WD MyBook icon pic change to gauge in red zone

I have a WD 1TB MyBook (approx 18 months old) and a 2.4GHz Intel Core iMac (OS 10.5.8) (four years old). The hard drive is partitioned in two; one half for video files and the other as a back-up for my Mac. Out of the 1TB capacity I’m using about 500GB over the two partitions.

About a week ago after start-up, my Mac started showing a message saying it could not recognise the external hard drive (can’t remember the wording exactly but it more or less said that). The solution seemed to be turning off the hard drive, unplugging it for 10 secs and then powering it on again. I Googled the error message and some forums said it was a sign the hard drive was on its last legs. As a precaution I backed up on another 1TB hard drive my movie files and iMac hard drive. I then gave the the MyBook two partitions through Disk Utility.

Ever since, when the hard drive loads to my desktop, the icon picture has changed from an orange hard drive to a picture of a MyBook with a green-to-red gauge with the needle in the red (pic attached).

Why has the icon changed and does this mean my MyBook is about to die? I’ve sinced erased the disk through DIsk Utility (‘Don’t Erase Data’, with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume format) and once again given the hard drive two partitions. It seems to be running fine now, except for the perculiar icon picture. Running the ‘Repair Disk’ in Disk Utility indicates all is okay: “The volume Untitled appears to be OK.”

Does anyone have a clue about what the icon picture means with the gauge in the red? Should I get another hard drive in case my MyBook is about to cark it? Given the hard drive isn’t even two years old I’d be hesitant to buy another WD…

Thanks.

TeeJayPee

The icon change since turbo drivers where installed to the drive. There’s no problem with the unit since you have already tested and shows fine. 

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As Wizer stated, this icon indicate that you are using the WD Turbo drivers, instead of the generic USB/FireWire drivers.

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Thanks guys for your responses, much appreciated and you’ve put my mind at ease that the hard drive may not be about to fail (touch wood).

A Google search indicates there are no real benefits to the Turbo drivers and indeed I’ve not noticed any performance improvement. I didn’t even know that I had installed the turbo drivers unless it installed during the latest WD SmartWare upgrade (although I’m running v1.1.1.4 so no software upgrade for a while…).

A quick search on my computer revealed the turbo app:  in WD SmartWare > Extras > WD + TURBO Installer.app

Cheers

TeeJayPee

Any Time :smiley: