My Book Studio sparks ?

Purchased a WD My Book Studio 2TB from apple store in Norwich , and was told I could use it as data and Time Machine back up . When inserting the USB into the iMac I noticed static sparks . Now concerned it my damage the iMac ? I phoned the store and apple rep said he found the same thing and told me it is ok , but maybe check on site ?
So it maybe , and it may also be safe . Anyone , have the same thing happen , and is there a safe way to insert a USB ? Should it be plugged in first and turned on before turning on the iMac . Just don't need any more iMac problems , concerned as iMac has metal case and My Book Studio is self powered . .

Agreed--the WD enclosures are no good. However, the there is likely nothing wrong with the drive inside and there is a way to keep from losing all your investment in teh WD if you can't return it.
I had a WD My Book Studio Mac Edition I bought from Apple that was nothing but trouble both on an older PowerPC Mac and my current Intel iMac. It stalled, hung up the computer, was noisy, and tended to get very hot. I bought an enclosure from the firm rkaufmann mentions, stripped the bare drive out of the WD enclosure and installed it in the OWC unit.
The WD case is plastic and not worth saving so break it if you have to to get at the bare drive.
Once I had the bare drive in the OWC enclosure, I used Disk Utility to reformat the drive, probably getting rid of some WD crapware in the process. I set the partition scheme to GUID Partition Table and the format to Macintosh Extended (Journaled).
Now the original WD drive in the OWC enclosure works perfectly: unobstrusive, fast, and cool-running. We now have three OWC enclosures with WD drives inside and they all have been trouble-free. All this took less than 20 minutes--well worth the time.
Consider getting an enclosure with FireWire 800 as well as USB. I tried both and Time Machine backups were amazingly faster with FireWire. However, you can boot and iIntle iMac from USB
An enclosure with FireWire 800 but that will be less expensive than throwing away the pefectly good bare drive in the WD enclosure with the junk that holds it.
OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB 3.0/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit
Another thing--make sure your power sources are properly grounded ("Earthed" in the UK)

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Western Digital My Book Studio II external hard drive won't mount on Mountain Lion

I have the Western Digital My Book Studio II external hard drive. It was working fine. After upgrading to Mountain Lion, the disk does not mount. I can't find any help on the Western Digital site. Has anyone else run into this? Is there a solution?
Immediately, I'm more concerned about getting the data off this drive than getting it to work. If I take it to an Apple Store with another external drive, could they transfer the data to it for me?

Also, check the Western Digital website for software updates. They have made numerous updates recently.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en
Firmware update for Mac users
Mac release 3.1.0.10E (updated 9/4/2012)
See: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/firmware.asp?id=wdfGeneric&os=ma c
WD Universal Firmware Updater Release Notes 1
WD Universal FW Updater 3.1.0.10E: Fixes:
• Added additional drive support.
WD Universal FW Updater 3.1.0.10D: Fixes:
• Now works with 10.8 Mt. Lion.

Does Time Machine Make My Book Studio Sleep to Prevent Wear & Tear?

Hi. I don't use the WD SmartWare from Western Digital and have deleted it on my My Book Studio external backup for Time Machine. With just this external Firewire hardisk and Time Machine, does it make it do some kind of "sleep" so it won't have as much wear & tear or regardless of software or hadisks have this sleep feature built-in them? Thank you in advance.
Gbu.

Hard disk sleep is controlled by the Energy Saver preference pane. It doesn't always work with external hard drives.
About Energy Saver sleep and idle modes in Mac OS X

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

WD My Book Studio FireWire 800 External Hard Drive & Mountain Lion

I just recently purchase a 2 TB WD My Book Studio FireWire 800 External Hard Drive (model #WDBC3G0020HAL-NESN) to perform backups of my 1TB iMac which currently is running OS X Lion 10.7.5. The packaging says the external hard drive is compatible with Lion, but I was curious to find out if I upgrade to Mountain Lion in the near future will that cause issues with the external drive or is it still compatible with Mountain Lion?

That is actually the thread that I was looking at earlier that caused my concern.
Is there any way to 100% verify with apple that there are no firewire problems with external hard drives and Mountain Lion before I hook up my new drive and possibly upgrade in the near future.
Also, I have heard good things about both SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner.
I basically want to be able to boot from my external hard drive partition if I have a major hard drive issue.
Will both of those programs do that for me and will I really go wrong with either one of them?
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About 14 months ago, I bought a 1TB Western Disk Digital My Book Studio external disk drive to use with Time Machine and it works fine. Two months ago, I bought a 750GB Western Digital My Book Studio disk drive to store my photos and other files. It does not work fine.
About a month ago, my PowerPC G5 with Mac OS X 10.5.2 started to freeze up inexplicably. I let it run 24x7 and just go into sleep mode when I am not using it. I frequently access this Mac via my AirPort Extreme Base Station to off-load photos to the 750GB drive from my MacBook Pro. This was working fine for about a month, then for unknown reasons, the G5's Finder just stops.
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I tried turning off Time Machine. No good. Both WD drives are connected via a powered USB hub. My printer on the same hub works fine and so does the 1TB WD drive. I tried switching USB ports. I tried a different USB cable. All those things made no difference.
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I also upgraded from 10.5.2 to 10.5.3. No difference in terms of this disk drive problem.
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A Western Digital My Book Studio may not be the best of choices for use with a PPC Mac. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but see
Western Digital “My Book” drives !! AVOID !!
+I frequently have URLs that I provide removed by a moderator. If that happens in this instance, the document is a "Sticky" at:+
bombich forums > "General Tips" > "Western Digital 'My Book' drives !! AVOID !!"
Andreas
As a Moderator at forums.bombich.com I am required by the rules of this forum to state: The only compensation or reward I receive from your use of such links is your satisfaction.

How to use WD My Book Studio with iPhoto?

I have a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.6.8. I'm out of hard disk space so I purchased a 3 Terabyte Western Digital My Book Studio, connected to MacBook via Firewire 800. I intend to move all my photos to the WD drive and delete them from the MacBook. How do I do so and preserve the file structure on as it appears in iPhoto? Is this possible? The last thing I want is thousands of photos on the WD drive with no clue which "event" they belong to.
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Thanks. That sounds easy but ... I tested by dragging 1 event w/ 16 photos over to the My Book Studio. Then deleted the event from iPhoto on the MacBook. Opened iPhoto with option as you said but can't select the My Book Studio as an option. When I try I just the the photos listed out individually, not a library.
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Need more hard drive space. Help with install WD My Book Studio 1TB EHD.

My MacBook Pro has no more disk space. I'm not tech savy so I'm hesitant to install Western Digital My Book Studio 1TB purchased. I read somewhere not to install the smartware that comes with this external drive because it might cause problems when running Time Machine. I want to move my photos on to EHD to free up space and start up Time Machine. Is there anything I should do first before attempting this. I have not upgraded to Lion yet should I do this after freeing up space and setting up Time Machine. I'm wondering if it will ask me questions during process that I won't be sure to accept or not. I'd appreciate any help or tips.

Do not install any software from WD. Prep the drive as follows:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Help WD MY BOOK STUDIO DRIVE DISCONNECTED AFTER OS X YOSEMITE UPDATE

After updating OS X Yosemite on my iMac, and restarting it. I found that the icon on my Desktop for WD MY BOOK STUDIO had disappeared. It had also gone in Finder. When I tried to backup my computer. I got the message "Backup Disc Not Available" Try backing up again when My Book Studio is available. I then went to WD Drive Utilities and tried to use the diagnostics. I couldn't use them. I just got the message "Attach a supported WD Drive". I then went to system preferences to check the drive. When I went to reattach the drive. The only buttons available to me where CANCEL and REMOVE THE DRIVE. If the drive was not attached, why is there a button to remove it? What has gone wrong, and how can it be remedied, without losing my existing data?

Hi there, my external hard drive appears to be working now, on Yosemite. My iMac took a long time to recognise it after my update of the OS X System. Everything is running a lot slower, after the update. I've tested it, with both the WD utility, and that of the iMac. In both cases, it has stated that it is working properly. That is the external hard drive, and the internal on the Mac. I'm intending to increase the RAM, from 4gb to 16gb. I'm hoping this will speed up my computer. I still have a case number with support, but they say they will keep it open, until I've run a test of my hard drive, on someone else's iMac.Maybe you could find out if your external hard drive is functioning properly, by attaching it to someone else's iMac. Hopefully a moderator will get in touch with you, whose more knowledgeable on these issues. Wishing you all the best.

Time Machine Error with brand new WD My Book Studio Edition

I have a brand new iMac and just bought a new WD My Book Studio Edition 500 gb HD for specific use with my Time Machine. The iMac has a 500 HD is about 3 months old and the WD HD is brand new. I am getting an error when I try to activate and back up with Time Machine that says, " Time Machine Error. This backup is too large for a backup volume. The backup requires 524.4 gb but only 465.5 gb are available. To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine."
I copied the files from the Time Machine to my hard drive to make as much space as possible. I have a capacity of 465.44 GB and 28.48GB of free space on my MacHD. I have a capacity of 465.64 GB and 465.49 GB of free space on my WD. It is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) the way it was originally sold. I have not tried to reformat. Not too sure about how to. But I have tried all of these scenarios.
I have tried the following and nothing works to get Time Machine backing up at all:
1. I have changed the preferences in Time Machine Options to a smaller file size excluding the applications folder (appx. 12 GB),
2. I have zapped the P-RAM,
3. I have reset the index in the Spotlight by putting my Macintosh HD and Time Machine in the Privacy section, let it reindex and then pulled it out, and
4. I have deleted the preferences in Macintosh HD>Library>Preferences>com.apple.TimeMachine.plist.
Nothing is working and I bought the HD when I was home visiting in the states and I live in Bogota, Colombia. Quite hard to return HD.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks,
Marsh64

You have a nearly full 500 GB hard drive and you are trying to use TM with a 500 GB hard drive - but the way TimeMachine works, your TimeMachine hard drive should be at least twice the size of your backup data. In other words, to use TM effectively you should have bought a 1 TB external drive.
With a 500 GB drive for backups, you need to determine exactly what has to be backed up and what can be left out. If you open the TimeMachine preferences you'll see that there's an Options button. Click it and you can select folders to exclude from backing up. For example, you might decide that you don't need to back up your music because it is all on your iPod anyway and the Mac OS and your applications are all on CD so those can be left out. By carefully paring the list down you may be able to get your backup data down under 250 GB and if so, then TimeMachine will do the job for you.
Another solution would be to drop TimeMachine as your backup solution and simply use a program such as SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner (CCC) to perform your backups. There are advantages and disadvantages to each backup method. As you mull your options, don't be afraid to ask more questions.

Time Machine errors with WD My Book Studio

I upgraded the OS on my 1.66 GHz Mac Mini to 10.6 in January and purchased a 1TB WD My Book Studio external drive, to replace an older WD drive. The new drive was connected to the Mac via FireWire and reformatted for Mac OS extended before I copied my iPhoto and iTunes libraries from the older drive. I then set up Time Machine to backup to the new drive (a temporary arrangement until I'm able to purchase a new Mac later this year) without issue.
Aside from the virtual CD occasionally popping up on my desktop, the drive worked fine for a couple of months.
In March, the hard drive on the Mac crashed but was brought back to life at the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store. After they reinstalled the OS, I restored my system from the most recent Time Machine backup and was back in business. It was not until I attempted to add songs in iTunes that I realized there were now permissions issues with the external drive -- which I (even with an administrator account) could not unlock. Disk Utility was unable to verify or repair the disk, though it did indicate problems with the drive.
Support at WD was not helpful, so I had no choice but to erase and reformat the WD drive and start from scratch. The permissions issue was resolved, but every attempt at backing up via Time Machine failed (and subsequently froze my machine) after about 75 percent of the files had been copied. Furthermore, I could not successfully update the firmware OR software for the drive.
I have since erased and reformatted (both in GUID at Apple Partition with both one and two partitions) the drive several times, and I have yet to back-up successfully. I was finally able to update the firmware/software and shut-off the WD SmartWare, even though it still appeared to be running; I eventually just uninstalled it completely.
Right now, I am on my third attempt today to complete my initial Time Machine backup. Currently, the WD drive has an Apple Partition map scheme with two partitions and SmartWare uninstalled; it has taken me about 90 minutes to get 50 percent through an 80 GB backup, with nothing else running but this browser window.
I've seen plenty of references to this sort of issue with WD drives across the Internet, but few resolutions -- and nothing that has helped me so far. Does anyone have some insight?

johnolore wrote:
Right now, I am on my third attempt today to complete my initial Time Machine backup. Currently, the WD drive has an Apple Partition map scheme with two partitions and SmartWare uninstalled; it has taken me about 90 minutes to get 50 percent through an 80 GB backup, with nothing else running but this browser window.
I've seen plenty of references to this sort of issue with WD drives across the Internet, but few resolutions -- and nothing that has helped me so far. Does anyone have some insight?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
40 GB in 90 minutes isn't too bad, assuming it's F/W 400, not F/W 800. The speed may vary quite a bit during a backup, as a number of things have to be done for each file. When Applications and System folders are being backed-up, for example, the rate will be slower, since those folders consist of a huge number of mostly very small files.
You might try the things in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
You might also want to see #A1 there; the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget may provide a clue.
And yes, there are a lot of folks unhappy with WD drives, but also a number who swear by them.

My Book Studio Edition II 2 TB software's?

Please check my question at WD website & reply here
Link:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/My-Book-Studio-Edition-II-2- TB-software-s/td-p/16456
Message was edited by: Ankit Modi

LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11270

WD External HDD My Book Studio 2TB doesn't mount

Hello there
I was using the My Book Studio 2TB External HDD. It works fine until now. The External Drive just keep blinking light but not mounting on the os. I just wonder what is going on with my drive? Is there any method i can retrieve my data?
thanks very much

I have WD My Book Studio Edition II. The only way I can format it is via WD software (WD Drive Manager), since my model is the 2TB RAID. That's maybe one of the way you can do it.
On other note, I did experienced some issue with my new Hitachi XL2000 2TB HD. It won't format with disk utility under Mac OS Extended Journal. The only format I can use via disk utility is FAT-32 and some other windows format. But I managed to solve it by going to the partition tab and select option. From there I select GUID option.
Hope this will help to solve your problem
Message was edited by: Suzaidee

WD MY BOOK STUDIO LX is a lot slower.

Recently, my mom came in while cleaning around my room, you know, just tiding up a bit. She unplugged my WD My Book Studio LX on accident, and quickly plugged it back in. Before, it was hitting speeds that it should normally hit, 800 megabits a second (FireWire 800). I did a verify of the disk, and tried to repair it, but got that the disk COULD NOT be unmounted. The disk is now trailing along at speeds of about 17 GB/10 minutes, which is only about 30 megabytes a second, when normally is should be around 100 megabytes (800 megabits) a second. I even restarted the computer, but haven't tried resetting the SMU yet, would that help?
If you have had any past experiences that you have resolved, PLEASE, tell me below, and I'd gladly appreciate it! (:

Same answer I gave you on the iMac forum:
I'd like to be more encouraging but WD tend to have more problems with Macs than any other make. They're internal HD's are fine it's the enclosures they use. You can try some suggestions found in:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1151
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10333969-263.html
Roger

WD My Book Studio + TC

When I connect my WD My Book Studio 1TB to my iMac via FireWire 800 or USB 2 it works just fine. However, when I connect the drive to my Time Capsule, it won't mount. The device shows up in the AirPort disks pane but not the volume. I have enabled file sharing.
So far I restarted the Time Capsule and repartitioned the My Book using Disk Utility (1 partition, Journaled HFS+, GUID), but no joy.
Am I overlooking something or could there be some sort of compatibility problem?
Thanks in advance,
Peter

Got the hub as you suggested and it did the trick! After some (dis)connecting, restarting the TC and leaving it alone for a few minutes, the drive miraculously appeared in the Airport disks pane and I was able to mount it on the desktop. Hope I can keep it running. For now, I'm a happy camper!
Thanks again, Bob.

My Book Studio sparks ?

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