Clone bit for bit MBL 3TB drive

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
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I have not seen anyone definitively say whether they have replaced a drive on an MBL by simply doing a bit for bit clone using a dock and/or software. I’ll probably try it once I get a new 3TB drive since it sounds a lot simpler than the guides to rebuild the drive, which is a fall back.

Anyone?

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Hello WillieAT,

My Book Live Duo is a dual bay networking drive and user serviceable but My Book Live is a single bay networking drive with non user serviceable. It is not recommended to replace or pull out the drive from My Book Live enclosure as it voids the warranty.

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@asp73 tx for taking the time to respond. Some background: both my MBL and MBL Duo are over five years old with 30,000+ hours on the first and 50,000+ on each of the Duo drives. The MBL passed the short drive test but failed the long, and I’ve gotten my data backed up. There’s no down side to opening it up anymore, and I’m no stranger to repairing my own computers and laptops.

The Duo passed the drive tests but SMART info all shows aging indicators, literally it reports ‘old age’. Prudence tells me all the drives need replacing ASAP. I do have a new WD 8TB Elemental USB plugged into the Duo for now for the safepoints.

The MBL is still technically functioning. As a curious techie I still want to get a matching drive(economically) and attempt a clone before it fails to spin up knock wood, so still looking for anyone that may have experiences doing that.

Have you done any NAS drive replacements yourself?