Details: Bought a 500 GB MyBook Essential Ext. drive during summer. The software constantly spiked CPU. I contacted WD support. Their suggestion was to deinstall/reinstall just about every piece of software on my computer. I didn’t have the time. I stopped backing up continuously and just did one every 2 weeks or so. Each time I did connect the drive I think the Smartware was accessing my internal C-drive so much that it killed it. When the drive failed I did not have time to address it until this weekend. I replaced the drive. I have a DELL. When I reinstalled the OS I noted the 2nd internal drive was labeled “C:” but I just figured this was an anomaly. I chose to format the new drive. That worked but the OS was installed on a drive labeled “F:” and my second drive I use for data is now the C: drive. The installation was successful but now I the OS on the F-drive and data on the C-drive. My brother informs me that this a unique Dell quirk/flaw.
When I plug in the ext. drive to retrieve (I see where I should be able to reverse the backed up F to C and C to F, but I digress) and try to install the Smartware on my computer it succeed up to the copying files step, starts ‘starting services’ pauses, begins “rolling back” and displays a message that the installation failed. I submitted a question to support but they won’t get back to me until Monday or Tuesday.