External HD only mounts WD_Smartware but not anything else

1st Official Post

    Hi, i just started using LibreELEC 9.2.3 on Raspberry Pi 3B and it's been playing videos i could not get working with other distros. I'm happy. However i have an issue where when i plug in my external 2.5" WD HD (NTFS), it only mounts the useless WD_Smartware thing WD has on all externals. My folders with videos and stuff do not pop up; I don't see my video folders at all when i browse for videos. I just see the WD_Smartwave thing (along with my local folders).

    What I tried: connect HD to a Windows computer, disabled fast boot, ran chkdsk, turn off computer, unplug and plug HD to my Pi. This didn't work. I got the same result as above. I also tried safe ejecting from Windows.

    So i don't know what to do now. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Oh and I'm dual booting with Raspberry Pi OS with NOOBS. I can read the HD contents just fine in Pi OS.

    • Official Post

    If the useless WD Smartware thing is on a separate partition, I'd simply remove that partition from that drive with a bootable tool such as GParted which should be installable onto Raspbian or PiOS, or whatever it's called these days. :cool:

    Linux also prefers EXT4 instead of NTFS, but I'm guessing the WD drive is already filled with videos by now.

    Quote from Klojum

    If the useless WD Smartware thing is on a separate partition, I'd simply remove that partition from that drive with a bootable tool such as GParted which should be installable onto Raspbian or PiOS, or whatever it's called these days. :cool:

    Linux also prefers EXT4 instead of NTFS, but I'm guessing the WD drive is already filled with videos by now.

    alright i'll try just formatting the external to EXT4 or something then. i can just copy and reload my files to the disk.

    i've read it's hard to remove that smartware partition. i might give it a shot though.

    • Official Post
    Quote from candoattitude

    alright i'll try just formatting the external to EXT4 or something then.

    Just do know, that Windows or Apple machines do not "understand" the EXT4 format. So when you do use that format, it's best to permanently connect the WD drive to your Raspberry Pi, and access it via your network if necessary.

    Using the GParted tool is probably the easiest solution for formatting.

    alright, thanks for the help. i determined that the SmartWare VCD was in fact preventing the actual hard disk partition from being mounted, for some unknown reason. the VCD partition could not be deleted through traditional means. so i searched for kind of a long time but lo and behold there was an application in the VCD itself that can disable it. 1 part mad at myself, 2 parts still hating that damn bloatware. bane of everyone's existence. thanks for the help Klojum. appreciate it. FYI the hard disk was a WD My Passport Elite 500GB from 2010.

    i went back to NTFS for Windows compatibility. it's working fine on LibreELEC now.