A workaround for removing western digitals smartware virtual. Upon installation, it defines an autostart registry entry which allows the program run on each boot for the user which installed it. Western digital provides data storage solutions, including systems, hdd, flash ssd, memory and personal data solutions to help customers capture and preserve their most valued data. Wd smartware wd smartware is another great tool for recuperating access to your hard drive. How to fix a broken hard drive beeping noise or clicking recover get data back for free. Run wd vcd removal software on my new my book for mac, says i need a firmware update, so read up on it and download it, and run the firmware update. Doubleclickthemybookicononthedesktopanddoubleclickthewdsmartware software installer for mac application. To uninstall wd unlocker, you would need to have wd security installed. Wd discovery software for wd security and wd drive utilities quick install guide. Wd smartware software user manual about the wd smartware software 2 wd hard drive support the wd smartware software supports the following direct and networkattached wd external devices. The whole uninstall process may takes even less than one minute to finish, and then all items associated with wd smartware 1.
Before disconnecting your drive, right click on the wd quickview icon in the system tray near the clock in the task bar and select safely remove my book. Western digital does advertise a virtual cd utility on their site, which can disable the virtual cd device. Should i remove wd smartware quick view by western digital technologies. Equipped with wd backup software for windows and apple time machine compatibility for mac, the my book desktop hard drive can back up your photos. The size of the latest installer available for download is 7. The wd smartware may also be useless to some users who may want to remove it. My passport for mac provides two ways to erase your drive, depending on whether.
First you will want to insert the cd that came with the wd my book 1tb external hard drive wdbaaf0010hbknesn into the disc drive of your macintosh computer. Hi, i just purchased a 2tb western digital my book essential external drive. If you want to keep wd quick view installed to discover networkattached wd storage devices and provide drive status information, clear the uninstall wd quick view check box. Mac users went into overdrive trying to figure out how to get rid of the infernal wd smartware and that devil of. Right click on the drive to format, select format from the context menu, click on ok and wait for the drive to be formatted. Wd is happy to announce the release of wd smartware version 1. Voila you have a normal hard drive now which you can erase and format using the disk utility.
Opening a wd my book external hdd case guide duration. Mar 06, 2020 in addition, the system supports my book, my book, my book for mac, my book duo, my passport, my passport ultra wd backup, my passport ultra metal, my passport for mac, my passport for mac, and my passport air. This mac app was originally developed by western digital. Wd anywhere backup uninstall apple ios os help fix mac. Wd my book read only remove write protect as i mentioned there is no write protect switch or tab on the device, so this means the my book drive was write protected through software or firmware though as i mentioned, im not sure how it was done in the first place. How to erase wd my passport external hard drive in windows.
How to unlock a wd external drive without a password. Western digital my book connection to windows 10 microsoft. Doubleclick the wd smartware virtual cd, and then doubleclick the wd smartware icon on the vcd file listing. Wd s new my book essential and my book for mac external hard drives, powered by wd smartware, have finally made it easy enough so that anyone can do it, dale pistilli, vice president of. Equipped with social media and cloud storage import, password protection and perfectly paired with wd backup or time machine, my book desktop storage helps keep your files safe. To safely remove the program, the wrong way is to locate its folder, rightclick it and select delete, while quite a number of people are still doing this. I was able retrieve all my data from the wd drive and transfer it to a verbatim drive using data rescue 3. Erase data and format the drive in order to use it on other devices like a mac. Never will buy another wd product again what a waste. Password protection the my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. The new drives feature a redesigned enclosure that better aligns with modern design and updates to wd s suite of software that comes with each drive.
I disabled the smartware on the wd drive with the patch from wd. How to remove smartware udf partition wd portable drives. Sometime afterwards i noticed an icon on my desktop with a pic of a cd in it, i tried dragging it to the trash bin but it just says eject wd smartware which i do but its back in no time. Aug 28, 2015 western digital my book connection to windows 10 i was okay with windows 7. A workaround for removing western digitals smartware virtual cd. Remove wd smartware expert guide to help you uninstall wd. What would you do if you need to remove wd smartware 1. As a result of the feedback, weve developed some improvements to the software. The wd smartware virtual cd manager utility locates your drives and asks you to select the one you want to configure. Cant remove smartware on western dig apple community. My problem is to delete smartware partition udf and add free. Western digital enables new smartware software on my book. Then, how to erase wd my passport external hard drive easily. The wd unlocker vcd provides the wd drive unlock utility that you can use to.
Wd smartware backsup your files in a folder on the my book drive called \ wd smartware. List of all wd firmware and software available for download. Sep 11, 2009 wds new my book essential and my book for mac external hard drives, powered by wd smartware, have finally made it easy enough so that anyone can do it, dale pistilli, vice president of. If you want to keep wd quick view installed to discover networkattached wd storage devices. Our builtin antivirus checked this mac download and rated it as virus free. I have been reading articles regarding the wd problems and loss of data which is why i made the post. Help me get rid of a wd smartware icon macrumors forums.
Got a wd external drive for backup and the wd smartware icon is on my desktop and as i am not using the wd software i want to get it off my desktop but when i try to eject it or drag it to the trash it just goes right back to the desktop. I went to the wd knowledge base site to find out how to get rid of the thing and read that wd did not know how to get rid of it, but was. Meanwhile i have an important file on my wd smartware hard. Mac users click here weve been shipping our new my book and my passport drives with wd smartware software for a few months now. Oct 11, 2009 western digital my passport ultra 500gb usb 3. Western digital my book live user manual pdf download. Apart from wd passport, you can also format wd elements for mac. Disconnect all other external drives from the computer except for the my book or my passport drive you want to update. How to back up a windows computer with wd smartware.
Smartware app delete intead of uninstall i just bought and subsequently returned a wd my book essential, which was running wd smartware. Select your my book drive, and the wd smartware virtual cd manager utility displays its current and target vcd settings. Equipped with wd backup software for windows and apple time machine compatibility for mac, the my book desktop hard drive can back up your photos, videos, music, and documents. Remove the preferences option from the drive settings screen restoring the wd smartware software and disk image in addition to deleting all of the data on your my book drive, erasing or reformatting the drive also removes the wd smartware software and all.
How to disable hide the virtual cd vcd for windows or mac osx on a my book. How to disable the western digital vcd smartware on mypassport. My book directattached drives my book my book essential my book elite my book duo my book for mac reformatted for windows operating. I went through the ms fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed steps and it supposedly fixed a problem, but it still wont uninstall. Once installed, smartware will scan your computer defaults to drive c. The my book drive is trusted desktop storage designed to complement your personal style with a massive amount of space to store your photos, videos, music and documents. System tools downloads smartware by western digital corporation and many more programs are available for instant and free download. Click the wd quick view icon in the menu bar and move the cursor over the name of your my book live drive to display drive status below the submenu. Wd has posted the steps to remove the smartware and its vcd, mac or windows. It installed a pointless virtual cd drive on my system. Youll need a thin flathead screwdriver and a phillips star sh. Windows users click here a small portion of drive space on your new my passport or my book hard drive has been used to create a virtual cd vcd.
Wd my book elite 1tb unboxing, connecting, smartware. Then when western digital warned mavericks users that they could potentially lose the data on their drives, mac users went into overdrive trying to figure out how to get rid of the infernal wd smartware and that devil of a virtual cd that. Then i reformatted the wd drive and my mac immediately recognized it and asked if i would like to it be my time machine drive. My problem is to delete smartware partition udf and add free space for my data. Tips for getting started with the wd my book backup drive. How to erase wd my passport external hard drive in windows easily. When i plugged it into my mac, i installed the smartware software thinking that i would be able to remove it with the virtual cd manager. Are you sure you didnt corrupt the partition trying to use the drive on both mac and pc.
Wd smartware software is fully compatible with apple s time machine software. Wd drive utilities program is created by western digital technologies, inc. When i looked at my applications folder on my mac, there was. Uninstall wd drive utilities how to fully remove wd drive. Apr 12, 2010 uninstall wd smartware using installation cd. During that time weve been listening to our customers. Ensure that the my book or my passport drive is connected to a usb port on your computer. If you encounter problem when trying to delete wd smartware 1. My passport is full how can i delete old backups to free. The most common reasons for removing smartware are. Feb 22, 2020 if you cannot access wd my passport external hard drive due to access denied error, this pages solution is helpful. If your device is currently running firmware version 02.
Click start all programs western digital wd apps wd security to display the. How to delete wd unlocker udf partition microsoft community. Backup target device icon provides the name of the backup target device connected to your computer. With this tools, i cannot delete the 2 partitions and create one. How do you remove the wd smartware virtual cd drive from. How to remove auto unlock drive for this user external. If you want to just delete your wd backup files, they are usually located in your my book s wd smartware. You will have to erase the drive before you can use it again. Wd passport essential, and smartware removal pc storage. Jul 03, 2010 i have killed the my passport partition, which shows as unallocated disk 5, but the extra cdrom is there.
On mac os x you can unmount the smartware partition for good by editing etcfstab. So ive tried to uninstall it, with an eye toward trying a reinstall, but that doesnt work either. How to unlock a wd external drive without a password ccm. How to remove wd smartware virtual drive jared heinrichs. Downloads download software and updates for your wd product at. How to unlock wd passport on catalina external drives for mac. Under that, select software for mac or software for windows. Should i remove wd my cloud by western digital technologies. Wd smartware wd smartware is another great tool for. How do you remove the wd smartware virtual cd drive from your. Check out this tutorial to see how exactly to completely remove wd smartware 1. Wd recently updated their my book external desktop hard drive line for both the mac and pc audiences. But with the new windows 10 i get a black window in the lowerright that says the drive does not work.
This is because those apps were designed for backups rather than archival or synchronization. The vcd is necessary if you wish to install wd smartware or if you want to use the encryption and password protection features on the drive. How to fix wd my passport access denied in windows 1087. How to remove western digital hard drive password youtube. Sep 22, 2012 how to open the western digital mybook may not be entirely obvious. A small portion of drive space on your new my passport or my book hard drive has been used to create a virtual cd vcd. Select the uninstall check box on the wd smartware installer for mac screen to display. In addition, the system supports my book, my book, my book for mac, my book duo, my passport, my passport ultra wd backup, my passport ultra metal, my passport for mac, my passport for mac, and my passport air. How do i remove a mybooks wd smartware virtual cd from my. The vcd can be reenabled by running the vcd manager.
Wd backup wont open and wont uninstall wd software. How to uninstall western digital smartwar apple community. This post will cover how to remove wd smartware virtual driver from wd s mybook. This versatile, flexible software comes preloaded on select wd drives and is available for purchase to use on any other wd or 3rd party usb external drive. I was dissatisfied with the product and decided to return it, but made the mistake of only deleting the wd smartware instead of uninstalling. Wd my cloud by western digital technologies should i remove it. If they were created using wd smartware or wd backup you can delete files within the swstor folder within your hard drive. Once the cd is recognized it should display in your cddvd drive as wd smartware. Remove wd unlocker partition from wd my book super user. Wd my cloud is a program developed by western digital technologies. Eject the western digital smartware vcd on login mac os x hints. The vcd contains the wd smartware installation software, the encryption and password protection application, user manuals, and other resource files.
I recently updated my mac to os catalina, and i think that is the reason why. If gaining permissions does not fix the issue, download easeus hard drive recovery software to retrieve and export data from inaccessible wd my passport. When i spoke to wd a few weeks back, they were pretty adamant about erring on the side of total security. Wd smartware, a software developed by western digital technologies, inc. Tried to remove the password protection with vcd manager on mac and. Should i remove wd smartware quick view by western digital. Wd discovery software for wd backup, wd security and wd drive utilities for mac. Click on preferences and there is a checkbox for open wd smartware when drive is connected.
If you want to fix your my book drive without deleting all the files, right click on the drive, select properties, click the tools tab and finally the check now button. Wd smartware home screen the wd smartware home screen in the content gauge for your computers hard drive, all of your files that are available for backup are shown against a blue background in categories that are based on the following folders on your computer. How to remove hidden virtual cd vcd partitions on your. There is a tool wd smartware virtual cd manager but this sofware just hidden the smartware partition. I recently purchased a 1tb western digital mybook essential from amazon.
Connect your hard drive that you want to remove wd unlocker from. Wd and others have in the posts above told you how to remove the smartware lets see. My recently purchased 1tb my book essential shows only 930gb of storage space. My problem is i cannot trace where on my computer the smartware app is located certainly not in the applications folder. All in all, smartware makes automatic backups simple and painless. How do i remove this smartware software from my drive. Launching wd smartware windows only if wd smartware is installed, select the wd smartware option on the wd quick view menu to display the wd smartware home screen. Jun 08, 2011 a while back i hooked up a wd my book studio lx drive to my imac, i did not install anything that came with it, just let time machine do its thing. How to change or remove encryption on westerndigital ultra external hard drive using wd security. The smartware virtual cd manager is a tool that lets you hide the vcd on your drive. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup.
If you dont do this, you may lose data on the hard drive and it may get. If you have more than one supported device connected to your computer, leftclick the one that you want to use for backup and retrieve functions. If you dont wish to run wd smartware or use the security features, you can disable the vcd following the steps below. Wd my book essentials driver for windows download the drive is the same height as its predecessor 6.
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