WD Passport software removal

Very cool approach. That way, the drive itself is not impacted, only what OS X mounts.

I haven't worked much with terminal, but look forward to doing this.

Thanks,
Nick

Unfortunately, this didn't work. I don't yet have a root user account yet on this machine, so logged into Terminal only with my admin credentials. Do you suppose that was the reason?

you do not manually need to create a root user account, initializing if you use the password for your general account (assuming that you general account is an admin account) it should work fine.

OK, I think I've got something that works for now. I'm running on Mac Leopard and wanted to disable the WD Smartware so the hard drive would work like any ol' drag and drop hard drive. WD released the info for disabling it for Windows but not for Mac: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities

So what I did was run the hard drive from a windows machine (actually XP running through my VMware) and from their ran WD's softare to disable their VCD. I then reformatted the hard drive from my Mac OS and it seems to be working like a hard drive should.

DatVader

Ok. Then I'm not sure why it didn't work. All I did was copy the line in your post and past it into a Terminal line.

Thanks,
Nick

What Worked for me...

Okay, I have a Mac and I have a WD passport and I got rid of that smartware virtual cd crap in Windows and OS 10. Here’s the deal, get a pin Handy. =)

OKAY GET READY…. Set Go!

First, wipe the drive clean, format to Fat32.

Go here… http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities
Run this software on Windows and let it do its job to disable the firmware and rewrite it. Run the other application to disable to virtual cd crap.

Next reboot into windows, format to Fat 32 (again) making a new partition for the entire drive. Then eject the drive, attach it to your MAC. Erase the drive completely in disc utility and create 1 partition as Mac, Journaled extended. Then eject and reinstall the drive. It should work in Windows and Mac and never mount that stupid CD ever again. It has worked for me and it has yet to come back, Ever!

I love you guys. Hope my instructions above are accurate enough.

Cheers

=)

PS I forgot to add, I have mounted the drive in Snow Leopard, Windows XP, And Leopard 10.5. 8. It mounts perfectly and is recognized each time no problems so far in all of those OS.

It has been used with a HP, 1.4 Macbook pro, 1.5 Powerbook 12 and Powermac G4 933
No problems.

I think the key is to wipe the drive clean before installing the new firmware and then clean it again. ??

I don't have one, was going to get one until I read about this problem.... but has anyone tried using the Disk Utility to Partition the drive into 1 partition instead of just using the Erase option? I don't know if this would work, but from the sound of things the firmware is on it's own partition, so maybe using Partition would combine the two and reformat to get rid of it?

As some have posted, there is a solution! Unfortunately, it involves using either a Windows PC or running Windows on an Intel Mac (my solution). I went to this page:

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

I followed the directions exactly. The virtual CD is gone and my hard drive is showing up like it should on the Mac.

sudo sh -c "echo UUID=`diskutil info /Volumes/WD\ SmartWare/ | grep 'UUID' | awk '{print $NF}'` none hfs rw,noauto 0 0 >> /etc/fstab"

This is a complete string of Unix commands without break or return in it in Terminal window (make sure you have transferred it properly during cut and paste).

What it does is to append a new line in /etc/fstab file with following format (check that file with editor):

UUID=<UUID of SmartWare partition> none hfs rw,noauto 0 0

The content of <UUID of SmartWare partition> is obtained through following string of Unix commands (try this out in the Terminal):

diskutil info /Volumes/WD\ SmartWare/ | grep 'UUID' | awk '{print $NF}'

Initial command string "sudo sh -c" is meant to execute above operations in separate shell (sh) with administrator right (sudo) when logged in as normal user. System file /etc/fstab requires administrator right for modification.

Beauty of Unix: many operations in one command string (try that in DOS window).

Hey littletree76, it worked this time!!! Duh! Last time, I ran the command without the drive connected. Issue resolved!

Thanks,
Nick

Congratulation, I realized the mounting issue after I had posted my previous message but thought you will figure out the prerequisite anyway. Without the WD Passport drive mounted, mount point "WD SmartWare" will not appear in /Volumes directory thus the diskutil command will fail.

With Apple Darwin Unix, I find this solution is more elegant and non-invasive than removing the firmware protected partition.

"With Apple Darwin Unix, I find this solution is more elegant and non-invasive than removing the firmware protected partition."

Not to mention a whole lot easier. Thanks again. This has wet my whistle to investigate Terminal.

Nick

Hi guys,

I have been reading through this info you guys have provided. I bought my Passport 500 GB essential so that I could harvest the hard drive out of it and install it to my MBP 13". Will I be able to do the Super Duper clone trick and run the 500 GB drive as my hard drive with this stupid Smartware issue??

Please advise as I'm hoping to do this ASAP!! I have already purchased the drive and done the cloning process with Super Duper!

doing more research I found that WD has provided a fix for getting rid of the VCD Smartware crap! I have tried it and it has worked for me. Ideally I want to completely get rid of this partition all together but one step at a time I suppose. Here is the link with the software download to update the firmware and get rid of the VCD:

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

I'm going to try and swap my drives and see if it works. Wish me luck.

No matter what I do, I can't get rid of that stupid Smartware. It's awful - so WINDOWS!!!! It pops up every time despite all of the following attempts to disable it - get rid of it - make it not appear next to my mac icons at the top of my screen.

I have - updated the firmware, updated the software, erased the disk, repartitioned the disk (2x), used the WD Virtual CD Manager, tried the terminal commands and the Unix commands... and still - it's there. WD needs to understand that 99% of Leopard/Snow Leopard users don't want their crappy little back up program anyway. Why did they make it impossible to turn off or get rid of? Time Machine is awesome. I am ready to take the 2 WD drives back to Costco. Too bad because they are compact and quiet.

Any thoughts?