It’s really bloody annoying.
I purchased the WD My Passport 2TB Portable Hard Drive because it had hardware hardware encryption thus it shouldn’t need a device driver like software hardware encryption programs do.
I’ve been trying to get a decently sized fast portable usb powered hard drive with hardware encryption and password protection that i can use on any PC regardless of account permissions for years now and i am still struggling.
Don’t you hard drive companies understand that people wish to use their portable hds at work as well as at home?
The only company i’ve found to include locking / unlocking software that doesn’t require admin rights is by Intergral but they don’t do portable usb powered hard drives, only memory sticks 
It’s obvious it can be done, i don’t just get why no one else is doing this?
Basically i’ve got a super small and fast 2tb hard drive that i can’t take advantage of the hardware encryption / password software because of this silly issue of requiring administration rights to access a drive when password protected.
My work PC runs Windows XP and when plugging the drive in (without a password), it loads up without the the need for an admin account.
3 Likes
The Unlocker is poorly designed. When a standard Windows user account connects a locked drive and launches WD Drive Unlock.exe (prompt pops up in AutoPlay), UAC (User Access Control) elevation occurs and the administrator password is required. That is a the fault of the WD programmers - they should not require Admin permissions to do a simple drive unlock when the correct password is entered. The Unlocker should be rewritten to allow a Windows standard user account to enter the correct password and unlock the drive.
is there any way to do so “The Unlocker should be rewritten to allow a Windows standard user account to enter the correct password and unlock the drive.”
Hey, WD folks, any update on this?
Hi folks, we are still in the same mess… almost 10 years after (however not sure if the dates are correct because i dont think there were already WD My Passport 2TB portable HDD back in 2013 …)
But anyway i am exactly in the same situation as darkflame, I have just purchased a 2TB WD HDD and I cant use it with my work laptop if i keep it secured with password protection because it then requires the administrator user/pw which i dont have. So i totally agree with darkflame: “Don’t you hard drive companies understand that people wish to use their portable hdd at work as well as at home?”
: - ( )
Hi,
Its seems you don’t have adminstrative rights . Are you getting access denied erroe.
When such an access denied error occurs, you’re confronting a serious fact that you can no longer open the drive and view data there. So, it’s urgent to find a way to remove the error for normal use.
To obtain permission in order to remove access denied on My Passport, follow the guide carefully:
Step 1. Connect WD drive to your PC, right-click on the WD My Passport external hard drive, and select “Properties”.
Step 2. Click the “Security” tab.
Step 3. At the bottom of the tab, next to 'For special permissions or advanced settings, click Advanced, you need to click the “Advanced” button.
Step 4. Click the “Change permissions” button.
Step 5. Click a permission entry so as to add, remove or edit the permission. Add a new user named “Authenticated User” and click “OK”. Give “Full Control” to the newly added user from the permission section.
Try this methods once.
