Open the external hard drive (in warranty)

How can i determine whether the hard drive inside the case of my external drive: WDBACW0020HBK-SESN† is actually USB 3, because today i used it on a newer computer and found that speed of transfer was not different from any USB 2 drive ( mine is old so i thought transfer speed may not be high)? I bought it from ebay in February, and the outer cellophane cover was stitched throughout: “+++++++”. Could the seller have changed the drive?

Hi there,

According to the model number you provided, you have a My Book Essential (USB 3.0). The hard drive inside of the enclosure is not USB 3.0. Its a SATA hard drive. Now, the controller and/or the drive’s circuit board/interface or however its called, is USB 3.0. That is why you should get USB 3.0 speeds.

If you’re not getting the USB 3.0 speed, make sure the following is correct:

-Connect the drive to a USB 3.0 port

-Make sure the USB 3.0 cable is working fine

-If you’re using a PCIe card, it has to be compatible with the My Book. See below:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3886/session/L3RpbWUvMTMwNTM3NTU3My9zaWQvQ1lqbVFXdGs%3D 

If that doesn’t work, connect the drive to a different computer with USB 3.0 porst and verify if the same thing occurs.

Hope this helps.

Some of the older PCs updated with a PCIE card don’t always produce the advertised speed of USB 3.0 either.

Joe