I bought a 700 GB My Passport Essential SE drive a few weeks ago. I intended to use if for backing up the files on my PC using XP.
The drive came with it’s own software – WD Smartware – for managing backup.
This software has caused me no end of problems. Each time I went to use it – my PC crashed.
After a lot of wasted hours trying to troubleshoot the problem – here’s what I found out.
According to the WD help desk – my crashes are caused by conflicts with Sonic DLA which is some kind of CD burner software.
However, I don’t have Sonic DLA.
What they don’t tell you is that the WD software also conflicts with Roxio CD burner software. I found this out by trial and error.
My drive now works – but not really well. It never gets through a complete backup cycle without a lot of TLC. The software also hogs a lot of computer capacity. You can’t really do anything else during a backup – which can take hours in my case.
As far as I’m concerned WD Smartware isn’t worth using. Just plug in the drive and backup using the Windows Backup Wizard. It’s much more robust - and faster.
Windows’ Backup Wizard is a good choice. I will pass this info along. However, we do have a new version of SmartWare that should have fixed that issue.
I’m having the same problem with a 2TB drive I bought today. Get ‘Blue Screen of Death’ every time I plug in the drive. Does the new software fix the crash problem? Any chance you could let someone know where to get the new software?
I am extremely grateful for this information. I could not for the life of me figure out why on earth all of a sudden this started happening or how to fix it…
So my question to you is, since you aren’t a fan of WD’s software, did you remove it, or the Roxio program?
I had to remove the Roxio software. Once I did that, the WD drive worked fine.
I was reluctant because I use Roxio all the time to burn CD/DVDs. Guess I’ll have to use something else, but I don’t know right now if something else will cause the same problem.
So how do I upgrade to the new WD Smartware. I have trie to"repair" the existing smartware but The Setup Wizard won’t do anything except white itself out on that option Michaelr
Windows backup doesn’t work for me - and my last comment seems not to have registered. MY Pc won’t shut down while WD Smartware is running/enabled Michaelr. PLs advise.It’s a My Passport Essentials Se 500 GB
