WD SmartWare Desktop Icon

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5 points

WD SmartWare Desktop Icon

I just purchased a Western Digital external hard drive and after getting it set up I now have a "WD SmartWare" CD icon on my desktop. I have tried ejecting the CD icon, I have reformatted and erased the external drive, however nothing seems to get rid of that darn SmartWare icon.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of the icon? I know I can go into Finder preferences and hide all CD/DVD icons from showing, but that's not really what I'm looking for... I just wanna get rid of that darn WD icon!!!

MBP, iMac, iPhone, and too many iPods, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 6, 2010 8:47 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 6, 2010 9:17 PM in response to mten44

Hello m:

I assume (I cannot see what you are talking about) that the icon indicates that the WD device is attached to your computer. In my own case, my LaCie and G-tech devices have a generic HD icon. How WD does what you describe, I do not know.

Barry

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Answer 2

mten44 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 6, 2010 9:49 PM in response to Barry Hemphill

Barry,

The WD drive comes with the added "bonus" (read: waste of space) of a Virtual CD that includes back up software. This virtual CD icon just sits on the desktop and in my case, is annoying. After doing some more reading I found an answer:

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

While this gets rid of the virtual cd, it's pretty disappointing that WD is selling an external that is advertised to have 500gb, when in reality they are preloading it with 160mb of useless software that cannot be removed. The link above shows owners how to update the firmware and remove the icon, not erase the software and take back the disk space that was purchased. Definitely the last WD hard drive I'll buy.

Thanks for your help!
Mike

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