Western Digital 320GB HDD – Get Your WD Smartware Working

You tried to update firmware and software for your Western Digital 320 gigabytes Passport Essential Portable Hard Drive. That drive was installed, but to your knowledge, not registered by a consultant. That hard drive was purchased and installed on a computer with Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

You did not see any instructions on how to proceed until you finished, when you found and printed out those software update instructions, including a variety of warnings of which you were not aware of. You can no longer access Smartware at all. To the best of your knowledge you have no installation disk or files which would allow you to reinstall that program.

You might have the correct firmware and software for that model of portable hard drive you purchased. It is recommended that you reinstall both firmware and Microsoft Windows 7 software. Basically, you install that firmware first and then the Smartware software second.

You can view more detailed instructions at Western Digital’s Smartware software update page. You can download a Smartware firmware update 2.003 and Windows Smartware software update release 1.2.1.26. Please follow their instructions and hopefully after reinstalling both firmware and software it will work this time.

This fix was written for a Western Digital 320 gigabyte passport essential portable hard drive connected to a computer with Microsoft Windows 7, but can certainly be used to troubleshoot other Western Digital external hard drives connected to other versions of Microsoft Windows operating system.