Same problem as thousands of other users are having, the disk has become locked, no password was ever used on this drive.
WDBAAF0020HBK My Book Essential 2TB USB2.0
PC
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Intel i7 920 Asus Mobo with Intel P58
24Gib Ram
Disk Manager suggests it’s not initialized, try initialize and receive error " The Media is Write Protected"
WD Quick Formatter Version 1.2.0.7 detects the device as “My Book 1110 SN:” serial number is blank in this. Error received when attempting to run the format “WD external drive format failed”
I try and see if a firmware update will help,
WD Firmware Updater Version 3.0.1.1
Title to error "Erase My Book Essential; too many attempts. it gives me the option to Erase the drive, I accept the condition and select “Drive Erase” receive error that Firmware update failed.
Diskpart lists the disk as Online at 2047GB
select disk is successfull
list partition displays no partitions on the disk
attribute disk show disk to be read-only
Attributes disk clear readonly Fails to clear disk attributes
Subsequent to those test I continued additional test on Linux, equivalent results achieved.
I have also tried this on a Clean Build of Windows 7 x86 with the same results.
I think it’s time WD came up with a solution to this obviously common problem.
