Does anyone know of a way to remove the software that pops up each time you insert a WD Passport USB drive? The software is called WD Smartware and it appears on the desktop as a CD icon. I have tried a number of easy solutions to no avail. Thanks in advance.
Hello ehmormaht. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Does anyone know of a way to remove the software that pops up each time you insert a WD Passport USB drive?
Assuming that you don't want to use this software, I suggest using Disk Utility to reformat the WD Passport. If you only plan on using the Passport with your Mac, I would reformat for HFS+.
Hmm, looks like you may be out of luck. I tried to see if I could find anything to share with you from the Internet, but after about 25-30 articles I wasn't successful. Sorry!
I'm just got rid of the smartware from my Passport Essential 500GB. This may work for other passports and My Books. I didn't find any help from searching google, but I did find you post and thought I'd let you know what I did. I have a Core2duo running Windows XP. I assume in this forum you are on a Mac - maybe this will help you. Remove the Smartware on a PC, then make the drive ready for your mac.
I have a utility cd that came with an internal WD harddrive I installed a couple of years ago - DATA LIFEGUARD TOOL Version 11.3. It's WD's diagnostic/setup software for their drives. I installed it on my PC and ran the program. It found my usb passport drive and fixed the problem. If you can get a hold of it and install it:
-From the opening screen choose UTILITIES.
-Select REFORMAT PARTITIONS and click "NEXT."
-Then highlight "WD MY PASSPORT...." and click NEXT
-Then check the box next to the partition and click NEXT
-Answer warnings about erasing all data and continue
After I was done the virtual drive was gone and so was Smartware - good luck.
Wait wait wait! Now that I've rebooted and tried connecting the drive again, I still have the virtual drive and Windows isn't seeing the passport. I'll post back when I figure something out
I have just bought the 1TB version of WD's Passport drive. Like the others, I have tried to format it to remove the annoying "WD Smartware" but it keeps popping up on the desktop. Even if I eject this virtual CD disk, it pops back again instantly.
I searched around the internet and couldn't find a solution. Hopefully WD will release a removal tool in the near future.
The silly thing is that apart from this, the drive is amazing. I can't understand why WD would include such an obviously annoying feature with such a good product.
I think it is even worse for Windows users - when the drive is plugged into a Windows machine the "Found New Hardware" wizard pops up, just for the Virtual CD. This makes it hard to share the drive with others, for sending files over to a client for instance.
While waiting for a proper solution (ie a way to zap this firmware) I have one tiny workaraound that makes it a bit less annoying for me on my Mac. Since Leopard, OSX remembers the position of drives and disks on the desktop. So I have dragged the irritating "WD Smartware" CD icon to the far left of my screen (where I tend to keep other junk). So, now at least it pops up on a part of the desktop that I don't really look at.
(I don't know if it makes a difference, but by default I have my CD and DVD preferences, in System Preferences, set to "do nothing" when a CD or DVD is inserted.)
I have emailed WD, but so far have not received an answer. I expect their logic will be that this "feature" is designed to "protect us" from accidentally erasing their very useful software.
I just bought to WD My Passport Essential and I had the same issues.
I followed the instructions on
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities As the Virtual CD (VCD) Manager is only available for Windows I did it on my old PC (Windows XP).
It worked perfect with the first drive which was still in FAT format.
The second drive I already changed to Mac Format. I got a blue screen during firmware update. Not sure if this was the reason. I just started over again and it worked.
Be sure you have a backup before starting with this procedure.
I think I've found a solution, if you own Windows XP, connect the drive and reboot to the Restore Windows XP Disc, then find the drive and delete all the partitions. Reboot the computer then in Disk Manager you'll be able to see the drive alone from all the VCD crap... I reformatted it to NTFS and from there I could plug it into my mac and reformat it again to Mac journaled. Works perfect... Try it! I was about to return my drive before I figured this out!
I want to try your solution, but I'm not sure what the Restore Windows XP Disc is. All I have is the Windows XP setup disk. If I boot to that, I have the option to either install XP or REPAIR my installation.
Are you referring to a boot disk (one that I can make?), or a proprietary disk that comes with a system that restores the system to its original configuration out of the box?
The URL that you and Rene both posted looks to be the only one I can try. I was hoping Theatomiclizard would be able to answer the question I posed, which was what exactly the Windows restore disk was.
