Western Digital ext. HD causing crashes

I got a Western Digital external harddrive and while working on getting my computers all going, I wanted to back things up on this. Unfortunately, the ext. HD is partitioned into something with Western Digital stuff on it, like the manual in many languages, and then there's a second partition called Passport which contains the bulk of the backup space. Passport is sometimes not recognized by my computers. In one computer, if I plug the ext HD in, that computer freezes and I can't shut it down properly.

Someone recommended I completely reformat the Western Digital ext. HD, so I decided first to copy everything off it onto the internal HD.

The parition with the WD stuff on it takes up about 614 mb, but when I copied it over to the int HD and checked it, there were only around 480 mb there. I checked every single file and directory I copied, but they all match in size. Still there seem to be at least 200 mb in that partition which I can't see.

Does anyone know how I might be able to see what's in there that is occupying that ~200mb space?

Also, is there any violation of the HD's warranty if I reformat it?

 

Simply formatting the drive shouldn't invalidate your warranty.

I've not had the chance to 'interrogate' any of these ext. drives that come with their own software but I have a feeling that it's the software that's causing the difference in data size somehow (did you check the 'size on disk' differences?).

 

Hi satrow,

What is the 'size on disk' difference? I'm not sure what you're asking me to look for there?

The odd thing is that when I plug in the ext. HD, Windows Explorer first shows that there is an ext. HD and assigns it a letter and calls it SmartWare. After awhile, a second completely different drive shows up in Windows Explorer with a different letter assigned to it and it is called Passport. The HD has a single usb cable.

The letters have to indicate partitions, don't they, and not drives?

I just found this very disturbing thread at Western Digital's help site, where they mention a virtual drive is installed every time you use this ext. harddrive making it unusable in some systems. Since it crashed one of my computers four times, I'm worried.

 

Sorry to double post, I forgot to list the thread I mentioned in my last post: (I haven't tried this yet, but will)

Topic and program to remove Western Digital's virtual cd player:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Pass...ur-passports-not-disable-it/td-p/14480/page/2
(message #16 in the above refers you to the following: )
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/passport-vcd.html
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

 

Unfortunately, the WD SmartWare is a virtual drive, and is not as easy to remove as a regular 'autorun' routine. I did find this tutorial with a link to WD's Product Update page - you'll have to update your firmware, then run the VCD Manager.
Don't know it it's any easier than the procedures listed in your links, but it's worth a look.

 

Western Digital did provide a way to hide the virtual drive, but I'm not sure that results in the Passport part of the ext. harddrive being visible. I also don't know if it takes care of the problem that the ext. drive keeps looking for drivers. It's annoying. I'll post back if I am able to figure it out.