Grrrrrr at WD drives

So today the software for my WD My Book HDD's prompts me to update the firmware. Ok, no problem I thought. Downloaded the update, updated the first drive...perfect. Hooked up the second drive, did the update, and now the drive appears to be dead. The power light comes on when I plug it in, and I can hear the drive, but it is not seen by OS X or the WD Software.

I did plug it in to my partner's PC, and Windows prompted to install drivers for it. I didn't go any further with it on the PC, hoping there is some way to revive the drive. I filed a ticket with WD, as the drive is only one month old, so hopefully they will have some ideas of will replace the drive under warranty (not really holding my breath on that one).

Sorry for the rant...just had to vent. This was the drive I had all my data on too. I should be able to restore some of it by salvaging the HDD's from my dead PC and putting them in my partner's so no all is lost. I'm really thankful though that it wasn't my Time Machine drive that went south.

Sorry again for the rant.

Are they both the exact same model drive? I am just wondering if the firmware is different for different models and that is what caused your issue.

They are both the same model, bought at the same time...the day I bought my iMac.

Try finding it with disc utility..

Chef_eam said:

They are both the same model, bought at the same time...the day I bought my iMac.

Click to expand...

WD has a very good replacement policy. If they can't "revive" your drive they'll send you an RMA.

My personal feeling about firmware is that I never update firmware unless it addresses a specific problem I'm personally experiencing. A bad firmware update will usually "kill" whatever it was supposed to "fix".

Regards.

chscag said:

WD has a very good replacement policy. If they can't "revive" your drive they'll send you an RMA.

My personal feeling about firmware is that I never update firmware unless it addresses a specific problem I'm personally experiencing. A bad firmware update will usually "kill" whatever it was supposed to "fix".

Regards.

Click to expand...

I usually don't do the firmware updates, but for some reason I did it this time. I am an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" person really. That's why I have not installed the update to fix the screen flicker issue on the 27" iMac...I don't have the problem, and if I installed the update, with my luck it would start to flicker.

Hopefully WD will have some ideas or replace the drive for me. But it does look like I will need to get an drive cradle I saw at Best Buy to get stuff off the drives in my dead PC, or stick them in my partner's PC and share them on the network.

Anyway, lesson learned and confirmed about updating things that are not broken.

So, WD replaced the drive and now the fun begins. I had several GB of content for my 3D apps on the drive as well as my music collection. I can easily retrieve the music as it is also on my partner's PC, but the other content will not be as easy. The run times are on a drive in my old dead PC, and it is an older IDE drive. The only PC I have access to now only has 2 SATA connections and they are both in use. I have the installers on DVD, and can download the ones I don't from the vendor. Only problem is most of them are in .exe format, but some are in .zip files. Now I have to decide if I really want to install Windows on the Mac to install the content, or just install what is in .zip files and d/l the Mac installers fro the ones I don't have backed up. They are the ones I used most anyway.

Of course, this would be a great time to really get back into learning modeling again and just make my own content when needed for a render.

****, I am rambling again so I'll shut up now and get to copying my music over again.