Comments on: Western Digital My Book – Opening the Case – Removing the Drive

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:24:40 +0000

Thank you for your time and expertise, Carlton. I have My Book Essentials 3.0 and the 3.0 doesn’t work. Other Q&A have called for case replacement. Now, the computer sometimes recognizes the drive, sometimes it does not. I have three 1TB drives all the same, backup photo image data but the primary has my retouch files. I switch drives and the other ones work. Can you recommend a case for this so I may just change out the case and or do you recommend transferring the data to new external? WD was said to have encryption in the chip in the case. Second question: Does the encryption only effect the data through the case ports or is the data on the drive encrypted, and does this affect the success of the process of changing cases or transferring the data? Thanks for your help.

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:22:10 +0000

Yes, they are standard SATA hard drives and can be used inside a desktop computer.

By: john

john — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:32:46 +0000

question is the hardrive inside usable in a pc when removed with harddrive prices were they are now i wanted to take my 1 tb external and use in the new system i am building?

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:39:05 +0000

Thanks a lot for the tips. Pushing the plastic locks down was difficult. One broke, so I decided to just force a small screw driver into the grooves on the side to pry it open. Using the credit cards to help keep it open worked.

You do not need to purchase an adapter if you’re willing to just open up a desktop computer and plug a SATA cable from a DVD/CD Rom drive into the SATA connection on the hard drive. That allowed me to recover the data. In all, it took about 20 minutes.

By: alex

alex — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:23:26 +0000

oh yes ! i’m very thank you !!!!! very thank you !!
this is best results !
thanks very thanks.

By: vincent

vincent — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:15:15 +0000

dear Alex
i already try exactly as your question 1tb green to 1tb cav black
& i regret that can’t replace by wd other product just green-eco only

thanks

By: alex

alex — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:56:28 +0000

hi thanks for your answer.
for example if i buy a new HDD external ( western DIGITAL USB3 1 tera)

and i have internal hdd ( western digital 1 tera sata II 32mb buffer )

i know western digital external use CAviar Green with 5400 RPM )
i want to remove caviar green (in the external hdd ) and replac my -== internal caviar black =-.
note : caviar black 1 tera sata II is 7200 RPM and this is very good for me.

now ! i want to know if i removed original hdd (means caviar green 5400 RPM ) and replace with my Caviar black Hdd ( with 32 mb buffer and 7200 rpm )
the External HDD can work with new HDD or not ?

thnaks if you help me becaouse hdd is very expensive and i want to know i’m winner or not !
very thank you .
charles

By: JSaraske

JSaraske — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:29:10 +0000

Alex, you didn’t mention if your enclosure has USB 3.0 (or eSATA) or only USB 2.0 interface. If you only have USB 2.0, a 5400 rpm drive is already much faster than the USB 2.0 interface, so you will not gain anything in performance. If you have a USB 3.0 or eSATA interface you should get a nice performance gain.

By: alex

alex — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 07:34:51 +0000

hi i’m alex ( go to before this post )
is this problem about my work ?
i dont understand he have problem with caviar black and external hdd ?
please help .
i want to to input the caviar black into the western digital external hdd .
thanks .

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:05:18 +0000

As the post states, I’m not sure shorting the jump is necessary or does anything. I’m not sure why you can’t get it to work.

By: James Rudisill

James Rudisill — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:33:21 +0000

Hi Carlton,

I am currently in the following situation. I’ve taken the 2TB drive out of my WD Elements Desktop model an placed it into the Time Capsule. no problems there.

The problem I have is trying to use the WD Black Cavalier 1TB in the old WD Elements external exclosure. I cannot figure out how to short the memory and allow the board to use this drive. Please help if at all possible.

What i have tried is to place this HD in a black duet system and it works brilliant, just doesn’t not work when connected through the WD Elements external case.

Cheers

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:36:17 +0000

Yes, any sata drive should work.

By: alex

alex — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:35:06 +0000

very important

hi
first thank you for this article

i know the my book external hdd series use western digital green internal hdd

but green is 5400rpm and caviar black is 7200 rpm

can i buy “mybook wd ” and open it and replace the hdd with western digital caviar black internal hdd?
will i have problem with it ?

because i need fast external hdd and western dont have this product

this is very very important for me and im thank you if you help me.
please call me on my email address to chek your answer

By: finder nie widzi dysku zewnętrzego

finder nie widzi dysku zewnętrzego — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:59:27 +0000

[...] Ok, dzięki! Właśnie staram się go rozebrać. To ta nowsza wersja How to open the case and remove the hard drive from a Western Digital My Book exteranl enclosure | C… dla próby otworzyłem przed chwilą starszego My Booka i uległ bez problemu. Ten nowy trzyma się [...]

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:55:17 +0000

Not sure I can help. A different enclosure won’t make any difference. The circuit board attached to the drive is part of the drive, don’t remove it.

There is no type of “mechanical encryption” used by these drives; I think you received bad information. If the rocketfish enclosure didn’t work, your only chance would be to try a new Western Digital Elements enclosure (remove the drive that comes in it) and see if it works. If not, the drive is probably damaged.

By: Deborah Morrison Vriesen

Deborah Morrison Vriesen — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:29:14 +0000

I have a WD MyBook Essential that fell about 6 inches – it has EVERYTHING on it. I am not a techie at all, but, finding this and other sites, I took apart the HDD and removed the drive. It didn’t look anything like the HD’s in any videos I found online including this one. I installed the WD Sata HD with my lost data on it into a rocketfish case. It receives power and I can hear the drives spinning, but My Computer sees two data storage devices, and when I click on them, it asks me to insert a disk. I am willing to buy the items you’ve listed above as a possible solution – but it seems that your solution above must be outdated, since there is a second circuit board (with smut from heat on it!) that I can’t remove from the HD, because it has tiny star screws for which I have not drivers. I have also read on some forums that this HDD has not only software encryption but mechanical encryption and this is why the solutions you give don’t always work. Can you help me?

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:14:42 +0000

Yes, these are standard SATA drives and can be installed in a Drobo.

By: Zoe

Zoe — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:41:20 +0000

Hi, I currently have 4 WD MyBook drives and I wanted to replace this with a Drobo…could I remove the casing of each and insert into the Drobo or do I need to buy 4 other drives that will fit it? I’m not sure if they are different so any help would be much appreciated!

By: Athans

Athans — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:32:43 +0000

hey;
my external just hit the floor and now it shows it is receiving power but when connected to the computer, the computer shows nothing.
need some help!

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 21:45:50 +0000

Excellent. Thanks for posting. I was about to drop some cash at Best Buy for a housing (at 4x the eBay cost) to get my HD issue settled this weekend. My MyBook 750GB uses a SATA drive, so I am good to go. Moving files!