I recently bought a Freecom ‘ToughDrive’ hard disk from eBuyer. It came with some virtual CD drive that automatically installed a Password utility.
Whenever I used other USB drives, the computer locked up. Not sure whether the Freecom software was to blame (it became unresponsive when I tried to reset), but still – I’m a bit of a tidy freak for startup processes, so anything that installs automatically is not likely to make me happier!
Anyway, this website appears to offer a CD removal tool, which should do the trick – just make sure you pay attention to the model number.