Removed External HDD and connected directly to pc

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
1

Hi Community

I’ve removed my WDBAAF0020HBK-UESN† from its case and have connected directly to my pc for my own preference, now the HDD doesnt work and I cant access my files which I need, I tried installing the WD SmartWare but no luck into activating them, I used the data Lifeguard with no success, it however shows up in the Lifeguard but no success in accessing them, the HDD mentioned is the highlighted ones in the Lifeguard, please assist, tried setting one as a simple volume and didnt work, I dont want to risk losing the other too

EDIT: I’ve ran quick scan with no errors, trying the full scan now in Lifeguard

Image Link: http://imageshack.us/f/829/unled01j.png/

Regards xCC

2

Since it’s a drive that came with Smartware the data is hardware encrypted by the board with the USB port on it. Even if you get the drive recognized by PC the data will be useless it needs that board to decrypt.

Joe

3

so if

  1. I Attach it back to the external hardware and connect it through the usb port

  2. Back it up

3. Re-attach it directly to the mobo

4. format the HDD

5. Restore data back in

would this work?

4

I think so but I’m not sure I think you may have to write zeroes it. I’ll PM smebody who might know more on this.

Joe

5

xCC01 wrote:

so if

  1. I Attach it back to the external hardware and connect it through the usb port
  1. Back it up

3. Re-attach it directly to the mobo

4. format the HDD

5. Restore data back in

 

would this work?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: That model number is a MyBook Essential, so the drive itself is encrypted. The only way to access the data is with the password, which Smartware will only ask on the original case —if— the original case is working and intact.

6

xCC01 wrote:

so if

  1. I Attach it back to the external hardware and connect it through the usb port
  1. Back it up

3. Re-attach it directly to the mobo

4. format the HDD

5. Restore data back in

 

would this work?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: That model number is a MyBook Essential, so the drive itself is encrypted. The only way to access the data is with the password, which Smartware will only ask on the original case —if— the original case is working and intact. If the drive doesn’t work when back on the case, then your best option would be to take it out of the case again and use DLG to write zeros to the drive, permanently killing everything.

7

There was no pass on the HDD, & I am still running the full test, I’ll see if I get an error or not after the full scan

EDIT: Just completed it & the HDD status is a pass,it is still connected to the mobo. Should I try the above steps I mentioned with a specialized HDD engineer or any other alternative to recover data?

8

Bump

Require further assisstance

9

You’re missing what you’ve been told.

Unless you can find time on a supercomputer to crack the AES encryption, you can _ NOT _ access your data unless the drive is in the case it came with, which handles the encryption/decryption.

You can either put it back in the case, and hope your fiddling hasn’t corrupted something, and continue accessing your data that way, or you can wipe the drive connected directly to the MOBO as an internal, and re-format it (losing everything in the process) and start using it just as an empty internal drive.

Your encrypted data will not be accessible when connected directly to the MOBO.

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