I recently needed to removed the drive from a Western Digital My Book External USB/eSATA drive enclosure. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an obvious process and this excellent article by Scott Cramer didn’t apply to the newer version (1 TB drive) enclosure I have. So here you go, the steps required to disassemble a new-style Western Digital My Book drive enclosure.
1. Locate the two rubber pads on the bottom of the enclosure near the front, curved surface. Remove these two pads. Depress the two tabs below using a small flat-head screwdriver.
1a. With a couple of credit cards, pry the back edge of the casing apart and hold them open with the credit cards. There are some locking mechanisms there that need to be held apart. You can now slide the plastic casings apart. Note that it is easier to lift the round corners of the case and pop it out of the retainers than it is to slide it off due to the very tight fit of the sliding components.
2. Slide the clear plastic LED front panel conduit forward and remove.
3. Rotate the hard drive/carrier assembly sideways and then lift away from the case
4. Remove the two screws holding the metal connector casing. Slide it upwards and remove it
5. Slide the circuit board upwards (away from the drive), just like you did for the metal casing.
6. Remove the 4 screws holding the hard drive to the metal carrier. You’ll see that it is a standard 3.5″ desktop SATA drive.
You’re done!
Repeat the steps in reverse order to re-assemble the enclosure.
Getting Your Data Off of the Drive
In most cases, the circuit board inside the enclosure is the cause of the failure and the drive itself is fine. The drive is a standard 3.5-inch SATA drive and easiest way to get your data off is to use a SATA-to-USB adapter dock, such as this Thermaltake Dock at Amazon.com.
Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station
In many cases, all you need to do is connect the drive to a computer using a new dock and your data is immediately available. If it’s not, here are some suggestions:
- Test the drive using the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool
- Use data recovery software:
- Use TestDisk to repair damaged partition tables.
- Purchase the Runtime.org GetDataBack data recovery software (free demo available)
- If you’re a Linux guru and have an empty spare drive on which to copy data, you can try using the SystemRescue bootable Linux CD and Antonio Diaz’s ddrescue command line program.
- Send the drive a professional data recovery specialist, such as DTI.
Video showing How to Opening the Case
Protect your data with offsite backups:
If you are looking for an even more robust backup solution, I highly recommend using an online backup service. If your hard drive fails, or in case of a catastrophic event (fire, theft), there is still a secure copy of your data. I’ve had great experiences with CrashPlan.com Offsite Backup, which allows you to backup files between your own computers for free, and gives unlimited unlimited offsite storage on their servers for $3.00/Month.
To Install a Different SATA Drive in the Original Western Digital Enclosure:
In many cases, the enclosure is probably what is failed. But if you’re sure it,s working, you can replace the original drive with a different drive. For example, I replaced the 1TB drive with a 200GB drive. I didn’t have to do anything special, I just put the new drive in the enclosure, plugged everything in, and it worked.
However, a few people have had with the enclosure recognizing the new drive. If you do, try this:
(thanks Fisslefink) The onboard chipset memory of the MyBook Studio needed to be reset. When you remove the metal shielding, you see the circuit board and all of the different components. One of them is two metal prongs, an empty jumper (J6, may be different on your board), sticking out of the circuit board, near the DC power input. By shorting those jumper pins together with a metal screwdriver for 2 seconds (with the drive OFF and the power cord REMOVED!), the board will reset so it can recognize the new drive.
For what it’s worth, if your drive supports slower SATA operation, you can use a traditional jumper shunt (those darn little black things that get lost all the time!) to connect the jumpers at OPT1 on the 250GB drive itself. This switches it from the faster “SATA 2” 3.0GB/s transfer rate to the slower 1.5GB/s rate, with which the enclosure chipset may be more compatible.
Hello! I have a WD My Book Essential 2TB. One day Windows/Linux do not detect any partition in the disk. Only is visible the VCD Smartware) in both O.S.
I run the WD Lifeboot, HDD Regenerator to find any hardware problem; the disk is ok.
But when I used any software to recover partition or deleted files noone can obtain the data. Tha partition is damage, but appear to use a Hardware encription becouse is not visible when the disk is connectec to mother (SATA).
Any know how I can repair the partition to recover the lost data?
Hello again.
A big word of warning to everyone using drives with hardware encryption (WD Elements, mybook, etc) and not setting a password using WD SmartWare. How the hardware encryptio works is extremely little documented on WD Support forum and even WD customer service won’t tell you these things.
Please read and understand these topics carefully, otherwise your data is lost forever.
http://forum.hddguru.com/new-external-drive-problems-t14667.html
http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=6539585
http://forum.hddguru.com/wd10tmvv-t16204.html
http://forum.hddguru.com/essential-stopped-working-after-firmware-upgrade-t16866.html#p112580
Guido: You must connect it through the original USB-SATA PCB which decrypts the drive. The drive is transparently encrypted even if you don’t set a password. If you damage the PCB, you are lost unless you set a passoword in Smartware. Better send both the PCB and the drive to a data recovery company.
Hallo,
I got similar problem. Just bought 2 TB My Book Essential.
During last weekend I scan almost 600GB videos from my DV tapes. Next I replace drive to another computer for review. Works fine. I did get back to previous PC and since that time Drive is not recognise. I am working on Windows 7 32 and 64 version. Please help!
Regards
Zjones: the solution should be the same as in my last posts. data is most probably encrypted. I do not recommend these drives, as they encrypt data transparently even if you dont set a password. If you need encryption, better create a truecrypt volume on a normal drive and store things in there.
As(?): Thank you for advise, however I’ll need more explanation, please.
Let me first describe behaviour of My Book Essential HD: when I connect cables (power and USB) I can hear noise of HD’s motor, after this gently two or three clicks and motor stop. On front, lowest LED blinks quick. The same happens on different USB ports and computers (My Book don’t have SATA) Initially I didn’t load any software: just plug power and USB and PC detect drive with ~2TB. And I started to load files. After this I checked drive on another PC, as I described on previous post. This morning I opened PC and My Book is not detected (even on BIOS). I don’t want open brand new device (Warranty)so, if is any chance to recover data or at least formated disk before I’ll return My Book to the store? What is your recommendation for external HD to collect Huge data base (Brand and Model). Thank you very much for help and regards
Zjones
i have a WD model number wdbaaf0010hbk-00 please help me open
1TB My Book is not working. Its still covered by warranty. I would like to retrieve the data on this drive before I swap it out. Can I follow your instructions, transfer the data to another drive, and put the original drive back in the enclosure without voiding my warranty? I’m pretty sure the problem is electrical, because the light comes on for about 20 seconds & then cuts off. There’s a button on the back when pressed that causes the light to come back on. However, my computer does not recognize the drive. Would like to try your instructions but would like to get a new drive. Any suggestions?
You need to decide which is more important to you: chance of retrieving your data or chance of not getting warranty coverage. If you don’t damage the enclosure, it probably can be reassembled without warranty conseqences. I suggest following the instructions and attempting to recover your data as it is generally much more valuable than the drive. Worry about the warranty coverage after your data is recovered.
I just used these directions to replace the 500GB in my Western Digital My Book with a 2TB hard drive. It is now hooked up to my Dish Network Dual Tuner HD DVR, and works perfectly. Since I have multiple hard drives that I use as external drives for my two Dish Network receivers, this one will be specifically used for just HD concerts.
By the way, it is a pain getting the first step done. Those clips do not want to let go!
So, our 1 TB drive locked up all by itself thanks to the wonderful SmartWare.
We purchased the Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station and were really anxious to try it out. Unfortunately – it doesn’t recognize the drive. It recognizes the dock, but will not pull up the hard drive. I went through all of the steps and it just makes everything freeze while looking for new hardware.
Anyone have any ideas on what to do?
Thanks!
It sounds like the drive itself has failed. I suggest you try using the recovery software as detailed in the original post.
I will do that, thank you.
Hi, I swapped a WD3200AAJS My Book harddrive from it’s factory enclosure to an Ultra ULT40273 3.5″ Aluminus Hard Drive Enclosure that I purchased from TigerDirect.com because the enclosure board broke, however when I plug in the new enclosure to my pc using win 7 everything powers on but the hard drive won’t be visible in My Computer, I went on Disk management and the disk is shown as “Unknown – not initialized”. Any ways to save my data? It’s a FAT32 partition.
Your help is greatly appreciated
Please read the section in the original post entitled “Getting Your Data Off of the Drive”.
I tried WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostick and the GetDataBack Demo, but none of them seem to detect my drive, is there anything I can do? I’m using windows 7 by the way… do you think I should try a different enclosure like the one you mentioned “Thermaltake Dock”, I believe the hard drive is fine because I can hear it spin and it makes the “seeking” sound.
Andrew, the fact that 2 enclosures do not recognize the drive is a bad sign. There are many components on a drive that can fail, not just the motor/heads. If you are desperate, you can try a different dock, but it’s likely you will get the same result. A data recovery company may be your best bet.
I was thinking of buying the same unit and swap hard drives, Thanks for your recommendations!!
I have just had my 1st hard drive fail….
Western Digital My Book 1TB.
I cracked open the box and got a spare external case to put the drive in and it didn’t work.
Just got it tested at the computer store and….. the powerboard on the drive has failed.
I have spoken to a “data recovery company” it will cost between $300 and $600 AUS to put a similar board on the drive and then copy the information to my new external drive.
Is there a way I can do this so I can save the money.
The guy from the store told me they use different power boards so this could be very hard for me to do myself…
Please help!!!!!!!!!
The details of the drive are:
Western Digital 1TB SATA
Model – WD10EACS-00D6B0
Power Board Details – 2061-701537-R00 AD
You could purchase a similar drive and switch parts between them, but it would have to be the same revision. It is fairly easy to switch parts between drives, but if you are accessing the platters, tiny bits of dust can result in damage to the platters, so they are supposed to be accessed only in a clean air lab environment. That being said, I’ve read of people swapping platters at home without issue. Search Google for more details. You need to weight the risk of losing everything and saving money with the cost of paying a professional, experienced service to do it.
Hi,
Thanks for this great article!
Seems like my drive is actually broken (tore my 500GB MyBook FireWire800 (WD500H1Q) apart and hooked the drive to a PC – didn’t work as well) but the enclosure is fine.
As FireWire800 cases are quite expensive, I’d like to re-use my one and ordered a 2TB WD (WD20EARS). Did anybody had luck installing a new drive in an old enclosure? I read the part by Fisslefink, but I wonder how the board would be reset by using the screwdriver short circuit but w/o power attached to the board.
Thanks,
Sven
I didn’t have to short anything on the circuit board. I just put in a new drive and it worked fine. I don’t know why a reset would be needed, but I posted the info just in case.
Seems like the casing is a little sensitive when it comes to manufactures.
I borrowed a 500GB HDD made by someone else the WD from a friend – no joy.
But then my already ordered 2TB WD drive arrived – I plugged it in and everything worked like a charm 😉
Thanks!
I have a MyBook with 2 drives in it and I’m pretty sure one of the drives failed. I swapped both 500GB drives out for 2-1TB drives and when I connect it my computer recognizes a USB device is connected, but I don’t get my drive showing up in my “Computer” folder. I tried updating the driver automatically, but still nothing. Any suggestions?
I’m guessing that you need to partition and format the drive through control panel. Also, I’m not sure how those mirrored 2-drive enclosures work to initialize the drives; there may be something extra required.
Well, I did the J6 trick, now there are no activity at all in the interface card, the HDD is ok, but it can´t be identified in the Firewire devices list, neither on the USB devices list. I hope you can give some advice to revert this issue, I downloaded the WD firmware update both mac and pc, and none of them recognize the External HDD neither usb nor firewire, is there any help available, I relly need it.
thx, thx, thx …. you just save my live with the video
Great article, with lots of details; however, I am stuck on opening the case!
Pushing on the tabs under the front feet doesn’t seem to do anything, and I’ve worked at the case with flatheads, cards, and my fingernails for an hour with no improvements. :/
I once formatted the drive using truecrypt, and since then the drive flunked and became an unknown device. I’m hoping to put it in a different enclosure to see what the problem is.
As a last resort, pry very hard on the back edges and they should release and allow the outer case to slide back more easily.
If you hard drive has started to fail, and not the controller within the enclosure, TrueCrypt could make recover of files very difficult. Off-site backups are highly recommended, especially for encrypted drives where recover is even more difficult.
Thanks Carlton,
I did manage to get it out, but it seems that the drive is failing (I’ve reformatted it and it seems to have issues).
I’ll run some more tests later, I’ve just moved to a new place and everything is packed up.
Please I need some help.
I have the WD My Book Studio 1TB (USB/Firerire 800).
I replaced the 1TB to a 2TB WD Caviar Green. The 1TB Dsik is also WD Caviar Green.
After replace i have a message that the disk can be read and I have to format. I formated and the message still apear.
I readed in the text above that i have to reset the Case board. But I can’t find where to do this on te board.
This is the External Disk that I have
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TX879ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MTM3NjM1NzE&s=topSellers
Holpe that someone can help me.
Thanks and sorry my bad english…
Did you get one of the EARS model drives? If so, this is an advanced format drive that uses larger sector sizes. You may need to set the jumper on the drive to place it into compatibility mode. I believe the jumper is installed across pins 7 and 8.
Thanks to answer me Carlton.
But the problem still…
The WD My Book Studio HardDisk is:
1TB SATA/32MB Cache
WD10EADS-11M2B1
Jumper 5-6
The HadDisk that I bought is:
2TB SATA/64MB Cache
WD20EARS-00MVWB0
And on the top of the HD have a the WD’s Label with this:
“Advanced Format Drive. To achivefull performance:
– WindowsXP Multi Single Partition Jumper 7-8
– All other OS configuration – drive is ready for use as is (Without Jumper)”
Both HD are Both are WD Caviar Green.
The Strange this also is that, after chenged the HD to the 2TB, I have the message to format the Disk. I did it. After formated, the disk is mount i can transfer files to it BUT, the message still apear :-/
It’s bad because if I turn off the My Book and after turn on, always apears the message to format the disk, even it mount…
Sorry, I’m not sure what the problem might be, other than the enclosure not being compatible with the larger sector sizes. I recommend you put the jumper on pins 7-8 and see if that helps. There is really is no downside to trying. If that doesn’t work, a new enclosure may be your best option.
Hello,
I have one of the WD My Book Elite 1TB model drives (WDBAAH0010HCH-NESN).
The USB connector broke off the motherboard when I tried to connect the supplied USB cable (confirmed that it had completely unseated itself by opening the case).
From what I’m reading here, the motherboard that connects to the drive is where the encryption information is stored (I used the WD SmartWare to set a password when I got this drive setup originally).
I’m now trying to recover the data, but connecting with an SATA/USB adaptor isn’t working (I’m assuming because of the lack of the encryption board).
I don’t believe the drive itself is damaged, just the USB connector on the board. What are my options? WD tells me they can’t fix the USB connector and I will need to use a data recovery service; any other options?
Thanks.
Western Digital claims that this is hardware-based encryption, and I believe the encryption is specific to each individual enclosure. The data on the drive is completely inaccessible without the exact encryption chip in your enclosure that encrypted the drive. So the drive is completely unreadable in any computer and even in any other Western Digital enclosure. Data recovery services will not be able to recover the data without either – the encryption chip is needed. You only option is to repair the USB connector on the enclosure/board. A TV repair shop or technical school would be where I’d start. You probably just need the connector soldered back on to the board.
If that doesn’t work, you only chance is to remove the encryption chip from the failed board and transplant it to the board removed from a working Western Digital enclosure – this is not an easy thing to do.
If the drive itself has failed, and not the board, you must perform data recovery on the drive and enclosure as a pair, using the recommendations in the original post.
Thanks Carlton.
I still believe that the only issue is the USB adaptor coming free from the motherboard. I have “caveman-like” skills at soldering (guitar pickups? Sure! PCB connectors? Not a chance!), so I wasn’t even considering attempting that myself. I’ll try contacting a repair shop/tech school to see if I can find someone with the requisite skills.
If I get that done and still can’t access the data (e.g. the HDD itself was damaged for some reason) then I’ll try contacting a data recovery service.
Thanks again.
I have tried the j6 jumper shorting trick and now my drive is also unresponsive. When i connected the drive to power the leds flash and the drive spins up but my computer will not recognize it. Is there anyway to fix this? Please help!
So just a couple days ago, my WD my book 2.0 1tb stopped showing up on “my computer”. I was using it a few hours before that and it worked fine. Safetly disconnected. Had to Reconnect to transfer more stuff over. When I reconnected it prompted that it needed to find the device for it. Which was weird. The computer/internet found the device: Initio device Controller which is some sort of usb device.
I looked at device management. My hard drive doesn’t show up at all. It only shows up as initio device controller.
Doing some research, it looks like the initio device controller is being recognized first and not the hard drive.
My question is, how do we go around that? Or will I have to buy a new encasement as your tutorial above states and take the hard drive out? I think my hard drive is fine. I can still hear the fan and everything. I’ve taken great care of it! This is pretty frustrating. My other smaller western digitals work fine.
Your help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
Elizabeth, you should follow the instructions above with the external dock to determine if it is the hard drive or the enclosure that has failed.
Hi,
I have a WD10000H1NC-00 (Mybook World edition 1TB). Managed to extract it from the housing and I have the WD Lifeguard diagnostics tool running it on now – the quick test passed and running the extended test now.
Reading the comments above though, I’m not sure how to tell whether my disk has the hardware encrryption installed? Windows explorer doesn’t show me a drive for it when i connect the drive using a USB 2.0 to IDE SATA Adaptor Cable. If its encrypted, would i somehow have to have the motherboard connected at the same time?
Nic, if you’ve never entered a password and encrypted the drive, it’s not encrypted. Also, to my knowledge, The MyBook World edition doesn’t offer hardware encryption.
Thanks for the quick answer..appreciate it. I’ll leave the Diagnostics running and see what it gives…past caring about the warranty, just want access to the drive 😉
Hi,
I have a MyBook Essential, I just got it like a month ago. However, when I first plugged it into my computer, I pressed erase on the WD Smartware app because I was hoping that would reformat it because it wasn’t working with Time Machine. However, in the middle of erasing, the program crashed and rendered my drive corrupt, and invisible to my Mac. I opened up the drive and connected it via cables, and reformatted the drive to FAT. However, this still won’t allow the enclosure to recognize the drive, and I can’t find the jumper pins I need to short together. Is there any way you can help? Maybe a picture or diagram would be useful.
Thanks.
Thank you for this information.
I have with my “My Book Studio Edition I (1TB)” some problems. In the last two days I had a conflict with the HDD and eSATA PCI Express Card (Silicon). During this period, crashed my PC.
On another PC via mini-USB cable connected, the device is not responding properly or not working.
hey, I’m trying to replace my MyBook 320GB hard drive that went out a couple months ago. I’ve purchased a 500GB WD Caviar Blue hard drive but when I plug it in, it doesn’t seem to power the hard drive up. I read the part about resetting the logic board but not completely sure I understand your instructions. any help would be appreciated! thanks!
It sounds to me like an enclosure problem or the new drive is bad. It should at least spin up. I don’t think it’s necessary to perform the jumper trick with most of the enclosures, and I’ve never had to do it.
hmmm. at first I was thinking there might not have been enough power to spin the hard drive. the broken WD Drive spins up, but it gives that good ol tick of death. I tried plugging in other SATA drives but they won’t spin up at all. I know for a fact that they work.
http://s881.photobucket.com/albums/ac14/Hydrocone/?action=view¤t=648c6753.jpg
just thought I’d show you pictures of the stuff I’m trying to work with. I noticed the hard drive that died is a lot lighter than the hard drive I just bought. also seems a lot lighter than most drives.
I just had a few questions for you. I am working on a custom external enclosure for a friend and i was wondering if:
A: I have several WD MyBook 1TB enclosures – could i replace these hdd’s with any hard drive or does it need to be western digital specific.
B: Is there anywhere to buy replacement internal circuit boards for the MyBook. I am looking for a USB to Sata connector that is powered and has standby support for the hdds so their life is extended. I have found several but most are just hot swap and do not support standby.
C: Do you have any recommendations as to which Western Digital enclosure is easier to swap hdd in and also has hdd support.
Hi, **** Putting a different HDD in the enclosure ****
I just bought a 2TB WD My Book so I could use the 2TB drive in my computer.
What I’d like to do now is use my older Maxtor 250GB drive in the enclosure as a backup device. However, when I stick the drive in the enclosure, my system (Windows XP) recognizes the external device as a WD My book, but when I check under My Drives, it doesn’t appear. I have a CD Drive that appears, but when I try to access it I get a message that says “Windows cannot read from this disk. It might be corrupted or using a format that is not compatible with Windows”. Should I prep the HDD in any way?? Or format it a certain way? The PCB doesn’t have that famous J6. I guess it’s a newer board.
Thank you so much for your assistance!
I have a WDBAAK0010ACH 1T My Book which worked fine yesterday and of course I thought I was fine when the Dell Tech came to replace my system board and hard drive. He leaves and I go to plug My Book into the laptop and I noticed that the end that goes to the unit wasn’t attached and I couldn’t get it to plug in because what it plugged into came out and was attached to the plug.
I was really encouraged when I saw your site and ready to try to open up the unit to remove the hard drive. I’m afraid it may be encrypted since WD evidently wants to stop anyone from retrieving their data without using one of their authorized recovery agent at $600 to $1200 (the price one of them gave me when I phoned).
Is there any way to find out if it is encrypted? If so it’s how it came since I sure didn’t elect to have it encrypted. I really need my data and I’m FREAKED!
Angela, it’s probably not encrypted. Your best bet is to follow the instructions posted and hopefully you can recover your data.
Worked for me exactly as you said. You helped me save priceless family videos I had backed up to a WD My Book external drive (3 years old), thinking I still also had hard copies on DVD…But I did not.
Info for others reading here…I got the Mac (Snow Leopard) error that I hadn’t disconnected the external drive properly. Reconnecting, it would mount on the desktop for a short time, then disappear. Ran Disk Utility AND Disk Warrior a few times when it was mounted. Finally, it just failed to mount at all and I couldn’t hear the disc spinning – just the hum of the power running it. After getting it out of its enclosure and inserted into the docking station it mounted immediately on my desktop and I have access to all my files AND a working HDD. (Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station, Amazon, $30.49)
Carlton, thank you so much for taking the time to share this fix with us!