I have a WD Live that was bricked with a SW update. They wanted me to send it back and they’d send another. Sorry, but not worth my time.
I have two passport drives. After countless firmware updates, one works OK, the other disconnects and reconnects so often that the Win7 backup software can never complete. The one that works OK experiences the same problem, but only every day or so, which means it usually does complete it’s backup.
All told, this is about around $500 of WDC hardware that is useless, rendered that way by poor software. The core drives are rock solid. But someone that oversees the software that powers this hardware needs to be replaced.
The funny thing is is that all of these problems are really caused by WD trying add value to the basic product. What people want is a USB drive that just works. Like a thumb drive. They will use bitlocker for encryption, and their backup software of choice. But some marketing guy at WD figured “no, let’s not do just the basics. Let’s add so much ■■■■ that the basics become impossible. Let’s load up the bloatware so that it becomes a several hour job to strip the total install back the very basics. And then, let’s not make it clear on the box that this cannot be used as a basic hard drive, but instead has be used as a fully baked backup strategy that has huge implications for how you like to run your machine, and what your processor does with all its free time.”
Freaking amazing.
BTW, in the time it took me to complete this, my WD passport disconnected a reconnected two times. Just sitting there.
And then, let’s not make it clear on the box that this cannot be used as a basic hard drive, but instead has be used as a fully baked backup strategy that has huge implications for how you like to run your machine, and what your processor does with all its free time.
You are SO RIGHT !
Probably you will get others (we know who) replying to you that it’s your fault etc.
WD or NOT WD ?
That’s the question and the answer is obvious (if WD will not change this marketing policy).
has be used as a fully baked backup strategy that has huge implications for how you like to run your machine, and what your processor does with all its free time.
You don’t have to install Smartware. You can uninstall Smartware. You’r not forced to use Smartware. You can use any backup and encryption program that you want.
And, as akala so kindly points out, the question comes back to why buy a drive with hardware encryption and other added features if that wasn’t what you wanted in the first place???
There are plenty of drives sitting next to it on the store shelf that would have been more what you were looking for. So why grab this one and then complain it isn’t what you want? And blame WD?
That’s like buying a Smart car, and then bitching and moaning at Mercedes that it’s no good for 4x4 off-roading.
Or buying a self-cleaning oven and then bitching and moaning at Sears that you don’t want the self-cleaning.
Or buying a nailgun and bitching and moaning to Bostich that it’s a 3 1/2" framing nailer and no good for 1" brads.
You’re still the one that chose that drive. If it’s not what you want then why did you pick it??
Yes, you can jump through a bunch of hoops and UNINSTALL everything, and then update the firmware on the drive. But that is my point: Wny on earth go through that? When someone buys an external USB drive, they expect it to work a certain way.
When I purchased the drive, you are right, it was sitting on the shelf with other drives, and they all said they were external USB drives.
That means that I expected it to work in an an XP or Win7 laptop when I plugged it in. It didn’t. It required new drivers to work in the XP laptop. And in both cases, it tried to install a crapload of 3rd party software.
That is not how external drives should work. They should all mount as mass storage devices. Period. No special drivers.
And yes, I’m still using one of these drives, stripped down. But the pain required to get it to that point is measured in hours. Literally.
If it’s working fine don’t upgrade the firmware unless it’s for security. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!!! I fried my video card early this year grabbing the latest driver. Seems it had a little bug that made the fan operate improperly.
This is clear that there are so much anger from the costumers. But there are just two or three people look like “experienced” guys defensing WD. This is so so so a joke, WD! The passport SE once work with Win 7, after connecting it to Win XP, it works a little bit, and then I put it back to Win 7, it doesn’t work anymore saying that there’s a problem and windows need to fix it. WTF!!! This is ALL caused by the ■■■■ firmware/software what so ever!?? I don’t even know why those two or three guys are still saying there are some other drives with other settings that we should buy— you guys are so funny, I bet WD put a lot of money on this (defensing), not the technology of the drive.
First this is a users forum not a WD support forum. I’m no defender of WD they have plenty of problems to fix BUT SOME PROBLEMS are caused by Windows. Windows XP Vista and Windows 7 all use NTFS. The big thing is Windows 7 NTFS is slightly different than used on XP and Vista. I found out about this when I dual booted Vista and Window 7 beta. I used Acronis disk Director to partition and format then had problems. I found out about the difference then, I reformatted from Windows 7 install to fix it. I suspect that may be part of the problem people are having using same external on mutiple Windows OS, is corruption beacuse of the minor difference in windows format. Don’t you find it strange your drive worked on Windows 7 until you used it on XP then moved it back?
First this is a users forum not a WD support forum.
This is correct but at the same time for this reason it is so strange to see two people (always the same) blindly “defending” WD’s choices and mistakes, sometimes in a rather insulting way for other users. I think that nobody was referring to you.
The problems are not usually caused by the operating systems but because of the existence of VCD partition and the need for SES drivers. Customers got tired complaining about them and probably in the future they will look for another maker who will respect its customers and their needs.
If you look at the Seagate forums they have their share of problems too. I saw mutiple posts where the wrong size drive was in enclosure. I saw a few where the drive smelled when the box was opened and when the enclosure was opened they were full of used coffee grounds. I agree WD should have done better testing with real users not just IT types. The VCD was a bad idea but it has been improved in the past few months. A big problem is users not disconnecting properly because they are not very knowledgable about computers. Besides not using the remove safely Icon I suspect a second cause of the corruption is in laptops and desktop workstations where plug is in easy reach. I think they just click shutdown and pull plug before Windows is fully shutdown.
