I have still yet to open those two 1Tb WD My Book Studio Ext. HD's I bought some time back. I was checking
on the best format for it to use with my iMac and stumbled on this little nugget. According to WD you
turn it off from showing up as a drive on your Desktop but can't format it away. I don't care about their
built-in software no matter what it does I just want a clean drive. It seems this small partition is there so
that you use the small LCD display on the front of drives that tells you how much drive space you have
left, I don't need that, I can easily find out how much space is available. I'm almost tempted to sell them
both and buy a real drive form OWC. Anyone have an answer?

If I knew how large their partition was it might not be so bad.

Model # WDBAAJ0010HSL-NESN

Here's some info on it:
[www.amazon.com]

What WD says:
[www.wdc.com]

One person says this will work but I hate to mess with Terminal, scroll down to "18":
[superuser.com]

Some more info:
[www.amplifiedanalytics.com]

---

Grateful11




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2012 09:33PM by Grateful11.

The size of the partition is negligible, maybe a couple hundered MBs at most IIRC, and likely less than that. It's not worth the trouble to mess with, and can easily be ignored once it's hidden.

The display doesn't function unless you've installed the WD software onto your boot drive. It will just display the default name, or custom name if you wish to give it one (install the WD stuff on a scratch drive and make the change), but the capacity meter is dependent on the WD tools running. Again, it can safely be ignored if you just wish the use the drive as a drive.

Probably a permanent partition written in ROM, just like the native HD's that come with apple products. Most likely has something like the start up commands.

Thanks

If I decide to just leave it alone, which I probably will, should I go ahead and update the Firmware?

---

Grateful11

Quote
Grateful11
I have still yet to open those two 1Tb WD My Book Studio Ext. HD's I bought some time back. I was checking
on the best format for it to use with my iMac and stumbled on this little nugget. According to WD you
turn it off from showing up as a drive on your Desktop but can't format it away. I don't care about their
built-in software no matter what it does I just want a clean drive. It seems this small partition is there so
that you use the small LCD display on the front of drives that tells you how much drive space you have
left, I don't need that, I can easily find out how much space is available. I'm almost tempted to sell them
both and buy a real drive form OWC. Anyone have an answer?

If I knew how large their partition was it might not be so bad.

Model # WDBAAJ0010HSL-NESN

Here's some info on it:
[www.amazon.com]

What WD says:
[www.wdc.com]

One person says this will work but I hate to mess with Terminal, scroll down to "18":
[superuser.com]

Some more info:
[www.amplifiedanalytics.com]

I tried in earnest about two weeks ago and ultimately gave up. Followed all the instructions I found (except any terminal stuff), tried to update firmware, kept getting sent in a loop of being told by the app that's supposed to get rid of the extras that firmware needed to be updated, and being told I was running the latest version by the firmware installer (which was the newest on the WD site.)
Steaming pile of dung. I was at least able to get the drive bootable (it wasn't at first.)

---

MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

Quote
Grateful11
Thanks

If I decide to just leave it alone, which I probably will, should I go ahead and update the Firmware?

Good luck with that.

To your other question, the extras are tiny. The disk shows up as one partition in DU.

---

MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

Quote
Black

Quote
Grateful11
Thanks

If I decide to just leave it alone, which I probably will, should I go ahead and update the Firmware?

Good luck with that.

To your other question, the extras are tiny. The disk shows up as one partition in DU.

So should I just format them Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and leave the Firmware as is?

---

Grateful11

Quote
Grateful11

Quote
Black

Quote
Grateful11
Thanks

If I decide to just leave it alone, which I probably will, should I go ahead and update the Firmware?

Good luck with that.

To your other question, the extras are tiny. The disk shows up as one partition in DU.

So should I just format them Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and leave the Firmware as is?

Oughta be fine.

---

MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

I hate crap like this. reminds me of those U3 partitions on some Sandisk Cruzer USB sticks that ate a few hundred MB out of a 4 GB stick, and which were impossible at that time to remove on OS X, I had to use my windows laptop to remove it. I think later Sandisk released a OS X utility to remove that U3 crap.

Quote
space-time
I hate crap like this. reminds me of those U3 partitions on some Sandisk Cruzer USB sticks that ate a few hundred MB out of a 4 GB stick, and which were impossible at that time to remove on OS X, I had to use my windows laptop to remove it. I think later Sandisk released a OS X utility to remove that U3 crap.

I hope others have more luck, but I concluded here that the removal process was broken on the mac side.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

I have learned, with WD drives, to check carefully before buying for just this reason. The last time i picked up some refurb clearance cheapies, i went out of my way to buy only drives not encumbered with this firmware-based crapola. Sorry to hear it's been such a pain for you guys - i don't have the patience for it.

---

rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

Thing is these are the drives I picked up for $22.50 each at Staples in Feb., too cheap to pass up.

Link to deal:

[forums.macresource.com]

---

Grateful11

I can’t imagine what you’re complaining about… really. Although I reformatted to GUID and wrote zeros on one, and got my space back, the space is insignificant. Especially at what you paid. I searched all over that day and could find none. Best I did was Best Buy 2TB versions for $64.

I have two of the 2TB versions.

And U3? I deleted it and was SORRY. Those little things were fully functional, PRIVATE drives to use on Winduds computers AND left no record of what you were doing by using their browser and other little apps while plugged into the primary computer.

I found a one GB version and promptly restored it to ALL my Sansa’s — too bad they aren’t supporting it any more. They aren’t even installing it anymore.

Yup, I have a 2.5" 320 GB that I got during a WD blowout for $25 or so (thanks to Grateful I think)-- no regrets at all despite the extra crap on the desktop.

---

MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

Quote
Jimmypoo
I can’t imagine what you’re complaining about… really. Although I reformatted to GUID and wrote zeros on one, and got my space back, the space is insignificant. Especially at what you paid. I searched all over that day and could find none. Best I did was Best Buy 2TB versions for $64.

I have two of the 2TB versions.

And U3? I deleted it and was SORRY. Those little things were fully functional, PRIVATE drives to use on Winduds computers AND left no record of what you were doing by using their browser and other little apps while plugged into the primary computer.

I found a one GB version and promptly restored it to ALL my Sansa’s — too bad they aren’t supporting it any more. They aren’t even installing it anymore.

Jimmy I guess some might see it as complaining. All I really was asking was if there was a way to get rid
of the small partition. Yes I got a killer deal but even if I hadn't I'd still have asked the same question.

---

Grateful11

Has anyone here tried using the "partition" tool in the Disk Utility to repartition the drive with 1 volume?

Quote
Chakravartin
Has anyone here tried using the "partition" tool in the Disk Utility to repartition the drive with 1 volume?

It's a firmware partition, so it doesn't appear in DU at all. (I think this was mentioned somewhere above.)

---

rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

Quote
rjmacs

Quote
Chakravartin
Has anyone here tried using the "partition" tool in the Disk Utility to repartition the drive with 1 volume?

It's a firmware partition, so it doesn't appear in DU at all. (I think this was mentioned somewhere above.)

I did a casual Google search and saw a post from a Windows user claiming to have gotten rid of it by repartitioning.

That seems to have been BS.

The Mac tools are available:
[www.wdc.com]

...But I suggest that with or without the availability of a tool for Mac users you simply should not trust a Western Digital enclosure at all. They never work well or for very long.

Rip the drive out of that @#$%& enclosure and put it in a case that works like it's supposed to.

(I've been telling people not to buy that @#$%& for ages now. If you're gonna go out and buy the stinkiest drives, you should be prepared for the smell or for the work of cleaning up the mess.)

Quote
Chakravartin

Quote
rjmacs

Quote
Chakravartin
Has anyone here tried using the "partition" tool in the Disk Utility to repartition the drive with 1 volume?

It's a firmware partition, so it doesn't appear in DU at all. (I think this was mentioned somewhere above.)

I did a casual Google search and saw a post from a Windows user claiming to have gotten rid of it by repartitioning.

That seems to have been BS.

The Mac tools are available:
[www.wdc.com]

...But I suggest that with or without the availability of a tool for Mac users you simply should not trust a Western Digital enclosure at all. They never work well or for very long.

Rip the drive out of that @#$%& enclosure and put it in a case that works like it's supposed to.

(I've been telling people not to buy that @#$%& for ages now. If you're gonna go out and buy the stinkiest drives, you should be prepared for the smell or for the work of cleaning up the mess.)

Silliness. The enclosure's kind of nice; why do I need a bare 2.5" drive?
Of course the first thing we tried was Disk Utility.
It's well laid out in this thread that their utilities were tried and don't function properly.
I did more than a "casual search" and I'm sure Grateful did too, but considering your superior intellect you obviously learned more about this topic by browsing a few hits for 3 minutes that either of us. You're truly amazing.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

Quote
Black
Silliness. The enclosure's kind of nice; why do I need a bare 2.5" drive?

You're right. It's silly. They put their worst drives in those enclosures. Better to just use it as a doorstop.

Quote
Black
considering your superior intellect you obviously learned more about this topic by browsing a few hits for 3 minutes that either of us. You're truly amazing.

My Google-fu is unparalleled. Don't diss the fu.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2012 12:27PM by Chakravartin.