A warning to prospective or existing Western Digital External Hard Drive Owners.

[Totempole]

In July last year I bought a Western Digital My Book Essential External Hard drive. The reviews weren't great, but most of the complaints related to the low quality enclosure. I figured it would be no big deal, since if the enclosure failed, I could just remove the drive from inside and recover the data. Boy was I wrong!

Some genius's at Western Digital thought it would be wise to implement forced hardware encryption on the drives, so as a result, if you use the hard drive in any other enclosure or inside a PC, your data will remain inaccessible. So when the enclosure failed my data was totally inaccessible.

From what I've read over the forums, my chances of recovery are minimal unless I send the drive to a data recovery specialist, (and my data, since thankfully there was nothing personal on the drive, is not worth R5000+) to me. A Western Digital representitive has also indicated that there drives are not reliable enough to be used as a primary storage means, and should be used for redundent (backup) storage only.

So while I have no one but myself to blame for trusting a single Western Digital hard drive with some of my data, I thought I would do my best to warn others who own or might buy a Western Digital My Book hard drive.

I must emphasize that the hardware encryption feature on these drives is forced, meaning you can't turn it off. I had no idea anything was being encrypted while using this drive.

It makes absolutely no sense to me why the drives are hardware encrypted. I mean, if some one wants to stealy your data, they won't remove the hard drive from the enclosure, they'll just steal the whole thing!

So to whoever may read this, please let this sink in:

1. Western Digital My Book enclosures are low quality and unreliable.
2. The data loaded to these drives while inside the enclosure, cannot be read if the drive is removed from the enclsure.
3. Returning the drive to Western Digital will only result in you getting a clean replacement unit.

You have been warned. Don't make the same mistake I did. I'm not sure if Seagate is any more reliable, but at least their External drives aren't hardware encrypted by default. Needless to say, I will never purchase another Western Digital Product again.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

That sucks man and I don't get why they would build them this way.

Then again no storage device is perfect and there should always be backups if the data is important.

 

[ant_man]

Thanks for the heads up, as I bought one on Friday.

 

[Totempole]

That sucks man and I don't get why they would build them this way.

Then again no storage device is perfect and there should always be backups if the data is important.

Agreed, and for that I have nobody to blame but myself. Just thought I'd warn as many people as I could about this.

Thanks for the heads up, as I bought one on Friday.

As long as you use it solely as a backup drive or store unimportant data on it, you should be okay. Then if it breaks you can get a warranty replacement.

 

[Space_Chief]

Agreed, and for that I have nobody to blame but myself. Just thought I'd warn as many people as I could about this.

Not really. WD is an old company. Their products have usually been reliable. I have a 2.5 inch and an internal 3.5, and both work well.



As long as you use it solely as a backup drive or store unimportant data on it, you should be okay. Then if it breaks you can get a warranty replacement.[/QUOTE]

Backup should be reliable too. Unless it's a second or a third backup.

 

[ant_man]

I bought it for primary storage

It's my home pc so the data isn't that important.

 

[Totempole]

Not really. WD is an old company. Their products have usually been reliable. I have a 2.5 inch and an internal 3.5, and both work well.

I don't think there's anything wrong with their drives so much as the quality of the enclosures (or more specifically, the My Book Essential enclosure). I think the itself is perfectly healthy, but the data is encrypted, so can't be recovered without the enclosure.

Backup should be reliable too. Unless it's a second or a third backup.

Indeed it should.

I bought it for primary storage

It's my home pc so the data isn't that important.

Apparently these consumer based external drives should only be used as a backup. At least that's what Western Digital says, and based on my experience, I tend to agree now.

 

[Wasabee!]

It is possibly a way to stop people from using the externals as internal drives? Then they won't attempt to fix the units themselves and just RMA the units straight away. Almost like manufacturers changing the screws on devices to torqx or whatever they are called to have less idiots open them up.

 

[Rudimental]

It is possibly a way to stop people from using the externals as internal drives? Then they won't attempt to fix the units themselves and just RMA the units straight away. Almost like manufacturers changing the screws on devices to torqx or whatever they are called to have less idiots open them up.

No, because you can just re-partition the drive and use it. The only reason I can think of is for security. These drives come with software that lets you password protect them, and this seems to require the enclosure rather than just the drive itself, so presumably the encryption is to prevent anyone circumventing this by taking the drive out of the enclosure.

 

[PostmanPot]

MyBook Element and MyBook 3.0 don't have encryption.

A hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive, there will be some failures across all brands. The Seagate Expansion externals aren't much different in build quality. Certainly no different in hard drive quality.

 

[AthenianOwl]

Thanks for the head-ups.

 

[Drake2007]

Almost like manufacturers changing the screws on devices to torqx or whatever they are called to have less idiots open them up.

Tinfoil hat much?? Those screws are designed for their robotic assembly line, not for fool proofing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives

 

[LazyLion]

Thanks, will be avoiding them then.

 

[sajunky]

A Western Digital representitive has also indicated that there drives are not reliable enough to be used as a primary storage means, and should be used for redundent (backup) storage only.

I am sure you misunderstood. They would rather say that portable drives (in general) are less reliable due to expoure to the mechanical shocks and insufficient ventilation.

It makes absolutely no sense to me why the drives are hardware encrypted. I mean, if some one wants to stealy your data, they won't remove the hard drive from the enclosure, they'll just steal the whole thing!

It makes sense whith user supplied password to the real-time encryption. There is a bundled software to do this.

Regarding your main complian, you don't need data recovery services. Just buy or borrow another USB bridge board from the same model. Encryption key is stored on the hard drive (not on PC board), so you can use any compatible replacement PC board. Does it solve your problem?

I agree, it is additional burden, encryption should be user selectable or optional and clearly marked on the box.

Edit: I have spare PCB for My Book Essential MDL:WD5000H1U-00, you could use, but drive was not encrypted. If you post details (or photos) of your USB bridge board, I am sure someone can sell or borrow you the right one.

Are you sure that power supply is working?

Edit2: If I remember correctly there is a free software on WD WEB site for decrypting encrypted drives.

 

[Del Piero 10]

MyBook Element and MyBook 3.0 don't have encryption.

A hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive, there will be some failures across all brands. The Seagate Expansion externals aren't much different in build quality. Certainly no different in hard drive quality.

This.

I've bought a few 3TB external drives from WD, took out the drives & used them internally. The WD enclosures however are dodgy, they tend to pack up & have power issues that need to be reset by removing power supply along with usb cable.

 

[mintydroid]

On the My Passport it's user selectable protection.

 

[Totempole]

MyBook Element and MyBook 3.0 don't have encryption.

A hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive, there will be some failures across all brands. The Seagate Expansion externals aren't much different in build quality. Certainly no different in hard drive quality.

There is definitely hardware encryption on both the My Book Essential and the My Book Studio drives. I don't think it applies to drives such as the Western Digital Elements and the My Book Live, as there is no mention of it on their retail boxes.

If you have a My Book Essential or Studio, your data is definitely being encrypted. It may not seem like it since it's totally seamless, but if you try to remove the drive from the enclosure and put it into your PC, you will not be able to access your data.

 

[Totempole]

On the My Passport it's user selectable protection.

I think you're right about the My Passport being optional. Having said that, I thought hardware encryption was optional on my WD My Book Essential drive as well. I deleted all the bundled software which came preloaded on the drive the day I got it, since I had no need to password protect or encrypt my data.

 

[Yotch]

Tinfoil hat much?? Those screws are designed for their robotic assembly line, not for fool proofing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives

According to the wikipedia article that you posted many of these obscure head types are to prevent users from repairing their equipment.

Most of the following screw drives are considered tamper-resistant because of their obscurity. The exceptions to this are the double hex and triple square screw drives that can be removed with standard hex or square screw bits. The first class of tamper-resistant drives is commonly used on equipment such as home electronics, to prevent easy access, reducing the incidence of damage or improper repair. Equally this can prevent people with the relevant technical knowledge from possibly performing a repair without having to return the unit to the manufacturer. However, widespread recent availability of assorted drive bits (including security types) minimizes this advantage, at least for some security types. True tamper resistant screw drives include the breakaway head, one way, TA, and TP3 screw drives.

 

[SouthBit]

Let me clarify things here:

1) Most WD drives automatically encrypt all data on the drive. I say most because if you take a look at an older 'WD Elements' 3.5" drive, the data is NOT encrypted. However, have a look at a WD My Book 3.5" drive, or a WD My Passport 2.5" and the data IS encrypted.

The encryption is hardware encryption, done on the fly by means of a chip (IC) on the USB to SATA bridge board (3.5") or on the native USB PCB (2.5"). You will usually find one of 2 chips on these boards, either an Initio 1607E or JMircon JMS 538S. These chips handle the hardware encryption.

So, if you have a drive that is automatically encrypted and the USB to SATA controller fails and you have an encrypted, but working, drive, all you need to do is find another bridge board with that same controller on it. Hook up the drive through the bridge board and your data will be decrypted. There is no need for 'data recovery services'.

I see the OP is in Cape Town. We have all of the available bridge boards in stock, if you want us to decrypt your drive for you we can do so.