I was hoping there would be a better response here for you, so I left the thread alone for a couple days.
Unfortunately for me, and probably for you as well, this turned out to be a build-quality issue. I believe the drive cage was warped on shipment or became warped over time from typical operating drive temperature.
Here’s what I did; remember, my drive and disk pack were out of warranty, so there was little concern about marring the finish of a drive. I grabbed the metal part of the drive (a metal “lip” perpendicular to the long-edge of the drive) with pliers and pulled. I had to exert considerable force on the drive, but it suddenly “gave” as it slid past a high-spot within the drive cage. After this high-spot, the drive pulled freely clear.
Be very, very, very careful in doing this. Unfinished metal edges can easily cut your hand open. I’ve been around computers for a LONG time, and am careful, but the possibility of opening one’s hand up on sheet metal remains.
The plastic rails were very slightly scuffed, demonstrating the gripping force with which the drive cage held disk “B.”
I replaced the drive and it slid in easily for the most part, getting hung up on the high-point within the drive caddy.
My dead hard drive bears very minor marks on its metal lip.
Were I in your position, I would do two things here:
- Ask for an RMA cross-ship. You don’t want to wait any longer than you absolutely MUST to get at your data! WD will take a credit card number, ship you a new drive, and then bill you if your old drive isn’t returned within XX days (I think 14 or 30, but I last did this years ago).
- Advise the RMA folks at WD about this issue–there WILL be a mark on the metal lip of the hard disk drive!! The warranty sticker and other stickers should remain intact, so it will be obvious that the drive was not opened.
I would advise #2 in writing with the RMA department, and ask them their advice on drive removal. Offer my solution as a working one (on a WD MyBook Premium II), but hope for a better one.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck in this. You’ll need to remove the drive for its serial number, but I’d not do this until you have, in writing, alerted WD to the fact you cannot remove the drive by its plastic rails.
