nas - How to prevent WD MyBook Live Duo from going to sleep?

08
2014-07
  • Chris Pietschmann

    I have an issue of my WD MyBook Live Duo going into some kind of low power standby mode when it hasn't been accessed for awhile. When I try accessing the drive it takes a minute or two to become responsive. When this happens Windows Explorer says the drive is unavailable. If I'm accessing the drive regularly throughout the day then this issue doesn't occur.

    Does anyone know of a way to make the drive more readily accessible on demand?

    • Answers
  • LDC3

    Open Control Panel, Power Options. On the left choose, Change when my Computer Sleeps. It has an option for powering down the drive.

  • Chris Pietschmann

    1) Go to the "System" settings pane in the Administrative website for the device

    2) Expand the "Energy Saver" section

    3) Uncheck "Hard Disk Sleep"

    This will prevent the hard drives within the WD MyBook Live Duo from going to low power sleep mode, and will make the drive more readily accessible.

    Note: I have tried this in the past with this particular drive and it did not work. There have been a couple firmware updates since then (it's been a couple years) and now it appears to work properly. Also worth noting that this may decrease the lifetime of your drives within the device.


    • Related Question

    osx - How do I remove a MyBook's "WD SmartWare" virtual CD from my desktop?
  • Questioner

    I recently got a Western Digital MyBook external hard drive to enable Time Machine. It has its software installed on a "virtual CD" called "WD SmartWare" which shows up on the desktop any time the drive is plugged in. Since I will use this virtual drive only very rarely, how can I hide it from the desktop, while allowing other CDs to show up?


    • Related Answers
  • Seasoned Advice (cooking)

    WD has posted the steps to remove the Smartware and its VCD, Mac or Windows...

    STEP 1: Firmware Update: Release 2.003 (3/4/10)

    Before running the Virtual CD Manager, you must first update the firmware on your hard drive.

    1. Disconnect all other external drives from the computer except for the My Book or My Passport drive you want to update.

    2. Ensure that the My Book or My Passport drive is connected to a USB port on your computer.

    3. Download the Firmware Updater for Windows.

    4. Unzip the file and double click to open the Firmware Updater.

    5. Click Continue to update the firmware.

    6. Click Accept the End User's License Agreement (EULA). The updater will scan the drive which may take a few minutes.

    7. Verify the attached drive's serial number located on the back of the drive.

    8. Click Update Firmware.

    9. Once the updater is finished, click Exit.

    10. Turn off the drive - For My Passport, disconnect the USB cable. For My Book disconnect both USB and power cables.

    11. Wait 10 seconds. Reconnect the USB/power cables.

    STEP 2: Download and run the VCD Manager

    1. Download VCD Manager for Windows.(WDSmartWareVirtualCDManagerforWindows-v1.0.7.4.zip) to your desktop.

    2. Unzip the utility (Extract the file using an extraction utility.)

    3. Double click WDSmartWareVirtualCDManagerforWindows-v1.0.7.4.exe.

    4. Click Continue to disable the VCD.

    5. Once the utility has found your drive, click Configure Drive and then click Exit.

    6. Turn off the drive - For My Passport, disconnect the USB cable. For My Book disconnect both USB and power cables.

    7. Wait 10 seconds. Reconnect the USB/power cables that have been disconnected in the previous step.

    8. Verify that the VCD no longer appears.