Use without software?

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

I just bought a 320gb drive from Best Buy and I’ve read reviews on Amazon that says it comes with software that you can’t disable.

I don’t want to use this drive as a backup drive, I want to use it as an external hard drive. I want to install and run programs (non essential programs) on it to free up space on my internal drive. Is this possible?

I’m not home yet, so I can’t fool around with it, but should I take it back?

2

You can now disable the VCD and you don’t have to install the software.  Check out the link below.

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

3

I Have a new Passport Essential 320Gb. I have tried all day to get it sorted and working. I feel like jumping up and down on it!!! I tried running the passport as a hard drive without running the software. Should have been simple to just transfer photos to it. The device failed in the middle of the transfer. Maybe because I had not used the software? I tried getting it set up with the software. It ran briefly then failed again. It even failed while trying to organise photos already on it into a new folder AND LOST THEM!!! I had already started to delete some of these photos from my camera phone which was full. SO they are LOST FOR GOOD!. 

Does anyone know what “error 0x8007045D” is? The message said it was an I/O device error.

4

You may have a problem with you PC. I brought my Passport Essential 640Gb yesterday and apart from all the problem you have mentioned about the software I have been able to copy 19Gb of movies using “drag & drop” to my Passport and actually play them from the drive. I unistalled the software because it is painful to me because I want to specifically select directories to back up. I am more annoyed that I can’t retrieve the drive space that is locked up by WC that has their software stored in.

This product should be more flexible because not all of us are “Dummies” when it comes to backup because this is what this software is pointed towards.

The main problem with using it without the software is that the Windows “Install new hardware” appears everytime it is plugged in. I just hit  “cancel” and it works as a external hard drive (how it should of in the first place). I tried the VCD Manager but you need to have the WD Smartware installed and I will not run a software program that uses so much system resources so I put up with the “Hardware install” screen.

Hope this helps.

5

Bill_S wrote:

You can now disable the VCD and you don’t have to install the software.  Check out the link below.

 

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

 

 

Bill_S, they don’t want to disable de VCD and you know it! they want to recover de wasted space!

Jonahirt, vote this “idea” http://community.wdc.com/t5/ideas/ideapage/blog-id/Other_Ideas/article-id/67

6

GreedyGraham wrote:

You may have a problem with you PC. I brought my Passport Essential 640Gb yesterday and apart from all the problem you have mentioned about the software I have been able to copy 19Gb of movies using “drag & drop” to my Passport and actually play them from the drive. I unistalled the software because it is painful to me because I want to specifically select directories to back up. I am more annoyed that I can’t retrieve the drive space that is locked up by WC that has their software stored in.

 

This product should be more flexible because not all of us are “Dummies” when it comes to backup because this is what this software is pointed towards.

 

The main problem with using it without the software is that the Windows “Install new hardware” appears everytime it is plugged in. I just hit  “cancel” and it works as a external hard drive (how it should of in the first place). I tried the VCD Manager but you need to have the WD Smartware installed and I will not run a software program that uses so much system resources so I put up with the “Hardware install” screen.

 

Hope this helps.

 

See this link → http://community.wdc.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/BoardExample2/thread-id/25/page/1