WD SmartWare removal
It seems that everyone who buys a recent WD external USB drive, will get lumbered with a virtual CD called SmartWare.
Now, there are many reasons to dislike SmartWare.
- An extra drive letter in Windows explorer
- Extra software on the Virtual CD that you cannot easily remove.
- The extra letter can cause many problems with existing external drives that are being used as automated backup drives… I hate it (and most non-technical users get severely confused) when previously working backups to, say, drive E:, now don’t work any more.
- Your computers drive layout is effectively changed without your permission.
An initial look for a solution resulted in a huge 20-step process (involving updating the firmware to each WD drive, then disabling the virtual CD).
No thanks.
It shouldn’t be so hard.
Then I found a much simpler solution:
in XP (you can use a similar process for Vista and W7):
Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> expand DVD/CD-ROM Drives -> right click on the “WD Virtual CD device” -> disable -> OK
I didn’t have time for a comprehensive test, so its possible for the VCD to re-appear if you plug the WD drive into a different USB port… but if this happens, just repeat the process.
I visit your blog daily, hoping to learn something new. Once in awhile I actually understand your posts, usually they’re over my head. lol But, I keep trying.
Could I ask a question regarding RSS feeds. I’ve recently joined a social network geared towards crafters. One of my blogs, no longer here on EC is focused on helping homeless through knitting and crocheting http://homelessbridge.blogpsot.com/, I thought promoting it on the crafter network made more sense then trying to do 300 drops on EC, which even when I was doing wasn’t proving to be helpful. I have the option to have my RSS feed there so my posts will be posted. I’ve successfully done that, however rather then read the whole post there on forum I want to encourage them to come to the blog. So, I choose snippet vs full post for the feed. I assume, incorrectly there would be link, a way for them to follow the snippet back to my blog to read the full post. Assuming not only would that improve blog traffic but have a higher chance of getting them interested in helping the cause. There is no link. Should there be? Is there a way to do that? I’ve manually gone back and added the word read more as a link which I thought worked; but the next day noticed those links and wording were gone from the snippets and they appeared as they did when the rss feed happened.
Sorry to be so long winded, but wanted to fully express my question.
Hoping your tech savvy abilities will have a solution.
Thanks
Sandy
I purchased this harddrive for my wii (hacked WBFS) and becuase of this it is useless to me method for removeable for a single computer is not toleratble. as a more technecal user this severs problems as formating doesen’t work probaly, or what if a I plugit in at school then it is stillthere I want smart ware to die. on the officiall fourms it looks like about 70% of the peaple want it GONE FOR GOOD and NOT hidden.