Remove "WD Unlocker" partition from WD My Book

Question

I have a WD My Book (3TB storage, USB 3), and just like many other enthusiast owners of this external drive, I'm trying to get rid of their crapware.

Whenever I plug this device into a computer, there is a virtual CD unit that pops up called "WD Unlocker", and I'm trying to remove it physically, instead of just hiding it (I found many guides on this, and by the way none of them worked).

Steps I followed so far:

• under OS X, I tried to initialize the physical drive several times with Apple's Disk Utility. I also tried to change from MBR to GUID and vice-versa with no success.
• with Windows 10, I tried removing all partitions from the physical drive with the built-in Disk Manager and some other tools like EaseUS Partition Master. Obviously none of them worked.
• frustration began to rise. I started Google-ing like crazy.
• again, I wasted some time with OS X and some built-in command-line tools (which I guess are just the command-line counterpart of the Disk Utility app).
• I hugged my cat and cried.
• with Windows, I launched HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, as somebody has claimed it to have had success, but I ended up with a "Device media is write-protected" error. I opened Microsoft's System Registry utility to force-allow write on the protected media, and just when I was about to start partying, I realized I failed once again.
• sacrificed a lamb.
• I connected that evil drive to my Ubuntu Server 14.04. I tried with both fdisk and parted, but I may have done something wrong.
• browsed to SuperUser.

One strange thing I noticed is that even when the drive is unmounted, I have the option to mount separately the virtual CD and the drive itself. I have no experience with partitioned external drives, so I know not if this could suggest that they are actually two separate physical units (something "hacked" in the SATA-to-USB controller, maybe?) or it is just me unable to properly erase the hard drive and forget about that damn VCD.

Solution 1

To uninstall WD Unlocker, you would need to have WD Security installed.

1. Connect your hard drive that you want to remove WD unlocker from.

2. Double click on WD security and and a box for ""Edit Security Setting" will pop-up.

3. There is an option for "Remove Password", if it is not already selected, select it.

4. Put in your password and click "Update Security Setting."

5. A box will pop-up that says "Your Password Has Been Removed." And WD Unlocker should be completely removed.

Solution 2

For Mac OS X:

Removing physically is fairly cumbersome and apparently only doable in Linux. The following script is so fast you never see it appear.

If there were a security module that could refuse mounts based on various criteria, you could presumably hook into that. I don't know enough about that level of Mac OS X innards.

1. Open Automator
2. Create a new job based on "Folder Action"
3. Set Folder Action receive source to "Other..."
4. In the File Chooser Dialog, press Cmd-Shift-G and type /Volumes/
5. Choose Actions → Utilities → Run Shell Script in the UI
6. Enter the code:

---

if [[ -d "/Volumes/WD Unlocker" ]]; then
  hdiutil unmount -force "/Volumes/WD Unlocker"
fi

as the script

7. Save the script

8. Tolerate the toothy gap:

---

Solution 3

Enter the wrong password five times - the option to erase drive will pop-up - all WD software will be removed and will not bother you again. It will erase the disk - so back-up its contents first ....

Comments

[Giacomo1968]

Is there a reason you are not just reformatting and repartitioning it? That will get rid of it? I assume you still have data on that if this is the case. If not, then just go to “Disk Utility” and wipe the drive.

[fquffio]

Actually, I reformatted it more than once. I have no concerns about data on the drive, as there are none right now. The point is: for some reason the VCD is reckonized as part of a separate physical drive, hence reformatting and repartitioning just doesn't work. :)

[Techpumpkin_WD]

Unfortunately is not possible to remove completely the VCD from your external HDD, however you should be able to disable it following the instructions here.

[fquffio]

@Techpumpkin_WD : those instructions you linked refer to the "WD SmartWare" VCD. As I stated in the question (but probably I should have pointed it out in a clearer way), I am trying to remove the "WD Unlocker" unit. By the way, the "WD SmartWare" can be fully removed using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, as I was able to do with another WD drive.

[Techpumpkin_WD]

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. However both the WD Smartware and WD Unlocker VCDs should be located at the HDD HPA ( Host Protected Area ). If you need to find a way to remove it you should look for a tool that will allow you to clear the HPA. Just keep in mind that modifying the HPA and DCO (Drive configuration overlay) can brick your HDD. And furthermore if you succeed you won't be able to use the password protection for this HDD.

[fquffio]

@Techpumpkin_WD Thank you very much! I tried removing HPA and restoring DCO using hdparm (with the --yes-i-know-... flag), but it refused to proceed, as there was a SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: .... Any idea of how this could be solved? I tried enabling Multi-SCSI option in kernel and some other things I read around the Internet, with no success. Also, if I launch lsblk -f, i see /dev/sdb with a descendant /dev/sdb1, but /dev/sr0 (which is the WD Unlocker VCD) is stand-alone: is that OK?

[Ray Woodcock]

Not to prioritize humor, but let me just mention that, in the annals of computing confusion, this question is brilliant.

[Luke Sheppard]

This is correct, but the erasure only applies to the partition that was encrypted. So the hard drive itself will end up still having one large, empty partition, and one small partition that contains the WD Unlocker app, as before. So this really only resets the drive back to how it was when you purchased it - it does not allow you to remove the WD Unlocker partition. Tested on Mac 10.14.6 Mojave with Western Digital My Passport for Mac 1TB drive.

[Luke Sheppard]

Didn't work for me. I updated my My Passport for Mac 1TB USB drive to the latest firmware and WD Unlocker is still there.

[Luke Sheppard]

Note that WD Security might not necessarily work with all WD encrypted USB drives.

[fquffio]

Sorry, but this just formats the drive, without removing the system partition that is recognized as a virtual CD. Your answer does format the drive but does not solve the problem entirely.