Drive says it is unlocked

I am very scared because my drive says it is unlocked, yet I cannot access it. When I first attempted to unlock the drive, I did get a message saying it was unlocked. Then I received another message asking again for my password. After entering my password again, I received a message that I had had too many unsuccessful attempts - did I want to erase my hard drive? I chose “cancel.” Now, although I have turned off my computer and the drive twice, when I attempt to enter the drive after booting up, I am told that the drive is unlocked.

I am using a My Book Essential for Mac. All of my pictures are stored on this, and my time machine backups.

Can anyone help?

Hi there, is the drive on disk utility? (click on go> utilities> disk utility), if it’s there then are you able to select first aid to repair? If it’s not there then what else have you tired so far?

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Thank you for your help. I do find the drive on the disk utility. However, I cannot click on either “verify” or “repair” disk. These options are shaded.

I did attempt to update the firmware. I received a message that said that the latest version was already on my computer, but I went ahead and installed it again.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Once you hit the five password fails you will only get the option to reformat.  If you safely remove the drive and disconnect the USB cable, you will get another five opportunities to unlock the drive.  I would safely remove and disconnect the drive.  Then with the computer on, reconnect the drive.  Give the unlocker a chance to load correctly.  It should give you the password window again.

Well, my problem isn’t that straightforward. I connected the drive and entered my (correct) password. I received a message that the drive was unlocked. I attempted to proceed, and received another message asking for my password. I knew this was unusual, but put my password in. Then, I received the five password limit message. This scared me, as I had already entered the correct password and I had not entered anything like five attempts! I have disconnected the drive, unplugged the drive, rebooted the computer, and reinstalled the firmware. The disk does not show up on the finder, but does show up on disk utility (however, I cannot run repair on it). WD help desk just told me to reformat. But this will erase my drive, right? I want the data that is (hopefully still) on the drive, and am not interested in reformatting. Is there any hope?

minimar7 wrote:> WD help desk just told me to reformat. But this will erase my drive, right? I want the data that is (hopefully still) on the drive, and am not interested in reformatting. Is there any hope?

Yeah, it will erase the drive and all your data.  The only thing you might try is connecting it to another computer, and see if it allows you to access the unlocker and your data.  Otherwise, you have lost your data.  I would try another cable also, just in case you’re disconnecting inadvertently.  I learned this lesson the hard way as well: never trust your data to one drive.  Too many things can go wrong too easily.  Technology will never be bullet proof.

Beginning yesterday, i started having almost the very same problem, unless it’s not prompting me to enter my password. When I run unlock.exe, it says the driver is already unlocked. I’m with Windows7 64 bits, tried a couple of tools to recover the partition without success so far. I have an open case with WD and I’m waiting for a response. I also have data that i need to recuperate.

I read on another thread here that somebody else tried to recover the partition in Linux then plug it back to Windows and it was OK again. This is something i still want to try.

I’d be interested to know if you are able to solve the problem. My WD case petered out when I was told to reformat the drive. I wrote back that I need the data and do not want to reformat and never received another reply. I did take the drive to a computer repairman. He couldn’t retrieve anything from it. My system is a Mac, but I’d still love to know what success you achieve with Windows.