I just spent a few hours installing, updating a new MyBookLive and when all was installed and updated, WD Smartware failed to run.
When clicking on Smartare, a Windows message popped up saying something to the effect of Program failed to run would you like to:
- Search online for a solution or
- close the program
After searching forums for a while no real clear way of getting this software to work was found, so I decided to post how the customer service department ran me through resolving this issue.
My setup:
- Windows 7 Professional on my main PC
- Windows 7 Home on laptop
- OSX Lion on Macbook Laptop
Windows 7 Professional:
- Check - Control Panel → Programs and Features → Look for: Adobe Flash, Java 6 (update 27 or higher) or Java 7 (update 3 or higher), Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile, and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Extended
- Any of those that are missing, you must download and install. In my case, I was missing the .NET Extended which can be found as a standalone installer at: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718
- Run the installer, then run Windows Update and update everything.
- Reboot
- Download the Software Update for the WD Smartware Update from the WDC.com support at: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/NAS.asp
- Run installation. This time it should complete no problem.
- Reboot.
- A black screen with a CMD window will show up after login. Just click the red X to close window.
- Click on - Programs → WD Smartware (takes a minute or two to launch).
- Should now work.
The thing that I would keep in mind is that you need to be up to date on all your updates, and you need the appropriate software installed.
The rep told me this is a Windows issue. I don’t quite believe that, because at this point it is pedantics. As a customer, you just want software to install and run, so WD should have some kind of message before install advising of the requirements to run their software. At the very least they should make it easier to find this info, I should not have to call a rep to get this info.
In fairness, I did come across a post on this forum that said to update the .NET 4 Framework Extended, but it wasn’t clear enough on how to find out if I had this installed. So look in the programs and features of control panel for 2 programs outlined above!
Hope this helps someone, as I spent about an hour or two too long trying to get this drive going.
