Running the unlock.exe file in WINE under Linux results in;
Unlocking your Drive using the Unlock Application
If you used the WD SmartWare™ software Security option and set a password to lock your drive, you must unlock your drive using the Unlock application on the Virtual CD (VCD) of the WD hard drive you want to unlock.
To unlock your drive using the Unlock application:
Locate and open to the WD SmartWare Virtual CD (VCD) on the drive you want to unlock in one of the following ways:
For Windows, right-click the WD SmartWare VCD icon and choose Open from the drop-down menu.
For Macintosh, double-click the WD SmartWare VCD icon to open it.
Double-click the Unlock application to start the program, type your password to unlock the drive, and then click Unlock to unlock your drive."
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Checking the drive in GParted (a partitioning program), it doesn't detect cdrom partitions. This is the result;
"Libparted bug found, input/output error during read on /dev/sd**.....
unallocated 930 GB , unrecognised disk label"
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Running Recovery mode from Gparted.
"Search for file systems on /dev/sd**
A full disk scan is needed to find file systems.
The scan might take a very long time.
After the scan you can mount any discovered file systems and copy the data to other media.
Do you want to continue?
no file systems found on /dev/sd**
The disk scan by gpart did not find any recognizable file systems on this disk."
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WD Smartware.exe file is an executable zip file containing folders and files, which can be observed in Linux using Engrampa archiving software.
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I didn't put all the files from the VCD into the WINE program, like the *.dll files into system32 and so on, that might make it install and run OK under WINE, allowing the unlock, but one thing is sure, the GParted program can only overwrite the entire drive seeing it as unallocated.
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It uses the UDF file system and is about 435 MB in size
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There is a UDF program called UDFtools which may remove the VCD at the beginning of the drive. Heres the information log on it from my Linux package manager.
tools for UDF filesystems and DVD/CD-R(W) drives
This package contains a number of user-space tools related to
creating filesystems in the UDF (Universal Disk Format), which is
primarily used for DVDs, but sometimes also CD-ROMs:
mkudffs - Format a device, creating an empty UDF filesystem
cdrwtool - Low-level drive management (e.g. set writing speed, format)
pktsetup - Set up a packet writing device (/dev/pktcdvd0) for a drive
wrudf - Maintains a UDF filesystem (undocumented)
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This other linux application is available if the VDC portion at the front of the drive is messed up.
rescue files from damaged CDs and DVDs (ncurses-interface)
Dares scans a CD/DVD image or a CD/DVD for files. This also works when
the filesystem (ISO-9660 or UDF) on the disc is damaged and cannot be mounted
anymore.
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Your best bet is if WD has what you need in their windows based software that will allow access to the data on the drive. I know they have a program that turns off the VCD, but I can't remember if that has to be done BEFORE data is placed on the drive, or can do it AFTERWARDS without losing the data. If you don't want the password protection, after data recovery, you can turn that part off and then use the drive like any other external drive. After all, if you want to encrypt the data and password protect it, you can use something like truecrypt on one large partition or several different ones with each one having a different password access.
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Since my WD "smartware" drive has data saved on it, I didn't want to risk losing that data by trying more than above. I got it as a gift or I'd not have gotten this type. In future I plan to save the data elsewhere so I can set it up for direct access and not using the "windows & mac only" VCD interfering program at the front of the drive.
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