OS X Mavericks Is Wiping WD External Drives

Nicole Kobie at PC Pro:

WD is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications,” the company said. “Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading.”

“The WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager, and WD SmartWare software applications are not new and have been available from WD for many years, however solely as a precaution WD has removed these applications from our website as we investigate this issue,” it added.

That’s one hell of a bug. I’ve got a few WD Drives hanging off an iMac at home that are fine, but I immediately wipe and reformat external drives when I buy them.