Just installed a new passport drive and software…I did the latest firmware update and the WD smartware update to version 1.6.0
Should the Home page tab show both the new external passport drive and my pc internal drives? I only see the new passport drive on the left and nothing on the right. On the second tab, I see my pc at the top but nothing useful on that page. Only three tabs showing on the home page > home, settings and help.
I uninstalled the smartware, rebooted as the phone support requested and reinstalled. Still the same problem. My passport drive is connected, unlocked and can drop files via the file manager, but I want this software to work. ANY ideas ?
Vista, tabs not showing, clicking on drive on the home page did not do anything. However, I did get it working, with little help from the support people. Case closed. If anyone runs into this problem, I would be glad to describe the procedure to correct it. Thanks, for replying.
Wizer wrote:
What operating system you have?
The tab is not showing or not accessible?
If is not accessible, you can click on the drive on the home tab and then you will be able to access the backup and retrieve.
I have recently purchased a WD My Book Live 3Tb external HDD for use on my home network. WD SmatWare 1.6.2.5 has been installed on three Windows 7 Home Premium boxes, a desktop and laptop both running the 32 bit version and a laptop (my primary machine) running the 64 bit version. Everything works fine on the 32 bit machines, but there is a huge issue with SmartWare on the 64 bit machine.
The SmartWare window shows only three tabs - Home,Settings and Help. The Backup and Restore tabs are both completely missing (NOT just greyed out). Furthermore, the only drives shown are my WD My Passport and WD My Book Live. There is no sign of my (partitioned) hard drive. Also, the Settings tab greys out if I select the My Book Drive, but it is active if I select the My Passport.
Windows Explorer sees everything (as I would expect it to), so this is not an issue with my network.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling WD SmartWare several times, with Microsoft FixIt in between. It makes no difference.
Windows 7 is bang up to date, as is my Java runtime, .Net Framework and Flash.
I must mention that I have had the My Passport drive for as long as I have had the laptop. It did install WD Smartware when I first used it, but I uninstalled the product as I did not want to use it at that time. The My passport drive has NEVER been attached to either of the other Windows boxes on my network, which MAY explain why SmartWare is working OK on them…
I have opened a case with WD support, but having read some of the threads on this community, I am not optimistic that I will get a solution from them.
I seem to have resolved my problem! You might be interested in what I did to bring this about.
Uninstalled WD SmartWare v 1.6.2.5.
Reboot
Installed version 1.5.4.8 of the software - I downloaded this from a link given in one of the other threads on this Community website.
Reboot
Started WD SmartWare
6, WD SmartWare window appeared the same as before - only three tabs and My Passport & My Live Book drives.
Highlighted the My Passport Drive and clicked the Settings Tab.
There was a checkbox on the right panel of the Settings display labelled something like ‘Enable Backup and Restore’. This was NOT checked.
Checked the Enable Backu.yp and Restore checkbox, then returned to the Home tab.
Eureka!! The Backup and Restore tabs now present. My internal hard drive now present.
Upgraded to SmartWare version 1.6.2.5.
Reboot
Start WD SmartWare. All tabs and drives still present!
Highlight My Passport drive and click Settings tab
There is NO sign of an ‘Enable Backup and restore’ checkbox anywhere in the Settings for the My Passport drive… Why not? If I had not found and installed version 1.5.4.8 of SmartWare, I would never have been able to change that setting.
I would guess that back in April 2012 when I first installed the version of SmartWare that came with the My Passport drive (1.4.5.2), I would have unchecked that box in the Settings tab as I didn’t want to use SmartWare backup feature at that time. Somehow, that setting must have been preserved on my machine, even though the product was then uninstalled, and the version of SmartWare that is now current must have noted it but has no obvious way of changing it.
I have notified WD Support of this anomalous behaviour.
My software will not find the hardware. In addition, It asks for a administrator and password it never asked you to set up. My TOSHIBA software can find it shows all drive names and partitions and there contents. WD software (DISCOVERY) most of the time (95%) does not see the drive and the 5% it see’s it, but you can not work with the directories. To pay over %500.00 for an external drive with ssoftware said to be the best in the business, this is pretty poor.
It did not matter which windows system you wee using xp vista win7 it just did not and still does not work. WD needs to provide a complete suite of software to make a one terribyte drive usable! I am not the only one with these problems. My brother -in-law trashed his and replaced it with I think a seagate.
