Does any one know how to format my Western Digital Passport Essential 750Gig hard drive that splits itself into 2 drives
One a Virtual CD Drive that holds Smartware in a UDF File and the second as an NTFS File.
I have installed all the latest updates.
I wish to format the whole drive to a simple 750Gig NTFS file and remove this stupid software that came with it.
It takes up almost 450 megs in the VCD. What a joke
T.I.A
John
You can only "disable" VCD not remove it.
http://www.wdc.com/wdproduct
It's strange I've got a MyPassport 500GB 2009 and it never came with a VCD partition.
I formated it and got back all my 465GB's :), no VCD icon ever shows.
You can only "disable" VCD not remove it.
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities
It's strange I've got a MyPassport 500GB 2009 and it never came with a VCD partition.
I formated it and got back all my 465GB's :), no VCD icon ever shows.
Amazing, you have to download and install WD crapware to get rid of the other WD crapware. I've got several older WD drives that never had the vcd, even bought a 500gb passport recently that had the smartware stuff, but not on vcd. I just normally format over that stuff.
I did however, buy a 1TB mybook for my 70yo mother the other day, and that's the first time I'd seen this on a WD drive. She has strict instructions NEVER to click on the vcd!
WD are going to lose customers if people can't format/partition their drive as they want.
I'll be thinking twice before buying WD again.
it's built into the drives firmware. I just purchased one of these drives and spent good money on it too, but I can't even use it on most computers and if I wanted to rip the HDD out and use it in my media tank, I can't because of this crap drive.
drive is useless, I wish I could return it. Never buying WD external again.
On the WD website you can download a firmware update/patch that gives you more options re disabling/not using the Smart software. I don't know if it will enable you to make the drive a completely 'normal' drive again but it might....
If you try it, please let us know how it went.
edit for link http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts
thanks Para, I got that already. I wanted to rip the casing off and use it as a normal HDD. It seems this is not possible at all, it's built into the firmware to have a 500mb partion as CDROM. Can't delete it, can't delete the partition, can't do anything except put up with this junk!
so annoyed by WD, basically this is like a rootkit.
i bought 640gb this afternoon from OW, then i read this post...
I guess i should not open it and take it back.. bummer
I thought it would be a good little drive.
the idea of a bad mini usb connection (maybe proprietary) and a permanently loaded software is a turn off..
This aside... it is still okay??.. would it be worth while to persist with the connection and the permanent firmware... cause it is cheap??
thanks
This aside... it is still okay??.. would it be worth while to persist with the connection and the permanent firmware... cause it is cheap??
I have the same question. The answer will depend on exactly what the updated s/w does exactly, so it would be nice to get some feedback on that.
I have the same question. The answer will depend on exactly what the updated s/w does exactly, so it would be nice to get some feedback on that.
i have one and got the smartware rubbish removed. the smartware is disabled but not removed entirely. Depending on the complaints, they may provide an update to remove it completely sometime in the future. For the time being, you don't get the 700mb back.
Each time you plug in the device, an install wizard pops up asking to install the smartware software. This occurs even though you've disabled the smartware. You can click cancel and it'll work fine. In XP the install wizard will pop up each and every time and you must click cancel each time. However in Vista (not sure about windows 7) at the initial pop up wizard screen you have the option to check 'never ask again' and the install wizard won't pop up anymore from thereon in.
The cable is also micro A usb. Sux that you can't stick in the mini USB as I have heaps of devices with this cable lying around. Some will have cables that are very loose, meaning it'll disconnect at the slightest touch. WD are aware of this so if you have one, email them and they will send you the updated cable, which fits better.
Other than that, it works like any other Hdd device. and for the price, its unbeatable.
One a Virtual CD Drive that holds Smartware in a UDF File and the second as an NTFS File.
Interesting, I have slowly become aware of this issue, first a hint from a friend of it, and then on the WDTV Live MediaPlayer (Ethernet,DTS 2.0) thread, and now I read this thread.
Disappointment in WD land after having so many good products before.
Which models is it limited to?
The last time I had to put up with these crap extra partitions was on SanDisk USB memory stick. Why do they persist in making something that should be optional mandatory? As a Mac user the whole thing is a mess for us, although sometimes in a different way.
Each time you plug in the device, an install wizard pops up asking to install the smartware software. This occurs even though you've disabled the smartware. You can click cancel and it'll work fine. In XP the install wizard will pop up each and every time and you must click cancel each time. However in Vista (not sure about windows 7) at the initial pop up wizard screen you have the option to check 'never ask again' and the install wizard won't pop up anymore from thereon in.
Anyone have issues on a Mac with this crap?
Some will have cables that are very loose, meaning it'll disconnect at the slightest touch. WD are aware of this so if you have one, email them and they will send you the updated cable, which fits better.
Another friend has one with this cable problem, it must have been a mini USB, as I used a Maxtor cable instead as a test, but the WD cable is crap.
it works like any other Hdd device. and for the price, its unbeatable.
WD quality control going down hill?
Further to my post above...
it's built into the drives firmware
Are we sure it's not built into the case, with say a small half GB R/O Memory chip?
I wanted to rip the HDD out and use it in my media tank, I can't because of this crap drive.
If it was in the case, then you would be able to do this and not have an issue.
You can only "disable" VCD not remove it.
http://www.wdc.com/wdproduc
Yet it says at the end of that link: 8. Verify that the VCD no longer appears.
That suggests it has been removed.
Anyone have issues on a Mac with this crap?
It would help if I had read that link before posting above, I now know this...
http://www.wdc.com/wdproduct
Not happy Jan. (However none of that installer request issues for me, just this extra icon on the desktop crap.)
That suggests it has been removed.
I guess the VCD can be removed... but why bother getting a drive when you have to go this this crap...
I can understand WD reducing costs by developing proprietary bus hardware (i.e. cant strip it down)
but using a proprietary usb connection... come on WD.
Also I can understand WD developing the VCD so the majority of the noob users that buy it wont be disappointed. i.e. bowing to the market share.
It is just not for advanced users (which is the smaller share :-P).
I am thinking of getting an Aldi 500gb drive for $100... I think it will be simpler design and hopefully they have focused on making a quality HDD and not have bundled software and tried to save money on their own hardware design.
Each manufacturer is different
ah well.. such is life...
but using a proprietary usb connection... come on WD.
Why does everyone keep thinking this is a Proprietary type connector?
It's just a standard Micro USB connection.
Granted it's not all that common yet, but it definitely is becoming more so, especially on mobile phones and other devices where the Slimness of the newest type connector is desirable over the only slightly larger, and much more common, Mini USB.
Smartware is a virus. I uninstalled it and now My Book Essential is 10 times faster. I just use drag and drop in windows explorer. I am also not exaggerating when I say its 10 times faster.
yeah it allows you to turn the software (virus) off, but not remove it completely from the drive. So you lose 500-700mb straight off the bat.
Why does everyone keep thinking this is a Proprietary type connector?
It's just a standard Micro USB connection.
I have lots of mini connectors.. now i have to get more micro's or carry the cable around with the HDD.
I have lots of mini connectors.. now i have to get more micro's or carry the cable around with the HDD.
It'd be ok if everyone stuck to a few standard cables and interfaces, Digital Cameras are probably the worst offenders as many of them have custom connections on them, depending on the brand.
You can probably remove it by booting up a ubuntu boot cdrom & then re-partitioning & formatting the drive. Gparted is a nice GUI for this purpose.
You can probably remove it by booting up a ubuntu boot cdrom & then re-partitioning & formatting the drive. Gparted is a nice GUI for this purpose.
I ended up opening the WD box :-( (because Aldi sold out of their 500gb drives)
I dont like the micro usb, now i have to carry it around.
(To settle my frustration i will tell myself the micro cable is faster than the mini)
I googled this link
http://superuser.com/questio
and found this link
http://wdc.custhelp.com/
I unmounted the virtual drive using the computer management.
It seems to work so far... but still the little parasite is stuck tight...
anyway....
A lot of people are having a good old whine. I bought a 320GB Passport Essential today, formatted it as ext3, am currently backing up to it. I used the tool at the link below to disable the VCD. It is new enough that I didn't have to do the firmware update. So it is all good, functioning perfectly on Ubuntu Karmic.
I think people should be more miffed about the usual hard disk manufacturer lie that it is a 320GB when it's really a 320 billion byte disk making it a 298GB disk. So loosing ½ GB to the VCD that you'll never use seems like small potatoes, no?
It's very nice it looks looks like a tiny version of my Asus eee. Very spunky.
For those of you claiming that WD have "Proprietary" connections perhaps you should check again. This will be one of the new connectors moving forward.
Alot of new cameras, phones and other devices are moving to this connector
I just bought one of the 640GB drives from OfficeWorks – it had a sticker on it saying "Opened or Damaged packaging" with $9 knocked off the price – so $120 all up, not a bad price.
Anyway after plugging the thing in at home, I get the VCD and the regular "empty" drive – but the drive is named "Our Drive" instead of the usual "My Passport" and it was NTFS when I was expecting FAT32.
Anyway, I decided to run Recova over it – and guess what, it's full of music, movies, porn and torrents!
Well, that will be going back tomorrow, and they can swap it for an unopened one.
-edit-
Some pretty interesting stuff on the drive – no documents, but some photos taken on Nokia phones (a woman with a tattoo, a couple of dogs, a baby and some, let's say "private" shots!).
I guess most people think emptying the recycle bin is good enough.
Well, I returned the used drive and managed to get them to replace it with a new one for the same price – so in the end I'm happy – not sure how happy the original owner's wife/girlfriend would be if she knew I seen certain photos of her in compromising positions!
Now to disable the VCD...
Hey guys. If you disable the VCD will the drive then show up on a PS3? At the moment I have one, but because of the VCD software the PS3 wont recognise that it is plugged in. Has anyone had this problem? Ta
you can't remove the VCD partition, even with Gparted. It's built into the firmware, you can only disable the autorun.
very poor form and I will never again buy a WD external.
Yeah i'm having the same issue. TV or PS3 won't detect it... Wondering the same thing, is there any way around it?
I'm wondering if JB HiFi will accept an exchange... Disappointed by WD.
simple solution:
buy a WD elements. Mini usb, no software. Cheaper too!
Simpler solution: I'm buying a different brand entirely instead. F WD.
http://community.wdc.com/t5/
I used disk dump to write zero's to the entire drive. Took hours but I can now partition the drive normally.
Total usable size is 639,425.05MB (575MB short so I guess it's still there but it's not in the way anymore).
My god! This little piece of S*%T is pissing me off big time. I thought i could use it as an external hard drive (am I wrong?). I went and bought a WD passport essential 320Gb and am having so much difficulty with it. i just wanted to use it to drag and drop... but no, that would be too convenient.
Heya Green Smurf,
Not sure what your problem is. That is what these drives are designed for. There are instructions on the website for removing the smartware.
Otherwise I see 3 possibilities.
1. You don't know what you are doing
2. THe product is faulty
3. Your PC is faulty.
Let us know more and we can help you. I have several wd products amongst others and found no problem with them.
Its ok now it probably was me. I got it exchanged for a 1T seagate external. works fine without installing anything... and for the same price :) ($89 from clive anthony's if anyone is interested)
We had one of these drives in our office environment the other day, and, I suspect due to the custom nature of the firmware, it flat out would not mount as an external on most machines.
I think the problem could be traced back to most users running with lower levels of privileges than the drive required to install its driver / mount the smartware pseudo-CD partition etc. The result, on plugging in the drive, was... nothing, no error, no indication a device had been inserted. On a machine running with admin rights, there was no issue (just the smartware launching).
I have to second other's complaints. If regular users under our policy settings can mount other external disks with no problems, USB keys etc, why would they be any the wiser in purchasing this drive, and expecting a result?
It's one thing to include some backup software on the drive, to be installed or ignored if the user chooses, but this creates hassle for no obvious gain in terms of user experience (yes, it's a 'CD', it can autorun, but it hardly seems worth the grief...).
I've been buying / assembling external drives for a long time, and had come to expect the general layout to be desktop/laptop drive -> bridge chip -> firewire / USB2 / eSATA bus. When a package like this comes along, and doesn't follow that rule, I'd steer well clear of it. If you can't know in advance what you're buying with a WD external, I'll avoid the brand.
I think we should all write letters (by which I mean emails) of complaint to WD.
If they get enough negative feedback on this not-so-smartware then hopefully they will do something about it.
What are you guys on about. WD and others have in the posts above told you how to remove the smartware..> This will stop the User Admin Rights issue. I am on a completely locked down machine and don't have this issue.
The Smartware by the way is a Full version Backup, Recovery and Security suite... For the 0.0002% of users who seem to congregate here to complain about it why don't you read about the product before purchase.. Better yet why don't you read above as to how to remove it and get rid of your issue.
Or go the Elements as they don't have any smartware.
Happy to help anyone having issues removing the software. But really it is easy peasy
It's one thing to include some backup software on the drive, to be installed or ignored if the user chooses, but this creates hassle for no obvious gain in terms of user experience (yes, it's a 'CD', it can autorun, but it hardly seems worth the grief...).
HughC i just had to respond to you here mate. WD have done the right thing and included Backup support with their product. It autoloads as the majority of users don't comprehend how to open folders and look for setup files. It suits most of the market.
If you were a tech you would simply remove the software and get on with your life...
If you can't know in advance what you're buying with a WD external, I'll avoid the brand.
Firstly the Website doesn't hide the fact the smartware is installed. Secondly WD are one of the biggest HDD manufacturers out there. Are you saying when Seagate does something like that then what?? Hitachi?? What happens when you run out of manufacturers to blame?? Just not gonna buy hdd's any more??
Forgive me but people who say things like this and claim to be techs just make me laugh... If you have been in the industry long enough you will find every company has failures, every company has a product that someone doesn't like... And every company usually caters to the masses... Not some one complaining on a w.p forum.
Saying that I have seen WD respond to alot of user requests for changes. Including the tech article wd posted about how to remove the smartware
As I said happy to help anyone with gripes as I have alot of info on the external hdd market... Just pm me
Firstly the Website doesn't hide the fact the smartware is installed. Secondly WD are one of the biggest HDD manufacturers out there. Are you saying when Seagate does something like that then what?? Hitachi?? What happens when you run out of manufacturers to blame?? Just not gonna buy hdd's any more??
I'll do what I usually do; buy a drive, and a case, and assemble it myself.
The drive wasn't ours, it belonged to a client, it was brought in to transfer a large quantity of digital media. I guess that I just resented the second-guessing of the drive's purpose by the manufacturer, and the fact that, out of the box, the drive is setup for that purpose, to the detriment of other uses.
Sure, I understand they are aiming for the centre of the market, and good luck to them, but the way they going about it is not for me, so I'll pass.
Fair Enough Buddy.
Everyone has their opinion. But yeah I think you will find the drives to be quite durable and robust... Plus the software isn't half the bad.. Notthat I use it.
The main reason I chose the Passport Elite is because it had the docking cradle which I love... no screwing around with cables!
It would be nice if they had an Elements Elite...
OK...I bought a 750gb WD passport essential SE, disabled the VCD as per WD link above which was successful.
Now, every time I insert the HDD into my computer with XP it initiates the "Found New Hardware Wizard". Does any one know if the HDD can be configured to diable this feature?
I use the HDD as a means to view photos etc, on my TV via my DVD player which has a USB port. My older 320gb WD passport works fine but the new one won't load. I'm guessing it's the "Found New Hardware Wizard" thing forming a road block.
Help will be appreciated.
I think we should all write letters (by which I mean emails) of complaint to WD.
If they get enough negative feedback on this not-so-smartware then hopefully they will do something about it.
http://community.wdc.com/t5/
What are you guys on about. WD and others have in the posts above told you how to remove the smartware..>
Let's see...
Run WD VCD removal software on my new My Book for Mac, says I need a Firmware update, so read up on it and download it, and run the Firmware update.
Nothing! It sits there and indicates it is progressing, but no change.
Back to square one.
Reading about it on WD forums, it seems the recommended and supplied Firmware update is Borked, and will not update, and I am not sure, but either WD are not planing on a Firmware update that therefore works, or they are still working on it, who knows!
Or there is a small possibility I am doing something wrong.
More here: Does anyone here use WD SmartWare?.
Or go the Elements as they don't have any smartware.
I prefer not to... Really.
Happy to help anyone having issues removing the software. But really it is easy peasy
Okay, the challenge is on, can you help with the Firmware update issue?
TIA.
http://community.wdc.com/t5
roffle mayo — sounds like bush's speech regarding the war on wd
roffle mayo — sounds like bush's speech regarding the war on wd
Your post reminded me thus...
WD have done the right thing and included Backup support with their product. It autoloads as the majority of users don't comprehend how to open folders and look for setup files. It suits most of the market.
I think what WD needs to understand, there are a number of people unhappy with the impact of these problems in many circumstances other what you outlined. The anger, whether right or wrong, is spreading to the point of people telling other people to avoid WD drives.
You are right that problems occur with other manufactures, it seems many manufactures have problems with Firmware, and other software, more than they should and their handling of such has been poor of late. (I know I had it with Seagate as well.)
i have a 750 gb 2,5' hard drive and i pulled it out of its case the other day and to my shock it dose not have the standard sata connector on the end i am not sure what it is ?
Have I read correctly that these WD externals have a manufacturer-created partition that cannot be removed with standard partitioning software?
It'd be a joke if one had to spend more than five minutes researching how get rid of it (only to find it's not possible), going through the process of updating the firmware and "disabling" it, and possibly running into issues with this process.
Have I read correctly that these WD externals have a manufacturer-created partition that cannot be removed with standard partitioning software?
Correct, you can only disable.
It'd be a joke if one had to spend more than five minutes researching how get rid of it (only to find it's not possible), going through the process of updating the firmware and "disabling" it, and possibly running into issues with this process.
No, sorry, the bigger joke was when a WD level one trained monkey got angry with me when I suggested that updating the firmware changed something on the HDD.
He argued that updating the firmware changed something on my computer not on the HDD!
I have A WD 2Tb Externel Hard drive. yes it come with UDF VCD smartware as a cd rom drive
This what I found Out, I did take the externel hard drive apart and Use the 2Tb hard drive as a Internel drive
NOW I CAN TELL YOU THAT THE SMARTWARE IS NOT ON THE HARD DRIVE IT SELF, BUT IT IS ON A SMALL CIRCUIT BOARD
this tells me that you canot remove the smartware from a circuit board
NOW I CAN TELL YOU THAT THE SMARTWARE IS NOT ON THE HARD DRIVE IT SELF, BUT IT IS ON A SMALL CIRCUIT BOARD
No need to shout :)
By what you are saying then the amount of free space available on the WD 2Tb would not change with or without it?
I think what WD needs to understand, there are a number of people unhappy with the impact of these problems in many circumstances other what you outlined. The anger, whether right or wrong, is spreading to the point of people telling other people to avoid WD drives.\
I understand your point here Davemark. But you must understand out of the millions of drives WD Sells every year there will always be someone to complain.
Happens with every brand whether it be apple, sony or WD. They cater to the masses not someone whingeing in a small countries tech forum populated by 300k worth of members most of which are ghost accounts
Regards to the "Handling" of the repairs most people I speak too have nothing but praise for the WD Support centre.
Things don't happen overnight... WD Is very responsive to it's customer base... Chances are something is already in the works...
so for everyone that has said it's easy to remove, how have you removed it without removing the PCB to the drive?
cause it's not removable, it's hide-able, but you will never remove this POS.
600mb of space gone. You'd think it's false advertising, because you'll never get the advertised capacity of the drives.
But if it's on a PCB then it's stored in ROM, not on the drive, so how is it wasting space?
I think a lot of people are screaming and ranting over that without having solid proof.
I await the solid proof either way.
The earlier model AFAIK allowed removal using that 'remove case and use SATA connection to wipe it completely' (or something). The later models I don't think allow it as it's on the chip – but it's there and no you can't get rid of the space (get it back).
This product comes with Smartware and it's not hidden – it's well advertised. You don't need to use it but if you choose not to, you can't seem to get the space back.
I still don't know why people buy this if they don't want Smartware – there are other WD models which don't have this..
They cater to the masses not someone whingeing in a small countries tech forum populated by 300k worth of members most of which are ghost accounts
I think Whirlpool has a lot of influence, do a google search on a problem and whirlpool is very often there.
I should reitterate I didn't quite explain my view properly i thinks... WD really cater for the small guys also... JUst look at all the cool things they are doing with the WDTV Series and the firmware and betas based on user feedback
But these drives are developed for many markets not only IT Geeks...
Break it down... This smartware software is designed for people with little understanding of pc's and is made to be simple and easy to use... It does have some cool expandable features but in general most people dont fully understand backup and these programs are included to stop them from loosing everything and good on em for doing it...
I would suggest that the majority of customers are in this boat... I am a tech head and it doesn't bother me... So right now we are talking about 20 or so users complaining in a forum about of maybe 0.08% who don't like it (my personal estimated figure)
I think the majority of users need a crash course in proper backup..> MOst don't understand a HDD is not indestructable... no matter what brand it is. Imagine if your grandma or mother had a heap of stuff they needed to backup..> I would rather software like this then risk them loosing all their photos because they didn't have an application to help them *and prompt them which can be switched off*
also mate correct me if I am wrong here but Google shows WP for mainly aussie users in the top 5.... If you were in the States I would suggest the results would be entirely different.
But hey thats just my opionion... you all have yours :)
I still don't know why people buy this if they don't want Smartware
Because it's a new thing and it wouldn't occur to techs that it's non-removable, until they've encountered it themselves or seen other people raising hell about it online.
General users won't care for the most part, but many techs will have a similar attitude to this as they do laptop recovery partitions – there's a strong inclination to put the drive in a clean state, and they'll go ape if this is prevented. It's born out of long experience with manufacturer adulterations causing unforseen and annoying issues.
I wish I'd known about this Smartware nonsense earlier. I recommended a WD drive to a computer novice for use with their media player.
When they rang me to say that the drive was being recognized as a CD I didn't believe them. After finding this thread I could at least log into their machine and disable this annoying feature.
I think WD have taken a fairly bloody minded approach with this backup software. I'm annoyed enough to recommend other brand drives to novices from now on.
has anyone applied this method?
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html
Interested to know the same myself, as Officeworks currently have the 750gig model for $129.00
has anyone applied this method?
Tried it.
Virtual CD partiton with all it's software still there :(
Tried this one too....
http://www.nabeelkhan
Don't bother, that doesn't work either and low level formating a HD takes hours.
I really don't think there is any way of removing it.
You'll only be able to hide it, as per the WD instructions.
Apparently the drive that is inside the case also has some kind of propriety connection, though I wont be opening mine to find out.
I bought this drive to use with a Logitech Touch network music player.
I specifically bought this one becuase it allows you to adjust the spin down time when the drive is idle. The previous Samsung drive I was using, which is in a cheapy Ebay external case, never spins down.
One thing I can't quite work out, if I format this drive in ext3 (which is the Logitech Touch's native format) it shows 20GB wasted space. 20GB!
If I format in NTFS, it shows about 9MB wasted. The Touch seems to read the drive slower though so for now I'm using ext3.
hi there,
i just bought a 1tb my book studio for my macbook and yes, the WD smartware symbol can't be moved from my desktop.
i did a scan of this thread and others but wanted to confirm – i actually need to install the damn thing in order to uninstall (well, disable) it?
if so, i take it i should follow these steps?
http://www.wdc.com/wdproduct
TIA.
I just wanted to post my experience (because I made the mistake of buying this POS like the rest of you).
I couldn't get the drive working AT ALL on my PC until I disabled autoplay with Tweak UI.
I've also made it my life long mission to delete the VCD partition.
I will never buy a WD product ever again after this experience.
Hey! I know I am certainly the odd one out on here but I like the SmartWare on my Passport as I use it at work and I like the security features! I liked the drive so much that I bought another from eBay, however this drive, although BRAND NEW, did NOT have the SmartWare on it and has the full drive useable! I would happily swap it out with one that DOES have it so if anyone has a 1TB POS Passport that they want to swap with one without the SmartWare, please let me know! Cheers
This'll probably work:
It seems that everyone has forgotten the basics of computers…always needing some special software to fix a problem! Simply go to the command prompt in the windows start menu, change the drive to the WD harddrive (expample–type f: to change to the f drive if that is how your computer has recognized it) then type format f: You will then be prompted to confirm that you want to format and that all data will be lost. Now, because WD has played this trick with the virtual CD you will see the following message:
“Format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.
Format may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPENED HANDLES
TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to for a dismount
on this volume? (Y/N)”
Enter y and return. You will see: “Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.” At this point the formatting will begin. Once complete all WD VCD problems will have been removed. http://www.marccizravi.com/20
I'm going to try formatting it to HFS when I get home too – reckon that might fix it as well.
http://www.marccizravi.com/
I tried this method last night – the format took a couple of hours, but it seemed to work fine
My Passport now has 465g available, and shows as a Disk Drive in windows
I tried this method last night – the format took a couple of hours, but it seemed to work fine
My Passport now has 465g available, and shows as a Disk Drive in windows
What version of windows? I did it on my Win7 box last night and it didn't work.
What version of windows? I did it on my Win7 box last night and it didn't work.
I was using Windows 7 64 Bit. Did you get the messages on the dos prompt? Did it actually format?
Raydragon writes...
Why does everyone keep thinking this is a Proprietary type connector?
It's just a standard Micro USB connection.
Granted it's not all that common yet, but it definitely is becoming more so, especially on mobile phones and other devices
------------------------------
It's proprietary in effect if not by name.
Here is why: try using any other micro USB cable other than the one (the VERY SHORT one at that) supplied by WD.
Won't work.
Getting alternate cables is a bit annoying, most electronic/phone store don't have them yet. I've purchased two good quality micro usb cables (online and from a cable maker) and neither of them work with this drive. It will power up but not enough to function.
If only it were standard micro usb (an oxymoron at best).
There was another thread on this forum covering this – lots of very annoyed WD ex-users, myself included.
Apparently the drive that is inside the case also has some kind of propriety connection, though I wont be opening mine to find out.
bought some "HP SimpleSave" drives, been dissecting past 48hrs...
They are a WD Scorpio Blue WB3200BEVT drive inside,
which i'd suspect is what would be inside the Passports too.
When plugged into USB they appear as a readonly CDROM and a NTFS drive.
Virtual CDROM is all done in the bridge hardware; can't remove.
The NTFS bit works ok by itself without running the autobackup stuff.
ScorpioBlue drive bears P/N: XXXXX-XXX and CT: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
...which i didn't think much about, until trying to connect drive elsewhere.
Although standard SATA connector, the drive is NOT recognised by anything else (PC, otherbrand SATA bridge etc). Lord help ya if you
need to rescue your files off the HDD if the bridgeboard dies.
Also... a std SATA HDD plugged into the HP bridgeboard does not
respond either; the fake CDROM still does appear but.
So Be Warned... don't buy these HP SimpleSave or HP Passport
if you're looking for a HardDrive + Case, they're useless.
Thanks guys, lucky i read this thread before opening my WD drive!
Just wondering if it's possible to partition the drive so that you can run their bloat ware for standard back up in one partition and then use the other partition for say a ghost of my harddrive?
The reason why is that I have a program that doesn't allow you access all of the files to back up and thus need to ghost the system.
On the other hand I was thinking of getting a seagate so that i can take advantage of their free ghosting software.
Just had to help a mate disable the VCD thing on his new WD external.
Whoever decided to incorporate this into an otherwise good product needs to be fired.
I really want to know what they were thinking at the time...
Each time you plug in the device, an install wizard pops up asking to install the smartware software.
Is there a software that works similar to TweakUI for just stopping things like autoruns etc? I was just thinking that if that popup is an autorun thing, then surely there is something to stop it. Otherwise if it's a new device thing that requires device driver, then that would be annoying.
Whoever decided to incorporate this into an otherwise good product needs to be fired.
I agree with that absolutely. There are a lot of cases in the computer and software industry like that, where the company adds features that turn out to be an annoyance and problem – rather than helping the customer.
Is there a software that works similar to TweakUI for just stopping things like autoruns etc? I was just thinking that if that popup is an autorun thing, then surely there is something to stop it. Otherwise if it's a new device thing that requires device driver, then that would be annoying.
No. It autoruns off the actual drive (not the system), but it is possible to disable it.
No. It autoruns off the actual drive (not the system), but it is possible to disable it.
Thanks for letting me know about that!
The VCD Manager VirtualCDManager did not recognise my drive, even after latest Firmware and WD SmartWare updates. I ended up disabling security via WD Quick View (via System tray) – this has hidden the VCD partition. I've been trying to get this device to be recognised on my Xbox 360/TV (I've already formatted to FAT32 with the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool). I will test the results.
My Passport now has 465g available, and shows as a Disk Drive in windows
As does mine.
I used the disable VCD feature – going in through security. It now shows up as a hard drive on my computer with a stated 465 gig (notionally 500 gig drive). VCD function is disabled. I perfer to use back up software that is consistant across all my drives – www.secondcopy.com/
My computer is a W7 professional 64 bit.
I can remove the drive and re-connect without any issues to the same computer. When I plug into any other computer it goes to the 'find a driver' screen. I just exit out of that and it works perfectly.
Similar to some other posters I find the connection on the drive end touchy. If I touch or move the drive on the desktop I often loose connection and have to wriggle the lead at the drive end.
All in all a pain, but now works as I want it to – under my control.
I can remove the drive and re-connect without any issues to the same computer. When I plug into any other computer it goes to the 'find a driver' screen.
Does this mean disabling of the VCD is on the host PC end, and not on the drive end? In other words, if you plug it into another system, it behaves as it would had the VCD not been disabled?
Does this mean disabling of the VCD is on the host PC end, and not on the drive end? In other words, if you plug it into another system, it behaves as it would had the VCD not been disabled?
In my case I believe it is because the WD drive was initially installed on my home computer and it is automatically recognised as a hard drive when I plug it in there.
When I take it to work or uni it defaults to the 'find new drive/hardware' screen. As mentioned, just exit out and it acts like a normal hard drive.
Regards
When I take it to work or uni it defaults to the 'find new drive/hardware' screen. As mentioned, just exit out and it acts like a normal hard drive.
With most other drives you get an "installing drivers" tray bubble that pops up, but it does its thing and disappears without displaying a prompt, so something is different with your drive.
I'm curious what the "disabled" VCD looks like in Disk Management when plugged into a fresh Windows system. Does it show up in My Computer (XP) / Computer (Vista/W7)?
With most other drives you get an "installing drivers" tray bubble that pops up, but it does its thing and disappears without displaying a prompt,
I agree if it is looking only for drivers. When it is new hardware you get the box that asks where to go looking for drivers/software etc. This is the one I get. It is mentioned earlier – cj3 half way down the first page of this thread /forum-replies.cfm?t=1353136&p=1. Exit away and the drive is fine.
I'm curious what the "disabled" VCD looks like in Disk Management when plugged into a fresh Windows system. Does it show up in My Computer (XP) / Computer (Vista/W7)?
Yep under my computer as drive K – I have other drives connected and two DVD drives hence the K drive rather than an earlier drive number like G or H. At work or Uni the next drive number available is allocated to the drive.
Regards
I have just purchased a WD My Passport Essential and after some pfaffing have arrived at a compromise working position. Firstly I have (and have had for as long as I can remember) all auto play options turned off. I am running Vista (I know).
I bought this because my previous WD a 1T job has been excellent (I will not be buying WD next time). I am also going to express my revulsion on Amazon where I bought it from.
On first plug in I was greeted with the 'device driver' message. This immediately implies it is not portable. I cannot expect anyone else will be content for me to install drivers on their machine if I want to use this as a medium to share personal files. Antway I didn't do that (never install anything a peripheral tells you it needs until thoroughly investigated).
After investigating (including here) I deleted all the extraneous files and folders on the 'main' drive. I then used the Windows Vista disk manager to reformat the drive (and immediately afterwards turned of the disk indexing).
On second plug in I advised Vista not to bother informing me that a driver was needed.
I also have hidden the update available for WD I was subsequently advised of.
The disk appears to be working fine as a 465G external drive.
However I reiterate – I cannot accept the description portable using it on anyone else's machine would require an amount of pfaffing.
Additionally I just don't expect an external hard drive to be anything but that. Had I wanted a backup and restore storage medium device I would have looked for something else.
Another unhappy ex WD reccommender.
Is it worth keeping this software?
On one hand a constant backup of my documents would be very handy but the software doesn't seem to let me configure which folders I want to backup.
This week I purchased a WD My Passport Essential 500GB containing the WD Smartware software and Drive Lock, both of which I didn't want.
On first plug in, the 'Found New Hardware' box appeared, I let it find a driver online then I opened the WD My Passport directory. (The Users Manual, which you can't get until you get into the directory, actually says to cancel the 'Found New Hardware' box and let the My Passport install it's WD Smartware programs. I don't know how they expect you to know this without reading the manual. I've since saved the manual elsewhere for reference).
I created a folder on the WD My Passport and moved all the folders into into it (except for the System Volume Information).
I then cut and pasted the folder I made to my PC and that was it. All seems ok, though it says there is only 465GB on the drive.
I then plugged the unit into my laptop to see what happens, it automatically installed drivers for USB Mass Storage Device, WD My Passport 071A USB Device and WD SES Device.
Upon opening the WD My Passport directory on the laptop, there was nothing listed there, just 465GB of nothingness :) For all intents and purposes it's just another USB HD.
I can live with that. Hope this helps anyone buying one of these
Cheers :)
Edit: The hard drive is rated as a 500GB drive, but actual capacity is 465 GB (actually 500,078,473,216 bytes)
For all intents and purposes it's just another USB HD.
I can live with that. Hope this helps anyone buying one of these
I agree with this.
I've got one of these too and don't really understand why this has become such a huge issue. If they were capturing data and sending it to themselves somehow (root kit), yeah I'd burn this too .. but for what it is and the USB2 speeds it gives (30MB/s) I'm quite happy with it (compared to a giga ethernet external device I also have which peaks at 13MB/s!).
I just bought a USB3.0 1TB WD My Passport Essential SE.
I am undecided as to whether to install the WD SmartWare software. I am more interested in the WD Drive Lock than the Backup software, but I am a bit worried that it might give me problems.
I have read about some people losing everything because they couldn't unlock the drive.
So, what is this WD SmartWare and in particular, WD Drive Lock like? Is it any good?
I don't use the WD SmartWare myself. I think it is ironic that the software that you install to protect your data, can actually take it from you.
So, what is this WD SmartWare and in particular, WD Drive Lock like? Is it any good?
I wouldn't trust it if you care about your data.
WD make great drives, but don't trust the software that comes with it.
I'm never buying a WD product again either.
SmartWare is forever burned into your HDD. If you want to use My Book for the PS3, it will sleep.
I'm never buying a WD product again either.
SmartWare is forever burned into your HDD. If you want to use My Book for the PS3, it will sleep.
bzzt. wrong.
i connect 2 mybooks to my ps3, no problems
Neither have smartware either.
1TB older drive, and a brand new 2TB mybook essential
didn't take me too long to figure out how to format my 1st my passport drive so it acts as a normal drive, also did the same thing to the next 2 i bought – all 3 work as normal with no dramas
I am buying My Passport Essential 500GB soon and i think the above can be irrelevant as USB 3.0 based product is newly launched and the company might have made certain changes now. [Excuse me if i am wrong here as i didn't bought anything except seagate till date],
1] So can software be completely removed now?
2] Incase i loose/break the supplied USB cable can it be replaced easily OR its propritory and i have to buy a new HDD then ?
3] What HDD it uses?
1] So can software be completely removed now?
1 doesn't really matter, it can be disabled and then hidden – it's quite small so it doesn't take up much room
2 don't know about the usb3 ones, but if it's like the previous ones it's a mini usb one end and normal usb the other
3 don't know about the usb3 ones, but the previous ones were the 2.5" laptop drives
There has been a lot of huffing and puffing on this subject. To summarise the important info:
WD has provided the basic system with an automatic backup which is very useful for the novice user.
This is not satisfactory to me (and many other more sophisticated users).
How to remove this facility and treat the drive as a single normal drive is quite simple: just go to the WD site at http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835. Follow the simple instructions. (if your unit is reasonably recent the firmware is probably already up to date. Mine is over a year old and was up-to-date).
Don't forget to save any data you want to retain somewhere else before making this change. Then delete everything from both drives.
When you have finished and verified that the change worked you can then remove the WDSmartware software if you wish. There is a link at the bottom of the page in the above link that shows you how to do that.
Don't forget to copy any data you saved back to the new drive.
I have a one TB passport and these changes gave me 999,500,541,952 bytes, which is near enough to 1TB for me! WD say you lose about 20MB. I found it to be more like 120MB – still trivial. I still have about 1TB available in a reliable and simple to use freestanding drive at a good price.
In my view, the only thing WD did wrong was not including these instructions (or a link to them) in the manual. Most of the criticism of WD in this forum is misguided, often uninformed and woefully self-centred.
Hi n1cholas, I've read the posts in this forum and I dont really want to go through the hassle of updating the firmware, then going through the WD process for getting rid of the VCD and smartware.
Have you tried/is it possible to just run diskpart and clean on the My Book essentials to wipe the drive clean of all the WD software that seems to be embedded there?
I got given the 1.5TB for doing some work for a friend, and all I want is a simple external drive to dump my files on.
Cheers
I have 2 mybook essential 2tb usb3 drives, i've been using one as an external for about 3 months, never seen any popups or noticed any other files on the drive. I just checked the box and it says smartware, auto backup etc. I cant remember if i formatted or had to delete any files when i got it but its been working like any other drive.
I ripped the drives out of both of them (wd greens) and put them in my new pc, it's not finished yet so cant check the newer mybook.
I just saw a Western Digital 500 GB My Passport Essential USB 3.0/2.0 Blue pocket hard drive at my local Officeworks for $99. Is this good drive and price?
I have been searching for something that allows me to destroy the VCD permantley and alas I think I have found it... Apparently you can use the HP disk storage removal as shown on this site http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html
I haven't tried it myself yet as I have just spent 14 hours of my life backing up my files to this ridiculous software and I am a little apprehensive about having to back it up somewhere else! I am not a computer techie so the idea of doing this and not losing anything scares the living daylights outta me!!
anyway... I just thought I would share with you what I have found, hope it works for you :)
I've got the same problem last year Dec.2011 with my new "My Book" 2TB
I couldn't remove the partition but at least I could remove the "Smartware" (actually the most stupid software ever) made crash my new machine because Pc couldn't read it because it was asking the F* password on every start up! even though I didn't ask for it...Anyway here is the link on how to uninstall which is the latest one Feb.2012:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/
Good luck
Mmmm ... if I had seen this thread a few weeks ago, I may not have bought the WD 3Tb Essential HDD that I did. Don't mind the virtual CD drive so much, just the stupid drivers that need to load to get it to talk to the USB3.0 port. In my case, they don't seem to work with a PCIe USB 3.0 card. Works ok with USB2.0 either with or without the SES driver.
Out of interest, tried to erase the VCD with the HP disk tool, but it wouldn't let me, said the disk was "write protected", so perhaps even WD have increased their "defences". I appear to have 2794.49Mb available, or apparently just a tad over 3,000,000,000bytes.
Currently using Acronis for backup which seems to work ok.
Well I'm glad that I found this thread in time. I was trying to decide between a Seagate or WD 3Tb drive.
So my choice is an easy one. It will be the Seagate.
I remember looking into this Smartware problem on a friends computer over a year ago and thought WD would have seen the error of their ways by now.
In spite of my misgivings about the WD drive, I ended up buying a 3TB model today and I'm fairly happy with it so far.
I wasn't prompted to install anything when I connected it to my Windows 7 (64bit) PC.
There is no virtual drive of any type on the drive, just a lot of space and about 380meg of WD software that I didn't have to install (most of it is user manuals in different languages).
The model number is
WDBACW0030HBK-AESN
Windows did give me a message on first connection that driver software was not installed but the drive was recognised anyway. I followed the instructions in the manual about updating the driver from device manager using a driver on the drive (in the "extras" folder) so that it wasn't showing up with a warning in device manager.
So a fairly painless process and I've just transferred a ton of files to it at approximately 64MB/second :-)
Does the new My Passport 2TB still has the Virtual CD Drive (separate partition)? or this one don't have it anymore and the software can be completely and easily removed?
Does the new My Passport 2TB still has the Virtual CD Drive (separate partition)? or this one don't have it anymore and the software can be completely and easily removed?
I bought a few last year, and from memory they did but were very easy to get rid of. I think I did something in Disk Management to disable the Virtual CD Drive, and that was permanent; have one connected now with zero bloatware :)