WDSmartWare.exe is taking too much resources CPU and RAM

[JazzAzz]

Hello. Recently I noticed my PC running slow, suspecting that maybe I had one too many Malware/spyware security programs running in the background. Looked at my task manager and saw that it is the WDSmartware eating up so much processor usage. Being too fearful to remove it, thinking what if I need it in the future, I went to my PC's Start up by going to the START Menu's>>Run>>Type in "misconfig" (Without the quotes)>>Startup, and then UNchecked WDSmartware. Knocked the processor usage way down.

Still thinking about firing it though, since I use this 3rd party program to do my Backups:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp

[BrianWor]

Hi Mike

It is obvious WD is not interested in problems of thjeir making so could you tell me which ';competitor' HD you are using and whay software.  Thanks.

BrianWor

[Alice_2]

I purchased a My Passport Essential SE 750 GB to replace a WD Dual Option 160 GB that I thought was failing.  Anyway my pc has a 2.6 GHZ processor and 3 GB ram. The WD Smartware is not worth the time to install and set it up and wait the many hours it took to gather files and back them up.  It also doesn't  backup many files and folders (like Program Files, Windows, etc.) and you really have no choices for what to backup and when.  It is a sad excuse for a backup.  It hogged so much memory it wasn't funny.  Not to mention the "write delayed failed" errors and the multiple event id 51 in event viewer.

I did call WD support and really didn't get much help there.  They told me the same things I already new and could find on the web by doing a search.  So then I installed a PCI USB card because I thought maybe my usb bandwidth was low because of all my other USB devices and a new HP printer in the last few months.  But until I uninstalled the "Smartware" I still had the errors even though they were fewer with the new USB card.   So I suspect I was getting low on usb bandwidth.  Of course when I did this I had to install the SES driver so I didn't get the new hardware message on every reboot.

I will continue to use the Retrospect backup program (I got with the old Dual Option drive 6 years ago) to backup my pc to the WD Essential drive.  At least with that program I can schedule the backup time.  Even though it can't backup open files (which varies from 30 to 60 out almost 200,000 files on the pc) it's way better than the so called "Smartware".