does the WD Elements 2TB external hard drive have an adapter? To take out the HD and put it into a caddy and recover data?
Hi @MartinGaul
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting:
The WD Elements 2TB external hard drive doesn’t have a separate adapter or removable enclosure. To use the drive in a different caddy for data recovery, you’ll need to open the existing enclosure, remove the hard drive, and then put it into a compatible new caddy. Make sure the new caddy fits the drive’s size (2.5-inch) and interface (SATA).
If your drive is a 3.5" form factor, then yes. However, the drive may not be readable if removed from its enclosure and used with a standard USB to SATA adapter or 3.5" enclosure. I’ve heard reports that there’s some sort of encryption used between the drive and the enclosure’s SATA bridge adapter, but that may not be an issue with the Elements line.
If your drive is a 2.5" form factor, or pocket sized, then no. These contain no SATA bridge adapters/boards and utilize a USB interface that’s directly on the drive itself. If the USB port is damaged, it will need to be repaired. You maybe able to swap the circuit board on the drive with another one of the same exact drive model. If the drive model was sold as a standard SATA drive, you maybe able to swap the board out with one containing a SATA interface, again, same exact model. I’ve done board swaps in the past, but these were with older drives from the early 2000s. Newer ones, no. And I’ve may have read somewhere that board swapping with newer drives is not possible due to encryption between the platters and the board.
