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I want to know how to recapture the original data. Guys, there are 2 kinds of people looking for an answer on this forum: (1) the guy who wants to erase the data locked in the WD passport essential (2) the person who wants to recapture the data on the drive and has no idea how the damn thing got locked in the first place. It's bricked if you forget the password unless WD's magic reset process is found.Īny help will be appreciated. It has an SATA label, but its PCB only has a USB port and unlabeled pins.įor those thinking about getting a passport: I don't know if it's been mentioned but there is a downside to the Passport's encryption. On the inside the drive carries the model number WD7500KMVV.
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I tried WD's Datalifegaurd to see if it could do anything, but it can't seem to find the drive. The various utilities won't let me do anything until I unlock the drive. Probably has to do with the encryption stuff. Disk manager says that the HD is write protected and apparently missing a partition table when I try to initialize the drive. So I'm receiving it in possibly an odd configuration where the HD is not immediately visible in Windows, but its various utilities on it's "virtual CD" is. My dad in his haste tried reformatting the drive. I've sent WD this question, but I doubt I'm going to get a useful response. I've taken the thing apart and have a feeling that it might relate to jumping some pins. So I'm here wondering if anyone figured out how to reset this damn thing. WD apparently doesn't want people doing it though because I can't find any information on this process anywhere, and by anywhere I mean Google.
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After scouring the internet for a way to recover the password, I learn that there is no way to recover the password or data on the drive, but the manual and other resources hint that there is a way to reset the drive and delete the data on it. He set a password, locked the thing and forgot the password. My dad has a WD Passport Essential with it's fancy schmancy encryption.
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