Demand fix for Smartware Rootkit

WD Software & Mobile Apps WD Software
61

Yesterday I bought new Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive and  didn’t had the option to return the PHD (Portable Hard Disk) so found one solution which actually makes sense to me. Here is how I removed the SmartWare & Virtual CD Manager partition from My Passport/Western Digital USB HDD:

  • Removed/Deinstalled All SmartWare Software from My windows box (Instruction to do that are here)
  • Start ->SearchBox-> Type cmd
  • DiskPart
  • list disk
  • select disk 2 (This was mine, your can be different)
  • clean
  • create partition primary
  • Download the Utilityfrom HDDGuru.com to do the low level format
  • Installed the Tool
  • Ran LLF on my USB

After I was done with this, which actually took some good amount of time I was able to recover space *almost* and it started reporting me 999.5 gigabytes = 0.976074219 terabytes which actually makes sense as the computers will never be able to report the entire amount of space or HDD might use that space to maintain the index of your file. What ever the case is I actually got rid that what ■■■■ software.

62

I registered to this forum for the sole purpose of posting my thoughts on this topic - I’ve also emailed this to the Western Digital support:

I do hope that someone will take the time to read this - and I would urge you to please pass this email up the chain to those who may actually change WD’s direction.

Yes, this is probably another in what I imagine is now a long list of complaints about the lastest generation of ‘SmartWare’ external hard drives.
I’ll try to keep it short.

I work as a video professional - and as such I go through a LOT of hard drives.  I have purchased WD drives for as long as I can remember.  Along with tape backups I have every piece of footage ever shot here mirrored on WD externals (TBs upon TBs, I lost count a while back).  Recently I purchased 3 new externals (I go through a few TBs every month) and am now horribly horribly disappointed with Western Digital.  Include whatever software on your drives that you feel might be necessary, that’s fine.  But if I choose to erase it and reclaim the space (that I PAID for) then why should I not be able to?  To put your software and the partition onto the firmware of the drive is madness and idiocy, in my opinion.

If I buy a 1TB, 2TB, and 750GB drive (as I just did) then why should I not expect to have that much USABLE space?
I paid for that space.   It was advertised as that size, and that is why I bought it.
So why should I not expect to have that much space to use?
I would love to hear a well reasoned response to this question, but I am certain I won’t receive one (as there is no well reasoned response other than to say “you are right, and we were wrong”).

What you are doing is akin to selling a home but then walling off a room and telling the new owner they simply can’t go into that portion of the house.
Or going to a restaurant, ordering a meal, then having the chef come out and tell you that you can only eat 80% of what is on your plate… the rest is reserved for the trash.  How would that be fair?  Wouldn’t you be upset?  Wouldn’t you feel cheated?

Honestly, it is absolutely ridiculous.
Put your software on your drives - like you always have. 
That’s fine.  But do NOT take away the option to delete it.
I paid for the drive, it is now mine to use as I see fit.

And please don’t tell me that the solution is your Virtual CD Manager which will allow me to “hide” the partition. 
I don’t want to HIDE it.  I want to USE the space that I paid for.

I will be returning all 3 of these drives in the next few days.
And until your policy changes I will not be purchasing anymore Western Digital products, and will make certain that all my colleagues are aware of the reasons why.  I realize that my buying habits won’t affect your company at all, and that whoever is reading this probably doesn’t care about my opinion.

But seriously - think about it, whoever you are  - when you buy something, don’t you assume you’re getting what you’re buying?
Wouldn’t you assume that if you paid for something you’d be able to use it all?  If you bought something BASED ON THE SIZE it is advertised at, wouldn’t you feel cheated if you found out you couldn’t use the entire ADVERTISED SIZE?

You need to either change the way you’re partitioning these drives, or change the way you’re labeling them.
If I pay for 1TB then I should have 1TB of space.
Anything short of that is misleading and questionable business practice which is on the edge of flat out theft.

Best of luck in the future and I do hope that at some point I can buy your products again.
And again, I would urge whoever receives this to please pass it up the chain. 

63

Well this is just perfect - I just got an automated email response from the email I sent to support about this.

Let me say first off that I called the 1 800 support line and asked where I should send feedback and comments (I was polite and cordial on the phone, not some angry raving lunatic).  I was told to send any comments to support@wdc.com

So, I did that.

Now I get an email back that says:

“The email you sent cannot be processed. Please submit your question using our Online Email Support form”

This is ridiculous.

Western Digital needs to wake up or they’re going to quickly find themselves at the bottom of the pack.

Customer unsatisfaction travels quickly.

You’ve been warned.

64

By the way - to other users here - if there are any other communities or threads where you think it would be useful for us to post, please put some links up here.  I’d like to spread the word about this issue.

Thanks.

65

Okay I’m a dissapointed buyer as well. 

Seriously I’ve been thinking what if I bought that 1TB drive that cost double from the one I bought (500GB). Seriously WD, I would be so f**king more angry than now if I did buy that 1TB (been considering buying it when I’m at the shop but I choose the 500gb instead so watever I’m still angry now). I never had any issue with any hardware I bought so far in my life, I even like WD harddisk because it’s reliable and NOW this Smartware thing is really upsetting me. It’s like I have cancer and I’m getting a way to get rid of it. I don’t like some foreign thing appear in something I bought, just like how I don’t like to install some program on my Windows.

It looks like you’re not bothering to do ANYTHING to FREAKIN remove it. FINE! I guess whoever that is incharge on SMARTWARE doesn’t want the TOP MANAGEMENT to know about this FAILWARE problem to secure your JOB. WELL YOUR JOB FAIL. YOU CREATED A BIG MESS AND NOW YOU DON’T WANT TO FIX IT BECAUSE IT’S FREAKIN EASY TO JUST FREAKIN UPDATE THE FREAKIN FIRMWARE WITH CODE THAT IGNORE AND DELETE THE VCD AND YOUR FREAKIN HARDWARE ENCRYPTION I DON’T FREAKING NEED IT BECAUSE THERE IS TONS OF SOFTWARE OUTSIDE THE INTERNET THAT DOING TONS BETTER JOB THAN YOUR FREAKING SOFTWARE.

KTHXBYE WILL NEVER COME TO THIS FORUM AGAIN.

66

I run a online community with about 150K users and I would send email to every users (From around the world) informing them how the WD is forcing us to have space occupied for their software which we don’t want to use and on our expanse… Guys (WD) we actually PAID for the space which you are using! I am sure, that we all on this thread can make difference specially when we will all inform users we interact with… this will be an impact on WD guys, as VideoGuy said you have been warned.

Please do not consider this as a threat but WD guys please wake up what you guys been smoking when you decided to take away the space we paid for! I will send the email in next 3 days if I don’t get response from WD with a fix to reclaim the space. I am really serious about my money like everyone else!

By the way low level format showed that I can claim the space but again windows was not able to see more than 930 GB which means they have created this partition on disk level and can be only deleted by the manufacturer. 

67

I just spoke to the supplier and now would like to return the device!

I would not buy this [deleted] again unless I have the option of removing and reclaiming the space by any mean! and I will spread the word, about this on the front page of my blog, my online community and about 10 other different sites I own! I will make sure that you guys lose good portion of business just because you are cheating consumers. One more thing… I will actually try that your products gets banned from Kuwait Chambers because you are not providing us with the space you advertised for!

68

hello,

the only solution i found but no tested is this :

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/So-you-really-want-rid-of-SmartWare-Come-this-way/td-p/2135

69

I also am being hosed by this problem. Bought a 2 TB MyBook Essential today for my Linux machine.

I used to be a Seagate customer but switched to WD about 5 years ago and have given the company lots of money. But as far as I can see my only option is to return this drive and either find another company, or learn how to assemble a bare drive and someone else’s enclosure?

The idea that the drive is left in a state where it will be unreadable if the enclosure is changed is unacceptable - makes disaster recovery problematic.

Can WD recommend a Linux-friendly drive?

70

Why would you make WD SmartWare that can NOT be removed, nor UPDATED !

After all these recent software updates, DriveUnlock is the only up-to-date, the rest is just simply “junk”.

Please fix it !

71

What we need is a way to contact people at WD who might actually be able to change something.  Whoever is watching this forum clearly doesn’t care about what is being said here seeing as they can’t even be bothered to clean up spam that’s been here for days.

This forum is a wasteland.  We need to find contact information for decision makers at WD and then make our feedback noticed and heard.

Of course, the only email address I could get from someone at WD bounced back to me… which tells you how much they want to hear from us.

72

WOW, could WD’s support page be more useless.
If there is one thing I hate, it’s a link that says “Email Contacts” that leads you to an online form.

And the form could not be more complex in the number of fields it has.   It’s not intended for feedback, it’s intended to help with tech issues.  Don’t they have a simple feedback/comments contact form?  Phone number?  Email address?  Something?

I may simply have to start contacting them through the other channels they have.

73

I have only joined this forum to complain about this rediculous garbage that came on my external hard drive.

I purchased this hard drive from my friendly neighborhood super store, and found that as soon as I turned it on, it could no longer be returned. So, now I’m left with a $50 paper weight. (Another user hit a chord with me, “If I had gone the 2tb route, I’d really be pissed”)

I am a software developer who knows the difference between good software and bad software, and this WD sh*tware IS bad software.

I feel duped (read: RIPPED-OFF ), and I will NEVER buy another WD product again, and niether will any of my customers, my family members, and any one at my local super store that happens to be standing in front of the rack of WD devices as I walk by.

WD products containing this [deleted] are just that, [deleted].

Further, Bill-S’s “cutesy” responses (trying to define what a rootkit is … get real Bill … ) are simply salt in the wound. 

Bill-S, all I could think while reading your responses was “[deleted], just give us a **bleep** solution”. (I write this for your own good. You really need to brush-up on your customer service skills.)

Based on WD’s lack of quantifiable solution, it is clear to me that they have decided to dictate how consumers are allowed to use thier devices (as another user mentioned, not everyone uses these devices with computers), therby rendering said devices useless.  This attitude is not only arrogant, it’s condescending at best.

WD, you will never get another penny of my money.  I promise.

Regards to all, Matt

74

Hello and Greetings to all,

After doing some more searching, I found this post (which was already discovered by Crumpy) that contains the solution to this problem.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/So-you-really-want-rid-of-SmartWare-Come-this-way/td-p/2135

First, please note that this solution requires a little bit of technical experience, but if you’re clever, there’s really nothing to it.

I completed the process in about 10 hours (20 minutes tearing the little **bleep** apart, and about 9 hours and 40 minutes waiting for DBAN to do it’s magic.)  After the fact, I installed a Debian file server, and I’m pleased to announce that I’ve yet to find any negative side effects (aside from a voided warranty).

A quick side note to save you a little bit of time, I first tried this method using the built-in mini USB connection w/ the beta version of DBAN (dban-beta.2007042900_i386.iso), as the new version of DBAN claims to be able to handle USB devices.  However it didn’t work.  I’m not sure if this is due to a bug in DBAN’s USB recon, or if it has something to do with mini USB.  So, at this point, this method does require you to remove the drive from the enclosure and attach it to a working SATA connection.

Another thanks to UnexpectedBill for sharing his experience.

Regards to all, Matt

75

After exchange of few messages between WD support and me, they flat out refused to replace the drive to a cheaper model that comes without smart ware.

This is really bad PR and really good way to lose a bulk customer. I buy drives almost on daily basis (due to line of work) and I gladly take my business to seagate.

I must give a credit to Bill-S for trying, but I guess he does not have enough authority to fix the issue one way or another.

What WD should have done:

Freedos, bsd or linux disk with firmware updater that gives option to remove the smartware entirely. Being a bootable disk it is OS independant, and does not rely on proprietary software. This is not difficult to do, especially for a company like WD.

But no, WD chose the denial. If you search for Smartware on google and this forum there are a lot of posts regarding removal. Why WD does not address this issue?

Right now I will look either on butchering this enclosre or flashing it somehow (via instruction from above).

The enclosure is broken by design as I stated above. It is useless to me in curent state as I cannot boot with it.

76

@ nabeelkhan: I followed those instructions of yours: 

Here is how I removed the SmartWare & Virtual CD Manager partition from My Passport/Western Digital USB HDD:

  • Removed/Deinstalled All SmartWare Software from My windows box (Instruction to do that are here)
  • Start ->SearchBox-> Type cmd
  • DiskPart
  • list disk
  • select disk 2 (This was mine, your can be different)
  • clean
  • create partition primary
  • Download the Utilityfrom HDDGuru.com to do the low level format
  • Installed the Tool
  • Ran LLF on my USB

After I was done with this, which actually took some good amount of time I was able to recover space *almost* and it started reporting me 999.5 gigabytes = 0.976074219 terabytes which actually makes sense as the computers will never be able to report the entire amount of space or HDD might use that space to maintain the index of your file. What ever the case is I actually got rid that what ■■■■ software.

But after 12hrs for it to low level format. The Smartware Virtual CD was still there. :angry:

77

I solved this problem by removing SmartWare from my Windows XP configuration. 

1.  With SmartWare still installed, I turned off the locking feature on my Passport drive.  I then used SmartWare to disconnect the drive.  Finally, I physically unplugged the drive. 

2.  Using the Windows XP Add/Remove Programs capability, I removed SmartWare.  Using Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I confirmed that no part of SmartWare was still operating. 

3.  I plugged in my Passport drive. 

4.  The Windows XP Found New Hardware Wizard window appeared.  Instead of the Cancel button, I selected the Next button.  I selected the radio button for automatic install and continued.  Window’s wizard reported that no such software was available.  I checked the checkbox not to try again and exited.  (On unplugging my Passport drive and then plugging it in again, I had to repeat this step once more.  Since then, the wizard has not reappeared for my Passport drive.)

Now, when I plug in my Passport drive, I see it on My Computer under Hard Disk Drives.  I also see WD Smartware as a CD under Devices With Removable Storage, but I ignore it. 

I removed SmartWare because its primary purpose is to create backups, for which I want to use another application.  My use of a Passport portable drive is to store my backups remotely, not to have continuous incremental backups in real time.  Further, I am storing backups for two different PCs on the single Passport drive. 

In lieu of locking the drive (which I don’t trust since it does not involve encrypting the files), I use PGP to encrypt and digitally sign each backup.  The digital signature allows me to verify that each file has not been corrupted or otherwise altered. 

78

I forgot two things: 

I used regedit.exe to search for registry keys, values, and data containing “smart”.  With few exceptions, the only hits that related to WD SmartWare were either remnants reflecting recent use of the now-removed software or the result of the fact that I am keeping the “My Passport” user manual. For the few exceptions, I deleted the keys. 

For safety, I always run with autoplay disabled for all devices. 

79

Hi

I just created a new account just to add my experience. I am very disappointed with my new My Book essential 1.5TB (just a couple of hours old)

I can believe what I am reading and what I experience!

It`s a real shame since I went for  a WD hard disk after bad experiences with Iomega and Lacie… Still I have my little Pink Passport and will treasure it for years -I hope- since it is free of this new “SmartCrapWarez” that is slowing down and stealing some 700Mb of my new Book unit.

Sorry but  I will not buy again from WD until there is a change in their policy and maybe I will return this one too.

What`s left for me now?  Samsung? Verbatim? China HDisks of dubious quality…?

I wanted also a new triple interface Passport… Instead I will check for older second hand units, maybe I`ll be lucky.

PLEASE WD PEOPLE: FIX OUR PROBLEM!!!  THIS IS NOT A SMART MOVE! :robotmad:

Sorry for the caps.

All the best from sunny Barcelona and cold Buenos Aires!

80

Put me down for that class action suit. I have 3  One TB drives. One came with this stupid Smartware and that drive is always showing activity, one more ongoing task . I just use the drives as storage…when not accessing them I want them to lie dormant.  This one with the SmartWare is always running keeping  its fan and my computer busy.  As it stands now I will never buy another WD drive again.

sidphx@msn.com