Will removing password affect files already stored?

If I follow the steps at the bottom of this message - will my data remain on the passport. See I experienced a strange thing with my passport - when I first used it on my old laptop (XP) I installed all the WD smartware and set a password. I then decided the WDsmartware wasn’t for me - and removed it from my laptop. From then on, whenever I connect the passport just the security box requesting a username/password pops up and I am in. I was fine with this, but my new laptop (win7) does exactly the same except it also creates a virtual drive and asks if I want to autorun WDSmartware - I close this box and up pops the lock/password prompt and again…I am in. Problem is - everytime I do this - my optical DVD drive clicks like it is searching for a disk (even through it’s empty). So I was wondering: would reinstalling WDSmartware on my new machine and removing the password alltogether affect the data; likewise would stopping/disabling the virtual drive mean I would be locked out.

How am I able to get the password feature without having installed WDSmartware on my new machine? Also - is there anyway to totally kill the virtual drive thing - it makes my optical drive click which is very annoying.

a. Connect the WD external drive to a PC computer

b. Install the WD Smartware software came with it.

c. go to SETTINGS, the far right tap.

d. click on DRIVE SETTINGS.

e.  select SECURITY, enter your old password and just hit enter instead of enter the new password.

That would erase the password from the drive.

Removing the password will not affect the data on the drive.

If you remove the VCD, then you will not be able to use the password feature, you can uninstall WD Smartware and still use the password feature.