First of all if you are a lucky owner of a Western Digital My Book Premium 320 GB external hard disk (or any other version). Here is a little hint for you.
!!DO NOT EVER TRY TO UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE!!
I actually bought that bastard and tried to set it up with FireWire cable but it was not working. So I came across the official website http://support.wdc.com and downloaded here
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=19&swid=65
the "Firmware Upgrade 1.08a" which should repair the problem with the nonrecognizing two MyBook disks connected via FireWire cable. BUT!!
This whole firmware Upgrade COMPLETELY SCREWS YOUR HARD DRIVE. Because during the process it firstly erases your firmware and after that it just says that
OPERATION WAS ABORTED BY DEVICE. Whell shit happens, you thought, I will not use the FireWire if it can not be upgraded. But hell no! The whole disk is screwed from this point!
Windows does not recognize the disk anymore from this point and when you pull out the plug and pull it in again, it just installs the "Black Oxford USB Device". Which is nothing but a crap.
So. I googled it through, and I am not the only one, who had the same trouble with the disk! For example here and here. The funny thing is, that actually the disk itself (when you pull it out of that classy MyBook design case) should be working. But I had not paid tripple the price for internal WD Caviar 320 GB hard disk.
THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE OF THE WESTERN DIGITAL COMPANY, THAT IS HAS A CORRUPTED FIRMWARE UPGRADE ON THEIR SITE! If you want to use your disk, do not upgrade the firmware (even if it does not work through FireWire), cause at least you will have an USB disk. (Then I do not know what is the point in buying the more expensive version with FireWire support).
P.S. The most funny thing (IRONY) about this is the whole e-mail conversation by another buyer of the disk with Western Digital Support.
3 comments:
Brother you are not alone. As you can imagine, i don't want to loose the "backed" up files. The same identical thing happened to me.
I bought a 6 pin firewirecable, and it was a no go. the WD website support area as you reported points owners to the Firmware upgrade.
Did you find a solution, short of returning the drive to WD support or back to retailer for a refund?
http://anotherdeadblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-open-western-digital-my-book.html
This is "my" solution, my man. :o)
Take your data and then return the shit to the store where you bought it, but beware of possibility, that you will lose warranty, if you screw something up in the process.
Hi guys, I have devised a way to recover the MyBook from a failed firmware update. You can read about it here: http://do0g.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-recover-from-failed-mybook.html
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