I’m coming in to help someone with their computers and they have a MyBook USB 3 1TB that was installed by a previous computer guy. I would like to use the WD SmartWare software to run their backups but after installing the software it finds the drive as “WD Drive” but states I need a Pro license for $19.99 to be able to back up to this drive. Looking at the product page, it seems the Pro software is included, or maybe the check just means it works with the drive.
Since this was setup before I got there I have asked the owner to check his email for an activation code if the previous person did all this at that time. If not, I will try starting the installer from scratch.
My fear is, I don’t remember seeing a WD Apps installer and think that maybe the previous person formatted the drive. Is there a hidden partition that I could use to restore the drive to factory settings (included any included software).
Will let you know what I hear from the owner about a code.
Hello again. Sorry about being away, it’s been a couple busy weeks!
Ok, so I am actually at the location now and have more information. The link you posted is helpful, but it does not solve my problem, because this drive does not have the WD Utilities application. In fact, it is missing the VCD entirely.
Here is the model number.
wdbaak0010hch-00
WD MyBook Elite 1TB
I downloaded the VCD Manager for Windows to attempt to restore that portion and when running the software I get a “Please connect a WD Smartware drive to continue, then click Rescan.”
I have tried the drive on multiple computers and all the same. So it appears that either the drive is corrupt, the VCD is corrupt, or something similar. Does anyone know what might be happening here? Is there a way to factory reset the drive to restore this informatio.
I’m tempted to just give up and use the drive as simple storage and purchase a different backup application.
