You’re still missing the point, chelsearj.
The smartware software hasn’t been put on the VCD for WD’s newest drives.
But the VCD itself is _ necessary _. It can not be removed without inhibiting the drive’s operation, and WD has repeatedly said they can’t/won’t be removing it anytime in the forseeable future, until they’re blue in the face.
It has the bits and pieces for the drive encryption and the lock/unlock. If you lock a drive, and then hook it up to another computer, without all the lock/unlock bits and pieces available, you’d have a brick and not be able to unlock your drive or get to your valuable data.
Any of the encryptable drives are required to have the VCD. No matter how much whining people do.
So, if you don’t want the VCD (whether it’s called “WD Smartware” or “WD Unlocker”), then _ don’t _ buy an encryptable drive; if you buy an encryptable drive, then you _ need _ the VCD for the drive to function properly.
Now, since the VCD has to be there, whether people like it or not, WD had apparently originally decided to throw some software on there as well that they thought might be helpful to non-savvy computer users. But nobody _ has _ to install Smartware on their computer, and it can be fully uninstalled if you don’t like it. So I’ve still never understood the panties-on-a-knot attitude towards WD including a piece of software with drives. Even the new drives without Smartware, still won’t work when connected to many other devices (that they were never intended to be connected to in the first place) – removing the Smartware Program from the VCD, and hiding the VCD, hasn’t changed the fact that the VCD is required for the drive to function, and the VCD prevents the drive from working with devices like PVRs and such. Gee, I wonder why WD makes separate drives for attaching to PVRs? Gee, I wonder why WD makes other drives that aren’t encryptable and don’t have/need the Unlocker VCD partition?
Now, Akala is probably going to pop back on here and say yet again that they need to label the boxes with every device in existance that the drives _ won’t _ work with, instead of just merely listing what the drives _ ARE _ compatable with, like they currently do, and like every other company in existance does with any other product.
It’s up to the consumer to know what they’re buying. If they grab an encryptable drive, because it’s shiny and on sale, without knowing what the #$%@ it is they’re buying, then they have absolutely no right to complain that the drive isn’t what they want. They’re fully capable of looking into what it is they’re about to purchase. It’s not WD’s (or any other company’s) job to hold each customer’s hand in the store and make sure they buy the “right thing”, and don’t buy the “wrong thing.” At some point people have to grow up and start taking responsibility for their lives and their actions and their choices. They can’t be babied/spoon-fed forever.