drive letters

My usb drive asked to update firmware which I did.
Now that it is G instead of F: I will not be able to access my backups.
Also, the smart ware, I never use, has the F: designation the drive used to have.
I have been to disk managsenet and can not figure out how to fix this. I do not use the smartware only the drive for imaging with Acronis.
The error occured when I inadvertently or mistakingly updated firmaware when I should have not,. It had been disabled by the company but I'm out of warranty.
Is there some way I can disable the Western Digital SmartWare and reclaim the F: designation for my external drive?
It is MY Book Essentials 1T.
I have been to WDC.com with no success.

 

If you have no drive currently using 'F:', Drive Management should allow you to change the drive letter of G: to F:. Highlight the current G:, right-click and select Change drive letter ...

 

The disk manger now lists the original drive which was F:, as G:.
Since I included the SmartWare upgrade by error, this SmartWare exists unlike before when the tech removed it + the Smartware has the F: designation my original drive had.
When I try to change the drive to F: for the usb drive, it won't scroll up to F: but starts at G:
I think I need to disable or remove the SmartWare so that drive is not recognized and then try to change the drive letter back to F: for the usb drive if I can figure how to scroll up. In other words, the SamrtWare which I don't use as I image, took over the F: desigantion.

 

Ok, first move the Smartware to H: or higher, you should then be able to move the current G: to F:.

 

Why not? What is preventing you from accessing G?

 

With the usb drive plugged in, disk management recognizes it as G: not the F: it was.
I cannot scroll "up".
The SmartWare was occupying the F: so I clicked to delete it.
With the smartware still appearing as healthy in disk management, it no longer has a letter asssigned to it.
I then could scroll the usb drive up to F:.
Until the SmartWare was deleted the scroll would not go up to F: for the usb drive, as the SmartWare was occupying it. if I unplugged the drive I obviously could not see it.
I now can see my usb drive as F: as it should be.
My concern is that, at disk management, I deleted the SmartWare. It no longer seems operable which is good, if harm has not been done . I can find it with a 'search' and it says it is in a cetain location. When I go there with windows explorer, it is not there.
The only place it is, is in disk management but does not respond. It appers disabled although it says it is healthy.
Have I done some wrong here, or does this appear correct?
I will wait for a reply prior to trying a backup and thank you.

 

Try running a backup now.

You can always Disk Management to re-allocate a drive letter for SmartWare.

 

The backup worked.
I cannot reallocate a drive letter for SmartWare since I deleted it. It is still there but appears disabled. It does not respond to anything nor does it appear in the pc anywhere.

May I ask, would have image recovery with Acronis + the usb drive plugged in been a way to resolve this, or would it not have affected the usb drive?
I really appreciate M.G.'s help.

 

I don't fully understand your setup, Peter, but yes, a good image would have sorted this out in about 20 minutes.

 

would + Acronis image recovery taken care of the firm ware update that affected the usb drive or would it have just post dated the pc.
If I had done so should I have had the usb drive connected.
I ask b/c it seems recovery only affects the pc and the smart ware may have still been in the usp drive.
Any corrections greatly appreciated .
Would you leave as is or new system recovery keeping in mind the upgraded smart ware was installed in the external drive?
My level of skill causes me to wonder if system recovery would undo the frim ware update in the usb drive.
Thank you for your help all day - very much appreciated.

 

Well, about all I can be reasonably sure about is that an image restoration will not affect firmware.

 

When you image your system you are asked which drives you want to include in the image, and when you restore the image only those drives are restored. As Satrow says, images don't include or alter firmware so your upgraded USB firmware is there to stay.

I can't see any point in restoring an image at present nor, unless I'm completely missing the point, can I see that there is any problem at all here. Acronis doesn't give a hoot what drive letter your backups are on as it doesn't use them when restoring - it assigns its own. To see whether you would be able to restore an image if you needed to you simply use the Browse button in Acronis to go to the location where the backup is stored, though finding it is made more straightforward when you assign names to your drives rather than just relying on drive letters.

The only possibility here as I see it of you actually having a problem is if your Acronis rescue CD fails to detect the USB drive now it has different firmware. As long as that is not the situation you can leave the system as it is.

 

Sorry to be tardy as I am ill. If I am redundant I am sorry.
I checked delete anywhere I saw Smart Ware because it took the path of the backups.
Smart Ware appears as healthy in disk management but seems to be a ghost-no responsive.
It also allowed the F: to be returned to the backup usb drive path.
I understand about scrolling and browsing in both disc management and Acronis but if a drive like SmartWare occupies the pathway the usb used to have it assigns the usb the G: designation. There was no way to scroll up because the scroll choices started at G:.
Once I somehow voided the SmartWare, the G: disappeared and F: was restored as the path to the usb drive.
I guess I miss your point regarding Acronis finding its own letter even browsing there as long as another drive was preventing the original backup pathway.
I had to clear/delete the G: + then only would I be able to see BOTH the pc and the usb saying there was continuity between them and a consistent pathway.
I guess what you are saying is that regdless of drives being the same letter Acronis could find the back up by scrolling!
Anyway, in both pcs SmartWare happily appears dead and both rescue cds allow me to find the backups on the usb drive.
I would love to remove that junky SmartWare but at least the funcionality of the usb drive works. If anyone knows how to remove this SmartWare , please jump in. WD My Book Essentials 1T.
Thanx to all MG's for continued support. Much appreciated.

 

update to WD Smart Ware

For those reading this thread, Smart Ware with MY Book Essentials 1T cannot be removed so it will appear in disc management.
HOWEVER, you can make it disappear from MY Comp and it will not assign letters to your drive path to your usb drive. In essence it will not exist although takes up 800 mb of disk space as disabled software.
Go to Western Digital and enter in the KB box the answer id 3835. Look among the 8 or so lines until you find,"How do I remove the virtual cd from Windows or Mac.
Select either, with Smart Ware installed or without it installed and follow prompts."
I hope this will help others rid themselves of this software issue.

 

This only applies while in Windows. If you want to restore an Acronis image of your system drive you have to boot to the Acronis Rescue Media as it cannot be done in Windows. But when you boot to the Rescue CD the drive letters shown in Windows no longer apply and Acronis allocates its own drive letters which, depending on your setup, may or may not be the same. Either way, none of the problems you have had accessing your backups when in Windows will apply once you are in the Acronis rescue environment and you would have been able to access and restore your backups without any of this messing about with drive letters.

Try it.

 

Needless worry about drive letters, peterr. Acronis will supply whatever drive letters it wishes.

I booted my Acronis rescue and it said my CD drive was C, the RAM disk was D (Acronis loaded to that) and my unoccupied hard drive (with a semi format and no OS on it) was E. Acronis asked if I wanted to restore to E. I said Yes. When I rebooted the computer now had windows installed and it was C; despite Acronis restoring to a drive it had labeled as E.

 

I now understand the difference between Windows and either Acronis or Macrium's rescue disk.
I can locate the backups with a little browsing; at first Macrium said it couldn't, but again, as you say, browsing makes it work.
Thank you again.