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WD SmartWare removal Posted: 01 Aug 2010 11:13 PM PDT It seems that everyone who buys a recent WD external USB drive, will get lumbered with a virtual CD called SmartWare. Now, there are many reasons to dislike SmartWare. An extra drive letter in Windows explorer Extra software on the Virtual CD that you cannot easily remove. The extra letter can cause many problems with existing external drives that are being used as automated backup drives… I hate it (and most non-technical users get severely confused) when previously working backups to, say, drive E:, now don’t work any more. Your computers drive layout is effectively changed without your permission. An initial look for a solution resulted in a huge 20-step process (involving updating the firmware to each WD drive, then disabling the virtual CD). No thanks. It shouldn’t be so hard. Then I found a much simpler solution: in XP (you can use a similar process for Vista and W7): Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> expand DVD/CD-ROM Drives -> right click on the “WD Virtual CD device” -> disable -> OK I didn’t have time for a comprehensive test, so its possible for the VCD to re-appear if you plug the WD drive into a different USB port… but if this happens, just repeat the process. Related posts: CD Drive doesn’t appear in XP/Vista sis 7012 (and realtek ac97) problems on a laptop backups for small businesses

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