So you *really* want rid of SmartWare? Come this way

Providing a proper tool for removing all “smart” remnants is a great idea.  It would be very popular.  For Windows 7 users the built in backup is far superior to any smartware anyway.  :smiley:

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I think UnexpectedBill has provided an excellent guide and all proper warnings for eliminating a program that some people may not want. I bought a separate WD hard drive and case–that cost more–instead of buying a unit with SmartWare.

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@1oldman: Thank you for responding. I have tried to be sure that everyone understands the risks of doing this. They are very real and cannot be understated.


There’s still a virtual CD “stub” left behind, but it doesn’t seem to stop you from using all the capacity of the drive in your enclosure. It may or may not mount on your desktop or show in My Computer depending upon your luck. (That’s the best way I’ve got to put it.)

I’ve had some discussions with WD support over the few days since I’ve posted this message, and I’ve tried hard to make it clear that I (and I’m sure, others) purchased a My Book drive in good faith and with the belief that any optional software bundled on the drive would be removable. I’ve also tried to make them aware that the support site presently does not have correct information on file for owners of Studio model My Book drives–you cannot presently hide SmartWare on these drives.

The most they’ve said is “an update might be forthcoming in a few months” and that I should basically wait for it. That is, to be polite, absolutely ridiculous. I will not wait for an update that may never show up, and take the chance of being stuck with a product that is completely incompatible with my requirements. They also haven’t even taken the small step of updating their web site with the correct information for My Book Studio edition owners!

As it is, I don’t think the Firewire interface on the My Book Studio edition drive really works. I’ve noticed a lot of “stalling” while doing file transfers under FreeNAS, stalling that isn’t present with other enclosures that also use WD hard drives and are based around Oxford Semiconductor bridge products.

I’ve drafted a letter that I intend to send to Western Digital via the good old postal service. I’ll see what they say, but I have a feeling that this My Book drive and I are about to part ways. I’ve simply had enough at this point, and the efforts of customer service are not sufficient.

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[text deleted]  I have to admit, Western Digital pulled a slick one with smartware, real slick. Not only is their rootkit portable, but its virtual, literally at the hypervisor level.

It didn’t take me but a few seconds after plugging it into my computer to realize that smartware is a rootkit. It may or may not have acted on any rootkit-like intentions, but every aspect of smartware is characteristic of a rootkit. From the inability to remove it, to western digitals lack of support to provide tools for removal - other than a slick method of hiding it, down to the falsification of available hard drive space, and the amount of space smartware really occupies  // eg: with the full 465gb ntfs partition available as “free space” (eg: 500gb drive) as reported in the HD properties (as it is supposed to be with any 500gb drive formatted to ntfs), somehow 104mb is miraculously being reported as used, yet unaccounted for. However, this is false also, because smartware is really occupying 293mb ( verification of size on properties/copy )  and 465gb is still free - yea right~

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I agree.  I have had nothing but trouble with my 1.5 tb drive because of this smartware and its vcd.  I will never ever purchase anything from Western Digital again if they can’t get the drive to work or give me my money back.

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My letter to Western Digital entered the mail stream today. We shall see what happens and I will post back to let everyone know what I hear, if I hear anything.

Their technical support stopped responding to my support ticket (updated five days ago) so I closed it under the assumption that they probably wouldn’t be getting back to me.

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http://community.wdc.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/smartware/thread-id/81

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3835&p_created=1256946237&p_sid=YiIWfxRj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NjEsNjEmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXNtYXJ0d2FyZQ!!&p_li=&p_topview=1

@UnexpectedBill

So if i remove the hard drive from the enclosure, wipe it using DBAN, then put it in a different enclosure, will i be able to use it without the “stub” you were talking about?

I’m trying to clone my hard drive with acronis and put this in my computer so having the drive be completely blank is very important to me. Thanks in advance.

I am about to sell my WD network drive and would like to ‘Wipe’ it properley before selling it. I have searched the net for an answer, but have been unable to find a suitable solution. I have a number of disc wiping apps, but none recognise a network drive?

Is my only option to remove it from its enclosure? As I am selling it, I would prefer it stayed in good condition.

Any help would be appreciated…

Skott

Unfortunately the above posts address the previous version of the drive.

The newer drives have the USB support and Smartware/VCD code integrated into the firmware of  the disk’s built-in controller.  I.e., even if you remove the drive from the enclosure, there is no way to attach it to a standalone SATA controller, since the interface is different.

The approx 663MB of the 1TB drive I have remains hidden and unavailable for use.

WD’s link only provides for removing the automatic activation of VCD and Smartware.

What I’m looking for is a disk firmware update to completely remove the SmatWare/VCD code and reclaim the 663MB.  After all, I paid for this space!

I guess it would be possible to fix the problem by updating the disk controller’s firmware, much like HPA can be updated for those disks that come with that installed.  But before embarking on that I’d like an “official” solution…

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@mjbo66:

The drive is in every regard a standard serial ATA Caviar Black model, same as what you can buy in an OEM or retail package. It is connected to a bridge board with an Oxford Semiconductor bridge IC on it. The bridge IC has a small firmware ROM where microcode that it uses to start up (it has an embedded ARM processor). WD has customized this firmware to go looking for what is probably a disk image file containing the SmartWare.

When it finds this, a virtual CD device is created. (Actually, it appears that the firmware goes right on and creates the VCD first, even if there is no underlying SmartWare to back it up. Then you have a VCD with nothing in it.)

@Skott:

Your network drive may have a wiping function in the web administration interface (or, if it hasn’t got a web administration interface, through any administration software it may have shipped with). So long as it does, you can use it to perform the erasure of the drives.

You would only have to remove the drive(s) from their enclosure if there is no wiping or security erase option present in the administration software for the device. Not having a WD networked drive (and having a low opinion of the network attached storage devices that I’ve seen being sold), I could not say for sure.

WD_Guru wrote:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/smartware/thread-id/81

 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3835&p_created=1256946237&p_sid=YiIWfxRj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NjEsNjEmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXNtYXJ0d2FyZQ!!&p_li=&p_topview=1

The problem is that this information is completely false for owners of My Book Studio Edition drives. There is no way to hide the VCD for these drives. It will not work because there is no firmware updater available.

I’m hoping that Western Digital is going to come up with a solution RSN. But since it appears that they can’t even update their web site to reflect the fact their is NO WAY to remove SmartWare from a My Book Studio Edition, I don’t hold out much hope. It’s been three weeks since I registered for this forum, and I absolutely refuse to believe that a note couldn’t have been added to the web site in that time.

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zaphodnl wrote:

Unfortunately the above posts address the previous version of the drive.

 

The newer drives have the USB support and Smartware/VCD code integrated into the firmware of  the disk’s built-in controller.  I.e., even if you remove the drive from the enclosure, there is no way to attach it to a standalone SATA controller, since the interface is different.

The approx 663MB of the 1TB drive I have remains hidden and unavailable for use.

WD’s link only provides for removing the automatic activation of VCD and Smartware.

 

What I’m looking for is a disk firmware update to completely remove the SmatWare/VCD code and reclaim the 663MB.  After all, I paid for this space!

 

I guess it would be possible to fix the problem by updating the disk controller’s firmware, much like HPA can be updated for those disks that come with that installed.  But before embarking on that I’d like an “official” solution…

I beg to differ. It’s certainly not impossible that Western Digital could have devised a proprietary connector for drive and bridge card. But it’s not good business to do so–it requires the expenditure of time, resources and money to devise a new connector and drive type. Therefore it seems unlikely. (Of course, handling SmartWare the way they presently are is not particularly good business either.)

I am also seeing a large quantity of these drives (as part of an order placed for a client who does not care about SmartWare) and so far they have all been conventional SATA units inside. These are the USB only drives that are the subject of the firmware update and VCD hiding tool. So far they are nothing other than conventional Caviar Black SATA drives. No HPA or DCO has been set on them. Nor is there any variation in firmware level from retail or OEM packaged drives. Any of the SmartWare techniques are taking place in the firmware running on the SATA to USB bridge IC.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear in my previous post.

I took the 1TB drive out from the enclosure - pretty easy.  The drive is a WD SATA drive called WD10TMVV, manufactured 25 Oct 2009.  However, the additional ROM is not on a separate daughter board - it is integrated into the main (big) circuit board, as is the light guide for the status light. This drive-size circuit board cannot be removed without removing a retaining metallic tape.  The drive and board do not have standard SATA connectors.

Compared to my WD Scorpio Blue 750GB SATA drive type WD7500KMVT, manufactured 21 Aug 2009, the (big) circuit board is different.

Can provide the detailed pictures of both drives if you need them.  Wasn’t able to paste them here.

That’s really strange. I hadn’t noticed that in any of the drives I was handling, some of which had later manufacturing dates. I would love to see one of these drives in person, as there seems to be very little information around about them. (I tried running a search against the model number.)

I wouldn’t have thought that WD would actually go the trouble of making a drive with a USB connection right on board and no bridge board. Considering how they’re unable to arrive at a simple, effective and immediate removal tool for SmartWare, though, things are approaching the point where nothing at all would surprise me. (Seriously. This post is now at least a month old.)

If you can post some pics of the drive to a site like Flickr (or a personal web site, if you have one) you could send me some links in a private message if you’d like.

Sent you a private msg with a link to the pics.  Sorry about the quality, could have been better.

Mjbo66,

I also need to clone an old 1TB drive to my 1TB mybook  using acronis…what to do? Have you found a solution to reclaiming the VCD space?

Just got 3 My Passports today. What a piece of junk! They are going back tomorrow

I have many of the original Passports without all this extra software and they are great.

WD you just lost a customer

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Count me in, too.  My new ones are nothing like the older ones I have.  This is over priced trash.  I called support just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.  The guy kept saying “we can disable it.” I said “can I utilize that space?”  He said “we can disable it.”  I guess he was hoping I was an ■■■■■ and repeating the same thing over and over would help.  I just said thanks, I’m returning these.

Wake up WD.

Wake up.

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