WD Smartdrive Rootkit Removal

Jola

Jola

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WD SmartWare Rootkit Removal

I just bought three 1TB WD My Passport SE 2.5" drives, and have found that they come with a rootkit that cannot be removed (Can be disabled, but the rootkit stays there, using up a lot of space).

See here for more.

I can't find a solution for this on the internet - OK, one guy managed to resolve it by dismantling the drive and using a different controller, but I don't want to do that.

Has anyone here managed to solve this problem ?

The plan is to use these drives for off-site backup, and I want the whole 1 TB of space available, and I don't want to use the stupid WD software.

I would have preferred to use the separate WD drives in any case, because you get housings that support eSATA, but the largest size seems to be 640GB - hence the 1TB purchases.
 
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If you have access to a Linux box plug it in and fire up your partition editor (gparted). You should be able to delete the partitions and reformat if need be.
 
There really is no way to get rid of it, aside from dismantling it or something. However, WD has been listening to the people with regards to the last few firmware updates, so it might be removed in the future. AFAIK their Essential range of drives don't have the Smartware partition.
 
1. This is not a rootkit (Do you even know what a rootkit is?)

2. It's built into the enclosure's firmware so you cannot get rid of it.

3. Yes it sucks but it takes up less than 0.07% of the drive.

Next time read some reviews before purchasing a product. Almost all external versions of popular drives suck. Most of them have some kind of "power saving" feature that switches off the drive after a couple of minutes of inactivity which sucks. The WD's have this Smartdrive crap and the Seagate Freeagents overheats and dies (50% negative review rate on amazon.com).

Rather get a 3rd party enclosure and put a nice drive inside.
 
Smartware IS a ROOTKIT. If you do not know what a rootkit is, use some google-fu and look at the characteristics of what a rootkit is. Every aspect of Smartware is a rookit. I cant think of a single way that it is not.

- WD has to trick you into accepting it out-of-the-box just to even use the drive for the first time. It is almost like ransomware, except we have already paid the price. Requires/uses internet access with, or without your consent/knowledge. Who knows what its actually doing when your computer is idle. It is programmed in such a way as to avoid detection and removal (stealth). It is portable, hidden, virtual disk emulation at its finest. Drives infected with smartware actually report more usable (false) space than Smartware is occupying. Most any decent AV product that has the ability, actually detects the code within Smartware, and its resulting actions, as a rootkit upon drive insertion/software installation.
Click to expand...

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Demand-fix-for-Smartware-Rootkit/td-p/2719

Now granted, that is just an opinion, like yours, but many people seem to hold that view.
 
I also bought one of them and lost 900 gigs of tv/movies when it crashed.
Could not fix the thing, took forever to format.
Also caused Windows 7 to reboot for no reason.

Took it back to makro and they gave me a new one.

Have been to scared to use it after hearing about these issues.

R999 wasted.
 
Jola said:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Demand-fix-for-Smartware-Rootkit/td-p/2719

Now granted, that is just an opinion, like yours, but many people seem to hold that view.
Click to expand...

The difference is that my opinion is informed.

A rootkit is a software system that consists of one or more programs designed to obscure the fact that the system has been compromised. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

A set of software tools used by a third party after gaining access to a computer system in order to conceal the altering of files, or processes being executed by the third party without the user's knowledge
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rootkit

Program giving a hacker a fraudulous access -sometimes for a long time- to a computer system. A rootkit needs a vulnerable machine to be installed
www.binarysec.com/cms/docs/resources/glossary/p-s.html

A rootkit is a collection of tools (programs) that enable administrator-level access to a computer or computer network. Typically, a hacker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining user-level access, either by exploiting a known vulnerability or cracking a password. ...
www.it.jhmi.edu/glossary/pqrs.html

etc
 
psichron said:
The difference is that my opinion is informed.

A rootkit is a software system that consists of one or more programs designed to obscure the fact that the system has been compromised. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

A set of software tools used by a third party after gaining access to a computer system in order to conceal the altering of files, or processes being executed by the third party without the user's knowledge
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rootkit

Program giving a hacker a fraudulous access -sometimes for a long time- to a computer system. A rootkit needs a vulnerable machine to be installed
www.binarysec.com/cms/docs/resources/glossary/p-s.html

A rootkit is a collection of tools (programs) that enable administrator-level access to a computer or computer network. Typically, a hacker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining user-level access, either by exploiting a known vulnerability or cracking a password. ...
www.it.jhmi.edu/glossary/pqrs.html

etc
Click to expand...

Some of those seem to apply to SmartWare !
 
alf101 said:
R999 wasted.
Click to expand...

That really sucks and I feel your pain. I also lost a 1.5TB external. But I learned a valuable lesson, never trust external storage. They do have a higher than average (compared to internally installed drives) failure rate and it is always a gamble. There is no single brand of external hard drives that have a 0% failure rate within the first year.

You should at least return it and get a replacement under warranty.
 
Seagate = 5 year warranty.

in 3 years of using there external drives I have had no failures yet.
 
psichron said:
That really sucks and I feel your pain. I also lost a 1.5TB external. But I learned a valuable lesson, never trust external storage. They do have a higher than average (compared to internally installed drives) failure rate and it is always a gamble. There is no single brand of external hard drives that have a 0% failure rate within the first year.

You should at least return it and get a replacement under warranty.
Click to expand...

I have a replacement, but haven't used it yet.
I bought WD, because people were saying stay away from seagate. I have 2 seatgates and they still work fine.
 
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