Passport Elite changed to WD Smartware

[Jolene_Peacock]

I bought a passport elite a few years ago and recently I transferred some video files to it so my father in law could watch them. When they plugged it into their laptop it was showing up a WD SmartWare with the user manuals ect. my files were nowhere to be found. I have now got the hard drive back and it is doing the same thing as they explained. How do I revert this back and retrieve my files? Also if anyone knows why it happened in the first place to avoid it in future would be good too?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Jolene.

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having. How did you put the videos on the drive? Did you use WD SmartWare for that? If this is the case, the software creates a backup folder on the drive which is named wdsmartware with a few subfolders where you should be able to find your videos. You could also use WD SmartWare and recover them via the "Retrieve" function.
Is there any chance that your relatives have WD SmartWare installed on the computer they've tried to use the drive with?

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Jolene_Peacock]

Hello, thank you. All I did was a simple copy and paste. I wasn't using the hard drive as a backup rather than just a storage device. I had never heard of WD Smartware until the inlaws rang and said they couldn't find the files. I googled it and saw that it is the same. I am not sure if they had smartware on their laptop they did try another and it did the same. It is like the smartware has taken over!!

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well the installation of the software along with the user manuals are on the drive by default when you buy it. Were there any files on the drive when you've copied the videos, or you've formatted it at least once since you've bought it? Go to folder options and check the "show hidden files, folders and drives" option, to see if the videos are still on the drive, but hidden for some reason. You can check the drive's storage capacity, to see if the videos' size shows up as used space on the HDD. I'd also recommend that you ask your relatives if they have WD SmartWare installed on their computer (the first one they've tried the drive with) and if they do have it, tell them to uninstall it and then install it again.
What happens when you put files on the HDD and use it with your computer or another one, now that you've gotten the drive back?