Formating the original partition wont solve the problem, because the disc header has been changed by WD and D-link did not provide a mechanism to recognize it. Just formating the partition will not change the structure of the disc header.
You are right Ember. My disk started getting recognized only after I performed two actions.
1. Completely reformatted the drive using Windows Disk Management Tool
2. Removed the password that I put to lock the drive during the initial configuration and then I also reloaded the WD files that I saved before formatting. So the software files are intact and are in the disk and so the functionality is also not affected.
Infact, such a recognition driver usually build by WD, and they make the drives only for main-stream platform/product. D-link may build its router system on a lite linux kernal, like openwrt/ddwrt.
Sorry I am not in IT, so I will have to understand how technology works. I also wonder, why WD is formatting the drive to install its proprietary stuff on the drive. I ask for a storage drive, give me a drive and give me a software CD or software on the drive and build it on simple platforms that will work with Windows.....Is that too difficult to do? But manufacturers.....OMG, they want to sell their products the way they want.
"Get rid of it" means delete the partition and re-create one. Or the best way I always use: delete all partitions on the disk and re-partition it, which could make a plain disk. I always do this when I get a new disk or computer——it will be a big problem to backup files after the disk has been full filled. So consider which one do you need: WD's functions or the router attaching function.
I did the exact same thing and it worked. Carefully I chose the NTFS formatting,. Previously I did not do anything because, the drive ws sold by WD as NTFS formatted drive and so I thought wow, this is great. but then realized that there are issues, I reformatted the complete drive and now there are no issues.
BTW, if you use WD disks in a NAS box, you have to re-partition the HDD too.
I am looking to buy a Synology NAS box and will stuff it with 2 3TB RAID capable drives....Mostly WD Caviar Green or Black.
Good luck.