Last week my wife accidentally dropped our MPW and now Wi-Fi is still working good, while I have no access to the hard drive. I have the strong impression that the HD is gone for good.
Since I realized that the 500 gb is becoming too small for the files I would like to carry in the device, I would like to know if it is possible to change the internal hard drive with one more capient.
I see that the 500gb model number is WD AV-25 “WD5000LUCT”, with 3 Gb/s SATA.
From the specs of the MPW devices, i realized that the 1Tb and the 2 Tb models are a little bit thicker than the 500 Gb, so I was wondering what hard drive they use, and if I can replace my 500 Gb hard drive with a 1 (or 2) Tb hard drive.
Even better, is it possible to swap it with a dual drive WD Black 1 Tb?
Thanks for any help!
It’s not as easy as changing the Internal hard drive. The WD Passport Wireless uses a very specific firmware profile and configuration.
While the drive does have a “very specific firmware profile and configuration”, the firmware, by all reports, is not on the hard drive but on the electronic board, and changing the drive is quite possible.
Read this thread and note that PuDLeZ says that the MPW boots without a hard drive in it, and that there is only one partition on the drive. It is possible that there is a hidden partition, but then…
… read this blog post which describes a modification to the MPW which allows the drive to be changed over at any time.
DO READ the comments on the blog post. Pay particular attention to the discussion about replacing a 1TB drive in a 1TB MPW with a 2TB drive. You would need to check there is space, but it seems it has been done. I leave it to you to FACT CHECK and then measure up the MPW once you have disassembled it.
I AM NOT suggesting you do the mod. Just use the post to understand how to remove and replace the drive.
Also, once you have the drive out of the MPW you may wish to check it connected to a PC. It could be fine, and the drop may have just lossened a connection. Or it may have broken the main board in the MPW. So if the drive works connected to a PC, check the MPW board carefully, and then put the drive back in properly and see if the MPW works again.
Thank you for your tips.
In the pics of the DIY mod I could find the 1Tb HD model number (WD10JPVX), so today I went to buy one, and it does indeed fit in the casing: the difference is only 2.5 mm, so there’s enough room in the casing.
Unfortunately, I found out that the problem is not really with the hard drive, but probably with a component that processes the internal server of the device.
Anyways, I confirm that one could run the device even without a hard disk attached (I was able to connect to wifi without a hard drive attached). I believe the hard disks swap could push through without issues, but cannot confirm this because my device can’t actually read neither of them.
Thank you again for the support!
Unless you can see physical damage to the main board or a component you could try reinstalling the latest firmware using the SD card method.
The problem probably is physical damage, but there is a slim chance that the drop damaged the firmware. Very slim chance. But worth a try. You may also need to Reset the system and drive.
This drop sounds fatal to me, as most are with a HD. Just be glad it was the 500GB and not the 2TB. Suggest you **bleep** it up, say goodbye to it, and get the 1 or 2TB which you would want.
