Raid Recovery Tips

Why does my WD My Book Premium II drive crash when I try to rebuild the RAID array?

Problem:
The Mac WD Drive Manager crashes when trying to rebuild the RAID array on the My Book Premium II external hard drive.

Cause:
Appears to be an issue with Mac 10.5 and 1394 Firewire. There are no known issues with Mac 10.4.x or USB.

Solution:
Connect the drive to the USB port, and re-run the WD Drive Manager to reconfigure the RAID to the desired array.

Question

A WD My Book drive connected to a HP Computer via FireWire does not format correctly after changing the RAID mode via the WD RAID Manager utility. This affects only the following drives: My Book Pro II, WD My Book Premium II, and WD My Book Studio I and II Edition.

Answer

Problem:
A My Book Pro II, Premium II, or Studio II Edition hard drive connected to a HP Computer via FireWire may not format correctly after changing the RAID mode via the WD RAID Manager utility. This issue only occurs on HP Computers running Windows XP that incorporate the Agere L-Fw3227-100 FireWire Chipset.

Cause:
This issue…