Western Digital MyBook Tip

I’ve had trouble with the Western Digital MyBook staying mounted on the local computer I’ve used — and tried a few computers and all three connectivity options. The trick (so far) seems to be mounting the drive from another network machine. I’ve been connected with the drive accessible for about 24 hours now…

I guess the minimal activity that occurs prevents the drive from sleeping to the point where it unmounts. Since I use this as my main music system, it’s important that it actually be there when I want to hear or see something from iTunes.

I’ve contacted Western Digital support through their site about this issue, but have yet to hear back and given that it’s been weeks I’m not counting on hearing anything either. Until we add true network storage here, this seems to be the answer.

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6 Replies to “Western Digital MyBook Tip”

  1. Hi,

    I seem to be having the same problem. After ~20min my external drive (MyBook) goes to sleep mode and I’m unable to wake it up remotely. I’ve been able to disable this power-savings “feature” so I was wondering how do you mount a drive remotely?

    I only have one machine to where the MyBook is connected.

    Thanks in advance!

  2. My solution is only to use the drive for video editing which means it stays disconnected until I edit. I regret the purchase… it’s loud and unreliable.

    Also interesting to note that I NEVER received a reply from WD on this. Months later. Guess I won’t be purchasing any more of their products.

  3. I've heard if you go into Windows Drive Management and manually assign a drive letter to the MyBook, the drive should stay connected.

    eSATA users having problems may wish to update the MyBook firmware from Western DIgital's web site. I heard this helps greatly with glitchy eSATA issues.

    If you get sick of the MyBook constantly going to sleep every ten minutes, use a free backup utility (snapfiles.com has some good ones) and schedule it to backup a blank txt file every 6 minutes or so. This will fool the MyBook into thinking there is regular activity so it won't sleep.

  4. I've heard if you go into Windows Drive Management and manually assign a drive letter to the MyBook, the drive should stay connected.

    eSATA users having problems may wish to update the MyBook firmware from Western DIgital's web site. I heard this helps greatly with glitchy eSATA issues.

    If you get sick of the MyBook constantly going to sleep every ten minutes, use a free backup utility (snapfiles.com has some good ones) and schedule it to backup a blank txt file every 6 minutes or so. This will fool the MyBook into thinking there is regular activity so it won't sleep.

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