WD My Book doesn't power down

Finally got a reply from Western Digital with reference to the Button Manager, it reads,

"Unfortunately, the button Manager isn't compatible with 10.5 yet. As soon as an update is available it will be posted on our download page, but we don't have a date".

Wow..... They're a helpful bunch of people !

: )

Question to all WD MyBook Pro users who connect via Firewire 400/800 do you still connect the separate power supply ? Or do you power your drives via bus power ?

- Neil

I have a similar problem.

I have two external drives connected to my iMac G5 - an Iomega firewire disk and a Maxtor usb disk. While my iMac is switched on, the disks both go to sleep (but not the iMac itself...) after a period of inactivity, just as they did under Tiger. Which is also what I want them to do.

However, if I Shut Down the iMac, only the Iomega disk shuts down - the Maxtor continues to spin. Unfortunately I have no clue as to why and as such hope it is a bug that can and will be fixed by Apple.

All the best,
Espen 🙂

Espen,

Your issue sounds more like a Maxtor bug than a Leopard one. If the Mac is off, the drive should detect that and go to sleep. Check Maxtors support.

Are both drives powered the same way? If one is using the USB to power it and the other has its own power source maybe that is the difference?

Lethal

Thanks for your reply.

I have thought along the same lines as you and will look more for support at Maxtor.
Regarding power supply, both drives have external/their own power sources.

On a daily basis it is not a huge problem, as I normally leave my computer on and let it go to sleep (and the external drives have no problems going to sleep), but it is slightly annoying when I am away for some time and have to unplug the Maxtor.

Anyway - thank you for responding.

All the best,
Espen 🙂

lethal wrote:
Why do you need button manager?

I found I never used it - and also saw a number of console messages detailing errors with it.

Unless you actively use it - don't install it.

Right -- it looked to me as though he was asking how to uninstall it once it's been installed, not how to install it. I'm in the same boat: trying to uninstall it and coming up empty.

I've scoured the WD site, and though they say it's a necessary component of the firmware update process ("You must first stop and uninstall the WD Button Manager program before upgrading the firmware on your MY Book Pro or My Book Premium device."), they don't give any instructions as to how to uninstall the button manager. Pretty lame.

Just so people don't chime in with the obvious answers ... 🙂 Yes, I've done a thorough search of my computer for "WD" and/or "button," and yes I've checked the installer for an uninstall option. I've even done a Google search for anyone else in the same boat who figured it out. No luck.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I found a way to uninstall the button manager!.

Just fire up the terminal and type "sudo /usr/bin/uninstall-WDButtonManager". After typing your pasword you are told "Please restart your system to finish the un-installation of the WD Button Manager." Pretty sweet 🙂

Edit: Just to be fair, I found the tip on this site. Thanks Carl!

You may find this report relevant. Note in particular the lack of responsiveness to Energy Saver settings, which may relate to the matter being discussed in this thread.

Nice work! Thanks for finding this. I tried Googling every phrase I could think of, and didn't run across that page.

I wonder why Spotlight didn't find the uninstaller ... hmmm, I guess it just doesn't look in hidden directories like /usr/bin.

What's especially galling is that Western Digital doesn't have this simple line of code in their knowledge base. Amazing.

Espen S. wrote:
However, if I Shut Down the iMac, only the Iomega disk shuts down - the Maxtor continues to spin. Unfortunately I have no clue as to why and as such hope it is a bug that can and will be fixed by Apple.

As lethal indicated, this is unfortunately a Maxtor bug in the drive's firmware. My Maxtor external HD used to do exactly the same thing.

I finally sold it and bought a WD drive, have had few problems with it. (Though if I had it to do over yet again, I might have bought a La Cie instead ... each brand has its fans.)

For every one hame my problem and must shut down only with "fouce quit" (pushing for 5 second the button present on the external HD.

from WDigital support:
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Discussion Thread
Response 01/15/2008 05:09 AM
We are working on an updated button manager for Leopard, I will keep you informed. It should be in the downloads library by the end of February.

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By
AleX