This issue with the firmware update has happend twice on two different Western Digital HD products. I called the customer service which turned out to be an oxymoron in itself and as a result, I will be returning their product, getting my money back, and taking my business elsewhere. I will never purchase another Western Digital product and steer others away as well. Their customer service is an absolute travesty, as is having a technical issue that is this glaring continue since April. Absolutely pathetic.
I tried the Windows update and that didnāt work either?Ā
Any suggestions?
I am extremely angry with WD. What a joke.
Thanks
Iām in the exact same position - two brand new 1TB drives were bricked about 45 minutes ago after executing the firmware updateā¦ Iāve had no success on my mac or a windows 7 PC. Has there been any other suggestions to solve this egregious issue?
Iāve contacted WD support via email and am awaiting a response.
Ok, so like a lot of people. My drive isnāt showing up after the latest firmware update.
It is totally ridiculous that Western Digital does not feel the need to implement better update procedures and include better safeguards in the update process. Given the poor user experience and flakyness of their SmartWare software, i should have been more wary of doing a firmware update. The notion that its the customers fault for not making a backup of their backup drive is ridiculous and insulting.
Among other confusing wording in the online instructions - they say to āunlock it or remove passwordā. Unlocking is clearly not enough here, I did and now my drive isnāt showing up.Ā Unfortunately, I only came to this forum after the fact, or I would have removed the password.
Iāve tried hooking up to other machines, but the drive still doesnt show up. In making a last ditch effort to save my data, I was wondering:
- Can the hard drive itself be removed and put into another enclosure?
Thanks
And yes this is a bad joke. From the release notes for this update:Ā āFixed rare Mac OS-X Snow LeopardTM OS installation failure.ā Almostā¦
I had the exact same problem.
I tried to update the driveās firmware and now itās bricked.
I have a WD My Passport for Mac drive, a MacBook Pro 2,2, and Mac OS X 10.6.4 Snow Leopard.
I didnāt use this drive for backup purposes, I actually stored important files in it. I have a backup of the most sensitive files in it, but I will still take m several hours to get everything working again.
I demand an explanation and a solution!!!
Hey mape85.
I was able to āunbrickā my drive with a PC firmware updater from a Windows machine. Data and partitions were intact afterwards.
Did you try that?
Seems the Mac updater is broken.
Regards,
Oliver
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I was able to fix this using the method wduser666 mentions above. Your drive is probably not as broken as it seems!!
Steps to fix:
Connect your drive to a Windows PC. Youāll get a thing wanting to install drivers, ignore it. Download and run the Windows version of the Firmware Update. Pull out the USB/power cord and wait a bit. Plug it back in and Windows will recognize your drive correctly (you wonāt see your files if you had a password on the drive). Eject it properly and unplug. Plug it back into your Mac, and itāll be back to normal ā your old password still applies and all your files are there!
This outcome seems to point to a problem in the mac installer. Shame on you Western Digital for not fixing this and forcing people to pay for ādata recoveryā or buying a new drive.
This is why Iām afraid to update my external hard drive.
Guys - I also think itās important that consumers know of these kinds of things BEFORE purchasing. Obbviously, none of us did or we wouldnāt be here. That said, there are tons of online Tech-Oriented / Review Oriented sites such as C-Net, Gizmodo, Edgadget, Wired, Tech-Addict, Amazon, Costco (membership required), etc, etc, etcā¦there are TONS of them. I think these online companies need to be notifed. I check them all the time and Iām sure some of you do as well. Had I known about all this, especially the fact that itās been an issue for so long and not only have they not done anything about it, they havenāt even take the firmware update off the server!!! Western Digital is basically refusing to admit thereās an issue (as would be implied if they were to take it off and people who had downloaded it and screwed up their drive would all the leverage). In doing this, they are turning a blind eye knowing that everyday people who buy there products will be served by corrupt firmware from Western Digital that will destroy their drive. This obviosuly interrupts work flow and numerous other things. This is no different than say, someone who paints homes for a living. A client wants their bedroom painted Forest Green. Painter buys Forest Green. One week later, the paint cracks and turns a disgusting color brown and ruins the walls as well. In turn, the client is angry and talk to friends, who then talk to their friends, etc. The painterās job is severely interrupted / damaged even though the company that sold the paint knew it would end in disaster. Two words : RECKLESS NEGLIGENCE!!! I have never heard of such outrageous business practices. Hey WDā¦ARE YOU LISTEINGā¦READINGā¦? Say something. Whatās going on? Fix? ā¦didnāt think so. Pathetic.
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This is what happened to me:
(didnāt update firmwareā¦ although I did install some mac os updatesā¦)
-
Plugged in the WD My Passport Essential drive on my MBP (didnāt use it for couple of days)
-
It wasnāt mountingā¦
-
The Disk Utility thing was recognising it, but couldnāt mount itā¦
-
I read all these threads, so went to my old windows machine (XP) - it could read itā¦ so I said ok, letās update the firmwareā¦ everything great till this pointā¦
-
When started the firmware updateā¦ it seemed to be workingā¦ (no progress bar moving and showing the %, but some kind of bar moving)ā¦ and it went like this for looooong loooooong timeā¦ couldnāt cancel or anything like that, so I clicked the āxā to close the firm update softwareā¦ and it closedā¦
Buuuuuuuuuuut, since then the drive isnāt working at allā¦ neither on Windows nor Macā¦ Macās Disk Utility now even does not recognise anything, so I guess itās completely useless nowā¦ I hope for some help as sending the drive to WD and getting another one is really a mess, not to say in that case Iām losing all my dataā¦ bought the drive in July and itās already giving me troubleā¦ and **bleep**, itās just software trouble, cāmon, I canāt belive this is happening!!!
Anyway, I HOPE there is a solution to this (if firmware update crashed, drive is useless/dead now? youāve got to be kidding me that thereās no way to fix this issue easily???!?? - if itās this way, iām never gonna be buying another WD product)
OMGā¦ just realized that many of you guys have the same problemā¦
Setup:
MBP 2,66GHz
OS X 10.6.4
Firmware/'SmartāWare Just screwed up my entire diskā¦?
Just mailed this to Support:
Hello,
PANICā¦ I cannot access/see my Passport Elite disk after updating to the newest Smartware version 1.2.2.5. I downloaded the firmware update (step 1) and the SmartWare (step 2) - but now - it wonāt come up againā¦
I can see in the SmartWare 1.2.2.5 interface that all files are there, but it doesnāt come up as a disk. WHAT should I doā¦ have all my important files thereā¦
I even checked at a PC too - where the Passport drive doesnāt come up as a disk - so something is wrong with the newest updates I just downloaded from your site.
Can u please help me - what can I do to retrieve the files on the disk. They havenātt been deleted - the files are there - I just cannot access them at all - not from my Mac nor my pc.
Can I āundoā this update or something like āresetā so I just get access to my files?
Looking forward to hearing from youā¦
*****
Anyone - what can I do? Must be something I can do to get the files out of there - theyāre not deletedā¦ And Iām not gonna send my disk out of the door - WD must be able to patch/fix their broken fix, right?
Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Update on my situation:
- I managed to update the firmware on another PC (WIN XP). Now at least itās working on Windows, and MACās Disk Utility detects itā¦ but still canāt mount it! Any ideas?!
I managed to fix it. Guess it was caused by the 10.6.4 updateā¦ Hereās what I did, and it worked:
(the hd was unplugged)
-
Repair permissions
-
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.4 Combo update ( http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1048)
-
After it restarts, repair permissions again
-
Plugged the hd and it was working
Hope it works for you too!!
Hey guys,
I tried contacting WD ātechā support - and got 2 or 3 ridicoulous answersā¦
I updated my Elite Passport HD (500GB) - new Mac firmware + SmartWare from the WD site - and it corrupted the entire disk. Couldnāt see it/access it = totally dead.
I tried everything - but the solution was - like many others have tried too: connecting the HD to a PC and updating the firmware to the PC version. It worked! It updates - and when finnished, I can see it again on my MacBook.
This is probably the most outrageous mac/firmware update Iāve ever downloadedā¦ and definitely itās the last time I ever update anything from the WD siteā¦ I even think itās so amateur that this will be my last WD HD ever. I only bought it because Iāve always been very happy with the previous Passport WDĀ disks - with no āSmartWareā bugs on themā¦
So if more Mac users still have this problem - DON*T do RMA/sending your disk/data to them, and donāt spend money on data recovery. The solution is going through a pc - and never, EVER do an update again from these peopleā¦
Good luck!
how do you repair permissions on a mac?
Yep, another firmware murdered drive here.Ā
Iām unable to express my utter, utter bewilderment. Ā Do they get their pool-maintenance guys to maintain their Mac operations? Can someone tell me why they donāt remove the download until itās fixed? Iām dumbfounded.
I tried the PC fix but when I launch the updater I get a āConnect only ONE usb deviceā message when the WD drive IS the only usb device connected. Iām assuming that the drive is a goner.
After several emails one of their techs now wants to āremotely connect into my systemā - considering the fiasco so far Iād be mad to let them interfere with anything elseā¦ right?
Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Thanks.
Just āupdatedā my firmwareā¦ disk is a nice small black brick now, thanks!
It does not even show up in disk utility or pc or anythingā¦ why is that update still on your page??
_____Edit_
Ok, got it to work on parallelsā¦ re-updated firmware and disk is back online, funny how you need windows
to fix things on a mac :manindifferent:
Anyway disk goes offline sometimes and disk utility gives me this
ā¦ also no reply from you guys, oh wellā¦
Yes, another unhappy customer (victim) of a WD My Passport 500G firmware update v1.0.0.19 for Mac. Following the update, my drive is no longer recognized by System Finder or Disk Utility. Also, the WD Smartware software no longer launches upon connecting my drive and the ominous white LED light stays on (not blinking) and taunts me. I had enabled the password protection but not the encryption.
I want to try connecting my drive to a Windows PC and update again. However, when I attempted this, the WD Smartware software does not launch on Windows as well in order for me enter my password. As pointed out by āscrewedCustomerā the online instructions - they say to āunlock it or remove passwordā prior to updating.
My question follows: for those lucky individuals who tried the Windows solution and were successful in fixing your drives, did any of you have password or encryption enabled prior to the initial firmware failure? If so, did you re-enter your password prior to the Windows attempt or just attempt the update without the password?
Any help from anyone would be appreciated. I, like so many have data that I wish to recover. Does anyone know if removing the drive and putting it in a new enclosure resolves the issue?
Help, please helpā¦
I was also able to FIX my drive using the method from wduser666 and restated by screwedCustomer.
THANK YOU both. Also, my drive was password protected originally when the firmware update failed (I unlocked it prior to update). All my partitions were there (MacOSX and FAT32) with ALL OF MY FILES. The failed firmware update (MAC version) did not corrupt anything.
Please try this, it worked for me, I hope that helps anyone else out. The procedure is detailed by screwedCustomer in detail and reports here again:
Steps to fix:
Connect your drive to a Windows PC. Youāll get a thing wanting to install drivers, ignore it. Download and run the Windows version of the Firmware Update. Pull out the USB/power cord and wait a bit. Plug it back in and Windows will recognize your drive correctly (you wonāt see your files if you had a password on the drive). Eject it properly and unplug. Plug it back into your Mac, and itāll be back to normal ā your old password still applies and all your files are there!
Everything worked up to seeing the HD on the mac. The WD Smartware icon shows back up and the Drive has the little lock icon lit but when I go to open the Smartware to unlock the drive it tells me there is no drive to unlock and to pick another driveā¦ Halfway homeā¦help.
