I purchased the My Book Essential on Jan 1 2013 to back up my “have to keep” personal files. I found out that morning a virus had fled my whole network of computers. Upon finding this out I knew I had to reformat. At that time I was running XP-Pro. I backed up my files and did a fresh install of Windows 8. Upon plugging my hard drive back in, it is telling me I have an invalid password. When I created this password, I wrote it in a word document. I then copied and pasted when I initially set up the hard drive. I called technical support, and they said I could only take to GEEK squad and have them extract the files. I called them today to price this out. $150!!! NO WAY! I did nothing wrong, and I am not going to pay $150 due to a defunked hard drive. I need to know a way around this! Anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance!
Try to check if there’s a password hint
I know you believe your typing the right password but , hasn’t that happened to many of us until we realize that we were not right? 
there’s no way around the password, you input the right password or you erase the drive
There is a password hint. To prevent the possibility of typing it wrong, that is why I have created a Word document with my passwords and I just copy and paste. This is why I am at such a loss, and somewhat upset about the situation. Could I take the drive apart, and plug the drive directly into my board and bypass the wd software?
solved the problem? I have a very similar case but I do say that the password is incorrect after updating the SmartWare. cesareavalos@hotmail.com
anyway this could be an issue setting up this drive on XP, then reformatting my pc to windows 8?
