2TB WD Green HD not recognized by windows.

[gddctr]

I removed a year old 2 TB WD Green drive from it's MY BOOK enclosure and put it into my PC. It already has plently of files on it that I would like to keep so I don't want to re-format it. It SHOULD read it since BIOS sees it fine as does Windows device manager. It just doesn't show up on COMPUTER tab or let me use it in any way. I had this problem before with a brand new drive that came unformated (OEM purchase) but as I said I cannot loose the data on this drive by doing that. It worked fine as an external into USB 3.0. Any ideas guys?
WINDOWS 7 64.

 

[gddctr]

Most likely the data on the disk is encrypted by the circuit board that adapts the SATA to USB. So the only way to access the files is using that adapter. You'll have to copy the files off first, then reformat it by going into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management - and then right click on it and delete the current partition and create a new one. Then you can copy the files back to the drive.

Unfortunately there is no workaround for this, it's hardware level encryption. You can't break it.

Jared Palmer
www.data-medics.com

Is that relatively new for WD? I just did the exact same thing with a slightly older 320gb and a 500gb both WD. I had no problems with either of those, both worked perfectly with all the old data intact. Plug/Play.

 

[gddctr]

Yeah, it's a newer monstrosity that WD has come out with. Being in the data recovery business, it's especially annoying. I've had customers who accidentally threw out the board, and we had to track down another matching one to decrypt the data after we repaired the drive.

www.data-medics.com

Dang man, I did toss that thing. Didn't figure I needed it after I'd done the same thing with two older WD's. What a crap move on my part. Thanks very much for the help. Any idea if I can order that board from anywhere or am I stuck formatting over all my old stuff?
Also if I can't hook it up to the board it needs can I format it from windows without that board?

 

[DataMedic]

Dang man, I did toss that thing. Didn't figure I needed it after I'd done the same thing with two older WD's. What a crap move on my part. Thanks very much for the help. Any idea if I can order that board from anywhere or am I stuck formatting over all my old stuff?
Also if I can't hook it up to the board it needs can I format it from windows without that board?

Sorry, I didn't see your question back then (my account was banned for "spam" LOL). It is possible to replace the board, however difficult to determine what one you need. If you look on ebay you'll see a lot of WD my book boards that generally begin with the number 4061-. Look for a few different ones that are the same shape as the one you threw away, and hope you get one that has the right decryptor chip.

Also if you're good in Hexedit you can run a search starting from the end of the drive for a "magic sector" which always begins with "WD" a few more characters which tells the brand of the encryption chip, and then followed by an encryption key. (For example - if it begins with "WDS" then you know it's a Symwave brand encryption chip). This can help to single down which board you need.

If you have more questions or still need help with this I recommend you post to a hard drive repair specific forum such as forum.hddguru.com as you'll get more specific help there.

Or you final option would be to seek the help of a data recovery lab, as most stock a variety of WD my book decryptor boards for that very purpose. Just be prepared it will cost you a pretty penny. You can check out my site, which I listed above if you want to contact me about this (I'll give you an affordable rate). I dare not post another link to my own site again, don't want to get banned a second time.

Jared