Can't remove Western Digital "SmartWare"

[Feathers McGraw]

I have a 500GB Western Digital external hard drive.

It came with some bloatware called "WD SmartWare", which is in a "virtual CD" on the drive and I can't figure out how to remove it.

Every time I insert the drive, it shows two devices are attached, which is annoying, and it takes up 7.5GB of space on the drive, which is also annoying.



I've tried re-formatting using KDE Partition Manager, writing a new partition table, etc. but the virtual CD remains intact.

This link here describes pretty much the same thing, and the guy said he removed the software using Ubuntu's "Disk Utility" - is this just the Unity version of KDE Partition Manager? Should KDEPM have similar functionality?

Thanks,

Feathers

[oshunluvr]

The older Ubuntu disk utility (that post was 2011 - a century in Linux-time) was much better than KDEs has ever been.

It's simple enough to wipe the partition table and create a new one. Partitions aren't actually erased, just their definitions. Try using fdisk or gdisk. If that doesn't work, dd (aka disk destroyer) sure will.

However - a question: Are you sure you don't need whatever's in there? I'm guessing it's just Windows utilities? It would suck to wipe out some firmware you needed to access the drive, but I suppose all that is on a flash chip in the drive enclosure.

[Snowhog]

GParted (LiveCD/USB) should also be able to get rid of that partition.

[Feathers McGraw]

I'm pretty certain I don't need what's there, the folder contains some windows executables and other rubbish. I guess I don't need those to use the drive, because I've been using it with Kubuntu (and the executables can't run at boot like they might on Windows, so they can't be decrypting the drive or anything). Right?

The "virtual CD" doesn't show up as a separate partition :/

The external hard drive is /dev/sdb; everything in /dev/sda is as it should be.

Last time I tried to do this I tried all sorts, including zeroing the drive. I think all that happened is I zeroed everything apart from the "virtual CD" and wasted a load of time.

feathers-mcgraw@62-West-Wallaby-Street:~$ sudo fdisk -l                                       

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x66385dc1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   293538048   146665600+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       293539838   976771071   341615617    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       293539840   316975103    11717632   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6       316977152   609943551   146483200   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       609945600   668536831    29295616   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       927944704   976771071    24413184   83  Linux
/dev/sda9       876744704   927942655    25598976   83  Linux
/dev/sda10      825532218   876731309    25599546   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 499.4 GB, 499405291520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60715 cylinders, total 975400960 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00095f10

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1              63   975386474   487693206   83  Linux

[Feathers McGraw]

GParted (LiveCD/USB) should also be able to get rid of that partition.

Are you recommending using a live CD because installing GParted will also install loads of unity stuff?

My root isn't on the external drive, so I can unmount it.

[Snowhog]

Create either a LiveCD or LiveUSB of GParted. Boot into it and do your partitioning.

[Feathers McGraw]

Create either a LiveCD or LiveUSB of GParted. Boot into it and do your partitioning.

I understand what you're saying I should do, I'm just trying to understand why I need to use a live CD instead of just installing it?

Thanks,

Feathers

[Snowhog]

You can install it and use it to manage un-mounted devices. Nothing wrong with that.

[Feathers McGraw]

OK thanks.



So I deleted all partitions on the drive and created a new partition table (MSDOS).

WD Smartware still appears.

I don't really understand what's happening - if the WD Smartware isn't on the drive, where is it?

Feathers

[oshunluvr]

I did some searching and it appears the this might be in the device firmware. WD has a downloadable utility to remove it, but it's windows or mac as usual. Do you have access to another machine or virtual windows machine?

If not, there are several ways to make kde ignore the extra drive, but you won't get the space.

Try this: Mount both "drives" and then do a blkid or df -h. I think the smartware partition will mount as sr1 like a cdrom.

[Feathers McGraw]

That would explain why I couldn't get rid of it!

Yeah I have windows 7 on this laptop too. Will try using the downloadable utility you mentioned and report back!

Many thanks for your help so far

[Feathers McGraw]

I really haven't missed windows update.

[Feathers McGraw]

Managed to hide it using the Windows tool, the "SmartWare" virtual CD doesn't show up any more.



So I guess that's partial success . It's a shame that I had to use Windows to do it, and that I can't completely remove the software. The WD website says complete removal is impossible

Just for the record, I also tried this solution, which unfortunately didn't work.

Many thanks for your help!

Feathers

[tek_heretik]

Wow, thanks for the warning, am glad I don't buy Western Digital products, always liked and had the best luck with Seagate HDDs, but as you can see from my sig, they are becoming a dinosaur, reduced to mere storage, lol.

Edit: There are firmware tinkering utilities out there, but that's real low level stuff, really know what you are doing first and be prepared to cry if you brick the drive, lol.

[Feathers McGraw]

Yeah, this drive actually belongs to my girlfriend (she bought it ages ago and has barely used it).

I certainly wouldn't buy another WD drive, pre-installing bloat that can't be removed is unacceptable. Especially if it only works on some platforms.

Seemed like the perfect thing to use with another RasPi for OwnCloud, glad it's in a more readily usable state now.

Feathers