Western Digital Smartware software a nightmare!

Installing WD’s Smartware on my laptop just about wiped out my system! First of all WD Smartware instructions are to disable any anti-virus programs and then install their software. On my first attempt my laptop crashed and would not reboot. A system restore was needed. Not satisfied that Smartware had been conceived by either incompetent or just plain evil developing engineers I tried again. Much to my surprise as the software was installing with Norton 360 disabled (Just as the WD instructions said to do.) I watched the Norton 360 icon vanish from my tray.

Upon trying to launch Norton 360 I received an error which autofix could not find a solution for. (This is not the fault of Symantec.) Several tries later I was still confronting the fact that WD Smartware had killed my Norton 360. Needless to say this was extremely upsetting. After falling back to a previous restore point my Norton 360 was back! (And the WD Smartware was gone.) Be very careful if you want to use WD’s Smartware software! I would strongly recommend staying away from it altogether. I know I will never trust WD software again.

Note: This only concerns Western Digital software and not the drives. I still believe WD drives to be of excellent quality.

I have Norton 360 running and WD DLGDIAG Windows version 1.24.0000 installed. The Data lifeguide diagnostics runs without issue.

Hi Bear_Kris,

 

It was probably not the Western Digital software that caused problems for Norton 360.  More likely, it was the System Restore operation you did.  System Restore frequently breaks Norton programs because Norton is constantly updating its files.  When you restore to an earlier time, some, but not all, of those files are replaced with older versions.  Norton then cannot find the current data that is supposed to be there, and trouble ensues.  Usually, a System Restore will require a Norton reinstallation.  System Restore can cause a lot of problems, and should be used with restraint.