Remove the VCD from my drive

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
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I have been very satisfied with my first three WD Passport drives - 60, 250 & 320GB.  So when I saw the 1TG version, I bought three more.

After a short while, I discovered how WD have destroyed a superb product with this ‘SmartWare’.  With other drive products that come with backup software, it’s been easy to simply delete the unwanted files and recover the wasted disk space.  I use ViceVersa PRO for all my backing-up, which is a very flexible and easy to use product.  Not free, but worth every penny.

With these three new WD Passport drives, I discovered that to use them, I needed to upgrade the firmware.  I’ve never had to do this with any other drive product.  Then I needed to hide the virtual CD.  This required downloading both utility programs.

I was able to do this on my desktop (that is connected to the internet), but was unable to do this on my two laptops.  Incidentally, all are running different versions of XP Pro, SP3.

Every time I connected a drive, I saw the driver wizard appear and end in an error.  In  the XP ‘Drive Manager’, the main disk appeared correctly, but there was always a couple of yellow blobs, hi-lighting the failed driver for the virtual CD.

So I copied the .sys drivers from the desktop to the laptops, but they would not install, whatever I tried to do.

After many hours of tests, I discovered by using my third new WD Passport  on a second desktop, that before running any of the update or CD hiding utilities, I could read the virtual CD and copy the driver and it’s .inf file to a USB memory stick. (wdcsam.sys & wdcsam.inf)

Then using these files, I could install the drivers onto the laptops.  Incidentally the driver wizard has to be run many times for every computer.  This gave me a working driver for both drives (HD & virtual CD) without any yellow blobs!

The HD works correctly and the virtual CD is completely hidden, so does not use up a drive letter.

Unfortunately the half gig lost can’t be recovered, but in 1000 gig that’s not a problem.

One advantage of these new non-standard cables is that the volt drop problem experienced with my previous larger drive on a battery powered laptop does not occur.  So that’s a plus point !

Reg

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Just wondering can you do Delete Partition Override to take care of the VCD?

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For all of you who are having problems check this link.

[http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Removing-WD-Smartware-on-your-PC-amp-Getting-into-Password-WD/td-p/21717]

Its a temporary fix but it works. The only thing it can’t do is delete password protected but not dealing with VCD is a big help. :smiley: Note VCD will still be on the HD but the “password” system still works.

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Thank you all for this thread. I was about to buy WD My Passport Essential or My Passport Elite, but I heard about VCD before I made my decision, thanks to disappointed customers posting user reviews on various websites. I ended up buying a Samsung drive. I’m so glad I could avoid the VCD ■■■■. I highly appreciate that some people are ready to warn others after having made a bad purchase. And, as a matter of fact, I’d have bought My Passport Essential if it had been possible to completely remove everything related to VCD.

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I add my name to the list of My Passport haters. I don’t want yellow questions marks for this SES ■■■■.

I wanted a simple “mass storage device”. WD you have pissed me off. I am putting together a

number-crunching cluster with 14 disk drives, and they won’t be WD I assure you.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj5P7ZBlV4M

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GCOMP - You obviously did not read any of the messages here.  WE ALL know how to do this but that is not the issue.  If you are looking to advertise your abilities try reading what the problem is before offering the worthless ■■■■ that WD does.

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I found the real solution for this crapware:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html

Just spread the word!

Best wishes!

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I found the real solution for this crapware:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.ht​ml

Just spread the word!

Best wishes!

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I still see the partition after using the tool.

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JCF2009

Read my posting dated 05-25-2010 12:18 PM for simple details how to overcome this problem.

But if you need to use a drive with another computer, you have to repeat the process on every other computer.

(I’ve not viewed the video.)

Reg

72

Your method is the exact same thing WD has touted and it does not solve the problem. Read this thread from the beginning. I am not going to repost the grievances AGAIN, nor are band aid solutions - as you offer - going to SOLVE the problem.

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JCF2009 wrote:

I still see the partition after using the tool.

And you always will.  

Software can not fix a hardware problem.  WD has to release a new firmware update to PARTIALLY solve the problem.  They have refused up to this point.  I know this is a long thread but read it from the begging and you will see what I am saying.  The solution you are trying is intended to only drive traffic to a web site, they can not FIX the problem, only WD can.  

Best thing to do is like the rest of us, never buy another WD drive.  I just purchased two of the Seagate models and have not had this problem.  Buying a new drive from another manufacturer is the only way to make a true fix.  

Sorry for the bad news BUT at least you now know what is up.  Sell your WD drive on ebay NOW while you can get some of your money back and buy from a manufacturer who cares.

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Western Digital, please hear us, hear us the costumers, make a special firmware update to eliminate this partition. Mine is taking 600MB and 600MB can hold a lot.

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I am a computer tech, as such, my voice is the voice of thousands. When replacing hard drives, or buying externals or what ever, I have always grabbed what is handy - WD or Seagate - never had a preference - both perform the same, same price, etc.

That was true up until I bought a 1TB external with this garbageware that cannot be removed. Smooth WD - real smooth!

I took the drive back ASAP - just for the record.

Lets do a little math - My service area has a population of just about a half million people. On average I buy 1 hard drive a day - and work about 360 days a year. The typical hard drive purchase is usually $100 dollars.

WD you have just ensured that (an under estimated) $36,000 dollars a year goes exclusively to Seagate. No big loss right. Now lets add in 6 of my friends that are also computer techs that have also boycotted WD - now your up to a quarter million loss. Lets say you have a million into R&D of garbage-ware… wow, these numbers are starting to ■■■■ for you. Now that I am exclusively a seagate person, I tell one person a day to stay away from WD because they have garbageware (Most customers don’t understand, but, anything in front of the ‘ware’ suffix will put the customer at full attention because they are scared of malware etc) I have converted 365 customers a year to seagate, and of course they tell their friends… you get the point.

So, you can ■■■■ up and eat the million or so you have in R&D and release CLEAN hard drives, or you can keep loosing customers - either way your profits are down this year… hmmm…

Don’t think this will blow over like Vista did for Microsoft. Yes, some people did accept Vista at some point in time, but the number of people that converted to Linux and Mac is absolutely amazing!

The fact that you have ensured your product cannot and will not be used by the military, large corporations, and any company where security is of most importance - your customer base is shrinking by the day.

For everyone who is fed up with WD Garbageware

1TB Seagate Drive is clean!!!

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Yeah, it’s not so much that I mind the loss of 600MB on a 1TB Drive, it’s more to do with the fact that Windows Small Business Server 2008 won’t recognise the drive for backup purposes.

I can’t recommend this drive when using the built-in for Windows 2008 Backup Wizard (because it requires that the entire passport drive be reformatted into a single partition). Clearly, that isn’t possible as things stand.

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I don’t believe it is a hardware problem. The files in the vcd partition are updatable so they can be edited. This would not be the case if they were hardcoded in ROM. If they can be edited they can be deleted.

It seems to me the vcd partition is simply lying to any software trying to access it. It says it is a read-only CD whereas in fact it is not.

I tried dedoimedo.com solution with the HP tool and it did not work. Under Debian I tried parted, gparted, fdisk, sfdisk and u3-tool. None did the trick but it improved my understanding of the problem. I have not yet tried Microsoft “Delete Partition Override” which someone mentioned in this thread. Unfortunately this person only asked whether it would function and did not try it out for him/herself and report on it. I am currently running DBAN (Full name is “Darik’s Boot And Nuke”) and this is taking a LONG time, 22 hours on my Terabyte disk. I will let you know whether it worked or not.

If WD will not help we have to find for ourselves a way to crack this firmware. Be constructive, people! Especially those of you who are computer techs and/or who know a lot about computers. Please report about which tools you tried, failure as well as success, so we don’t all waste time trying out the same tools when these fail in this particular case.

You all seem to believe that there is a way to delete this vcd partition, or you would not be asking WD to provide one. I agree.There HAS to be a way to delete it, we just have to find it.

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Mariane wrote:

If WD will not help we have to find for ourselves a way to crack this firmware. Be constructive, people! Especially those of you who are computer techs and/or who know a lot about computers. Please report about which tools you tried, failure as well as success, so we don’t all waste time trying out the same tools when these fail in this particular case.

 

You all seem to believe that there is a way to delete this vcd partition, or you would not be asking WD to provide one. I agree.There HAS to be a way to delete it, we just have to find it.

This is the best approach offered since I posted the original question on this thread.  If the military servers can be hacked why not our own hd?  Thanks for thinking out loud.

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Thank you Penny. DBAN didn’t work, it only erased the writable partition (which was already empty anyway).

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I tried a hardware-related approach. I have another WD HHD, a 500GB Scorpio Blue with a SATA connector. This one is mostly used as an internal disk.

One of the problems we are facing is that it is not obvious how to connect an MP disk via SATA. They have a weird set of pins on top of the micro-usb. So I tried switching the boards, I unscrewed the SATA board from the Scorpio and screwed it onto the MP. Then I plugged it in. It did not work, the whole disk was falsely recognised as being 2Tera instead of 1Tera and was unwritable. The Scorpio is 0.55 amps and the MP is 0.6 amps, maybe this was the problem.

If you have another WD disk and you want to try this, it is not really difficult. You need a size 7 torx screwdriver and the main difficulty I encountered was that some of these screws are really tight. You also need a universal SATA to usb adapter if you want to connect the MP externally.

Who has another WD disk? Many people have one inside their laptop. If you want to try this, have a good look at it first: if the board is not the same size and shape as the WD board the chances are it will not work. Also check the voltage and amperage. Be aware that this procedure can void your warranty and proceed at your own risk, as they say.

Suppose - hurray! - that with the other board your computer correctly identifies the MP disk and lets you mount it. You have to format it. In order to format it you have to know what you are doing, otherwise, if you are using an external connection, you could format the internal disk of your computer by mistake, and loose everything you have on it. Don’t start clicking and expect the computer to sort it all out for you. It won’t. Read the manual BEFORE launching a formatting program. Once the MP disk is formatted you can put the original board back on it, put it back into its case and you will have one available Terabyte, all clean and shiny, no more vcd. Don’t forget to post here to let us know which was the HDD which board fitted the MP.