WD external drive

[shankle]

I have two of these HDs and each one has about 100M tied up in crap from WD.
Dedoimedo has written an article about this problem.
I tried the Windows format and it doesn't get rid of the 100m.
I tried Partition Magic and it seems to get rid of the 100m.
But then the drive does not appear in Windows. SO I go back in Partition Magic
and create a partition of the full drive. Then the 100M of crap appears again.
I tried the program that Dedoimeno recommends from HP but that doesn't
solve the problem for me either. I'm really ticked that a company like WD would pull
a stunt like this.

[dedndave]

hiya Jack
one of my internal drives is a WD 500 Gb
i am pretty happy with this particular drive, although it was a little pricey
i guess the 100 Mb you are refering to is part of the driver package ?

[Tedd]

The extra partition may only be in ROM and not a real partition (it's just made to look that way for easy access) - so you can't use the extra space anyway. I presume it's read-only..?

[hutch--]

Jack,

Usually with the Windows disk manager you have to completely delete the partition to get the original full size out of it. All my recent machines have WD Green disks in them and none of them have been problematic at all. Try deleting all of the partitions first then see what the unpartitioned size is them. I remember years ago that MS FDISK could not remove a unix partition but I don't think its a problem any longer from win2000 upwards. The alternative is use a Linux boot disk and use the Linux FDISK to delete all the partitions.

[shankle]

Thanks for responding guys.
Please read the article on Dedoimedos site about WD external drives as it explains it much better than I do.
"www.dedoimedo.com".
I have run Partition Magic and formatted the external drive. It then shows that the disk is empty but it is still hogging
about 100m. Then I have to create a partition for the external drive as it no longer shows up in windows.
This then shows the 100m is still there.
Dedoimeno says this is some kind of VD read-only type file (maybe Smartware). I have NOT been able to get it off the drive.
I don't have any problem with the drive itself, just don't like 100m being taken away from me for some
god knows what reason.
The extra data is NOT in Rom on the WD HD.
The 100m is NOT part of the driver package. It is called (I think)  "system volume information".

[dedndave]

according to that article, it is a real partition on the drive
the easy way to get rid of it is to unhide it
i use a program called MBRWizard

http://mbrwizard.com/download.php

he has a new GUI version, but i prefer the version 2.0b command line version (see bottom of download page)
with that program, you can view a list of all partitions present in the system

Code Select Expand

MBRWiz /list
notice the drive "type" values (i think it's actually called the drive type ID byte)
7h - normal NTFS
17h - hidden NTFS
you may also see a few other type values, for things like OEM recovery partitions, etc (all the ones i've seen are actually NTFS)
when you have identified the drive and partition you want to modify...

Code Select Expand

MBRWiz /disk=1 /part=0 /type=7h
changes disk 1 (second drive), partition 0 to normal NTFS
7h - the type has to be followed by h for hex (a little bug in the command line version)
reboot, and you may now delete the partition or do whatever you like, using standard partitioning software (i use EaseUS)
the partition will have a drive letter and show up on explorer, of course

EDIT - you may find that the partition is FAT32 or exFAT32 and hidden
just drop the 10h from the value to unhide it

[shankle]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the help.
I tried your version of mbrwizard but I don't think it works on Vista. Anyway I got nowhere.
Possibly did something wrong.

Didn't try the latest version.

One thing for sure - this is my last WD HD!!!!!

[dedndave]

for vista...
when you open the console window to run it
right-click on the console shortcut, then Run As Administrator
that should allow it work correctly
i think there is a way to permanently modify a console shortcut to open as admin
you can right-click - Properties - and poke around a little

[GregL]

I have always preferred Western Digital Drives. I have never seen one with this crap on it. That really stinks!

[Queue]

I'd be far more curious to know what it takes to modify the read-only drive image. I also don't really see the problem here; are you really mad that you're missing out on like 0.02% drive capacity? I personally would like hardware that has extra functionality (like being able to emulate a CD drive).

And are you really going to stop buying WD drives when they are arguably the most reliable brand and their internal drives aren't known for coming preloaded with junk? Of course brand-loyalty (and disloyalty) only hurt the consumer, so I guess always go with the right product for your $.

Queue

[shankle]

Queue.  you seem to be missing the point. Go on the Dedoimedo site and read the article on WD external drives.
Smartware contains an autorun and from what I've read is a rootkit. Besides they have NO right to install their
goodies unasked on a HD that I paid money for. Don't take my word for it and do some more reading.

I will NEVER buy another WD HD.......

[dedndave]

KB971029  restrict AutoRun entries in the AutoPlay dialog to only CD and DVD drives

[gwapo]

I have the same experience as shankle with my recently bought 1TB WD external drive. I did all I know to remove the added "Virtual Disk Drive", but with no luck.
So out of frustration, I took the HDD inside and placed it on a different enclosure. To my amaze, using a different enclosure had reveled about 600MB extra partition instead of a virtual disk drive...this allowed me to remove that extra partition, and was able to format the entire drive., but sadly, that voids the warranty.

[Queue]

dedndave, the drive is faking a CD drive for the read-only image so it gets CD drive autorun capabilities. That's what interests me, as I could put my portable software menu on it to autorun when I plug the drive in if the read-only image can be modified.

shankle, I did read the article. Also, it's not a rootkit; a rootkit is software that's installed on your computer and uses ring 0 privileges and code to hide files (and on Windows, registry entries) from the OS itself and any other software.

Does the packaging mention the hard drive comes pre-loaded with software? If so, you got what you paid for. There's only an issue if the bundled software wasn't mentioned anywhere. Often software is included from other companies to subsidize your purchase; if it's software purely made by WD, then it's simply part of the product you bought.

Based on what gwapo said, modifying the read-only partition may be as simple as attaching the drive via some means other than its enclosure, changing the second partition, and putting it back.

Queue

[shankle]

To Queue:
Yes - I know what qwapo is talking about. On another site they gave warnings about doing that.
I could care less about the WD warranty. But I am no electronics expert and really hesitate
to pull a working hard drive apart for this.

If someone whats to bother giving very detailed instructions on doing this I would give it a shot.