NOT using hardware encryption on "My Book Essential"

Portable Drives My Passport
1

Hi

I was about to buy a My Book Essential 3TB USB 3.0 drive when I noticed the problems its hardware encryption cause when the enclosure’s PCB fails.

My question is thus: by NOT installing WD SmartWare upon first using the My Book drive, and just installing the SES device driver from the Extras folder, can hardware encryption be completely avoided, or would I still be at the mercy of the enclosure’s circuitry.

My concern is simple. This will be a backup drive, and the last thing I want is to have to go through hoops to recover the data.

My current WD Elements drive has no such complications.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and pointers.

2

There is no way to disable the hardware encryption.  It doesn’t matter whether you install the Smartware or not.

Joe