How to remove "SmartWare" UDF partition

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

Hello,

I just bought a My Passport Essential 320Go, and 1To .

My problem is to delete SmartWare partition (UDF) and add free space for my Data. There is a tool “WD SmartWare Virtual CD Manager” but this sofware just hidden the SmartWare partition. With this tools, I cannot delete the 2 partitions and create one.

I don’t know how to use Partition Magic or other software to make “fdisk”.  Where to find some documentation ?

Thank you.

@choum

2

I just dicover this thread

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Passport-for-PC/Remove-the-VCD-from-my-drive/td-p/7066

There is no solution for me. + big big pb with USB cable (impossible to move HDD without break usb connection)

I return my 2 WD my passport essential  to my reseller.

3

I tried zeroing out the drive under Linux, writing 10GB worth of  “0” to the start of the drive.  This did not make a difference.  The UDF partition is actually in firmware and not logically stored on the drive storage.

I must echo the sentiments in this thread.  Aside from extraordinarily arrogant of WD and annoying to deal with, this partition presents a real problem for corporate users.  It is considered very insecure to have something like the UDF partition.  (I can’t use this drive on my client computer!)  This is to say nothing of companies that have had viruses on products they shipped - how do we know this partition is even safe?

I had a UDF partition on my Sandisk thumb drive.  The difference was that Sandisk respects its users and provides a non-complicated method for removing it for those that choose to do so.

4

So there really is no way of recovering the disk space the hidden partition occupies? My recently purchased 1TB My Book Essential shows only 930GB of storage space. I wanted to recover at least some of the 70GB lost. :cry:

So far I’ve updated firmware and software and disabled the virtual VCD using the option in SmartWare itself. At least I don’t see the virtual VCD anymore. I’m about to uninstall SmartWare from my computer but still, it would really be great if I could totally and permanently delete the hidden partition and recover some disk space.

I read in another forum though that the hidden partition isn’t actually on the drive itself but on a chipset connected to the drive or something like that. If that is true, would that mean it’s not eating up any space on the drive at all? :dizzy_face:

5

And if that is the case, about being on a chipset.  Why does WD advertise and sell the drive as 1Tb  of storage, when that isnt the case.  I think this would fall under false advertising. And is very mis-leading.

6

Frustrating is the only word I can use, however after searching the world of Google, I found something that works. Giving you a fully usable HD 

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html

7

Frustrating is the only word I can use, however after searching the world of Google, I found something that works. >Giving you a fully usable HD 

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html

Sorry, this solution does’t work. After apply, you can activate hidden partition.