WD external drive queries

I have two questions about the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external hard
drive I recently bought:

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files. I saved the
user manual on my hard drive, I'll delete the apps for the Mac, and I
suppose I could keep the 9-page EULA in English (but not in the other 15
or so languages) somewhere. I don't plan to use the WD backup software.
Do I need any of the rest of what's on the drive?

The rest:

In the folder Extras is the folder WD SES Device Driver, which consists
of four files: wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys.

In the folder WD Apps for Windows is the folder XP64, which contains
wic_x64_enu.exe.

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi

--
Thank you,
Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne wrote:
I have two questions about the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external hard
drive I recently bought:

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

I would.

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files. I saved the
user manual on my hard drive, I'll delete the apps for the Mac, and I
suppose I could keep the 9-page EULA in English (but not in the other 15
or so languages) somewhere. I don't plan to use the WD backup software.
Do I need any of the rest of what's on the drive?

The rest:

In the folder Extras is the folder WD SES Device Driver, which consists
of four files: wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys.

In the folder WD Apps for Windows is the folder XP64, which contains
wic_x64_enu.exe.

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi

I have three drives like yours. I deleted all the supplied files, with
no apparent consequences.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

Jo-Anne wrote:
WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files.

WD SES Device Driver

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...aHd0bQ%3D% 3D
What is the SES driver, why is it needed, and how to get the driver
popup to stop

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=940
Automatic backup software - WD SmartWare

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...rive-utilities
How to set up and use WD Security & WD Drive Utilities

--
Mike Easter

On 8/9/2015 5:21 PM, Mike Barnes wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
I have two questions about the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external hard
drive I recently bought:

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

I would.

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files. I saved the
user manual on my hard drive, I'll delete the apps for the Mac, and I
suppose I could keep the 9-page EULA in English (but not in the other 15
or so languages) somewhere. I don't plan to use the WD backup software.
Do I need any of the rest of what's on the drive?

The rest:

In the folder Extras is the folder WD SES Device Driver, which consists
of four files: wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys.

In the folder WD Apps for Windows is the folder XP64, which contains
wic_x64_enu.exe.

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi

I have three drives like yours. I deleted all the supplied files, with
no apparent consequences.


Thank you, Mike! I bought three also. This is the first of them. I've
assumed the rest are the same. Good to know I can delete this stuff.

--
Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne wrote:
I have two questions about the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external hard
drive I recently bought:

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files. I saved the
user manual on my hard drive, I'll delete the apps for the Mac, and I
suppose I could keep the 9-page EULA in English (but not in the other 15
or so languages) somewhere. I don't plan to use the WD backup software.
Do I need any of the rest of what's on the drive?

The rest:

In the folder Extras is the folder WD SES Device Driver, which consists
of four files: wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys.

In the folder WD Apps for Windows is the folder XP64, which contains
wic_x64_enu.exe.

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi


You can use this utility...

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

What you'd be looking for, is if the drive
presents itself as a "Composite" device.

One way to do USB storage, is like this.

USB +----- USB Mass Storage (the disk drive)
Composite |
-----+-------+
|
+----- USB (Fake) optical drive

One reason for building enclosure chips like that, is
if you want to jam driver software into the
Windows computer of the user.

Say, for example, the drive supports encryption. Maybe
you need some whizzy feature installed, to present
the key to the computer every time you want to use it.

A good example of this sort of composite device,
was a video dongle. It had USB on one end, and a VGA or
DVI connector on the other end. You could connect a third,
fourth, or fifth computer monitor to the computer.
It used the "fake" optical drive trick, to jam a
video driver into the computer as soon as possible.
This would allow a WinXP user to view their third
monitor right away. Only downside of the approach,
is if the same USB toy from 2003 is plugged into Windows 8,
the INF contents don't match for Windows 8, and you
have to add a driver manually. In other words,
the fake CD doesn't really cover every user or usage
case.

So when you reported

"Windows said it had no drivers"

that was likely to be true. At t=0, it didn't
have a driver. But once AutoRun, AutoPlay, Fake Optical
drive ot whatever got finished with it, the wdcsam.inf
ran and installed something.

SES apparently stands for SCSI Enclosure Services.

"describes how to disable the virtual cdrom
and SES device (this device provides the encryption feature)"

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Porta...per/td-p/22734

So that suggests it is a composite device, it was made composite
to jam in the encryption support driver (SCSI Enclosure Services).

I personally analyse my purchases quite carefully for this
sort of stuff. Do I need encryption ? Many people do, but
I don't. Consequently, I'm careful to buy devices with

1) No U3 capability (portable software launcher)
2) No reports of fake CD
3) No encryption (which can lead to data loss
if there is ever a problem with the key system)
4) Pricing smells of "business class". Jacking the
price because you feel only business people will
buy one.

There are still reasons to buy expensive devices, such as
a USB flash key claimed to use SLC flash chips. Those
support more write cycles than the average 32GB TLC
flash stick of today.

Can you delete the files ? Yes, if you never plan on
doing more than just storing files on the drive. I would
probably store the driver files somewhere safe, if ever
a situation arises where, somehow, the encryption got
turned on. You wouldn't have the key, so even if the
software was workable, you'd have no viable escape
from your problems.

The disk drive companies have threatened to protect
*all* disk drives with encryption. In the fullness of
time, there will be no Luddite position possible, such
as the one I espouse. And we'll have to deal with
development of a "best-practices" for the new drives.

Paul

http://flashdba.com/2014/07/03/under...c-mlc-and-tlc/

--

--
No signature

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On 8/9/2015 5:29 PM, Mike Easter wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files.

WD SES Device Driver

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...aHd0bQ%3D% 3D
What is the SES driver, why is it needed, and how to get the driver
popup to stop

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=940
Automatic backup software - WD SmartWare

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...rive-utilities
How to set up and use WD Security & WD Drive Utilities


Thank you, Mike. Now I'm not sure what to do. When I plug in the drive,
it takes several seconds to show up, but it does finally do that.

However, when I click on Devices and Printers in Control Panel, the WD
drive shows up with a yellow triangle and exclamation point. If I
right-click on it and then click on Troubleshooting, I get "Install a
driver for this device. The driver for WD SES Device USB Device is not
installed. Install the latest driver for this device." I can then choose
to apply the fix or skip it and continue troubleshooting.

I don't want the WD Security or Drive Utilities or its automatic backup
software. But do I need to install its SES driver? I'm not getting
prompted to do so; it's just that I see the warning in Control Panel.

--
Thank you again,
Jo-Anne

On 8/9/2015 5:40 PM, Paul wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
I have two questions about the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external hard
drive I recently bought:

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can
I assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files. I saved the
user manual on my hard drive, I'll delete the apps for the Mac, and I
suppose I could keep the 9-page EULA in English (but not in the other
15 or so languages) somewhere. I don't plan to use the WD backup
software. Do I need any of the rest of what's on the drive?

The rest:

In the folder Extras is the folder WD SES Device Driver, which
consists of four files: wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys.

In the folder WD Apps for Windows is the folder XP64, which contains
wic_x64_enu.exe.

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi


You can use this utility...

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

What you'd be looking for, is if the drive
presents itself as a "Composite" device.

One way to do USB storage, is like this.

USB +----- USB Mass Storage (the disk drive)
Composite |
-----+-------+
|
+----- USB (Fake) optical drive

One reason for building enclosure chips like that, is
if you want to jam driver software into the
Windows computer of the user.

Say, for example, the drive supports encryption. Maybe
you need some whizzy feature installed, to present
the key to the computer every time you want to use it.

A good example of this sort of composite device,
was a video dongle. It had USB on one end, and a VGA or
DVI connector on the other end. You could connect a third,
fourth, or fifth computer monitor to the computer.
It used the "fake" optical drive trick, to jam a
video driver into the computer as soon as possible.
This would allow a WinXP user to view their third
monitor right away. Only downside of the approach,
is if the same USB toy from 2003 is plugged into Windows 8,
the INF contents don't match for Windows 8, and you
have to add a driver manually. In other words,
the fake CD doesn't really cover every user or usage
case.

So when you reported

"Windows said it had no drivers"

that was likely to be true. At t=0, it didn't
have a driver. But once AutoRun, AutoPlay, Fake Optical
drive ot whatever got finished with it, the wdcsam.inf
ran and installed something.

SES apparently stands for SCSI Enclosure Services.

"describes how to disable the virtual cdrom
and SES device (this device provides the encryption feature)"

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Porta...per/td-p/22734


So that suggests it is a composite device, it was made composite
to jam in the encryption support driver (SCSI Enclosure Services).

I personally analyse my purchases quite carefully for this
sort of stuff. Do I need encryption ? Many people do, but
I don't. Consequently, I'm careful to buy devices with

1) No U3 capability (portable software launcher)
2) No reports of fake CD
3) No encryption (which can lead to data loss
if there is ever a problem with the key system)
4) Pricing smells of "business class". Jacking the
price because you feel only business people will
buy one.

There are still reasons to buy expensive devices, such as
a USB flash key claimed to use SLC flash chips. Those
support more write cycles than the average 32GB TLC
flash stick of today.

Can you delete the files ? Yes, if you never plan on
doing more than just storing files on the drive. I would
probably store the driver files somewhere safe, if ever
a situation arises where, somehow, the encryption got
turned on. You wouldn't have the key, so even if the
software was workable, you'd have no viable escape
from your problems.

The disk drive companies have threatened to protect
*all* disk drives with encryption. In the fullness of
time, there will be no Luddite position possible, such
as the one I espouse. And we'll have to deal with
development of a "best-practices" for the new drives.

Paul


Thank you, Paul. I checked the website, and the instructions are for
Windows XP. I couldn't find quite where to go in Windows 7. I did find
in Device Manager that the drive itself was listed under Disk drives.
The SES device was listed under Other devices. I suppose I could
reformat the hard drive, although that seems excessive. Would just
removing all the files (I could "store" them on my internal hard drive
just in case) keep encryption from being turned on and remove the
"warning" in Devices and Printers?

All I want to do is use the drive for backups. I'd use either Acronis
imaging or Macrium Reflect Free imaging. I've bought WD external drives
before (up to 320 GB) and never had all this garbage on them.

--
Thank you again,
Jo-Anne

On 8/9/2015 7:31 PM, Ken1943 wrote:
On Sun, 09 Aug 2015 19:09:29 -0500, Jo-Anne
wrote:

On 8/9/2015 5:29 PM, Mike Easter wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files.

WD SES Device Driver

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...aHd0bQ%3D% 3D
What is the SES driver, why is it needed, and how to get the driver
popup to stop

In the same Apps folder are these files:
dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
WD SES Driver Setup.msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x64).msi
WD SmartWare Setup (x86).msi
WDDriveUtilitiesSetup.msi
WDSecuritySetup.msi

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=940
Automatic backup software - WD SmartWare

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...rive-utilities
How to set up and use WD Security & WD Drive Utilities


Thank you, Mike. Now I'm not sure what to do. When I plug in the drive,
it takes several seconds to show up, but it does finally do that.

However, when I click on Devices and Printers in Control Panel, the WD
drive shows up with a yellow triangle and exclamation point. If I
right-click on it and then click on Troubleshooting, I get "Install a
driver for this device. The driver for WD SES Device USB Device is not
installed. Install the latest driver for this device." I can then choose
to apply the fix or skip it and continue troubleshooting.

I don't want the WD Security or Drive Utilities or its automatic backup
software. But do I need to install its SES driver? I'm not getting
prompted to do so; it's just that I see the warning in Control Panel.

I found the driver. Do a search Western Digital SES driver


Ken1943


Thank you, Ken. My question was whether this driver is needed.

--
Jo-Anne

On 8/9/2015 8:07 PM, Ken1943 wrote:


Thank you, Ken. My question was whether this driver is needed.


http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...river-popup-to


Ken1943


Thank you, Ken. I looked at that page before. As far as I can tell, I
don't need the SES driver, and I can't disable the virtual CD. I've
moved all the files off the WD drive. Now I'll try to use it the way I
normally do.

--
Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne wrote:
Mike Easter wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files.

WD SES Device Driver

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...aHd0bQ%3D% 3D

What is the SES driver, why is it needed, and how to get the driver
popup to stop

In the same Apps folder are these files:

WD SES Driver Setup.msi

Thank you, Mike. Now I'm not sure what to do. When I plug in the drive,
it takes several seconds to show up, but it does finally do that.

However, when I click on Devices and Printers in Control Panel, the WD
drive shows up with a yellow triangle and exclamation point. If I
right-click on it and then click on Troubleshooting, I get "Install a
driver for this device. The driver for WD SES Device USB Device is not
installed. Install the latest driver for this device." I can then choose
to apply the fix or skip it and continue troubleshooting.

I don't want the WD Security or Drive Utilities or its automatic backup
software. But do I need to install its SES driver? I'm not getting
prompted to do so; it's just that I see the warning in Control Panel.

I believe that if the SES driver didn't get installed 'by itself' (from
Win accessing the WD files), then you need to help it get installed.
The yellow triangle and exclamation point are a problem that needs to be
resolved.

The link provided earlier discusses how the SES driver can get itself
solved or the alternative.


--
Mike Easter

Jo-Anne wrote:
On 8/9/2015 8:07 PM, Ken1943 wrote:


Thank you, Ken. My question was whether this driver is needed.


http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...river-popup-to



Ken1943


Thank you, Ken. I looked at that page before. As far as I can tell, I
don't need the SES driver, and I can't disable the virtual CD. I've
moved all the files off the WD drive. Now I'll try to use it the way I
normally do.


They offer downloads here, if you want to try installing.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5419

The reason the SmartWare package is so big, is it has
a copy of .NET 3.5 in it. Which for a lot of people
would be totally unnecessary.

The driver package is pretty small. 378,553 bytes for the x64 one.
When you unzip it, there is a .msi file inside. Which
Windows Installer should install for you.

http://download.wdc.com/smartware/WD..._Setup_x64.zip

Inside the .msi file, are the four files you located previously.
This is what Windows would be installing. When Windows installs
wdcsam.inf, it will change the name to OEM23.inf to prevent name
collisions (oemxx.inf). But one of the other files should show
up on C: in a way that you can find in a search.

wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys

Paul

On Sun, 09 Aug 2015 16:42:34 -0500, Jo-Anne
wrote:

I have two questions about the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external hard
drive I recently bought:

1. When I first plugged in this drive, Windows said it had no drivers
for it. Before I could figure out what to do next, the drive and its
files showed up in Explorer and I was able to "safely remove" it and
plug it in again without getting any further notice about drivers. Can I
assume all is OK now as far as Windows is concerned?

Yes. At least until you plug the external into a new machine, at which
point it will do the same thing.

AFAIK with external drives like these Windows isn't so much installing
new drivers as identifying the drive as an external storage device and
using pre-existing drivers built into the OS.

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files. I saved the
user manual on my hard drive, I'll delete the apps for the Mac, and I
suppose I could keep the 9-page EULA in English (but not in the other 15
or so languages) somewhere. I don't plan to use the WD backup software.
Do I need any of the rest of what's on the drive?

Generally no. Depending on the drive the software may include
diagnostic software, backup software, encryption software and "cloud
storage" software but if you don't intend to use any of these features
(and honestly, there are far better alternatives anyway) then you can
safely ignore or delete them.

IIRC, the SES Driver is the encryption software. Smartware is the
backup part of the Suite and Drive Utilities is the diagnostic part of
the Western Digital suite.

I use WD externals and generally I just move all that crap to a new
folder I call "Software". Then I drop a custom icon into the root of
the drive and edit the autorun.inf file to make it easier to identify
the drive when browsing in Explorer.

On 8/10/2015 6:44 AM, Paul wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
On 8/9/2015 8:07 PM, Ken1943 wrote:


Thank you, Ken. My question was whether this driver is needed.


http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...river-popup-to



Ken1943


Thank you, Ken. I looked at that page before. As far as I can tell, I
don't need the SES driver, and I can't disable the virtual CD. I've
moved all the files off the WD drive. Now I'll try to use it the way I
normally do.


They offer downloads here, if you want to try installing.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5419

The reason the SmartWare package is so big, is it has
a copy of .NET 3.5 in it. Which for a lot of people
would be totally unnecessary.

The driver package is pretty small. 378,553 bytes for the x64 one.
When you unzip it, there is a .msi file inside. Which
Windows Installer should install for you.

http://download.wdc.com/smartware/WD..._Setup_x64.zip

Inside the .msi file, are the four files you located previously.
This is what Windows would be installing. When Windows installs
wdcsam.inf, it will change the name to OEM23.inf to prevent name
collisions (oemxx.inf). But one of the other files should show
up on C: in a way that you can find in a search.

wdcsam.cat
wdcsam.inf
wdcsam.sys
wdcsam64.sys

Paul


Thank you, Paul. Last night I moved all the folders and files from the
WD drive to a folder on my hard drive, so I have the above setups if I
decide to use them. I backed up (imaged) the hard drive to the stripped
down WD drive; and as far as I can tell, everything backed up normally.
Today I'll try to "copy" some of the files to a folder on my hard drive,
to make sure they're readable.

If everything is working, then the only disadvantage I can see to not
installing the SES driver is that when I look at the WD drive in Control
Panel, it shows the warning that I'm missing that driver.

--
Jo-Anne

On 8/10/2015 2:41 AM, Mike Easter wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
Mike Easter wrote:
Jo-Anne wrote:
WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB external

2. The drive came with a whole bunch of folders and files.

WD SES Device Driver

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/...aHd0bQ%3D% 3D


What is the SES driver, why is it needed, and how to get the driver
popup to stop

In the same Apps folder are these files:

WD SES Driver Setup.msi

Thank you, Mike. Now I'm not sure what to do. When I plug in the drive,
it takes several seconds to show up, but it does finally do that.

However, when I click on Devices and Printers in Control Panel, the WD
drive shows up with a yellow triangle and exclamation point. If I
right-click on it and then click on Troubleshooting, I get "Install a
driver for this device. The driver for WD SES Device USB Device is not
installed. Install the latest driver for this device." I can then choose
to apply the fix or skip it and continue troubleshooting.

I don't want the WD Security or Drive Utilities or its automatic backup
software. But do I need to install its SES driver? I'm not getting
prompted to do so; it's just that I see the warning in Control Panel.

I believe that if the SES driver didn't get installed 'by itself' (from
Win accessing the WD files), then you need to help it get installed. The
yellow triangle and exclamation point are a problem that needs to be
resolved.

The link provided earlier discusses how the SES driver can get itself
solved or the alternative.


But WD itself, at that link, says you don't need the SES driver unless
you want to do certain things: "The SES driver is not required for your
drive to be recognized by your computer....Western Digital My
Passport/My Book hard drives require a special communications channel
(SCSI) between the PC and the hard drive to enable certain features such
as password protection, LED control, and access to the drives label if
applicable."

If I don't use those things, it seems that I don't need that driver.
(Windows, by the way, first said it couldn't find a driver for this
drive--and Explorer didn't see it; I looked away for a minute, turned
back, and discovered that Windows had "installed" the drive, which
showed up in Explorer.)

--
Jo-Anne