Remove Password for My Passport Essential 500 GB portable hard drive

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
4

I did it without reformatting.

These are the steps but I didn’t repeat to confirm as I was working on someone else’s computer.

  1. Connected WD drive but didn’t unlock

  2. Started Smartware

  3. In the Home tab clicked on WD drive

  4. Unlocked

  5. Settings tab

  6. Drive settings

  7. Security

  8. then I was able to remove the password.

I suspect not being able to display the  Drive Settings originally was due to unlocking the drive before starting up Smartware.  Maybe this is some type of security feature or just how it works but it is not highlighted anywhere NOT to unlock the drive before going into Smartware to remove password.  

Of course it doesn’t say to unlock it either but you are prompted quite a few times along the way.

Hopefully this is useful for someone in the future. 

1 Like