How do you remove the WD Smartware virtual CD drive from your system?

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
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Roy43 wrote:

What is with you people at WDC?   Leave all the stuff OFF the hard drive and offer it on your site as a free download for the very few who want it…Simple solution!  What were you thinking?

If you’d actually read about it you’d see:

  • the newest drives aren’t shipping with the Smartware program on the VCD
  • the VCD is REQUIRED for the encryption abilities of the disc… a drive that doesn’t support encryption won’t have the VCD with the encryption bits and pieces on it… it’s the purchaser’s choice which drive to buy… if you buy an encryptable drive, you get an encryptable drive, including the VCD for locking/unlocking;  if you buy a non-encryptable drive, you get a non-encryptable drive with no VCD.  It’s not really WD’s fault that people who don’t want an encryptable drive keep buying an encryptable drive and then complain that it comes with the ability to be encrypted – just buy one of the other drives in the first place and don’t worry about the unlocker VCD.

As I’ve said before, it’s just like buying a self-cleaning stove from Sears and then complaining to Sears that you don’t want or need the self-cleaning bits.  That makes no sense.  Just buy the stove you want in the first place.

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I personally consider the “vcd” software garbage. The backup software that comes with it is almost useless. The encryption is nothing compared to truecrypt or bitlocker. I think some peoples complaints are overblown but I do want the software optional, not forced.

I buy too many drives to be brand loyal but I now no longer purchase drives with vcd by avoiding wd external drives altogether.  

The average consumer expects a certain level of transparency that wdc is betraying in this matter hence all of the controversy  the vcd software has created. They have discontinued it in new drives so 6 or so months they will be back to normal.

Unfortunately rating drives on a base 10 scale and windows users reading base 2 scales discrepency will probably only end if M$ changes filesystems. Not a big deal to me but a pain to explain to joe6pack.

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I bought WD Elite only because of case design and label.

Backup is too simple to be usefull.

Encription for storing photos and family films is not needed.

Why WDC does not offer an option to use and manage only label without VCD?

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RoofingGuy, thanks for the post. I returned mine unopened. I’m not looking for a backup solution. All I want is external storage.

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You’re welcome.  I’d rather see you happy.

I’m sure WD’s preference would be for you to choose another WD drive without the VCD and encryption, such as the Elements, but as long as whatever external drive you end up with is the right one for you, that’s the important point.

If you don’t want all the extras, and will just find them an annoyance or a hindrance, there’s no real point in paying extra for something you’re not going to be happy with.  That does no benefit to you or WD in the long run.  An unhappy customer is not a repeat customer.

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The trouble here is frequently the Essentials are cheaper than the Elements at Best Buy and Walmart. Staples and Target have a few but the selection is pretty skimpy. Then most people don’t have any idea what’s involved with the software.

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I’ve commented on that before too, Joe. :wink:

The stores are full of Passports (and dumping them cheap) because people are snapping them up in droves.

The stores won’t stop buying up Passports like they were going out of style, until people stop buying them like they were going out of style.  People who want other drives need to vote with their wallet and be vocal, and get the stores stocking Elements and other options.

As long as people just grab what there’s a pile of on sale, without knowing what they’re buying, they are going to be unhappy when they get it home and it isn’t what they want, and the stores will just keep ordering more of them.

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So what if it isn’t on your computer? It’s JUST on the hard drive? What is the GD point of permanent software? Computers are meant to be versatile, to add and remove programs as you see fit. There’s a reason they call it PC - it’s a PERSONAL computer. Shouldn’t hardware and accessories follow the same principle?

Ok, I get the whole SmartWare thing. I even understand having it pre-programmed into the unit. (how else would you get people to try out your software?) What I don’t get is making it impossible to remove. No, I don’t believe it’s a problem that needs to be worked out. The software engineers DESIGNED it to be un-erasable - it’s a corporate control scheme that forces the consumer to let a product take up valuable memory that could be put to better use.

When you want to get rid of a virus, do you “hide it” and let it drive you nuts as WD recommends we do with the SmartWare? No, you completely wipe it out of the system. Heck, even if you want to delete a generic file from your computer, it remains a part of the computer memory (understandable). But IT DOESN’T TAKE UP VALUABLE MEMORY. It simply DISAPPEARS when enough data is stored to write over the old data.

At first I compared the SmartWare to a similarly usless-to-me program. (I’m not saying SmartWare is usless, I just don’t have a use for it.) U3, an annoying little program that also took up valuable space on a drive I wanted to use for transporting school projects back and forth. How did I get rid of it? The DELETE button! Why can’t it be that simple with SmartWare? Because the creators designed it to block all administrative access. Even formatting the drive (which warns you that ALL data on the drive will be erased) somehow is incapable of removing said software.

What blowhard came up with this idea?

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Also, the phrase “the VCD is not designed to be removed” is false. Any basic computer geek can figure out that it has to be programmed that way. The correct statement is “the VCD is designed not to be removed”

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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.

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OK…  I just arrived at this thread because I was trying to figure out how to remove all of the garbage from my external drive.  I deleted the partition thinking I would now have the 2TB drive that I purchased.  Surprise!  150 MB of junk still there!

It is pretty condescending to tell people that they need to understand the technical aspects of an encrypted drive.  Do you think the average joe would pick up a box labeled 2TB, with encryption in the description, and understand that this means a portion of the drive as been permanently used to store 150MB of files that WD wants you to have whether you like it or not?  This is like buying a television which features “Channel Security” and finding out when you get it home that that means you are locked out of channels the TV mfg thought would be a good idea.

Babies?  spoon fed?  Your arrogance is astounding.      

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dustinfox wrote:

This is like buying a television which features “Channel Security” and finding out when you get it home that that means you are locked out of channels the TV mfg thought would be a good idea.  

No, it’s not like that at all.

Paying extra for an encryptable drive, and then complaining that, surprise, surprise, it comes with necessary parts to enable the encryption/decryption, whereas the generally cheaper non-encryptable drives don’t come with any of the encryption stuff, is more like buying a self-cleaning stove on sale from Sears, and then complaining to Sears that you don’t want the self-cleaning and they should remove it from all stoves they sell.

Don’t you think Sears would just ask why you just didn’t buy a non-self-cleaning stove to begin with?  After all, they make those as well.  And if you “didn’t know” that the stove you were buying was self-cleaning, is that Sears’ fault?

Oh gee… I didn’t know a Smart Car wouldn’t be suitable for 4x4 off-roading… Mercedes cheated me by selling me a car that isn’t what I want!

Oh gee… this 1/4" router can’t use 1/2" router bits.  It never says on the box that 1/2" bits won’t fit – it only says that it has a 1/4" chuck.  Makita should stop selling 1/4" routers and only sell 1/2" ones, because I don’t feel like looking into exactly what it is I’m grabbing!

Oh gee… these encryptable drives come with the ability to be encrypted/decrypted, locked/unlocked… they should remove that feature from every drive they sell because I personally don’t want it, and I want the first thing I grab off the shelf to automatically be what I want.

I shouldn’t have to think at all before any of my purchases… the companies need to hold my hand and spoon-feed me exactly what I want.  And God forbid someone else think this is an asinine attitude for me to have.

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There are pdf files, software files, and a bunch of other ■■■■ that is totally unnecessary.  Do you get a kick back from WD for posting arguments in their favor?  If I buy a 2TB drive I expect it to contain my own files and nothing else.  You should stick to roofing and not pretend to be a technology expert.    

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I thought i bought a hard drive. What I got was a locked CD drive that I have to log on to your website and waste an

hour of my life figuring out how to get what I thought was a hard drive to work. 

Absolute arrogant fail. WOuld never buy WD again for any reason. 

Had to be an idiotic bean counter that thought this would lock people in. 

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dustinfox wrote:

If I buy a 2TB drive I expect it to contain my own files and nothing else.

Then buy a bare drive. Problem solved.

stupidcdware wrote:

I thought i bought a hard drive…

So you admit you had no clue what you were picking up off the shelf?  And that’s anybody else’s fault but yours?

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I edit videos; mostly SD at DVCPro50 resolution, sometimes full HD. I would use multiple workstations depending on availability and quite nomadic. Therefore I was assigned an external 1TB hard drive which is just wonderful for a 13epsx45min TV programmes.  Or 1 hr full HD programme. It has just the right amount of space. :slight_smile:

We need a fast, reliable, removable 1TB hard disk with IEEE1394. We chose MyBook Studio. That was in 2008. Everything is fine. Everything is good. So good that we need more of it because of its performance and reliability.

By then, the local market no longer have the 1TB MyBook Studio and suggests MyBook Studio II. But, something strange happened… 

We couldn’t reliably edit the video in realtime in MyBook studio II. The playback is jerky and takes quite some time for any clips to start playing… and I wonder if the WD Smartware (which I didn’t install) or me re-formatting the drive to NTFS (because our workstations are PC) would have affected this class of hard drive performance in any way? We do not have any problem whatsoever with non-Smartware-equipped MyBook Studio.

Right now, I’m about forced to buy the 2TB and 4TB variant of MyBook Studio… and it fouls up quite a lot of our hard disk/cost/space management because now we have too much space unused…

Why I chose Studio and not some other MyBook for PC? Because we need the IEEE1394.

Technically USB 2.0 is just as fast and USB 3.0 is even faster, but IEEE1394 is how we have set-up/connected our systems and we need that.

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Guys - I did it.   I removed the virtual CD drive partition gfrom my WD My Book Essential 1TB external drive and I now have a clean - totally clean hard drive with nothing on it.  I used Partition Wizard Professional 5.0.  It takes a bit of patience and fiddling around, but IT CAN BE DONE despite what the WD people are saying.  Run WD VCD software to “hide” vcd. Then run Part Wiz software, delete partition on that drive, reformat, create new partition etc and it’s done. Don’t forget that after each action programmed, press the APPLY or UNDO button on bottom left otherwise no changes will take place.  After that you can rename/re-letter your drive…  Let me know how you go. Cheers.

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How much free space did you gain? There have been a lot of other posts claiming to get rid of it but they never prove out.

Joe

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Hey Joe_S - thanks for your comment.  I think it gave me an extra 30+ Mb or so - I can’t really remember now, but I can assure you it’s absolutely gone. I have 2 external hdd’s. The other being a Seagate. Both disks are now showing a total capacity each of 930 Gb.  Use Partition Wizard or Acronis and it shows the extra partitiion holding the WD vcd files completely gone. Prior to deletion and reformatting, both programmes continued to show the separate partitioning.

So, no wild claims here.  Like a lot of puzzling software/drive problems, if you persevere long enough and use some nouse, almost nothing is impossible. Well… now I’m getting carried away I know!   lol.  Cheers guys.

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One final thing:   You’ll need to go to Device Manager and disable the entry under “drives” and _ “usb devices”. _  Once that’s done, it won’t keep asking for or try to install the driver when yuo restart your PC. Despite this appearing until yuo’ve taken this disabling action, the cd virtual drive partition does not appear or exist on your drive.