ProfessorP

Q: spontaneous overnight hard drive wipe ???

Hello,

 

Long story short, I woke up this morning and my 4TB WD USB 3.0 HDD which has been hooked up to Time Machine was mounted on my desktop and totally empty.  It appears to be fully functional according to disk utility.  I have not idea how this happened.

 

I am running a rMPB 15" 2012 (max specs) with Mavericks.  It is connected to a Dell U2713hm Monitor with USB 3.0 Hub.  It is also connected to three external USB HDDs.  I have two of those WD HDD's both running Time Machine backups for my computer (one after the other back and forth). My 4TB WD HDD is plugged into the USB 3.0 hub on my Dell Monitor.

 

So I partitioned my 4TB WD HDD into five partitions so I could run Time Machine on it with four computers (I was planning to plug and unplug them to the USB port).  One of those partitions was doing Time Machine backups for my rMBP on a regular basis (it was constantly plugged in to it).

 

Disk Utility says that the 4TB HDD is running fine.  But this HDD does make slightly more noise than usual.  I don't know whether or not that noise means that the disk arm is failing or not.  In any case, I woke up this morning and my 5 partition backup HDD was gone and in it's place was a one partition  Mac OS Extended (Jounraled) formatted empty 4TB HDD named "My Book".  Does anyone know what happened to me?  Is my HDD on it's way out?  Weird...

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 21, 2013 7:29 AM

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Q: spontaneous overnight hard drive wipe ???

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  • by Garyali,

    Garyali Garyali Nov 30, 2013 5:51 AM in response to blindeyetom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2013 5:51 AM in response to blindeyetom

    Were you able to roll back from Mavericks to Mountain Lion. I am trying to do that from the reccovery following the advise from (https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6161) but when I try to erase disk0 the disk utility gives me a error saying that - "disk utility secure disk erase - can't unmount disk".

     

    Any pointers?

     

    Also, there is no such thing as the WD uninstaller software here - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=124&sid=214&lang=en. Which one did you use?

     

    Thanks!

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Nov 30, 2013 7:02 AM in response to Garyali
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Nov 30, 2013 7:02 AM in response to Garyali

    Garyali wrote:

    Were you able to roll back from Mavericks to Mountain Lion. I am trying to do that from the reccovery following the advise from (https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6161) but when I try to erase disk0 the disk utility gives me a error saying that - "disk utility secure disk erase - can't unmount disk".

    The error means the disk is in use, either because it is the startup drive or some application is using files on it. You need to start up from some other drive or partition, erase the volume with Mavericks on it, & then install Mountain Lion on it. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5943 describes what you need to do.

     

    Note that user tips like the one you were looking at are not necessarily endorsed or recommended by Apple & may include personal opinion or dubious or unnecessary procedures. In particular, it is not necessary (or desirable) to completely erase the drive, which would remove the Recovery HD partition. Erase the drive as per Apple's instructions for best results.

     

    Also, there is no need to do a secure erase, which basically will do nothing to make the drive more reliable & will just subject it to unnecessary wear. (It will also make it impossible for software recovery tools to recover any data from it, which is its only purpose & why it is called a security erase.)

     

    Also, there is no such thing as the WD uninstaller software here -http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=124&sid=214&lang=en. Which one did you use?

    It looks like WD has removed the link to the uninstaller, I guess because they want you to use the new version of the utilities. It might be possible to contact WD support & get a link to the now-missing uninstaller but if not, you could try the semi-manual method mentioned by "Totalsupport" on page three of this WD blog. I have copied that below in case you have trouble finding it:

     

    Steps to completely remove WD SmartWare from your Mac:

     

    • Run the SmartWare uninstaller application located in /Applications/
    • Using Apple’s Activity Monitor from /Applications/Utilities quit the following processes:

    WDDMServiceWD Quick ViewSmartwareServerApp

    • Delete /Library/LaunchDeamons/com.wdc.WDDMService.plist (Entry that causes WDDM to start.)
    • Delete /Library/LaunchDeamons/com.wdc.WDSmartWareServer.plist (Entry that causes the SmartWare Server to start.)
    • Delete /Applications Support/WDSmartware (Removes all SmartWare support programs)
    • Delete /Application/WDSmartWare (SmartWare user interface)
    • Delete Library/Preferences/com.wdc.smartware.plist
    • From System Preferences->Users Login Items remove WDQuickview for all users. (Entry that runs WD Quick View when a user logs in. There should be a single entry for all users. Deleting it from one any account should remove it for all accounts.)

     

    Message was edited by: R C-R

  • by BartonAlan,

    BartonAlan BartonAlan Dec 15, 2013 5:39 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 15, 2013 5:39 AM in response to R C-R

    The various WD uninstallers appeared to work on mine - 3 drives of different vintages, although only one experienced the problem - the one with Time Machine of course - and that well after the upgrade to Mavericks. I am not going to the effort of rolling back to Mountain Lion, but wait with anticipation to see if Apple and WD between them can come up with a fix which would include data recovery. In the meantime, I am starting Time Machine on another, non-WD, drive. Not sure I'll go for WD again for anything, I was uneasy about using their driver software in the beginning, but now I'm sure about it!

  • by Darth,

    Darth Darth Dec 17, 2013 8:33 AM in response to ProfessorP
    Level 3 (630 points)
    Dec 17, 2013 8:33 AM in response to ProfessorP

    The process wdhelper is not linked to Western Digital. It is a helper for WirelessDiagnosticsSupport.framework per discussions on forums other than this one and should not be killed or deleted.

  • by fanboy-nomore,

    fanboy-nomore fanboy-nomore Jan 21, 2014 8:42 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2014 8:42 AM in response to R C-R

    I had the "wipe" problem with a WD drive in october and (after contacting WD) removedthe drive manager from the computer. 2 weeks ago the same thing happend AGAIN on a different computer with no drive manager installed. It was a Toshiba drive (as I will never buy WD drives again), unfortunately it turned out to be a WD OEM drive.

    So, my conclusioon is de-installing the WD software is NO solution !!!!

     

    Anybody with another idea? I´m afraid to connect any external drive to my computer now and that´s not acceptable at all.

     

    I´m grateful for every hint, solving this problem

     

    I also would be greatful if APPLE comes with an official statement (at least) or even better an update solving this problem. As this problem seems to exsist since 4 months now, I think it´s time.....

  • by ProfessorP,

    ProfessorP ProfessorP Jan 21, 2014 8:45 AM in response to fanboy-nomore
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2014 8:45 AM in response to fanboy-nomore

    I did a clean install on all my computers.  I figured that would get rid of any suspect weird software. I have lots of hard drives connected to my computer externally. Since then I've had no problems.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 21, 2014 8:50 AM in response to fanboy-nomore
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 21, 2014 8:50 AM in response to fanboy-nomore

    fanboy-nomore wrote:

     

    I also would be greatful if APPLE comes with an official statement (at least) or even better an update solving this problem. As this problem seems to exsist since 4 months now, I think it´s time.....

    Apple have, don't install WD software, it is not needed and potentially harmful

     

    WD are offering free data recovery software for anyone affected by their software.

  • by BartonAlan,

    BartonAlan BartonAlan Jan 21, 2014 11:42 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2014 11:42 AM in response to Csound1

    I would also appreciate if WD gave me help. After promising it, there has been nothing. Useless. I will never buy WD again. I'll add Toshiba to the list also.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 21, 2014 11:43 AM in response to BartonAlan
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 21, 2014 11:43 AM in response to BartonAlan

    Have you contacted WD? Did you lose data?

  • by BartonAlan,

    BartonAlan BartonAlan Jan 21, 2014 12:25 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2014 12:25 PM in response to Csound1

    Yes, it wiped my Time Machine. Returned the drive to unused state.

     

    I thought I had disabled the WD software.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 21, 2014 12:36 PM in response to BartonAlan
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 21, 2014 12:36 PM in response to BartonAlan

    What did WD say?

  • by BartonAlan,

    BartonAlan BartonAlan Jan 22, 2014 12:08 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2014 12:08 PM in response to Csound1

    They have eventually sent me a link for some "data recovery software". I haven't used it yet, will try it soon, nothing to lose.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 22, 2014 12:10 PM in response to BartonAlan
    Level 9 (51,382 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 22, 2014 12:10 PM in response to BartonAlan

    Good luck.

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