Unlock My Book without WD Smartware

I am using Acronis for backup. How do I unlock My Book Essential 3TB External after uninstalling  WD Smartware? One of the messages here suggests unlocking with VOD - what’s that?

When you uninstalled Smartware did you remove your password first?

Joe

I haven’t uninstalled Smartware yet because I use it to unlock the drive when I restart my computer and don’t know how to unlock it another way (that is my question). How do I remove my password? If I do that will the disk no longer lock (I don’t need to lock the disk)?

I have My Book Essential 3TB, it was very easy to unlock the drive when it was locked without SmartWare running. The user manual tells: Unlocking the Drive Without the WD SmartWare Software Whenever you connect your password-protected drive to a computer that does not have the WD SmartWare software installed, you can use the WD SmartWare Drive Unlock utility to unlock the drive there. The WD SmartWare software provides the Drive Unlock utility on a “virtual” CD drive that appears under My Computer in your Windows Explorer display whenever the drive is password protected. Check the manual for your drive, I am sure there is a solution.

drcfw wrote:

I haven’t uninstalled Smartware yet because I use it to unlock the drive when I restart my computer and don’t know how to unlock it another way (that is my question). How do I remove my password? If I do that will the disk no longer lock (I don’t need to lock the disk)?

Run Smartware go to Settings > drive settings > Security > remove security

you can uninstall the software if you want after that