I have an external drive. The usb port of back of drive is broken. I have the drive plugged into the computer with SATA cables. The computer is not recognizing that it is there. Is this because of the password and if so, how do I unlock it? The SmartWare software does not see it either in order to unlock it. What can I do? Also I took the hard drive out of the casing. Not sure if that matters.
If you don’t mind loosing your files, you can try to format the hard drive from the disk management window.
How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows (8, 7, Vista, XP) and Mac OSX
If you want to try and save the data you can try havint the USB port soldered back on. Or you can try and find a replacement on Ebay this might help http://community.wd.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839
Joe
