Can i remove hd from enclosure & expect password/encryption work when i reassemble it?

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

i was wondering about the My Book’s that offer password protection and encryption

i would like to set up a password for my WD My Book, put files on it, and disconnect the usb to have the files encrypted, and then disconnect the power, and then open/disassemble the My Book to remove the hard drive. (i know that doing this will void the warranty)

can i expect that the contents of the hd remain password protected and encrypted?

is the password for a My Book stored on the hard drive itself?, or is it stored on the sata connector for the hd

can i put my My Book back together and still be able to use it as if i had not opened/disassembled it? like, entering the password still works for it?

2

The drive is hardware encrypted even if you don’t use a password or the Smartware. You cannot simply c onnect as an internal and extract the data.

Joe

3

How can the data be read or extracted in this situation??

4

oh.

thank you for the info joe =)                       so can i disassemble the My Book and put it back together and the password i set prior to disassmbling it will still work ?        i don’t want to use it as an internal to copy the files.

and is the [encrypted] password stored on the drive? or is it stored on the sata connector, so when reassembling, do i have to use the same sata connector the drive came with.

5

bigken: to read and access the data in this situation, i would reassemble the My Book.  i was just wondering if i can disassemble the My Book and expect the password to still be on it when i reeassemble it.

6

The password is stored on the drive itself. You could replace the USB to SATA controller and the hard disk controller board, and it would still be encrypted and be asking for the same password.