Convert MyBook Elite to internal drive- data loss?

Hello all. I had OS X Snow Leopard installed and running on a 1Tb MyBook elite. It worked great but I’m a musician and Pro Tools 9 wasn’t running so hot, so I got the brilliant idea to convert it to an internal drive. As soon as I removed the SATA/USB controller and connected it internally via SATA, all the data had been wiped. No idea why, so if anyone has an idea please explain. It works great as an internal drive too, but now that all of my data is reinstalled I’d like to see about converting it back to an external drive without that happening. I thought it might have something to do with the SATA controller, as far as the data being wiped goes and at this point I don’t wanna have to buy a SATA/USB adapter if I can use the included controller. All help is welcome. Thanks!

The circuit board hardware encrypts the data so you need the board to decrypt it.

Joe