier. I tried connecting the older drive, and it did so just fine. It is now a week later, and the new drive still will not connect and be recognized. I can plug in the power cord, the blue light comes on, but no matter how I try to connect it, it is not recognized.
I apologize for the length of this reply, but I am at my wits end. It is now past the store return policy date, and I’d rather not lose my data (though would do so before being taken advantage of by the ridiculous recovery costs). I also have personal data that I backed up, so I’m a bit wary of sending it, as is, to WD directly. If anyone has any suggestions…I’d just like to get it running, back up the data elsewhere, wipe the drive, and send it off for a refund from WD. I had great experiences with their products in the past, but this has been ridiculous, so I’ll have to find another manufacturer.
Are you able to plug the hard drive into another computer to see if the issue is caused by your computer rather than the hard drive? Also, does the hard drive show up in XP’s Disk Management (Start > Run > “diskmgmt.msc”) or Device Manager (Start > right-click My Computer > Properties > Hardware tab > Device Manager)? In Disk Management, the hard drive would show up as whatever name and/or drive letter you or your computer had assigned it; but in Device Manager, it would show up under “Disk Drives” as “WD 500BB External USB Device,” or something similar. If not, it may be possible to take the hard drive apart yourself (though that would obviously void your warranty). The actual hard drive inside the enclosure should have a typical internal hard drive connector that may still work, even if any of the USB components you normally use don’t. Then you’d be able to simply attach the hard drive internally and, if that connector works properly, you could get your data that way. Just be aware that I have no prior first-hand experience with this, and that by taking the enclosure apart, you wouldn’t be able to get a refund or exchange from Western Digital–whether you are able to retrieve your data or not.
Also, believe you me, you’re definitely not the only one receiving poor tech support from WD. I contacted them regarding my 250GB Essential Edition external hard drive taking over a minute to be recognized each time I plugged it into any Vista computer, and they basically told me stuff I already knew, that they couldn’t fix the issue, and that I’d be better off contacting Microsoft about it. It’s always nice to be handed off so readily.
Thanks for the quick reply with suggestions, Chris, and apologies for my late return.
I managed to try the drive on my parents’ desktop during the holidays (to which they have my old Western Digital 160 GB external connected – in working order), and still no go. I checked disk management, and it’s also not there on either machine. I may follow your suggestion with the taking apart of the drive if I simply cannot get it to run again in order to wipe it of my data – although I’d probably have stick it in my parents’ machine, since I wouldn’t want to bother spending more money to get a different enclosure for use with my laptop. Then I’d be stuck back with the 160 GB drive again.
I think I’m going to give the customer service angle another shot – this time via telephone instead of e-mail. Hopefully since I have a completely non-functional drive they won’t have any chance of getting rid of me!
Hey, Chris,
You seem to be somewhat of the guru on this whole WD topic around here. I posted a comment about my My Book horror story in the comments of Tom’s previous WD complaint blog here: http://www.tomrafteryit.net/western-digital-my-book-pro-edition-ii-sucks#comment-113181
Got any advice? Is there hope or am I screwed?
Just so you know, I’m not a professional–I don’t have experience with hundreds, or even dozens, of hard drives and their issues. Take my advice, which I offer to the best of my knowledge, at your own risk.
Okay, with that out of the way, does the hard drive click only a few times, or does it click until you turn it off or unplug it? Also, does the hard drive (and its partitions and data) get recognized if you connect it and wait between 1-2 minutes? My own external Western Digital 250GB hard drive takes over a minute to be fully recognized under Windows Vista (under only 12 seconds with Windows XP, however).
Hard drive clicks always scare me, and in fact, I’m fairly close to exchanging one of my internal hard drives because I don’t want it to fail anytime soon. However, they don’t always mean that the hard drive has mechanically failed. In my experience, many hard drives click from time to time but still work.
Anyway, at worst, if the hard drive still isn’t recognized after waiting between 1-2 minutes, then it very well may in fact be a mechanical failure. In that case, your data should be fine; you just can’t access it. To get it back, you’ll probably have to employ the services of a professional data recovery business. However, I’m not familiar with these services, so I can’t recommend one over another. I merely know that you send your hard drive in to them, they take it apart to copy your data, and then mail your data back to you.
For the future, though, you should make sure that you back up to more than one *good* hard drive. If you get *any* kind of error with a hard drive, especially persistent ones, you should research it to see what it’s about, if there’s anything you can do to prevent it from occurring again, etc. Or you could try to exchange the hard drive for another. Of course, hard drives are certainly capable of failing, so when backing up, you shouldn’t rely solely on them.
In addition to backing up on more than one *good* hard drive, it would also help to back up on CDs or DVDs (or HD-DVDs or Blu-ray discs). They don’t have any moving parts, so you never have to worry about mechanical failures. On the other hand, at least CDs and DVDs (I’m not sure about HD-DVDs or Blu-ray discs) may not last as long as a hard drive may (in terms of data retention).
Another way to back up (which also may be easier) is to back up your data to a server. If ever your hard drives are destroyed (such as in a fire), your data on an external server should still be safe. Now, two drawbacks are: depending on your level of paranoia, you may not be comfortable with having personal data (technically) under the control of anyone else; and depending on how much data you are backing up and your connection speed, the very first back up may take a while, although subsequent backups should only backup new or changed data, resulting in a quicker process.
You see how these three different ways of backing up have their advantages and disadvantages. But that’s why redundancy is the key to backing up; the more copies of your data you have (and on different media, with their pros and cons), the more likely you’ll be able to effectively have access to at least *one* set of your data. And that’s what matters in the end, right?
I wish you luck in retrieving your data; I once lost my entire music library (50+GBs), and I was devastated. Fortunately, I had already been backing up for some time and was able to restore most of it. So I urge you: as soon as you get your data back, back it up on several media! You can never be too safe.
Thanks for reading and replying, Chris.
The clicking only occurs when I first hook up the drive. Maybe a half dozen clicks or so, and then Windows says it has detected the device (though not the actual drive or its partitions). Then the clicking stops. Same happens when I boot up with the drive connected. Makes me think the drive is struggling to find the partitions and that’s why it’s clicking and then stops once it can’t. Like I said, I never had a real problem with this drive up until a few of weeks ago. Now, I could wait until my hair turns gray, and the drive letters won’t be recognized.
I’ve read about some people removing the drive from its enclosure, and hooking directly to an IDE port inside the computer. That seems to solve the problem, and data can be retrieved. I’m a bit hesitant to do this, however.
The whole irony of this whole thing is that I bought this WD My Book because of the various problems I had with my Iomega external. Yet the Iomega is still working. All my data is still there and retrievable from THAT drive, and I can still write to it as well. It’s a real kick in the head.
You say that you didn’t see the drive in Disk Management–how about Device Manager? If it shows up in Device Manager, see if what the device status is on the General tab.
The reason I didn’t suggest to take apart the hard drive yourself and hook it up internally is because it seems to be a mechanical error (i.e. relating to the moving parts), and hooking it up internally won’t fix that or provide a way around that. However, given the fact that you describing to me the situation versus me actually being able to work with the hard drive personally are two separate things, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try this.
But if the cause of the issue is truly mechanical, then the only thing I can think of to do is send your hard drive in to a data recovery service. They should have special machines in which they can place the hard drive’s platters to retrieve your data, bypassing the hard drive’s own (potentially failed) moving parts.
Of course, the issue could also possibly be with your computer. Do you have internet security software installed (i.e. antivirus, firewall, etc.), and do you update and run it often? Do you have software on your computer that you don’t need? Did your computer come with the operating system pre-installed, or did you install yourself? How long ago did you get your computer (if the OS was pre-installed), or how long ago did you install the OS? Do you have access to a brand-new computer that you could try your hard drive on (other than your friend’s)? Do you have other USB or FireWire cables that you could try? It’s obviously more difficult to diagnose things over the internet, and if I had your drive with me, I wouldn’t be asking so many questions, so sorry for the interrogation!
Get the hot lights off of me! I’ll confess!!! Heh heh.
Seriously, though, I don’t have the drive hooked up right now, since it’s not working. However, if memory serves, it did not show up in Disk Management, but the device did show up in the Device Manager. Not sure, but I don’t think there was a negative status listed in the general tab.
I don’t think it’s an issue with my computer. I’ve had this PC since the summer of the 2004, and had no problem with the My Book for the first ten months or so of using it. I did have some sort of PC failure at the end of October, where Windows could not boot up in normal mode. The dopes at Dell tech support didn’t bother to help me diagnose and fix the problem. They just told me to reinstall Windows, mainly because they are too dumb and/or lazy to suggest any other course of action. However, for some reason I couldn’t reinstall Windows from the OS disc, so I wound up having to restore from the “Dell recovery partitionâ€, which basically reformatted by C drive and then reset it to the way it came to me from the factory.
However, the My Book still worked fine for about a month after that. It wasn’t until I got that DWF error that you-know-what hit the fan.
Oh, and I’m running Norton Internet Security 2007, and I update it often. I run a full system virus scan usually twice a week. In fact I ran a virus scan the day before the drive failed, and I’m pretty sure it gave me a clean bill of health.
Don’t know anybody with a new PC. All my friends and relatives have had their PCs for at least a year or more. I have a friend with a relatively new Mac, but since I formatted the My Book NTFS, I don’t think that a Mac will be able to read it.
I’m not too keen on mailing out the drive to a data recovery service somewhere in another part of the country. I’d rather look for some place local where I can take it in person. Since I live the NYC metro area, I think should have several choices of places to take it to. I just have to make sure I find a data recovery place in my area that’s reliable and trustworthy, and won’t try to rob me blind.
There are issues with XP. search for microsoft KB Article ID:908673
Also see other hacks?
http://infotechsolutions.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/application-popup-windows-delayed-write-failed-windows-was-unable-to-save-all-the-data-for-the-file-name_of_the_file_you_want_to_save/
I’ve just had the same problem. I have 2 of these mybook drives : the 500 and a smaller one (250 maybe?)
anyway, i’ve tried device manager, restarting, different computers with different os’s, connecting via firewire instead, differnt cables, etc..the drives are running fine, just can’t be recognized by the computers, any of them.
has anyone heard of a solution?
i mean, its 800$ a piece to get the data recovered!!!
I can’t afford that!
I’v heard so many others with the same problem, i can’t believe WD is just ignoring it, but they are.
The consensus seems to tbe the problem is some sort of corrupt boot file-that after a certain number of uses the file just gets all screwed up and then PCs (and macs apparently, altho I do not have one) cant recognize the drive.
please god, tell me someone has a solution! I have irreplaceable session files (from studio recording sessions) I cannot afford to lose and need soon.
I can’t believe this, that I trusted WD, thinking they were a large company.
is there somewhere respected that I could complain, that might resul tin other people becoming aware of the absolute garbage that WD is selling? I just dont want this to happen to someone else. WD should not have a good rep when they put out a product this obviously defective, and I was told by a support rep at WD (all they tell you is that you can return it and get another..helps NOT AT ALL-because the other one would just do the same, hence cant be used) that the majority of the calls he gets every day are for the my books and that most of those are customers with the same problem i have.
Never, ever, ever, ever buy a WD external hard drive. I bought a 500 Gb My Book Essential, which had worked flawlessly for 6 months. So when I started to run out of space, I bought a second and transferred a load of the data across to it (about 200Gb or so). Within three weeks, the second one started fritzing out – it wouldn’t be detected, or it would be detected as empty, etc etc, and started making repetitive whirring start up noises. Reasoning that there was some kind of fault, I contacted Western Digital’s “technical support”. They took two weeks to get back to me with anything other than an automated response, and their only advice was to send them the drive for repair. All data would be lost, and if I wanted to recover it first I’d have to contact one of their “recommended third party data recovery agents”, and it would cost me a few hundred dollars.
I did so, and it came back, empty but working, and I haven’t had any problems with it since. Because I am clearly an idiot, I bought a 1Tb My Book Premium II. This worked for perhaps two weeks before dropping out. The system can still see the drive, via Disk Management and via the RAID Disk Manager utility supplied with the drive, but it doesn’t work. The drive does not appear to be partitioned any more, and nothing I can do will make it repartition itself. I again contacted WD to ask for advice, but their tech support is atrocious; it’s now two weeks since I initially emailed them, and still no response.
Because I have changed my email address at some point over the last 12 months, I am also unable to reconcile the two accounts I have with them, because I have to confirm the change in email address with the old account, which does not work any more, so any access to tech support for the old drives is impossible (I tried to re-register them but it refused as it recognised the serial numbers)
Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever buy a Western Digital drive. Ever.
Any other company’s product has to be better than this and has to treat their customers with more respect. Yes they’re cheap, but as I have learned, you buy cheap, you get cheap.
Attention: Daniel Mauerhofer
I hope you read this try typing in this in to google and see what come up “mybook show up in device manager but is not in assigned a driver letter in windows” and see what comes up nothing but customer dissatisfaction with your companies products with no tech support in site. You cant even dl software for xp or vista for most of your hard drives and don’t include it except for on the hard drive itself. The only way to dl any software for my os fill out pages of marketing questions. Tech support is almost impossible to get to as I was on the toll free number was on the phone going through menus for over 10 minutes, and when I did get through the menus I waited on hold until I got sick of it and hung up. Firstly you should included a CD with the needed software and trouble shooting software in case the drives software becomes corrupt. Western Digital drives arn’t cheep so ante up and put some cd’s in the box for the love of Homer Simpson. Secondly this problem seems all but common place with no help in sight for most people you should have investigated this problem by now and determined if it can be solved. Once that’s been done you need to make the solution readily available or offer some kind recompense to those who have working hardware that just is will not work on a particular system for no logical reason. I mean if you type it in to google you can see for yourself how many people are complaining it’s common problem so it should be easy to find an answer if not a solution at the western digital web page… Good Luck finding it!!!!
I bought the 500 GB My Book today – installed it about 3 hours ago and all of a sudden, mid transfer, my laptop won’t recognise it!!! I’m absolutely furious – what a terrible product!
To make matters worse, I’m in Australia so support will be even more difficult to get.
I’m sorry for the late reply. If possible, I’d look into getting another brand of hard drive.
I have to say that recently, I was able to get an exchange of my 250GB Essential Edition My Book for the newer-model 320GB Essential Edition (with the blue light and slit instead of the green light and circle), and this new drive works as the older one should have, getting recognized within 12 seconds. Still, I’ve learned from this experience, and I most likely will steer clear of Western Digital from now on.
If you get a WD hard drive, I’d recommend getting it exchanged for another brand as soon as possible. I don’t mean to endorse or anything, but I’ve personally had good luck with SimpleTech’s 500GB Pininfarina product.
Perhaps even better than getting a pre-built external hard drive, though, is making your own with an internal hard drive from a manufacturer you trust (obviously if you’re here, Western Digital doesn’t fit that bill) and an external hard drive enclosure. This way, you can have better peace of mind that the hard drive will work, and you have the added versatility in that you can always use the hard drive *inside* your computer if you want to do so.
Yep, I wish I would’ve read this blog a few months ago. My WD just went out with all my music I have ever purchased or downloaded on it. What a shock, sarcasm in my voice. I don’t see the point of even reformatting it and adding more data on it if it’s just going to disappear again.
Maybe WD can tell me how to extract data from my harddrive without paying some third party company 500 bucks. WD can try to say they aren’t a bad company, maybe they are a good company, maybe this product is just their product to date. I am glad this blog is here so future possible customers of WD will see the downfalls of this horrible drive and go elsewhere.
WOW!! I cannot
believe NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS.
I bought the 500 gig my book with the 2 concentric blue rings indicating it is on. Mine worked for 2 weeks.
Just long enough for me to put over 150 pages of a book I am writing on the hard drive.
THANK GOD I just printed out the finished material to date about 5 days ago.
I only lost 5 pages…of course, I have to re-type about 35 pages of material (I have the remaining on my laptop).
I had the same problem as “Jim” and the others. What is REALLY frustrating for me is that the work is in there!!
I can hear the drive spinning!
I know there is nothing wrong with the drive!!
I have had drives go wrong before-stop spinning, etc and I know that the data no longer exists or is corrupted.
Whereas, in this case the data is there and SHOULD BE ACCESSIBLE, but it is not because WD is perfectly fine with what amounts to theft/fraud as a business plan.
By now, they surely know how worthless these drives are, but they continue to sell them. They know that after I give them my money, I will put data on the drive and it will become inaccessible sometime in the near future. They know that they have not bothered to come up with a solution. They know I will either lose that data or put 500$ in the pocket of some data recovery firm, and I’m sure they get a kickback for referring me ‘at a discount for WD customers’.
There is NO WAY I am giving anyone on their “partner” list a call, those people surely know of the problem by now as well. If they continue to be associated with western digital and profit from their fraud–then they too are to be despised as far as I am concerned.
Needless to say, I couldn’t afford the data recovery-so I lost a lot of files, some of them rather small story ideas and the like. They aren’t worth a lot, but they were of value to me. Now they are gone forever.
thanks Western Digital,
Thanks for nothing.
Todd, have you been able to try using a different USB or FireWire cable to determine if that’s the cause? Or have you tried connecting the hard drive to another computer that’s known to work properly with external hard drives? If neither of those worked and you don’t mind voiding your warranty, you can attempt to retrieve your data by taking the hard drive out of its plastic case and connecting it directly to your computer with the appropriate connector (PATA or SATA cable). If the issue was with the hard drive’s enclosure or cable, then this technique should work.
i have tried using different cables as well as a number of different host computers. I’ve even tried using different OS’s-everything from windows 98 to Vista.
The drive simply won’t show up as other than ‘unknown device’.
I mean, the issue is not that the drive isn’t appearing as a device connected to the pc device manager or anything else) or anything that connectivity would seem to solve.
I’ve also tried an alternate power adaptor, 2 of them, with the same power outputs.
The long and short of it is, it has NOTHING to do with hardware periphery, it’s a glitch with the drive itself or perhaps the software in the boot files (or whatever the proper term is) on the drive.
trust me, this isn’t something i’m experiencing alone. I’ve found a LOT of other people who had the exact same problem with the drive.
I probably got about 40 responses from the posting i left here alone-all people with the exact same problem with the same drives.
I am in France, I have a Western Digital 1TB My Book External USB 2 Hard Drive, I pluget it in the Dell Inspiron 6000 and the laptop doesn’t recognise the product.
I searched for over 12 H on the internet, on the WD website, on the Windows and Intel… I don’t know what to do… maby to sleep ? tomorrow is another day to search for dam UPDATES!
I think if you are using Windows XP it will not work, in fact I hard that Windows XP can damage your WD My Book.
I will never buy Western Digital again. I have been buying WD My Books, but I have recently discovered that they use Hitachi hard drives and not WD. Hitachi Drives are like the cheapest drive you can buy, they are know to be unreliable so why would they use them? Also WD USB drives are known to overheat and fail. If you use them on a constant basis they will fail. If you turn it on copy some files and shut it off you may be OK, maybe. You must unplug it when not using it and keep it where it can get plenty of ventilation or kiss it good by. So I will NEVER buy WD junk again.