Firmware FIX to R-E-M-O-V-E 'WD SmartWare' (JUNK-ware) from disk

WD Software & Mobile Apps WD Software
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It has been rumored that WD will have a Firmware fix to remove the ‘WD SmartWare’ from the Firmware and allow the user to gain access to the FULL CAPACITY of the external drive.  Is this true?  As it stands now, I’m MISSING, / BLOCKED from using about 500Mb of the disk!  I NEED that capacity!  I DO NOT want to “HIDE” the missing capacity!

I have previously purchased WD external drives with WD software on them (one 400Gb and one 500Gb) but have been able to simply format the drive and use ALL the capacity of each drive (no junky little programs).  I love these drives, they have been EXTREEMLY useful and reliable, that’s why I didn’t even consider buying ANY other brand!    I guess I should have read the reviews about the problems users were having with the ‘so called’ ’ SmartWare’ .

I want to use A-L-L of the drive capacity I PAID FOR!!  If I want junky little programs, I will buy them, but I DON’t!

When will you have a downloadable Firmware Fix to remove the ‘SmartWare’?

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My bad!  Sorry, I should have read  through the customer issues with ‘SmartWare’ more extensively.

I found this post from a WD rep, today, May 16, 2010, dated 02-0502010:

“Re: SMARTWARE FIRMWARE UPDATE”

 (from:  Bill_S, Community Manager, WD)

 02-05-2010  05:25 PM

SmartWare will probably not go away.  However, we have made it possible, now, to opt out of SmartWare and hide the VCD.  I don’t know yet if we’re working on a way to completely remove it if a customer doesn’t want it, though. "

That’s a GREAT idea!  If you have a CD you don’t want to use on your system, just load it into your CD Drive, disable the drive  and put a piece of Duct Tape over the drive door!   That way, you can “HIDE” it!  Brilliant!  You can’t use the drive for anything but you can “HIDE” that pesky CD!  (Same thing WD wants you to do!)

Doesn’t matter that you PAID for a FULL capacity drive, WD knows ‘better’ than you!

WD, don’t bother responding.  It is apparent that WD is going to do nothing about the numerous customer complaints any time soon, so I’m returning my WD 2Tb ‘MyBook Essential’ to COSTCO today!  I found an external drive at new egg (Fantom Drives GreenDrive Pro 2TB USB 2.0) that uses a WD HD in it with NO ‘Smartware’ (Junk-Ware), allowing use of the FULL CAPACITY of the disk.  What a novel idea!

So sad, I truly like my other two WD drives (with all the junky little outdated programs removed.  They were ‘Great’, ‘Essential’ and ‘Indispensable’ at that time - sound familiar?).

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I bought one of the new 750 gig WD Essentials drive earlier today in Tasmania.  Of course the packaging never mentioned that WD had now decided that I needed a drive nanny to help me.  After a very frustrating time of trying to clear WD Smartware off the drive I gave up and returned the drive to the shop on the grounds that I did not want to install any software on my machine that basically resembles a rootkit.

They gave me my money back, and I made a promise that I would not buy any WD drives again with this rubbish on them.  At least give us the option of formatting it out of the system.   I have 4 WD external drives and love them, but you have just lost a customer if you do not stop this pratice.  All I want is a drive that I can use all by myself, I don’t need any assistance thank you very much, and certainly do not need some unnecessary software fouling up my system.  I took it to work where I have limited admin rights, it would not work properly because it wanted to install some software.

WD you have dropped the ball big time.  You say that WD Smartware can be disabled but might not go away.  Fine by me, I’ll do the going away, going away from your drives from now on.

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+1 !!!

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+2 !!!

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+3