WDFME.exe RAM hog

[Dave_Bar_Net]

I stopped all the WDFME services and set them to manual What a resource hog!

[wotasillybilly]

I bought this to backup my music making work. It's only a hobby, but thought it was a great solution. Only now, my music making software won't even run properly because all the RAM is used up.

At first I thought my main hard drive was dying so purchased a new on, ready to reinstall EVERYTHING from scratch. I then thought to download some disk checking utilities and no errors could be found. I even bought a new heatsync graphics card so that the sound of the fan on my old one wouldn't disguise the noise of a dying hard drive.

I was going to buy another of these drives for my folks since the bundled software would suit them down to the ground. This would have killed their very basic machine.

What worries me here is that I consider myself a moderately experienced computer user - I've used forums to get rid of some pretty nasty virus in the past, have built the system myself and tweaked it. I just figured the first backup put too much strain on my original hard drive. It's only by chance that I decided to look into the resource monitor while looking for another service for my music software that I found this to be the source of the problem. People all over the place will be taking their machines into local computer repair places and getting ripped off to have a repair done which isn't required....it'll be "you need more RAM" or "your hard drive needs replacing" or "the motherboard needs replacing".

I'm pretty sure I registered my product when I purchased it and it certainly did a software update after installing - so tell me.....why haven't WD done a very simple thing of emailing the people who have registered? and why not even an incremental software update which simply has a popup message to tell  people about the issue? Nevermind the rants about whether this is free or not - simple communication on this issue would help a lot of people.

[Dave_Bar_Net]

Go to  SERVICES and look for WD File Management Engine, WD File Management Shadow Engine, and WDDMService and stop them. I set mine to Manual, and it was like adding 3 to 4 Gig of memory.

I use Norton Ghost for backup, but you could use the Windows backup instead. The WD software is not worth running.

[Dave_Bar_Net]

I did the same for Vista 64. Stopping the WD services freed up my RAM considerably. Thanks for the memory!

[Naejtreb]

I will buy a new HD that not pretend to be anything else. I will select my data folders, and copy it to the HD using the date as naming.

I'm tired of all those process that run in the background and taking ressources and causing everything to slow down and my fan to run at max.

ASUS G50V, 6 Go RAM, XP

Hope my experience will help others to keep it simple and more happy.

[tkmax]

I am another disgruntled cutomer. WD simplly dont seem to have the customer services or hospitality in place to take us seriously! I decided to buy WD Studiobook after reading through many reviews, they must have a seriously large amount of ghost review writers out there because it is a nightmare to run!

It is not slick, easy to use or even work properly.  Having to stop WDFME.exe manually the whole time when it starts to kick up a fuss when i havnt even got the drive attached is a serious design flaw, its been mentioned in many forums already why the *&%^ arnt WD listening and doing something about it pronto? I wont be buying WD again, im looking even at getting another 1TB drive and just ditching this one. I can't be arsed to go through the hasstle of deleting stuff off it etc etc and reselling it. Segate here I come!

[rg_9999]

    I am a software engineer with 20+ years of experience.  From the postings in this forum and discussions with WD support, I am 100% convinced that the WD software developers do not understand the cause of the problem or how to solve it.

    Is there some way I can have a dialog with knowledgeable WD software developers to discuss the cause and solution?  If possible, please send me an email to get a dialog started.  As one support person had said, "Western Digital is a hardware company.  Software is not their forte...."

    I am frustrated like many other customers.  If WD does not resolve this problem soon, I will be forced to throw away my My Book Live and buy another back-up drive from a competitor.

[OldGuy61]

Hey rg_9999, I'm an IT professional w/ 25+ years experience, so I've got you beat.  8-)

I think I know why WD can't figure out the cause of the problem. Here is what I've got going on.

2 Laptops running WD Smartware version 1.5.1.6. In Laptop #1, wdfme.exe uses 5.5 MB RAM. In Laptop #2, wdfme.exe uses as much RAM as it can get (~3.1 to 3.3. GB)

Both laptops have:

- Windows 7, version 6.1, build 7601, SP1

- Seagate ST9500325AS drives

- HD driver is Microsoft, date of 6/21/2006, version 6.1.7600.16385

- 4GB RAM

So what is the difference between the laptops?

Laptop #1Laptop #2

Data85 GB100 GB (many more picture files from digital camara)

Disk Frag13 %7%

MakeToshibaAsus

Processor4xI3 M380 2.53Ghz2xPentium T4400 2.20 Ghz

So is it the extra files? Toshiba vs. Asus? I3 quad vs. dual Pentium?

After stopping the wdfm service on the Asus I am running defrag on both laptops. I've noticed it is taking significantly longer on the ASUS.  Could it be the Pentium processors? (can't believe 15 GB extra data would cause a significant defrag delay).

After I defrag the ASUS (still waiting....on pass 7)  I'm going to restart WDFM. If it still hogs, I'm going to see if there is a new MS driver for the HD.

If that still doesn't work, then I'm going to punt.

Hope this helps you and/or anyone else on this board.

[OldGuy61]

So, to continue the Saga....

-Asus finished defrag faster than the Toshiba (perhaps it's not the processor)

- Determined no new drivers for Seagate hard drive

- Restarted WDFME......immediately began to grab memory at a linear rate. Terminated the process when it got to 1.5 GB RAM

- Uninstalled WD SmartWare

- Applied all outstanding Win 7 patches (about 4 or 5 .Net Framework 3.5.1 Security Patches)

- Reinstalled WD SmartWare from external drive (version 1.4.1.1)......memory usage was stable/reasonable.

- Upgraded WD SmarWare to latest version (1.5.1.6)......first 1/2 hour memory usage is stable/reasonable.

So, in my case, the last 4 steps fixed the problem. Not sure if applying recent security patches for .Net Framework is needed or if just an uninstall/install would have done the trick. At this point, I don't really care as it appears I'm good to go.

Again, hope this helps folks who are experiencing simiar issues w/ this software.

[cman548]

well the support page for smartware states

NOTE: To update to this version of WD SmartWare, you need the following minimum requirements:

• Windows XP 32-bit Service Pack 3, Windows XP 64-bit Service Pack 2, Windows Vista or Windows 7.
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher installed on your computer.

  If you don't already have the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your computer, you will be prompted to install it.
  
  

  • Click here to download the Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework SP1 updater
  • Follow the instructions as prompted.
  • Rerun the WD SmartWare software updater.
• Internet Explorer 7 or higher.

so having the most current net 3.5 probably is a good idea...