WD -My Passport - Highway to Hell more like

English Soapbox
#1

I was recently given a Western Digital “My Passport” Welcome to Western Digital US Online Store external hard drive to get some files off.

Mmmm Nice! Shiney! Small! - Rubbish!!

When I plugged it in I was presented with a pseudo CD drive to force me to install WD’s Smartware software, to allow me to access the contents of the drive, being a M$ formatted drive, it is a M$ executionable, with a MAC version available, but nothing for Linux.

There was no way to access the contents of the hard drive, the only thing which showed up was the contents of the pseudo cd.

A quick trip around the lighthouse with Mr Google revealed hundreds of blogs/posts complaining about this from M$, Mac and Linux users. Turns out that this software, its installation and usage is hard wired into a control chip in the drive, and cannot be deleated. The drive cannot be accessed to reformat to get rid of this dross, you are stuck with it and as a consequence, under Linux the drive is useless.

Even if you could reformat / use the drive it cannot be accessed through Linux initially, so, as in my case, I was not in a position to try and make the drive work as it wasn’t mine, all I wanted to do was mount it so I could access the files.

One commentator suggested (though this may be a tad paranoid) that the inclusion of this software is tied in with DRM.

I am not asking for help with this as I really do not care if a manufacturer is so short sighted as to try and manipulate their customers in such a blatant way that they finish up ostracising a big chuck of their potential market. I am merely making people aware and suggesting that, apart from the reason of no Linux drivers/software, people should avoid these WD products like the plague they are.

Even U3 on cruser flashdrives can be removed to use the drive as a straighforward flashdrive. This WD dross cannot be removed, so no M$ or Mac no useage, no Linux useage, no using the drive as just a hard drive without WD 's stupid software.

……and breath!!

#2

On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:36:02 +0000, Dwarfer99 wrote:

> Even U3 on cruser flashdrives can be removed to use the drive as a
> straighforward flashdrive. This WD dross cannot be removed, so no M$
> or Mac no useage, no Linux useage, no using the drive as just a hard
> drive without WD 's stupid software.

I just picked up a replacement MyBook drive (the old one died on me) and
it has the virtual CD on it as well, but I am able to access the drive
itself.

Seems to be something specific to the passport drives.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator

#3

Dwarfer,
Thanks! I was considering buying one of those next week. You saved me $120.00 USD!

#4

The WD passport drive should show up under yast when attached and although you can’t remove the software pre-installed, it should be mountable as a windows volume NTFS which will allow access with the ntfs-3g driver. Which passport model? As I have in the past been able to mount passport drives by just bypassing the software thingy. If they have in fact made the drive proprietary for this model they are shooting themselves in the foot and would be deserving of some brickbats. WD touts itself as being a real back-up solution advertising that their passport drive is excellent for moving files safely from home to work and back again.

Personally, I opted for a 1.5TB prodrive cause it’s only half the price of the WD passport models of significant lower storage. Transfers to and from the prodrive are much slower than with other externals if you leave it as one huge partition. Making several smaller partitions does speed the transfers with the prodrive up significantly (25 to 50% faster at 3x 500GB partitions).

#5

I don’t have the drive to recheck, but I did check it in yast and it came up as a single drive, which was full and only the size of the pseudo cd. The ‘main’ drive didn’t appear at all in the hour or so I had to play with it. My main point is that if I buy a drive I should be able to manipulate it or set it up they way I want rather than have a proprietary ‘storage device’ which is locked.

#6

Too bad you didn’t mention the model so it can be noted as proprietary and to be avoided. I suspect it is using a sort of ontrack style drive manager which installs a special driver like large disk volumes had in the days of DOS which couldn’t see huge storage without the special driver. It would seem this is a substantial step backward!

#7

I’ll be seeing the person who owns the drive later in the week and will get the model number then and post it.
You are right about it being a step backwards, funny thing is most of the complaints about this drive have come from M$ users, and they can actually use it. So it is more about locking what is a pretty basic item, a hard drive, to proprietary software, which is getting people annoyed.

#8

This has been fairly common with USB devices the last few years. In most cases, there is a special method for removing the software, but I have heard of other cases as the one you describe (Seagate has done this on occasion). Remember to read the details carefully.

#9

It is quite likely to do with the big issue of USB3 in which hdd developers, videostream developers, mp3 developers are all trying the sway the industry to use their next best standards approach. Pure cr** if you ask me. Everybody claiming proprietary rights to a certain method and vying to have all the others pay them royalties to the winning bidder.

Off topic but … I remember years ago when PC’s were quite infant, each printer mfg had their own method of controlling the printer then IBM and Epson published how their printers could be controlled. A short time later, almost all printers came out with one of IBM’s 6 styles or Epsons 2 styles. No royalties no hassle (to my knowledge). But with USB, each device has it’s own hidden operating structure. USB may be faster but I long for the days when mfg were adults not children hording their little corner of knowledge. And that’s the way I see it … this the 4th day of July 2010.

#10

USB is just a data and command conduit. You can have the same proprietary issues anywhere, with RS232 interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, video interfaces, etc. So don’t scapegoat USB.

#11

this thread is why I make my own external drives, by buying a standard SATA hard drive and external enclosure.

#12

Not trying to scapegoat anything. With IDE, EIDE, RS232, RS232/c, ParPort-STD, ParPort-EPP, ParPort-ECP life was simple, the data channel / command channel was documented. You pick up a device intended for that connection and knew or at least had a line of reference to go by. Now along comes USB which also publishes the basic format to be followed by the devices. Enter the new age engineers with all their paranioia over keeping their little piece of the market. We have specialty chipsets, custom proprietary drivers with little or no specifics about the operation with the device. In short, to gain full use when the mfg lays down on the job, reverse engineering the driver is the only avenue of defense and often results in legal issues.

#13

I see you don’t quite understand how USB works. The signal levels are standardised. The USB packet formats are standardised. To send a command you send this sort of packet. To start a bulk transfer you send that sort of packet. What is not standardised is the meaning of the commands and data packets. Does 0xED 0xFA cause a horizontal rule to be drawn by the printer, or is it a dot? Does it cause the disk controller to read 512 bytes of data or maybe 1024? That’s the part that is sometimes not documented. Those custom chips are generally firmware that interpret the commands. Or maybe special controllers that respond a certain way to commands.

The reason something like IDE, or GPIB is easy to understand is because the sequences are usually documented and the devices often specific to that kind of bus. But the U in USB means Universal, so all sorts of odd devices can be attached to it. Would you have expected a USB dongle containing both a modem and a flash chip with firmware that switches function when a certain sequence is sent to it? If the manufacturers are not inclined to reveal what their sequences mean, too bad.

If I were to say devise a Skype handset with buttons that could be interfaced to say a ECP parallel port, the sequences would be just as opaque, even though you could snoop on the transfers with a data capture device. So it’s not a question of the transmission technology.

So it’s a different world than what you were used to, enabled by the fact that the bus is extremely generic and all the smarts are in the controllers at each end.

Fortunately some classes of USB devices are standarised, e.g. mice, flash memory.

#14

These things I know. I have a firm grasp on USB structure. The difficulty of USB is not it’s stucture but what outside vs inside the device.

Does 0xED 0xFA cause a horizontal rule to be drawn by the printer, or is it a dot? Does it cause the disk controller to read 512 bytes of data or maybe 1024? That’s the part that is sometimes not documented. Those custom chips are generally firmware that interpret the commands. Or maybe special controllers that respond a certain way to commands.?QUOTE]
No argument on this point

[QUOTE] The reason something like IDE, or GPIB is easy to understand is because the sequences are usually documented and the devices often specific to that kind of bus. But the U in USB means Universal, so all sorts of odd devices can be attached to it. Would you have expected a USB dongle containing both a modem and a flash chip with firmware that switches function when a certain sequence is sent to it?

Also no argument, the planning of USB was sound at it’s inception.

If the manufacturers are not inclined to reveal what their sequences mean, too bad.

If I were to say devise a Skype handset with buttons that could be interfaced to say a ECP parallel port, the sequences would be just as opaque, even though you could snoop on the transfers with a data capture device. So it’s not a question of the transmission technology.

Here I am with the developers of the USB standards. The transmission technology is sound, but what the mfg industry is doing with the technology is not. Miss-use of technology is a crime just a sure as if someone broke into your place and robbed you.

My point is this (foregoing the OS argument), you buy a piece of hardware, it use to come with instructions for use, a razzu piece of software that highlighted it’s features and made you want to have this in your collection, and you could use it with the free software or using the instructions create your own value added way of using it.

Now you buy a piece of hardware, it may or may not have instructions (likely on download from their site), a driver which is OS specific, maybe even some software too. Do you want it in your collection who knows, will it perform well with the driver who cares, can you make it work without the driver is a probably not in your lifetime.

So it’s a different world than what you were used to, enabled by the fact that the bus is extremely generic and all the smarts are in the controllers at each end.

Fortunately some classes of USB devices are standarised, e.g. mice, flash memory.

Yes a different world, the needs are the same, the desires are the same, but you knock and not only is there no one home but your knuckles become all red and sore.

#15

I think this is part of the general trend to migrate features from hardware to software and not confined to USB. There are various reasons for this, including flexibility and cost. Once the genie is out of the bottle, mfrs are bound to take advantage of it. But the downside is that it also invalidates the old methods of reverse engineering. No longer is the cleverness of a device in what chips are there and how they are combined, but in the firmware. A new set of skills is required. Look at someone like Andrew “bunnie” Huang and the things he’s taken apart.

I’m leaving out the issues of legality of reverse engineering and disclosure of the results, which varies according to jurisdiction anyway.

And another approach might be what some people have discussed, a FHF.

#16

Ok, I’ll leave it at the words of wisdom from “play with anything long enough and it will eventually break”

#17

Not wishing to get involved in the USB argument, mainly because I don’t understand most of it, but I feel the main problem here is a manufacturer taking an innocuous piece of kit and turning it into a proprietary object, and doing it in a way, with the CD hard wired into a chip that cannot be bypassed, which forces the user to use that manufacturers software even if it isn’t needed, wanted or suitable. A printer, I can understand, a scanner - lots of things need a driver or add on software, but a hard drive??? I have never come across a manufacturer who is so blatantly anti Linux (queue the list), and for something so easy, it is stupid in the extreme. Which is why, like Russlar, I always make my own external hard drives. It changes the whole concept of plug and play into plug and stuff around for hours then return for a refund!!

#18

But hey, that’s half the fun of software. :stuck_out_tongue:

#19

Sure. And they deserve to be outed and boycotted. There was absolutely no need to do this, disk drives are so generic. Fortunately there are lots of replacements, often cheaper too.

#20

You might find this link educational:

http://u3-tool.sourceforge.net/

I’ve got a couple devices now that have this on it, and being able to at
least disable the virtual CD would be useful. But from reading the
Wikipedia article for U3 (which you might also look at), it seems that if
the drive is password protected with U3’s software, the device is
configured to not present at all to other systems.

So if the person you borrowed the drive from has password protected it,
then what you’re seeing is expected behaviour and not something to ding
WD for doing (since it’s working as it should).

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator