Unlocking WD Green (WD5000AVCS) to use as PC hard disk

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Hi all,

I took out the internal hard drive of an LG bluray player in the hopes of using it as a PC hard disk. However, I have not been able to format it using gparted.

Gparted can see it (but only after doing a hot-swap), but unable to modify it. After some research, I learned that the hard drive (WD5000AVCS) may be locked. So, I tried:

  1. HDDerase and was able to complete the operation that lasted a week without errors, but still unable to format using gparted.
  2. zu.exe, but was stuck with the progress indicator (or something similar) after letting it run overnight.

I’m waiting for the SATA to USB cable to arrive so I can try using the WD Security for Windows program.

In the mean time, I would greatly appreciate if anyone can help me. I ran out of keywords to use to search for information on Google.

Thanks!

2

It seems that WD Green internal drive is hardware encrypted with the Bluray player due to which it is not getting recognized. You may try checking after completely erasing the drive via write zero’s method using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic which may bypass the encryption and allow to make partitions.

3

Thanks for your response @asp73.

I will try your suggestion once I get my hands on the sata to usb adapter I ordered online. I’ll post some results when I do.

Edit 1: Unfortunately, the HDD seems to have died before I could try the WD diagnostic tools. I keep having the “harddisk error” on my desktop. I tried the USB to SATA adaptor on a different pc and the HDD is not detected. I’ve given up.