Seriously, whoever at WD corporate thought up this idea should get fired.
Why can’t WD just terminate this piece of garbage? If WD think their software is so good, they can sell it SEPERATELY!
ALL I want is a USB 3.0, WD Passport SE with NO SMARTWARE and VCD!
you can remove the software here is the link
When you unistall the Smartware make sure you removed a password if you used one. Definitely make sure you data is BACKED UP elsewhere before disabling the VCD. You won’t get many arguments on your opinion of Smartware. The smart one was the guy that sold them Smartware!
Joe
That is not a solution.
That does NOT remove the VCD partition. It merely removes the drive (letter) assignment in your OS for the device so you can’t tell it’s there anymore.
But the VCD partition is STILL there; the space consumed by the partition remains consumed, unavailable to end users.
Not good enough. I want it to be completely GONE.
I just discovered there is another thread about this, in even more detail of wrong doing by WD.
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Demand-fix-for-Smartware-Rootkit/td-p/2719/page/11
Apparently, Smartware is a rootkit. And I view it as such too.
I have NEVER SEEN a computer peripheral device acted this way in decades of using computers.
Let me ask you, have you seen a video card manufacturer using firmware built into the hardware to force a software onto the user? How about CPU? or Mouse?
Let me state it clearly again, EVERY computer peripheral device manufacturers includes their softwares EVEN DRIVERS on a CD/DVD. To include a software that user cannot remove, and FORCE UPON the user is by any definition is rootkit.
The software interferes with normal operation of the device.
I also like to know why Bill_S close the previous thread, is WD trying to silence the critics, who are consumers who PAID FOR THEIR CRAPPY PRODUCT?
There is no way to remove the VCD it controls the encryption THE PASSWORD. Bill closed the other thread brcause it turned into constant **bleep** like yours. If you hate the drive that much take it back where you bought it.
Joe
AndyM wrote:
I just discovered there is another thread about this, in even more detail of wrong doing by WD.
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Demand-fix-for-Smartware-Rootkit/td-p/2719/page/11
Apparently, Smartware is a rootkit. And I view it as such too.
I have NEVER SEEN a computer peripheral device acted this way in decades of using computers.
Let me ask you, have you seen a video card manufacturer using firmware built into the hardware to force a software onto the user? How about CPU? or Mouse?
Let me state it clearly again, EVERY computer peripheral device manufacturers includes their softwares EVEN DRIVERS on a CD/DVD. To include a software that user cannot remove, and FORCE UPON the user is by any definition is rootkit.
The software interferes with normal operation of the device.
I also like to know why Bill_S close the previous thread, is WD trying to silence the critics, who are consumers who PAID FOR THEIR CRAPPY PRODUCT?
First of all, I didn’t close the thread to silence anyone. If I was going to silence the critics, I would have removed the thread. I simply closed the thread because it was extremely old, and it was erroneous, just like your assessment of SmartWare is.
Granted, in the early days, people may have had issues trying to use SmartWare. But regardless of how you feel about Smartware, and I’m not out to change that, SmartWare is not a rootkit. It is a software that you can either install, not install, or uninstall from your computer. You don’t have to have it to use the drive as a bit bucket.
Moreover, you are confusing SmartWare with the VCD, which cannot be removed because it is necessary for using the security encryption feature of the drive. But the VCD can be hidden. If you do not want those features then please, by all means, return the drive. However, we do sell another USB 3.0 drive that does not have SmartWare, or the VCD, if you’re interested.
Hi Bill
I have no issue with the concept of Smartware. I like the idea of automatic incremental backups, of having password protection etc. I also have no issue with the VCD taking up a permanent portion of the hard drive - this will become even less of an issue as the divie sizes continue to grow into the ever larger Terabyte ranges.
What I do have a major issue with is there appears to be something wrong in the way that Smartware uses processing resources. Even without my WD drive connected (ie no backup is in progress) and even with my backup settings set to only backup when computer is idle, WDFME.exe will regulalrly use up to 50% of total CPU capacity. That load might be acceptable during a backup, but in an idle state that is just not right and it is something that WD needs to acknowledge and fix.
How do we as a community get this matter brought to the attention of WD’s technical team? Without this being rectified, Smartware is a literal noose around my PC’s neck.
As I understand it, resource useage will always be an issue with continuous backup software. We are constantly working on improving that with WD SmartWare. However, you do have a point. That’s why we recommend users, who are having issues with SmartWare using too much resources, go into the Backup Tab and stop the backup until they want to do a backup. This way they can free up some of their resources for other programs they want to run.
HI Bill,
You misunderstood what I was saying. WDFME.exe regulalry uses 50% of CPU WITHOUT:
Drive being connected to PC
Smartware opened on screen (to view backup status etc), which you can’t do without the drive being connected and password entered in any case
Backup being undertaken
Al I have to do is start up my PC (again, without connecting the WD drive) and the WDFME.exe will use up to 50% of CPU, slowing down my whole machine. Your’e suggesting that I need to stop a backup when I am not doing a backup. That can’t be right, surely?
My WD Passport SE “stopped working” after I tried to rebuild a lost music library. Looking at the WD community, I saw I needed to uninstall and then re-install. So I did. But when trying to re-install, I keep getting the message to “buy a WinRAR / by author Alexander Roshal.” What’s this all about? I downloaded it okay the first time… any help?
Actually I don’t really care about what flavor of software I do my backups with, but there was no clear indication (that I could find) whether or not the WD software would create a bootable disk image. Seems to me that it would be a good selling point (most other software is 49 - 69 bux) and that they would mention that up front. They didn’t include that option in the menu choices so I assumed that the WD software would not do that.
So I go out and shell out money for imaging software expecting to be able to EASILY turn the drive into a bit locker and here I am with all the misunderstanding and vitriol ;-) and the backup software does not recognize the drive as a logical writable backup source (see more below).
I do not understand why WD can’t just put an on-off switch in the software, seems like this kind of behaviour (stuffing unnecessary software down the customers throat) is real old school chiphead behaviour.
I use WD drives because they have never let me down, unlike the Seagate drives that my custom box came with (pieces of ■■■■!!) and I’m not likely to change. I just scratch my head in wonder when a good company follows bad policy.
btw, the quick and dirty way to disable the software is to go to your disk management console, unassign the partition with the WD software on it and reformat the disk - you’ll be prompted to do that. You will lose 60G in a 1T drive but my backup software now sees it and is treating it like a real drive now. And the little LED thingie still reads the name of the drive and the remaining space.
Hope WD reads these forums.
B
Well if you want free imaging software most are stripped down from full version. There is this http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en then Paragon, Macrium and Easuse have free versions too. It depends on what features you want.
Joe
I surely didnt ask for the SMARTWARE junk, but yet WD forced it on me when they sent it to me as a replacement for an RMAed/failed WD MyBook that was manufactured before the fatal VCD product fiasco.
For all of you critics who blame the consumer for buying a WD drive and being disappointed by malware on their compluter, I think that is a stalinistic view of the relationship between OEMs and end users!
jono101 wrote:
Hi Bill
I have no issue with the concept of Smartware. I like the idea of automatic incremental backups, of having password protection etc. I also have no issue with the VCD taking up a permanent portion of the hard drive - this will become even less of an issue as the divie sizes continue to grow into the ever larger Terabyte ranges.
What I do have a major issue with is there appears to be something wrong in the way that Smartware uses processing resources. Even without my WD drive connected (ie no backup is in progress) and even with my backup settings set to only backup when computer is idle, WDFME.exe will regulalrly use up to 50% of total CPU capacity. That load might be acceptable during a backup, but in an idle state that is just not right and it is something that WD needs to acknowledge and fix.
How do we as a community get this matter brought to the attention of WD’s technical team? Without this being rectified, Smartware is a literal noose around my PC’s neck.
You should be able to disable the WDFME.exe file in Services under Computer Management. Then enable it before you connect the drive to your computer - that’s if you’re using SmartWare.
What happens if we do not disable the software? How much space is taken up by SmartWare? Even if you do not choose SmartWare when first setting up your drive? Has it been known to corrupt files or do any damage on its own?
I apologize for the questions…I have my new My Book Essential 2TB sitting here for two weeks afraid to use it after reading things on here (I plan on using it to copy my files so I can reformat my desktop). Any help would be very appreciated! Thank you!!
you should be good to go if you are only going to copy and paste
I agree with the title, mainly because the software caused my computer to run at an excessively slow rate. I didn’t like this, so I deleted it from my computer, but now I’m not able to access my drive at all! I’ve tried a number of things. It seems that I can’t install it from the Internet. Is there anyone who can help me fix this? If not; it will basically be used as a 250GB paper weight from now on. Thanks for you help in advance.
cZal_Fish wrote:
I agree with the title, mainly because the software caused my computer to run at an excessively slow rate. I didn’t like this, so I deleted it from my computer, but now I’m not able to access my drive at all! I’ve tried a number of things. It seems that I can’t install it from the Internet. Is there anyone who can help me fix this? If not; it will basically be used as a 250GB paper weight from now on. Thanks for you help in advance.
Did you ever get this figured out? You might have removed the SES driver, causing Windows to not be able to run it for some reason. Does it show up in Disk Management?
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