External hard disks that i have used in the past have had no problems being mounted on either linux or windows. Researching bitlocker, i know that i am meant to have a key so please dont suggest this. Note that some external usb drives wd encrypt the data written to them whether you use their encryption software or not. Apr 07, 2020 the best external hard drives for 2020. Hardware aspects and setup impressions western digital. Western digital encryption recovery dti data recovery. Try wd advanced format utility alternative easeus external hard drive formatter to format disk while wd external drive format failed with wd quick formatter tool. Encryption on some portable drives proves less secure than youd expect by jon martindale october 21, 2015 encryption is a hotbutton topic at the moment.
Builtin encryptionwith my books 256 aes hardware encryption, your data is stored quickly, securely, and with minimal impact to your cpu. Heres a list of the drives that do not have hardware encryption on them. Hi guys, i have western digital external hdd 2 tb green that seems to have stopped working. I decided to start by hiding the wd virtual drive that appears upon mounting the wd external drive. Formatting wd mybook 1 terabyte external hard drives. The encryption systems used in western digitals portable hard drives are pretty pointless, according to new research. Western digital supports encryption on a volume basis only. You get s mega 10tb of storage in this little black portable package you can plug into any device via usb cable and take any kind of work anywhere, from coffee shops to photo shoo. I have a wd hdd and i know i definitely did not protect it with bitlocker as i have never heard of this before today when i plugged my drive in and tried to use it. I have a 1tb my book drive too, and ran into the same problem initially. Formatting wd mybook 1 terabyte external apple community. Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. This includes not only the 3 terabyte drives, but all of the wd my passports, and 4 terabyte drives.
With wd my books, you can disable password protection but you cant disable hardware encryption. I have a western digital my book 3tb usb 23 external drive. Security lock slot cable lock sold separately, password authentication, automatic backup, apple time machine. Oct 20, 2015 the encryption systems used in western digitals portable hard drives are pretty pointless, according to new research. The new my book studio drives are formatted for mac and come in capacities of 500 gb, 1 tb, 1. Sep 08, 2014 the 1tb wd my book, that i have, is at least 7or 8 years old. Formatting wd my book world edition external harddisk with. You can buy the wd mybook drives preformatted as mac drives i got all 3 of mine from the. The password we specify using wd security, encrypts. Download wd quick formatter to reformat wd external hard drive to ntfs, fat32, etc in windows 1087. The my book live does not have password encryption bitlockertype on it. The data on the drives with hardware encryption is always encrypted by a chip and cannot be turned off.
My house was hit by lightening a few years ago and it fried my computers so i very quickly went out and bought a wd 500g mybook external hard drive which i. Dec 23, 2015 hi, i am considering buying my book duo but i am not too sure about hardware encryption. Wd launches my book studio external hard drives with elabel. Jun 08, 2016 how to replace or upgrade the hard drive of a wd my cloud personal nas. The drive may still be allright but the data will be inaccessible because the encryption key is part of the failed circuit board. Currently, it can only decrypt jmicron, initio, and symwave bridge chipbased devices tht use aes256ecb encryption.
If you are looking for a way to keep your drive from being accessible in case of theft, youd want to use one of our usb drives. The my book drives built in 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software helps keep your content private ad safe. I did that and yes it showed a previously configured wd mybooklive incident at the bottom of the devices list under western digital nas. Data on the disk is always encrypted, even if i have not specified a password, using some master key that resides on the disk enclosure that is, its not possible to take out the disk and read it directly. The wd my book world edition is a real nas device i. I assume that the os is strictly firmware and the drive is only for data. Western digital external hds with hardwarebased encryption wd introduced its new my book essential and my book for mac desktop external hard drives equipped with.
The 8tb version of the western digital my book is a deep well of affordable storage for your photos, music, videos, and more. Western digitals encrypted hard drives come under fire from. Martin hinner writes on his site that the mbwe supports hardware based encryption. Western digitals encrypted hard drives come under fire. Reformatting western digital mybook to work on linux and windows unfortunately, i have found that it has this socalled smartware that prevents it from being used on linux. How to recover data from corrupted wd external hardisk. For a variety of reasons while preparing my cheap drives i became annoyed each time i plugged in my wd. There wasnt many options back then for external usb attached drives. Western digital mybook drive lock encryption failure and. Autounlock option for quick, convenient access, you can set wd security to automatically unlock the drive on your computer, saving you the hassle of keying in your password all the time. Encryption support evaluation western digital my cloud. Oct 21, 2015 encryption on some portable drives proves less secure than youd expect by jon martindale october 21, 2015 encryption is a hotbutton topic at the moment. Western digital external hds with hardwarebased encryption. Sep 10, 2009 western digital external hds with hardware based encryption wd introduced its new my book essential and my book for mac desktop external hard drives equipped with the new wd smartware software and.
Many people shuck various wd externals to use in their nasserver, myself included. The latest my passport elite and essential are portable and provide a password lock. I never used the software that came with the unit as i was using acronis true image at the time. Im guessing if you find yourself in possession of a my book like i have and want to feel your files are safe in the future. Wd my book wdbbgb0040hbk 4 tb external hard drive usb 3. I dont have a full list of wd drives with forced encryption, but i do know the mybook line was plagued by this issue. Nov 29, 2016 note that some external usb drives wd encrypt the data written to them whether you use their encryption software or not. How to replace or upgrade the hard drive of a wd my cloud personal nas. It does his job but it seems that wd passport only support microsoft and mac os.
Wd passport ultra linux utilities unlock, secure erase. Im guessing if you find yourself in possession of a my booklike i have and want to feel your files are safe in the future. I want to remove it from its enclosure and add it to my pc but, i have been told that wd now encrypt all data and it can only be accessed in the original enclosure. Just activate password protection and set your own personal password. I have studied the scripts on the mbwe a little closer and found the following. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. On the hardware side, encryption support can be in the form of specialized hardware blocks in the soc common in arm powerpc based nas.
Only helpful if you dont need the drive data though. I want to remove it from its enclosure and add it to my pc but, i have been told that wd now encrypt all data and it can. The researchers refer to this as the dek data encryption key. Make a wd my book ext drive behave as a generic usb drive. Indeed, our wd my passport hdds that are sold in russia do not incorporate a hardware encryption. Unfortunately, this wasnt an obvious process and this excellent article by scott cramer didnt apply to the newer version 1 tb drive enclosure i have. Western digital mybook elite external hard drives use hardware based encryption chips to optionally encrypt drives using 256bit encryption. Sep 12, 2009 the smaller and sleeker my book essential and my book for mac desktop external hard drives now come with the new wd smartware software and hardware based encryption. In this paper we will look into some models in a self encryption external hard drive series. He even shows us how to format and mount a partition using their hardware based encryption.
Depending on your location, using a password may encrypt your data. Sep 26, 2016 wd my book external drive not working posted in external hardware. Western digital my book opening the case removing the drive i recently needed to removed the drive from a western digital my book external usbesata drive enclosure. Feb 02, 2016 indeed, our wd my passport hdds that are sold in russia do not incorporate a hardware encryption. Code 45 to fix this problem, reconnect this hardware.
For security, 256bit hardware based encryption is included. Wd my book external drive not working posted in external hardware. Store massive amounts of photos, videos, music and documents with my book desktop storage. Western digital mybook elite external hard drives use hardwarebased encryption chips to optionally encrypt drives using 256bit encryption.
Builtin encryptionwith my book s 256 aes hardware encryption, your data is stored quickly, securely, and with minimal impact to your cpu. Its true that the password protection could be deactivated on any wd my passport model, though. Western digital my book opening the case removing the. However, you cant deactivate the hardware encryption.
Oct 15, 2015 hi, i am considering buying my book duo but i am not too sure about hardware encryption. Wd my book and wd my passport drives have the hardware encryption feature while other products such as the wd elements dont. In order for the partitioning to work, you have to select the appropriate partition scheme in disk utility. The main chip on the external hard drive sata to usb 2. Passport drives that use the usb bridge for encryption rely on either aes128 or aes256 to create an encryption key. Oct 21, 2015 passport drives that use the usb bridge for encryption rely on either aes128 or aes256 to create an encryption key.
Put your digital life on the sleek, high capacity my book essential external hard drive. Wdbaaa3200axx my passport essential, wdbaaa4000axx my passport essential. Wd launches my book studio external hard drives with e. The small, lightweight drive features up to 5tb of storage with wd quality and reliability.
It is impossible to access decrypt the drive if the enclosure circuit board fails, even if the drive itself is fine. The my book duo comes with hardware raid and hardware encryption, if opted for. The smaller and sleeker my book essential and my book for mac desktop external hard drives now come with the new wd smartware software. Do western digital external drives still have issues.
Jul 08, 2016 i have a wd hdd and i know i definitely did not protect it with bitlocker as i have never heard of this before today when i plugged my drive in and tried to use it. It appears anyone getting hold of the vulnerable devices can easily decrypt them. Wd my book drives and encryption automatically enabled. Western digital hardware encryption prosoft engineering.
Download wd quick formatter to format external drive in. Hi, i am considering buying my book duo but i am not too sure about hardware encryption. Western digital hardware encryption western digital is manufacturing a significant number of their external hard drives with an encrypted hard drive controller. Jun 03, 20 my house was hit by lightening a few years ago and it fried my computers so i very quickly went out and bought a wd 500g mybook external hard drive which i have everything stored on. Wd my book external drive not working external hardware. Hardware aspects and setup impressions western digital my. Is there hardware encryption in wd my book external hard. Hardware implemented aes encryption provides fast and transparent encryption of all user data on the storage medium, at all times. Help me get my data off a wd mybook techspot forums. Wdbaaa2500axx my passport essential storage pdf manual download. In a nutshell, if you have a hardware encrypted my book model xyz, and the enclosure fails, all you need to do is obtain the exact same enclosure from xyz and insert the drive.
Wd 3tb elements portable external hard drive usb 3. You can get around the encryption by using another enclosure and formatting though. Performing this process will cause the total loss of any data on your hard drive. If it wasnt the wd virtual cd drive letter messing things up it was the need to type my wd password 25 characters repeatedly. Reformatting western digital mybook to work on linux and. Which means if the enclosure becomes defective, you can not simply remove the hard drive and insert it into a different enclosure and recover your data because its encrypted. Hope this kba helps clear things up regarding hardware encrypted my books vs my book with raid and reading the drives on a regular pc. View and download western digital wdbaaa2500axx my passport essential user manual online. The selfencrypting drive you may already own zdnet. Can hw encryption be completely disabled on new my book.
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