I bought a WD pass Ultra and I can't even use it

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
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First off I already had another WD passport and I loved it so I bought another one for backup purposes. But this new “Ultra” one doesn’t even allow me to access it in Linux/Ubuntu, I need to unlock it in Windows first which is already an extremely dumb idea. The point of an external hard drive being that you can use it to transfer or backup files from one computer to different computers. If I can’t even backup my Linux only computer then this product is worthless to me.

So I go to my brother’s computer that has window’s 7 and I plug in my Ultra passport, I install everything it asks me to install, I even download and install updates on the site and whatever extras I find. But it NEVER once asked me to create a user password. So I just can’t unlock it no matter how many times I try. I don’t even know if I’m supposed to create an account at DropBox or here and use that password to unlock it because it doesn’t come with any manual or pdf with instructions. There’s just different windows that pop up asking me to type in my password which I haven’t even created yet and don’t know how to create.

This whole idea of having a password protected drive is so ridiculous to me. If I don’t want people to access my files I can already password protect a .zip and if that gets deleted I can still restore the partitions/undelete the files so I don’t see the point of having a stupid Windows only app that locks your drive and makes it a chore to use more than anything…

EDIT: tl;dr Any help is appreciated. Please tell me how do I create a password if it’s never asking me to create one? And can I unlock it in Windows 7 then use it in a Linux only computer or do I have to unlock it in Windows everytime? Can I just disable it for a while then lock it again or does it always lock itself after use?

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VulcanHades,

I admit I am confused by certain parts of your post. The first paragraph highlights unlocking your disk drive first before you can use it, then the next one highlights you have not created a password, or at least have not created a password for the second Microsoft Windows  system.

The device keeps a unique password applied to the disk drive itself, and triggered on all systems even if additional applications are not installed. You are able to permanently remove/delete this password by typing an incorrect password a few times until an option to erase the whole drive is presented.

A clarification would be much appreciated.

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The problem was I couldn’t unlock the drive because I couldn’t create a password for it. It never asked me to create one so I could never unlock it. And if it came with a default password then I don’t know what it was or how to change it.

Yeah this is what I ended up doing. I deleted the whole drive so I can finally use it now on my Linux computer (which is all I wanted).

Thank you for the help. I should’ve read more carefully before buying otherwise I would’ve bought the other WD passport without this lock feature. Sorry if I came off harsh earlier I was just angry that I couldn’t create a password to use the drive that I bought. :slight_smile:

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Well I don’t think Linux is listed as one of the supported OSs for these drives.

Joe