NOT using hardware encryption on "My Book Essential"

Hi

I was about to buy a My Book Essential 3TB USB 3.0 drive when I noticed the problems its hardware encryption cause when the enclosure’s PCB fails.

My question is thus: by NOT installing WD SmartWare upon first using the My Book drive, and just installing the SES device driver from the Extras folder, can hardware encryption be completely avoided, or would I still be at the mercy of the enclosure’s circuitry.

My concern is simple. This will be a backup drive, and the last thing I want is to have to go through hoops to recover the data.

My current WD Elements drive has no such complications.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and pointers.

There is no way to disable the hardware encryption.  It doesn’t matter whether you install the Smartware or not.

Joe