User Manual

MY PASSPORT ULTRA

USER MANUAL

MANAGING AND CUSTOMIZING THE DRIVE – 27

Managing and Customizing the Drive

This chapter includes the following topics:

Checking Drive Health

Erasing the Drive

Registering the Drive

Restoring the WD Software and Disk Image

Setting the Drive Sleep Timer

Using the WD Quick View Icon

Checking Drive Status

Monitoring Icon Alerts

Safely Disconnecting the Drive

The WD Drive Utilities software (see Figure 6 on page 10) makes it easy for you to

manage and customize your drive for the best possible performance:

 Diagnose—Run diagnostics and status checks to make sure your drive is working

properly.

 Sleep Timer—Turn your drive off during extended periods of inactivity to conserve

power and extend the life of the drive.

 Drive Erase—Erase all of the data on the drive, including your password if you have

one.

 About—See the installed software version, check for software updates, and register

your drive to receive free technical support during the warranty period and find out

about product enhancements and price discount opportunities

Checking Drive Health

The WD Drive Utilities software provides three diagnostic tools to help make sure that

your drive is performing well. Run the following tests if you are concerned that your drive

is not operating properly:

 Drive status check

The drive status check is a failure-prediction function that continuously monitors key

internal performance attributes of the drive. A detected increase in drive

temperature, noise, or read/write errors, for example, can provide an indication that

the drive is approaching a serious failure condition. With advanced warning, you

could take precautionary measures, like moving your data to another drive, before a

failure occurs.

The result of a drive status check is a pass or fail evaluation of the drive’s condition.

 Quick drive test

Your drive has a built-in Data Lifeguard

™

diagnostic utility that tests the drive for error

conditions. The quick drive test checks the drive for major performance problems.

The result of a quick drive test is a pass or fail evaluation of the drive’s condition.

 Complete drive test

The most comprehensive drive diagnostic is the complete drive test. It tests every

sector for error conditions and inserts bad sector markers as required.