Cannot initialize Passport 0740 drive on Windows 7

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

I have had to reformat my drive because the password had been forgotten. I followed the prompts and after 5 attempts at the password opted to wipe the drive clean.

Now I cannot access the drive any more. The drive appears in Disk Management (Windows 7) as having unallocated space. If I attempt to ‘Initialize Disk’ I am greeted by the message ‘The media is write protected’.

What next?

David

2

Try using another USB cable, you can also try writing zeros using DLG. 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1211

3

I wrote zeros to the entire drive to no avail. Media is stil showing up as protected (<:[)

I do not have another cable for the drive.

4

Thy searching for Take Ownership and try that. Vista and Windows 7 can be a real pain with sharing, permissions, etc.

Joe

5

How can I “Take Ownership” when the drive does not even appear in Windows Explorer? I just see it in Disk Management as an uninitialized drive.

6

Go under disk management and give it an initial.

Click help there and ask your question.

Call the phone number to contact Western Digital support.

Go under cant unlock drive for help directory the exact WD item you have on this web site.  my guide talks about it but dont need to lock mine.

Breatheeee Deeppp   think deep

7

Delete all references to anything found with your passport in your computer. restart.

  it says write protected  so try  to click properties and uncheck read only  box  then u can delete it or use it or if a icon box appears under properties  says unblock…click that icon too.

8

I have discovered some more information. I went digging through the registry looking for instances of MyPassport 0740. I find this key ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_WD&Prod_My_Passport_0740&Rev_1003\5758463145373150595A4B34&0\Properties’ which I cannot access because somehow it is protected. Even if I ‘Take Ownership’ of this key I am not able to get rid of it - access denied!