MyBook Essential password

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

I bought a 2TB external drive a few months ago.  For some unknown reason I assigned a password to it.  Loaded all my music and video files onto it from all my other drives.  Plus other files but I don’t remember what they are.  Guess what?  I now can’t recall my password even with the hint that I entered at the time.  I have all the paperwork to prove that the frive is mine.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to at least how to find out what files are on the drive?

Thank you if anyone can help.

2

There’s NO way to access the files AT ALL while the drive still has an active password, you’ll have to use the erase function and start over; there’s a box that has you agree the data is unrecoverable before creating the password.

I’d suggest not using a password next time.

3

never should have used a password.  will not make that mistake again.  will removing the drive from the case help?

4

It may not work again if you do that since the drive has hardware encryption via the logic board, just install Smartware from WD’s site (If it’s no longer on your computer) and type some (5-10) random passwords, it will give you the option to erase the drive.

5

I find it hard to believe that no one has yet figured out how to bypass or reset the password via the Smartware program or whatever it is that locks the drive.  There must be a lot of smart programmers out there just looking for a good challenge.  I am a fairly good database designer and programmer but don’t know a lot about reverse engineering commercial applications.  I think I must have written that password down somewhere and I will look for it a little longer before I reformat the drive.  Thanks for your suggestions, however, but I don’t give up easily.

6

Since you can’t remember the password you’re screwed. If you have the proper software and computer you could try a brute force attack to crack password. Disconnecting and reconnecting the drive every 5 tries would get old in a hurry. Nobody seems to know a way to reset or bypass the password if you find the solution let us know.

Joe

7

kahunadude wrote:

I find it hard to believe that no one has yet figured out how to bypass or reset the password via the Smartware program or whatever it is that locks the drive. 

Again, it’s hardware encryption via the logic board itself, not via Smartware. The encryption type is 256-bit AES hardware-based, which is listed by NSA as unbreakable.

The drive itself plus the data are both encrypted at all times, with or without the password. Creating a password just lets you choose the trigger to unlock it, but if you never create a password and take the drive off the case the data will still remain encrypted since it’s hardware encryption.