Cannot Remove WD SmartWare. Disable It.

Here’s another way to keep the virtual CD volume from mounting (tested on Leopard):

1. Connect the new WD My Passport or other drive “infected” with this firmware

2. Open a Terminal and type something like:

diskutil info “/Volumes/WD SmartWare”

(this corresponds to the volume you want to get rid of)

3. Copy the large string of numbers that corresponds to “Volume UUID:” in the info.

4. Edit /etc/fstab as root using vifs:

EDITOR=nano sudo vifs

(if you want your usual editor, drop the “EDITOR=nano” part)

5. Add a line like the following, putting your UUID in from step 3:

UUID=that_big_number_from_step_3 none hfs ro,noauto 0 0

6. Save the file to quit out of vifs

7. Disconnect the My Passport and attempt to plug it back in and watch!

It’s a bit more involved than DSW, but you only have to do it once and the virtual CD volume won’t remount. WD really need to issue a firmware update that removes this virtual drive. At least give some of us the option of not having it!