Possible to access My Passport Essential without enclosure?

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

I just bought a WD My Passport with the dreaded Firmware - what a disappointment!

But that shouldn’t bother me too much. I want to use the drive to make a backup of data and stow it away, once. The enclosure feels a bit sensitive for everyday use, anyhow. Prefer to use my rugged Buffalo Ministation for that purpose.

So, I wonder, what happens when, in say three years, I want to play some data back from the drive, and I find that the WD enclosure is broken. Would it be possible to remove the drive and put it into a regular PC and access the data? Or do I need the WD firmware? I am avoiding “WD hardware encryption”.

  • Felix

PS: Of course, I don’t only use HDDs for backup, but a mix of various media.

2

From what I read somewhere else, it is not easily possible. So, I brought back the HDD to the retailer today, and informed them about the problems with these devices.

3

FWIW, I found this disassembly article:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=413165

The model inside the enclosure, in the above case, was a WD3200BEVT.