Western Digital External HD support

Question

Western Digital External HD support

Just got off the phone (again) with WD support. Unlike others with issues (since 10.6) with these HDs (I have several, including a MyBook HomeEdition 500), I CAN access the HD and move info back and forth with no trouble. What I cannot do (since 10.6) is use it as an external bootable HD (choose it as a startup disc through System Prefs in order to run DiscWarrior and/or TechTool Pro on my home machine's HD, or migrate my entire system back to the home machine if that machine gets corrupted for some reason). I opened a case file with WD when the issue began, and just gave them a call to see how things are progressing.

The support tech ("Albert") informed me that WD and "all external HDs" should NEVER be used as bootable drives, because they run slower than the internal machine drives and they "return errors" when doing so. I explained that I've been using externals for years with no problem, and many others people have, also, and that using SuperDuper (for example) CREATES a bootable system specifically for the above purpose. I asked him if WD is working to correct connectivity issues with 10.6 and he said yes. I then asked if he was telling me that the official stance was that WD did not support booting your home machine from an external WD HD and he said yes.

Obviously, I will be purchasing an external HD from a different vendor as soon as possible. I'm posting this, not to slag WD, but as a head's up to any others with this issue.

iMac 24" G5; iMac G5 17 isight; iPhone 3G, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 12, 2009 7:18 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 12, 2009 7:38 AM in response to The Dude Abides

No slag needed-those drives are junk and have been for a while.

What he probably meant was HIS drives should never be used to boot a computer because they are slow and throw errors

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Answer 2

robnich

Level 3

844 points

Sep 12, 2009 7:57 AM in response to The Dude Abides

Is your external drive a Firewire drive? I have a Western Digital Passport 320GB USB external drive (WD3200ME) and am able to boot from it under MacOS 10.6.1. It appears in the Startup Disk Preference Pane and if I select it as the startup disk, my MacBook boots from it and functions completely normally in all ways.

Perhaps this is a problem with Firewire drives, as my USB drive seems fine with 10.6.1.

Bob N.

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Answer 3

Sep 12, 2009 8:08 AM in response to robnich

Yep- part of the Firewire issues 10.6 brought on with (some) external peripherals (HDs, burners, etc.).

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Answer 4

nkh

Level 1

79 points

Sep 12, 2009 9:14 AM in response to The Dude Abides

I was aware of these reports regarding the incompatibility of WD My Book drives being able to boot via FireWire.

About a week ago I tested one of my WD drives (My Book Studio). It accepted a SuperDuper full backup of 10.6 (subsequently 10.6.1). Booting from the backup presented no observable difficulty. A backup of the system with 10.5.8 (My Book Premium) will be soon challenged with 10.6.1. I hope it works as well.

I think the problem with these drives is real, but quite selective. I have no idea as to how one can determine in advance whether the drive will work with your system:-(

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Answer 5

Sep 12, 2009 12:43 PM in response to The Dude Abides

How are your cables? I know that most drives these days come with very thin, flimsy and not well-shielded interface cables. If you haven't already tried I wonder if a more robust cable might help?

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Answer 6

Sep 12, 2009 1:09 PM in response to DaddyPaycheck

Per my other post here (NOT the cables. I just went and bought a G Drive from the local Mac store. Transferring a new system over now, will post back if it boots):

Just got off the phone (again) with WD support. Unlike others with issues (since 10.6) with these HDs (I have several, including a MyBook HomeEdition 500), I CAN access the HD and move info back and forth with no trouble. What I cannot do (since 10.6) is use it as an external bootable HD (choose it as a startup disc through System Prefs in order to run DiscWarrior and/or TechTool Pro on my home machine's HD, or migrate my entire system back to the home machine if that machine gets corrupted for some reason). I opened a case file with WD when the issue began, and just gave them a call to see how things are progressing.

The support tech ("Albert") informed me that WD and "all external HDs" should NEVER be used as bootable drives, because they run slower than the internal machine drives and they "return errors" when doing so. I explained that I've been using externals for years with no problem, and many others people have, also, and that using SuperDuper (for example) CREATES a bootable system specifically for the above purpose. I asked him if WD is working to correct connectivity issues with 10.6 and he said yes. I then asked if he was telling me that the official stance was that WD did not support booting your home machine from an external WD HD and he said yes.

Obviously, I will be purchasing an external HD from a different vendor as soon as possible. I'm posting this, not to slag WD, but as a head's up to any others with this issue.

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Answer 7

El Deanio

Level 3

805 points

Sep 12, 2009 1:51 PM in response to The Dude Abides

I agree that it is a bit odd the WD tech's comments about never using any external HDD to boot from. What else can one do if the internal is messed up for some reason? Perhaps he means permanently.

Even if it were true (which it might be, but I have never heard this before), one should be able to use an external HDD temporarily as a lifeboat of sorts. In a crisis who cares whether or not the HDD is slow as long as it works and enables recovery of data. Reading 'The Dude's' post, I don't think he was using his external to permanently boot his Mac from in any case.

It may be interesting however to note that when I installed Tiger on my MyBook Premium my old eMac had no trouble booting from it at all. When I got my iMac it came with Tiger installed but with a Leopard update disc. The iMac, even running Tiger, refused to be booted from the MyBook Premium. I thought it was because I lost the System on it when I had to reformat the drive following a balls up where I used a version of Disk Warrior that had not been updated. Lost my Time Machine back ups too. Perhaps I was wrong about this. It's been some time now since late 2007 and I forget the details.

When I get a moment I will install Leopard on the MyBook then see if I can boot from it before upgrading it to Snow Leopard and trying it again.

As for booting from a USB drive, I thought that that was impossible - that it has to be Firewire.

If this has changed and Firewire has been dropped in favour of USB (I have heard rumours that this may be on the way) then this may be at the root of the problem. If this turns out to be correct, then there is likely to be a lot of cheesed off Mac owners out there who have purchased Snow Leopard without being informed about this in advance.

I seriously doubt if this will be the case though. Those at Apple aren't daft.

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Answer 8

Sep 12, 2009 1:51 PM in response to El Deanio

I only use my external (booting) when running DiscWarrior or TechToolPro. Otherwise, I just start it up and move data back and forth, or use superDuper to back up my system. The tech was very clear (because I asked point-black three times) about what I reported. He said they have this info posted on their web site (I did not confirm, I just went and bought a new HD. It's backed-up my system, I'm about to try a boot and see what happens- will report back in a few.

I, too, have heard the USB 3 rumors. apple and others have somewhat confirmed this, and that FW 800 is as far as it will go. Sorta like 8-track in your car 🙂 . As to booting from USB now, mine will not even mount, let alone boot, using USB 2.

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Answer 9

El Deanio

Level 3

805 points

Sep 12, 2009 1:57 PM in response to The Dude Abides

The Dude Abides wrote:
.... He said they have this info posted on their web site.

I think I will try to find this info. It might explain a thing or three.

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Answer 10

Sep 12, 2009 2:02 PM in response to The Dude Abides

Works fine. Identified HD in Startup Disc pane instantly, restarted off the external G Drive 1T (purchased from the Apple Store nearby) in about 25 seconds, writing this now while running my machine off the external. Using FW 800. The HD is formatted GUID (comes that way), Mac Extended + Journaled. I made two partitions, one an 800gb I'm running off of now, and a 200gb just for fun. Gonna run DiscWarrior now to clean up 10.6.1 on the iMac's internal HD, and I even have a working 500GB WD to use for storage. All for $220 + tax and two hours back-up time. Not pleased with WD, but I'm back in business.

Message was edited by: The Dude Abides

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Answer 11

Sep 12, 2009 2:32 PM in response to The Dude Abides

DiscWarrior found 5 small errors. Repaired and rebooted back to internal. Yay, G Drive. Boo, Western Digital. If you don't boot from an external HD, I guess WD is good enough, but, for me, that's just too limiting. I want the freedom to replace my entire system if my machine breaks down, and I want to be able to run diagnostics and repairs that I can't from the machine itself while it is using its own startup disc.

Now, if I could just run my external burner (Pioneer 116D in a Bytecc case) via Firewire again, instead of having to use USB 2, I would say this upgrade is perfect (Canon already released a new driver for my scanner).

Disk: "Macintosh HD"!
Repaired the Available Disk Space of the Volume Information!
Location: "Desktop"!
!
File: "符合 3x5.mkpdf"!
Repaired Text Encoding!
Location: "Macintosh HD/System/Library/Image Capture/Automatic Tasks/MakePDF.app/Contents/Resources/
zh_TW.lproj/"!
!
File: "符合 5x7.mkpdf"!
Repaired Text Encoding!
Location: "Macintosh HD/System/Library/Image Capture/Automatic Tasks/MakePDF.app/Contents/Resources/
zh_TW.lproj/"!
!
File: "符合 4x6.mkpdf"!
Repaired Text Encoding!
Location: "Macintosh HD/System/Library/Image Capture/Automatic Tasks/MakePDF.app/Contents/Resources/
zh_TW.lproj/"!
!
File: "符合 8x10.mkpdf"!
Repaired Text Encoding!
Location: "Macintosh HD/System/Library/Image Capture/Automatic Tasks/MakePDF.app/Contents/Resources/
zh_TW.lproj/"!

Message was edited by: The Dude Abides

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Answer 12

Sep 12, 2009 2:44 PM in response to The Dude Abides

I have several WD Home Edition that can use Firewire or USB...

I have no problems booting off the drives with either 10.5 or 10.6 or 10.6.1 connected via Firewire 800 to 400 adapter.

Are you positive you have formatted the external drives using the GUID partition map?
If you are using the Apple partition map, they will not boot.

Again, mine work just fine and I see no difference in running from the Internal or the external as the speeds are both 5200 I believe...

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Answer 13

Sep 12, 2009 3:10 PM in response to Joseph Kriz

Once I clear off the WD, I will look at formatting before I wipe it, but as I said, WD support told me they do not recommend using any of these drives as a start-up, bootable disc. Only to transfer info back and forth. And, yes, it/they worked fine in 10.4 and 10.5, whatever the format is/was. Only, as I said, in 10.6, the drive was not seen in Startup Disc. I'm not as concerned with why as I am with it doesn't work under a new OS. It worked, now it doesn't, it's replaced. If yours will start up your machine, more power to you, you just saved a couple of hundred bucks and some time. On my 1-year old iMac 24" in perfect running order and with no hacks or other strangeness on it, WD is a doorstop when it comes to 10.6 and running as the startup disc. The G is running 7200rpm, according to the box it came in. It was seen, it started up, I was able to run diagnostics on my internal drive, I'm happy now.

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Answer 14

Sep 13, 2009 8:54 AM in response to The Dude Abides

I'm another unhappy WD external drive owner. I just installed SL this week, and today I wanted to restart from my external drive (Icy Dock enclosure with WD inside) to do some DiskWarrior maintenance but it wouldn't mount.

Is the consensus here that I have to buy a drive from a different manufacturer in order to boot from it? What brands of internal drives (in an external enclosure) will work? I already have a great enclosure, just need the drive itself.

Message was edited by: Badlydrawnboy

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Answer 15

Sep 13, 2009 10:26 AM in response to Badlydrawnboy

WD tech support told me three times (I kept asking in disbelief) that their machines (giving him the benefit of the doubt, I was talking about a Home Edition, but it sounded like ALL WDs) are not to be used as a startup drive due to slower speeds than the internal, and that they "throw" errors. Sounded like what comes out of a dog's hindquarters (no, not fleas) to me. He also referenced a FAQ on their home page stating the same, but at that moment I had moved past WD and haven't bothered to look for it. My G Drive works great, started right up (GUID format from the git go), and is prettier, too. Ran DW and all now is happy. Some have reported success here with WDs, my experience was more... unhappy..., and I guess you can either wait for Apple to fix 10.6 firewire, WD to fix connectivity, read the FAQ and realize WD doesn't intend for their stuff to boot, or buy a new one. Not a consensus, just one man's opinion.

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