How do I delete / remove the WD "Smartware" bloat-ware partition from my external hard drive?

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
1

How do I delete / remove the WD “Smartware” bloat-ware partition from my external hard drive ?

Hi. 

Question is in the title. :wink:

Thanks in advance for any help !

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Further info.

I’ve had this drive for a couple years now, and always wanted this stupid bloat-ware removed from it, and have tried many things to get rid of this dumb-ware occasionally, but have only had the opportunity to completely reformat it recently, and still cannot get rid of the “bloat-ware”. :angry:

I find this so annoying. I have bought about 3 other WD drives since then, and have been happy to see this **bleep** is no longer built into those drives [I would never buy one again if this had continued]

I tried reformatting the drive to fat32 in Mac using disk utility, which didn’t work, AND in windows, using the traditional reformat tool, and also with a program called HP USB disk storage format tool ;

NONE of which has worked.

 I really liked the ability to password protect the drive, but could this sort of thing not be available as a download, smaller than 615mb!?

2

Hi check this link it tells you how to remove the vcd. http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835

3

There is some of it that you can’t delete like the unlocker. 

Joe 

4

Hi. 

Thanks Joe S and Hammey for your responses.

Hammey :
Does this process actually remove the vcd? As far as I can tell from that article, it looks like it only HIDES the VCD, without actually removing it?

5

I think it only hides the VCD.

Joe

6

Cheers Joe !
That’s the impression I got, and the same impression I receive from all the posts I can find in this forum and in articles and posts elsewhere.

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to WD.

I’m really disgusted WD hasn’t posted a simple and easily accessible fix for this, especially with all the other posts in these forums with users showing their hatred of this rubbish.

I shouldn’t have to waste so much of my time to get what is essentially pre-installed malware off my drive.