Clearing an External WD HD

According to Dedoimeno I should be able to get all the crap off
of the WD external HD by running the HP format tool he suggested.
It didn't delete the files as stated.
I still have 95M cluttering my drive.
Yes, I tried the windows format. zilch.
Yes, I tried Partition Magic. Zilch.
Comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

Delete the partition. Disk is now RAW. Data is gone, does not matter which format type used.

When you create a partition(s) depending on what you format as, some area of the drive might be reserved.

Unless there is something interfering with this process, it should not fail. Partition Magic, Partition Wizard, Ranish, even XP formatting option from setup, all should do it if you delete the partitions.

Sul.

 

I am just curious. But, if you open up your recycle bin on the desktop, does it show 95 MB of data?

 

fat32format.

 

Thanks for responding Guys.
Yes Partition Magic cleared everything.
Then I went back in Windows. Looked for drive G. It was not there.
So I went back in Partition Magic and created a partition of the entire drive.
Back came the crap from WD. 103,661,568 bytes of it.

 

Maybe this has something to do with system restore. Do you have a hidden folder on the drive called system volume information?

 

Thank you for responding Tgell.
Yes, the "system volume information" shows up in PCLinuxOS but not in Windows Vista.
I can delete that folder in PCLinuxOS but when I go into Vista the 100m is still there.
According to Dedoimeno it is supposed to be a VD partition.
Whatever that means....

 

So, you have Vista? If you have system folders hidden, system volume information will not show up in "my computer". In Vista or 7 you can turn off system restore for the external hard drive that is attached. When it is attached see if there is a restore point for your external drive as shown here. I would turn off only for the external drive. I believe VD partition means virtual disk, but I am not sure why it would be on your external drive.

 

Download Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows .

Install it, then run it as admin and select
Write Zeros -> Quick Erase.

The folder "System volume information" is on every ntfs partition.

How big is the disk? I hope that you are not complaingn about the occupied space used by the master file table of the partition.

Panagiotis

 

Thanks guys for replying.
To Tgell:
Yes I am using Vista.
System files are NOT hidden.
I have system restore turned off on the WD HD.
VD on the WD HD to my understanding is Package crap.

To Pandlouk:
According to Dedoimeno (www.dedoimedo.com) what you suggest
only hides the problem from Windows but it is still there hogging
about 100m. Disk is about 300G.
No this has nothing to do with the master file table.

 

I found this to be interesting. I also found out that the System Volume Information holds more data then just restore points. Article

 

Maybe I have stated my case wrong.
The system volume info. is a pain but that has nothing to do with the extra
used space on the WD external. I think it is a thing called "Smartware"
put there by WD. This is using space that I paid for and not requested.
It also contains a baddie called "autorun".
Nobody should do anything on my puter without my knowledge.

 

Wow, okay. Sorry I might have lead you down the wrong path. Okay, I know what the VD drive is about. It concerns the Smartware program on the drive. Maybe this will help. According to one of the posts, he was able to delete it altogether.

 

Actually NO. That software by WD only hides the VD data from windows.
But the 100m still shows up in the used section.

This will be my LAST WD HD!

 

So you did manage to get rid of the crap?

You won't see system info in windows unless you enable show protected and system files in explorer. This is to prevent regular users from ruining their own machines.

Mrk

 

Shankle: the only way to get rid of it is to remove the drive from the enclosure and then do a wipe:

Posted here:

 

To Mr. Mrkvonic:
No, the crap is still there.
I wish you could get hold of Mr. Dedoimedo and have him
do a follow up article.
Evidently people have been having this problem for years and
WD has done nothing concrete about it.
It's more of "smartware" than System volume information thing.

To Tgell:
I read that and I think it is a very risky operation.
Afraid to try it.

 

I can do a follow up only after I buy another disk and convince myself that this indeed does not work ... As to getting hold of Mr. Dedoimedo
Mrk

 

@ Shankle,

since you disabled smartware from loading, use diskpart to eliminate it altogether.

from a command prompt run and press enter after each line:
diskpart
list disk
sel disk X (replace X with the number of your wd)
list part
sel part 1
del part override
sel part 2
del part override
exit

Now all the disk should be left with unollocated space and you can create manully the partition/partitions that you want from the disk manager.

Panagiotis

 

To Pandlouk:
I did a little reading on "diskpart". It seems that it will only work in
Recovery Mode. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

No, it works from within windows too.

The Disk Management of windows is the visual guide of diskpart.exe, but does not give the user, the advanced commands; is a safeguard for protecting non advanced users from destroying their system.

You should run the "cmd.exe" as admin, otherwise diskpart will not have access on the disks.

Just be very carefull to select the correct disk.

Panagiotis

 

Clicking on diskpart.exe just flashes on the screen in Vista.

BUT I think I have found a solution. Maybe not the best one but a solution.

There are two types of cases for the WD external drives.
1: has two rubber tabs on the front bottom and a screw on the top.

2: No tabs, no screws. I found a site that describes how to take this case
off. I don't have much hope. If I break the case, then there is a device
called "Thermaltake Dock" that I can buy to put the sata HD in. Then I will be able to get rid of the WD crap.
Not sure how to protect the drive in this condition if I want to put it in
a safe deposit box.

 

Why are you clicking it?

You should run it from the command prompt (cmd).

Search for cmd.

Right click at cmd.exe and select run as administrator. Then type and run the commands I wrote in the previous post.

Panagiotis

 

Because I am dumbbbb. Will try again. Thanks

 

As has been said

BE VERY CAREFUL USING DISKPART!

A very powerful utility.. be very sure you are on the correct disc. I have both accidentily and purposfully used diskpart on my OS disc. You can recover from it, but it is not pretty.

Just a little note, because it is easy to get confused when using it.

Sul.