The term “Smartware” is used in universal for WD preparatory Backup software, Drive lock/Unlock utilities + VCD and for drive management utilities (health etc.).
Yes I do have My Passport Essentials SE 1TB drive but I use none of above mentioned software bits and pieces. And I did manage to get rid of VCD partition as well. Don’t ask me how. It just got disappeared when I deleted the existing partition(s) and created a new under Windows 7. (Now I have 999GB-NTFS and it serves me as a simple drag and drop drive) Please note that I did the repartitioning after the firmware upgrade.
