My Book Essential 1TB - WD SmartWare

I have recently bought a 1TB My Book and when I coinnected it up I installed the WD SMartWare (which now always shows in My Computer as a separate “CD Drive”!  Is this software needed - I assumed it was to run the machine?  Every time I start up my computer I get an error message referring to WD SmartWare and needing to close - do I want to send a report to Microsoft.  If I click yes the computer freezes.  Can I get rid of this apparently useless software or should I send the whole drive back to the retailer on the basis that perhaps there is something wrong with it?  Any ideas?

Many people are posting BAD reviews of this product on other websites. So much so that WD has provided a software download (two actually, one for the firmware, one for the software) that will "turn off " the Virtual CD.

I followed a link from some other user forum, but I seem to have lost it.  

I’ll dig around here on the WD site and try to post it for you and others. 

You don’t have to use WD “Smartware” (such a misnomer!). You can use your choice of backup software.

This is the link to the “updates”:

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities