WD RED External to Internal-Reformat? Where did files go?

[itakey]

Does a Western Digital drive require reformatting after taken out of the external case?

I have a WD External that has the WD50EFRX Nas drive inside. I've been using it as an external for many months via USB and its worked great. I decided I want to put this drive into my main computer but when I booted it up, Windows prompted me to format it, and it showed having 3 partitions.

Does Western Digital use some type of hardware in the external case to scramble the data when removed? I took the small electronic board from the external case and hooked it back up via USB and it works again as it did.

Can I just copy my files elsewhere, reformat it, and then use it as an internal without issue? I think I remember reading way back that WD hardware encrypts with their USB/Sata board, so I just need to copy files elsewhere, reformat this drive and then it will work. Can anyone confirm?

 

[Elixer]

Does a Western Digital drive require reformatting after taken out of the external case?

I have a WD External that has the WD50EFRX Nas drive inside. I've been using it as an external for many months via USB and its worked great. I decided I want to put this drive into my main computer but when I booted it up, Windows prompted me to format it, and it showed having 3 partitions.

Does Western Digital use some type of hardware in the external case to scramble the data when removed? I took the small electronic board from the external case and hooked it back up via USB and it works again as it did.

Can I just copy my files elsewhere, reformat it, and then use it as an internal without issue? I think I remember reading way back that WD hardware encrypts with their USB/Sata board, so I just need to copy files elsewhere, reformat this drive and then it will work. Can anyone confirm?

What model is it exactly?

If it was one of the ones listed below with hardware encryption, then they have hardware encryption on them, and no, you can't just reuse them as-is. You need to format them again outside the enclosure to be able to use it in your desktop / another enclosure.

Here's a list of the current WD External drives that feature Hard Ware Encryption which cannot be turned off and it is on by default:
WD My Book: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=1cK97p
WD My Book Duo: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=AB0uYL
WD My Passport Ultra (all versions): http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=75DxGe ; http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=HLtQ0w ; http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=YHRS0v
WD My Book for Mac: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=aNNDKd
WD My Book Studio: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=x47FcK
WD My Passport for Mac: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=pFsNX7
WD My Passport Studio: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=FzQRt5
WD My Passport Air: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=IyJ9vy

Here's a list of the drives that do not have hardware encryption on them:
WD Elements Desktop: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=t9JBUR
WD Elements Portable: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Qa0eZL
WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=yXn1oc
WD My Book Pro: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=G56blh
WD My Passport Pro: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=yN2yH8
WD My Passport Wireless: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=EcjUHc

Swapping drives between enclosures shouldn't work as the encryption is different on each drive.

WD External drives don't come with additional drives with software but rather with preinstalled programs, depending on the model. You are free to remove them or re-download them from our website.

Captain_WD.

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Hey there itakey,

As Elixer pointed out, some of our external drives feature hardware encryption and the drive's can't be read outside of the enclosure because of it. You would need to reformat the drive in order to use it.
Removing a drive from its enclosure also voids any warranty that the drive might have left.
You can see a list of the drives featuring hardware encryption above.

Post back if you need any help with that,

Captain_WD.

 

[stlc8tr]

I doubt it was encryption. It's probably overlay partitions that companies like to use in external devices for large (>2TB) drives. IIRC, this provides for best overall compatibility for various Windows flavors (32-bit & 64-bit). My USB3 dock had this issue until I updated the firmware so that it was 64-bit Windows compatible only.

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

If the product is a NAS drive with hardware encryption it can't be read outside of the enclosure even with a firmware update.
Although updating it can indeed help in many cases, here if OP has one of the drives with hardware encryption there's really nothing they can do but putting the drive back in the enclosure, backing up the data and then reformatting the drive and restoring the data from the backup.

Captain_WD.

 

[stlc8tr]

If the product is a NAS drive with hardware encryption it can't be read outside of the enclosure even with a firmware update.
Although updating it can indeed help in many cases, here if OP has one of the drives with hardware encryption there's really nothing they can do but putting the drive back in the enclosure, backing up the data and then reformatting the drive and restoring the data from the backup.

Well, in either event, it's going to have to be reformatted if he wants to use it as an internal device.

After I updated my USB3 dock to be 64-bit only, I was then able to use internal drives from my system (and vice versa) but drives that were formatted when the dock was 32/64-bit compatible were unusable (as they still appeared as multiple unreadable partitions).

(And I still say that it was overlay software and not encryption that's causing this problem. )

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Indeed, the drive needs to be reformatted (unless OP needs their data). I'd first try a simple reformat and see if the drive is properly recognized in BIOS, Device Manager and Disk Management and then resort to updating the drive's firmware. It never hurts to have the latest update, though.

Captain_WD.

 

[CiPHER]

I suspect it is due to a different sector size. Many external casings increase the sectorsize to avoid the 2TiB limit for MBR partitions. By increasing it to 4KiB, the limit is increased to 16TiB without the need for GPT partitions.

This does cause major issues if you remove the harddrive from such an external enclosure, however. Suddenly, the drive returns to its default (emulated) 512 byte sector size. This causes problems because the filesystem refers to LBA sectors that now point to a different location on the harddrive.

The whole partition table should be rewritten, just formatting the partition is not enough. But after being 're-initialised' and a new partition is created, you can use the disk once again. You do not need to 'long format' it - which takes multiple hours.

If you require the data from the drive, your option is to put it back in the external casing, or to boot a BSD operating system and use geom_nop to artificially increase the sector size. I can help you with such a procedure.

 

[akei]

hi,
i tried reformatting without the PCB but was not successful. there was an error message saying the request could not be performed due to I/O device error.
does anyone know any way to get around this?
i know it is possible because i bought used mybook (of the same model and capacity) and it was not encrypted at all.

Welcome to Anandtech Forums, akei. This thread that you replied to, is over a year old. If you are having an issue with your MyBook drive, please use the "New Thread" button to create your own thread. Please include your current OS, your drive model and capacity, and the approximate age of the drive in your thread. Hopefully our members will see your thread and be able to help.
Moderator VirtualLarry

 

[Elixer]

Not sure why you replied to this thread, instead of making a new one?
You do not even mention which mybook you have.
That said, if the BIOS don't see the drive, the OS won't be able to either.