Upgrading OS

[DougStocks]

I presently use an old Mac Mini running Snow Leopard to (1) keep all my programs on the internal HD, (2) all my data on an external HD & (3) a backup of data on a second external HD. These external HDs are, of course, formatted using Snow Leopard. If I upgrade OS to Maverick, will I need to reformat the various HDs and, if so, won't that cause me to loose all my data and programs?

 

[Cory Cooper]

No, you shouldn't have to do anything regarding the HDs. There was a conflict previously with some WD external USB hard drives and their WD Drive Utilities under Mavericks that corrupted user data. I believe it was resolved. It didn't affect any internal drives however.

Here's a link to some information regarding this issue:

Apple working with WD on OS X Mavericks data loss ... - Blogs

Do you have any external WD drives?

As always, just make sure you have a current Time Machine or other backup in place before upgrading.

C

 

[DougStocks]

No, you shouldn't have to do anything regarding the HDs. There was a conflict previously with some WD external USB hard drives and their WD Drive Utilities under Mavericks that corrupted user data. I believe it was resolved. It didn't affect any internal drives however.

Here's a link to some information regarding this issue:

Apple working with WD on OS X Mavericks data loss ... - Blogs

Do you have any external WD drives?

As always, just make sure you have a current Time Machine or other backup in place before upgrading.

C

Oh my! Yes, at least one, possibly both of my external HDs are WD. The data on these drives is much more important to me than the programs on the internal HD; programs can be replaced; photographs can not.

 

[Cory Cooper]

The issue occurred if you had the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and/or WD SmartWare software before upgrading to Mavericks. If don't have them installed, or uninstall them before upgrading to Mavericks, then you will be fine as far as WD states. I haven't heard of any issues since then, after they issued that statement and/or updated their software.

My uncle doesn't have any of those WD apps installed on his iMac running Mavericks and hasn't had an issue yet with his WD drives. You should be OK, but as always, proceed at your own risk.

C

 

[DougStocks]

The issue occurred if you had the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and/or WD SmartWare software before upgrading to Mavericks. If don't have them installed, or uninstall them before upgrading to Mavericks, then you will be fine as far as WD states. I haven't heard of any issues since then, after they issued that statement and/or updated their software.

My uncle doesn't have any of those WD apps installed on his iMac running Mavericks and hasn't had an issue yet with his WD drives. You should be OK, but as always, proceed at your own risk.

C

Sorry to be so thick, but how do I tell if those programs are installed? I did a finder search on the names 'Drive Manager', 'Raid Manager', 'SmartWare' and 'Smart Ware' and found nothing. However when I searched 'content' for the same names, I got lots of hits on each one.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

You can check if the WD software is running by the following steps:

1. In Finder, click on Go in the menu bar, then click Utilities
2. Launch Activity Monitor by double-clicking its icon
3. In the window that opens, click the CPU button/tab towards the bottom of the window
4. Towards the top of the window you will see a drop-down selector that will say My Processes or All Processes. Click it and select All Processes
5. Click on Process Name just able the list of running processes so that it will display them alphabetically
6. Look in the list to see if any start with WD - i.e. WDDriveManagerxxxx, WDRAIDManagerxxxx, WDSmartWarexxxx

If you find some, list them here and I can give you the steps to uninstall them using the appropriate WD installer. You may also have some listed in your System Preferences and/or have icons on the right-hand side of your menu bar if they are running.

C

 

[DougStocks]

No worries.

You can check if the WD software is running by the following steps:

1. In Finder, click on Go in the menu bar, then click Utilities
2. Launch Activity Monitor by double-clicking its icon
3. In the window that opens, click the CPU button/tab towards the bottom of the window
4. Towards the top of the window you will see a drop-down selector that will say My Processes or All Processes. Click it and select All Processes
5. Click on Process Name just able the list of running processes so that it will display them alphabetically
6. Look in the list to see if any start with WD - i.e. WDDriveManagerxxxx, WDRAIDManagerxxxx, WDSmartWarexxxx

If you find some, list them here and I can give you the steps to uninstall them using the appropriate WD installer. You may also have some listed in your System Preferences and/or have icons on the right-hand side of your menu bar if they are running.

C

I followed your steps 1 through 6 and found nothing that started with a WD. Next I clicked on the Apple Logo in upper left corner & opened System Preferences; I saw nothing there that suggested a WD HD, in fact I saw nothing in System Preferences that suggested any HD other than "Startup Disc" under "System." I think that the name "Menu Bar" refers to the bar at the top of the screen. If so, then I see nothing there that suggest WD or any HD.

Thus, if I understand your directions directly, It appears that there is no WD software installed on my machine. Again if I understood correctly, it should be safe to upgrade to Maverick.

Cory Cooper, I very much appreciate your kind patience and assistance.
Thank you so very much ,
Doug Stocks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, it does seem that none of the WD software is installed. You did mention that when you did a content search that you got some hits - what did it find specifically and what type of files/where were the files located?

For peace of mind, you could drop an email to WD Support directly to confirm. Their latest versions of software don't have the issue any longer. When you first purchased the WD HDs, you might have remembered that you installed their software...it isn't an automatic process as far as I know.

As long as you have a current Time Machine backup, you should be good. Anything that is super critical and cannot be lost, I would burn to a CD/DVD as a secondary backup. That's what I do. In fact a second Time Machine backup of your data on another external HD is even better.

I am fairly confident that we have done the due diligence to check for the WD software. Maybe some others here will chime in with suggestions of what we may have missed and/or other ways to check.

More than happy to help,

C

 

[DougStocks]

Yes, it does seem that none of the WD software is installed. You did mention that when you did a content search that you got some hits - what did it find specifically and what type of files/where were the files located?

For peace of mind, you could drop an email to WD Support directly to confirm. Their latest versions of software don't have the issue any longer. When you first purchased the WD HDs, you might have remembered that you installed their software...it isn't an automatic process as far as I know.

As long as you have a current Time Machine backup, you should be good. Anything that is super critical and cannot be lost, I would burn to a CD/DVD as a secondary backup. That's what I do. In fact a second Time Machine backup of your data on another external HD is even better.

I am fairly confident that we have done the due diligence to check for the WD software. Maybe some others here will chime in with suggestions of what we may have missed and/or other ways to check.

More than happy to help,

C

I repeated a search for files whose name or content contained "WD", "Drive Manager"and "Drivemanager" The latter two came up empty. The "WD" had lots of hits, but they all seemed to be text or other files that contained the letters w and d adjacent to each other; such as in the word 'shrewd.'

Once again, thank you very much indeed for your kind assistance.
Doug