SmartWare - VCD now optional? Bravo!

WD Software WD Software
1

I just purchased the new USB 3.0 version of the My Passport SE 750GB model WDBACX7500ABK-NESN

I just plugged it in using USB 3.0 on Windows 7 64-bit and was pleasantly surprised to NOT find a new CD type drive showing up on my computer.  The drive shows up as a normal external drive.

Copied the software off the drive to my main drive (as a backup) and reformatted the drive.  

698GB free of 698GB.

I did get a missing SES driver error upon installation but ignored it for now.  What does SES stand for anyway?

THANK YOU WD for listening to us.

Besides, if you ask me, forcing this stuff onto the drive was probably causing you way more trouble that it was worth.

Cheers!

Mike

2

Um… you bought the version with disabled encryption and are surprised that it has disabled encryption?

The encryptable ones still have the VCD, because the VCD is necessary for the encryption.

And here’s the KB answer about your SES prompt: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3739&p_created=1253918879

FWIW I see this as being more problems for WD than it’s worth.  Now you will have people looking online, seeing that the PassportSE has encryption, grabbing a non-encryption version without even looking, getting it home, and then complaining that it doesn’t have the encryption feature.

Seemed easier to grab the right one when there were different model names for the encryptables and non-encryptables.

Now we’ll just have people not wanting the VCD buying the VCD version and getting mad, and people wanting the VCD buying the non-VCD version and getting mad.

3

Well, I haven’t tried installing the software, but why wouldn’t it be encryptable?  It is indeed advertised as such.

The option surely looks like it’s there.  Maybe installing the encryption part (which seems separate than the SmartWare main “backup” utility) would end up creating a new small partition to host the de-crypting software?

If you ask me, the most common issue WD would get if they didn’t have the VCD would be people that format the hard drive first thing only to turn around and ask “where’s the SmartWare software”?  Yes, I’m sure that would happen.  :)

Then I’d say ship the drives with a small CD with the software on it.  

I guess the problem resides in people encrypting their stuff, losing the CD and then erasing the de-crypting software from the small partition.  That’s probably the primary reason WD made it hard to delete in the first place.

I totally agree, it would be better if they sold them clearly identifiable as encryptable or not.  But I thought that was already the case. I.e. those drives advertised with SmartWare support are, others aren’t.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=9

 In my opinion, the encryption should simply be in hardware (i.e. controller firmware) with hard buttons on the casing (i.e. pin).  At least for the passport edition. Would be a bit of a hassle for MyBook type drives however.

Anyway, thanks for the constructive and informative reply.

Cheers!

4

One of the reasons that the lockability/encryption relies on the VCD, as fas as I know, is to allow the drive to remain portable.

If you don’t have the unlocker application and other necessary bits and pieces installed on your friend’s PC, and you take your encrypted drive over, you wouldn’t be able to unlock it or access it.  By placing the necessary bits and pieces on the VCD, the lock/unlock capability travels with the drive wherever the drive goes.

I’d seen WD say a while back that some drives were no longer shipping with the Smartware application, but AFAIK, all the “lockables” still have the VCD partition for the locking/unlocking functionality, whether the VCD has the Smartware app or not.

So, I naturally assumed when the sheets for the 3.0 says that it comes with encryption, but also that it is available in a non-encryptable version, that the non-encryptable vesrion wouldn’t have (or need) the VCD partition

5

Of course, even if the VCD were hidden on your drive, you’d still be seeing around 698MB… it’s the decimal places that matter.

On a 1TB MyBook Essential, with VCD that includes Smartware and all the lock/unlock bits and pieces, the drive space is 930.86 instead of 931.51 because the VCD takes up the other 666 MB.  A VCD without the Smartware app would be less than this, obviously, and some drives are shipping without Smartware.

So, if your drive shows 698.49193… exactly then there’s no disabled VCD.  If it’s 698.somethingelse then the VCD is presumably still there for encryption purposes.