Installing WD My Book external drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Pinnell
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Terry Pinnell

I bought a WD My Book Essential 2 TB external drive and installed it last
night on my XP Pro PC. But either I'm missing something or there's a very
basic flaw in WD's installation procedure!

Apart from an illustration of the cables there were no instructions (and
no setup CD). That was actually what I'd hoped, as I'd read that it was a
straightforward plug-in-and-use drive.

But I immediately got the familiar Found New Hardware Wizard. I wasn't
surprised that it failed to find a driver automatically so I clicked Back
and specified the location C:\Windows\INF, which (from help here) has
worked for other USB devices before. That was successful, and I repeated
that procedure again when prompted by the wizard about the next new
hardware, the USB drive itself, and that also was OK. (It failed for the
third component, 'WES', something to do with its Smart Software facility,
which I don't want anyway.)

But, of course, it was only after the above that I was able to read the
User Guide PDF on the drive. And in that I see

"4. If a Found New Hardware screen appears, click Cancel to close it.
The WD SmartWare software that is on the drive installs the proper driver
for your My Book drive."

Obviously I couldn't know that until I'd installed the drive - Catch 22!!

So my first question: is that just WD being incredibly daft?

More important, how should I now proceed for the best? The drivers now
installed are built-in ones from 2001, according to Device Manager >
WD My Book 1140 USB Device:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\disk.sys
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\PartMgr.sys

Should I now try to update to the WD drivers? Even though I don't want
this Smart Software stuff? (That seem to be just a backup/restore app -
more to learn, that I can live without.)

In particular, do you think using the WD drivers would improve speed?
 
Terry said:
I bought a WD My Book Essential 2 TB external drive and installed it last
night on my XP Pro PC. But either I'm missing something or there's a very
basic flaw in WD's installation procedure!

Apart from an illustration of the cables there were no instructions (and
no setup CD). That was actually what I'd hoped, as I'd read that it was a
straightforward plug-in-and-use drive.

But I immediately got the familiar Found New Hardware Wizard. I wasn't
surprised that it failed to find a driver automatically so I clicked Back
and specified the location C:\Windows\INF, which (from help here) has
worked for other USB devices before. That was successful, and I repeated
that procedure again when prompted by the wizard about the next new
hardware, the USB drive itself, and that also was OK. (It failed for the
third component, 'WES', something to do with its Smart Software facility,
which I don't want anyway.)

But, of course, it was only after the above that I was able to read the
User Guide PDF on the drive. And in that I see

"4. If a Found New Hardware screen appears, click Cancel to close it.
The WD SmartWare software that is on the drive installs the proper driver
for your My Book drive."

Obviously I couldn't know that until I'd installed the drive - Catch 22!!

So my first question: is that just WD being incredibly daft?

More important, how should I now proceed for the best? The drivers now
installed are built-in ones from 2001, according to Device Manager >
WD My Book 1140 USB Device:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\disk.sys
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\PartMgr.sys

Should I now try to update to the WD drivers? Even though I don't want
this Smart Software stuff? (That seem to be just a backup/restore app -
more to learn, that I can live without.)

In particular, do you think using the WD drivers would improve speed?
Click to expand...

And when you right click on "disk.sys" and "PartMgr.sys", what
company do they belong to ? Would it be Microsoft ?

In this case, I would expect pretty well everything in the stack
to access the data partition, to be owned by Microsoft. That's
because a USB hard drive, can be access as a "USB Mass Storage"
class driver stack.

When you grab a "third party" driver, it's possible for such a
driver to be a stub. And then, the stub can call a Microsoft .inf
to install Microsoft branded, standards based software. While it
may appear the third party is providing your software, a little checking
of the ownership of the files, will show whether they really "sweated
the details" or not.

Perhaps the reason your drive wasn't fully activated automatically,
had to do with Autorun or the like. If that was disabled, perhaps
the VCD (virtual CD) can't do its thing.

*******

Your product uses a "virtual CD" concept. It's possible to design
a storage device (USB flash, USB hard drive, even a USB LCD monitor)
where a "fake" (virtual) CD with drivers and manual on it, is stored
in hardware. If, for some reason, you didn't want the WD software
installed every place the drive goes, you can modify the behavior
somewhat. (It would be nice if there was a simple hardware switch
on the enclosure, that you could flip to just turn off the virtual
CD function, but well, that would be too easy.)

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835

Some people call that driver installation behavior a "rootkit", but
perhaps that's just a measure of their level of annoyance. Myself,
I'd be just as happy with the product, if the 20MB of "cruft"
came on a physical CD, and then I'd have the option of turning the
thing into a Frisbee and getting rid of it.

And it's precisely this kinda crap, that causes me to build up
my own enclosures. No tricks/no trouble...

Paul
 
Paul said:
And when you right click on "disk.sys" and "PartMgr.sys", what
company do they belong to ? Would it be Microsoft ?

In this case, I would expect pretty well everything in the stack
to access the data partition, to be owned by Microsoft. That's
because a USB hard drive, can be access as a "USB Mass Storage"
class driver stack.

When you grab a "third party" driver, it's possible for such a
driver to be a stub. And then, the stub can call a Microsoft .inf
to install Microsoft branded, standards based software. While it
may appear the third party is providing your software, a little checking
of the ownership of the files, will show whether they really "sweated
the details" or not.

Perhaps the reason your drive wasn't fully activated automatically,
had to do with Autorun or the like. If that was disabled, perhaps
the VCD (virtual CD) can't do its thing.

*******

Your product uses a "virtual CD" concept. It's possible to design
a storage device (USB flash, USB hard drive, even a USB LCD monitor)
where a "fake" (virtual) CD with drivers and manual on it, is stored
in hardware. If, for some reason, you didn't want the WD software
installed every place the drive goes, you can modify the behavior
somewhat. (It would be nice if there was a simple hardware switch
on the enclosure, that you could flip to just turn off the virtual
CD function, but well, that would be too easy.)

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835

Some people call that driver installation behavior a "rootkit", but
perhaps that's just a measure of their level of annoyance. Myself,
I'd be just as happy with the product, if the 20MB of "cruft"
came on a physical CD, and then I'd have the option of turning the
thing into a Frisbee and getting rid of it.

And it's precisely this kinda crap, that causes me to build up
my own enclosures. No tricks/no trouble...
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Paul, very helpful. I hadn't been aware of that 'Virtual CD'
concept before. That would make sense. Presumably I shouldn't expect to
see any obvious evidence of it on the drive itself? No sign of any
'Autorun' file or the like in the WD stuff folder, into which I placed the
entire initial contents of the drive:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/WD2TB-2.jpg

Re those instructions for removing the 'VCD', I see a pre-requisite is to
first update the firmware, which I'd like to pass on for now. But anyway,
I'm not clear why I would want to remove it? I have the device installed,
without the so-called SmartWare overhead, so what would I gain?

Any thoughts on whether it's worth trying to update the drivers (which,
yes, are the Windows drivers) to the WD ones, to secure any performance
gain?
 
Terry said:
Thanks a lot Paul, very helpful. I hadn't been aware of that 'Virtual CD'
concept before. That would make sense. Presumably I shouldn't expect to
see any obvious evidence of it on the drive itself? No sign of any
'Autorun' file or the like in the WD stuff folder, into which I placed the
entire initial contents of the drive:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/WD2TB-2.jpg

Re those instructions for removing the 'VCD', I see a pre-requisite is to
first update the firmware, which I'd like to pass on for now. But anyway,
I'm not clear why I would want to remove it? I have the device installed,
without the so-called SmartWare overhead, so what would I gain?

Any thoughts on whether it's worth trying to update the drivers (which,
yes, are the Windows drivers) to the WD ones, to secure any performance
gain?
Click to expand...

Is the SmartWare a backup software package ?

One of the threads on the WD site, mentions SmartWare using 40% CPU for
long periods of time. That would be an example of why you wouldn't want
their software to be automatically installed, if it did stuff like that.

In the picture you provided, I don't see anything resembling a driver.
Do you have evidence there is a driver there ? Like a suspicious .inf
file, with references in that file to some other files it plans on
installing ? I don't really see a reason for them to write drivers, if
the Windows drivers are there.

At one time (8 to 10 years ago), it was all the rage for hardware
manufacturers to write "caching" drivers, where some system RAM
was used as a cache for the storage device. It gave the impression
of faster operation. Now, since Win2K, the OS has caching, which can
use any of the "unused" RAM in the system. This was a feature copied from
OSes like SunOS/Solaris (that's where I first enjoyed that feature). There
isn't much point in writing a custom caching driver now, if you believe
the OS file cache is efficient at what it does. Other than that, I can't
think of a reason to be writing a custom storage driver.

The last example I can think of, as a reason for a custom driver, was
the invention of the NDAS. That apparently, requires a driver on
every client.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Direct_Attached_Storage

Paul
 
Paul said:
Is the SmartWare a backup software package ?
Yes.

One of the threads on the WD site, mentions SmartWare using 40% CPU for
long periods of time. That would be an example of why you wouldn't want
their software to be automatically installed, if it did stuff like that.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Such reviews just reinforced my intention not to install it.
In the picture you provided, I don't see anything resembling a driver.
Do you have evidence there is a driver there ? Like a suspicious .inf
file, with references in that file to some other files it plans on
installing ? I don't really see a reason for them to write drivers, if
the Windows drivers are there.
Click to expand...

No, but I assumed that running WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi would not only
install the (unwanted) backup software but also the drivers?
At one time (8 to 10 years ago), it was all the rage for hardware
manufacturers to write "caching" drivers, where some system RAM
was used as a cache for the storage device. It gave the impression
of faster operation. Now, since Win2K, the OS has caching, which can
use any of the "unused" RAM in the system. This was a feature copied from
OSes like SunOS/Solaris (that's where I first enjoyed that feature). There
isn't much point in writing a custom caching driver now, if you believe
the OS file cache is efficient at what it does. Other than that, I can't
think of a reason to be writing a custom storage driver.

The last example I can think of, as a reason for a custom driver, was
the invention of the NDAS. That apparently, requires a driver on
every client.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Direct_Attached_Storage
Click to expand...

I just want to make sure the 10 year old Windows driver is not adversely
affecting performance. Do you think one other approach would be to see if
I'm getting the rated transfer speed, with a bunch of transfers between
this drive and my internal Samsung HDs?

Hmm - a couple of quick runs showed surprisingly inconsistent results!
 
Terry said:
I just want to make sure the 10 year old Windows driver is not adversely
affecting performance. Do you think one other approach would be to see if
I'm getting the rated transfer speed, with a bunch of transfers between
this drive and my internal Samsung HDs?

Hmm - a couple of quick runs showed surprisingly inconsistent results!
Click to expand...

Have you tried HDTune ?

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

It's a good way to benchmark a drive, and there should be no
alignment based issues when testing.

If you're testing over USB2, a modern drive should be fast enough,
that the HDTune graph is a flat line (i.e. always limited by
USB2 bus speed). If you're seeing dips in the line, then it could be
a drive issue.

I would try writing the drive from end to end, at least once, before
giving up on it. Once the drive has been written, retest with HDTune
and see if it is smoother. On one of my drives here, it started working
a bit better, after some end to end runs as a "warmup".

Paul
 
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