Help w/ WD My Book Essential Ext. Hard Drive

[HYHYBT]

They really ought to have to put plain, obvious warnings on those things so you'll know they're useless BEFORE you buy them.

Then again, I once bought a winmodem for my Powerbook 1400 (around 1997 or so, still works if I can find it). Didn't realize that "winmodem" actually meant something instead of just being branding, and a real modem would have worked even if the box did say it required Windows.

[EvilEmpryss]

Agreed. I have a SimpleTech drive that had all that proprietary "let us help you save your files a certain way" software, but it wasn't set to start up automatically and I was able to drag it to the trash and delete it. Nothing on the box for this one led me to believe that it would be any different.

All my other externals came from upgrading the hard drives in my computers, so I never dealt with this problem before. No... wait... there's all that bloatware on my PC. I can't get rid of that stuff, either.

Thanks for the help, though, HYHYBT, Eric, and BroomJockey. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to check my thoughts to make sure that I'm on the right track.

[Eric the Grey]

I'm running XP on the PC. It showed up as a drive, but clicking on the drive started the software. When I explored the drive, I couldn't drag anything to it: I had to go through the software to use the drive.

I saw those articles, Eric, and they kept one thing from popping up everytime the drive was plugged in, but it won't allow me to circumvent the Smartware program. I just want to be able to plug the drive in and transfer files. I don't need their silly encryption and password protection.

Unfortunately, I told my husband that he could now drag and drop things to the drive once he entered the Smartware password and he went and started using it before I could finish troubleshooting the reformat. Now that he's using it this is all academic, he won't let me have it back.

Guess I should have been more specific since you cannot delete partitions from explorer.

1. Plug the drive into your XP. Cancel any auto-run application that pops up.
2. Right-click on your "My Computer" icon. Click on "Manage"
3. Click on "Disk Management in the left-hand pane.
4. Right-click on the offending drive (make certain you have the correct one!) and click on Delete Partition. If there are more than one, start on the right, and work your way to the left.
5a. Once all the partitions are deleted, right-click again and choose either create partition, or format (unfortunately, I do not have a drive I can play with and test the options here).
5b. Alternately, once you've deleted the partitions under XP, move the drive over to your Mac and use the Mac disk utility to format the new drive.

Beyond doing this, I cannot think of anything else to do other than using a copy of dban to clean it off...


Eric the Grey

[Broomjockey]

Eric's steps should work even though it's started being used (you won't get that space back though, since the partition will be on the wrong side to move). Just delete the small partition, and that way, at least you won't have the program popping up anymore.

Beyond doing this, I cannot think of anything else to do other than using a copy of dban to clean it off...


Eric the Grey

As for DBAN. Oi, be careful with that. Since the drive's in use, I'd not suggest it.

[BlaqueKatt]

I only got the thing because it was the cheapest 1 TB drive I could find at the time, and still cheaper than buying a drive + enclosure.

where are you shopping?

2 TB my book @ $269
2 TB external stand Fantom drive brand-alone for $159(with enclosure included)

[EvilEmpryss]

Walmart. 1 TB drive = $75 on sale. Told you it was cheap.

[Eric the Grey]

As for DBAN. Oi, be careful with that. Since the drive's in use, I'd not suggest it.

Well, you have to actually boot from a CD or Floppy disk in order to use it, as far as I know. I don't think you can use it from within windows.

But you are correct, be careful with it. You could end up wiping the wrong drive...



Eric the Grey

[Broomjockey]

Well, you have to actually boot from a CD or Floppy disk in order to use it, as far as I know. I don't think you can use it from within windows.

Actually, I was referring more to the point that it doesn't respect partitions, to the best of my knowledge. It'll wipe the whole drive. And she said her husband's already put data on it.

[EvilEmpryss]

It'll wipe the whole drive. And she said her husband's already put data on it.

Yikes. Definitely not going to touch that program, then. Hubby doesn't often go all Evil Overlord on me, but if I lost everything he just put on there because I get trying to "make it better"........

[Broomjockey]

if I lost everything he just put on there because I get trying to "make it better"........

Like I said, Eric's other steps about going in to the Manage section should allow you to do it quite nicely. It'll list the size of the partition, so just make sure you hit the small one.