The selfencrypting drive you may already own zdnet. The data on the drives with hardware encryption is always encrypted by a chip and cannot be turned off. Jan 26, 2017 so, imencryped my wd my passport with a password, and i want to remove the encryption but i deleted the drive utilities. Wd my book essential data recovery help storage interface. Western digitals encrypted hard drives come under fire.
Western digital selfencrypting hard drives riddled with security flaws encrypted data is often easily recovered, in some cases with no password required. There seems to be confusion and differences of opinion in wd sites as to 1 which wd disks have hardware encryption and 2 whether that encryption can be disabled from ever running. Since i am to lazy to put something interesting here, i will put everything, but slightly abbreviated. Do western digital external drives still have issues. How i rescued my data from a 3tb wd my book external hard drive. Jul 08, 2016 i have a wd hdd and i know i definitely did not protect it with bitlocker as i have never heard of this before today when i plugged my drive in and tried to use it. Disable hardware encryption external drives for pc wd. There are a few methods of storing the encryption, one on the drive, another on the bridge and another in the drive firmware. This wd my book data recovery case was a 10 on our tenpoint case rating scale. I too am doing an encrypted time machine backup, and realized that the encryption will not be done before i have to take my laptop somewhere.
Western digital external hds with hardwarebased encryption wd introduced its new my book essential and my book for mac desktop external hard drives equipped with the new wd smartware software and. The point of the article is that encryption in current wd external hard drives operates even if you set no password via wd software. Write some data to the drive using the controller card. I have not installed smartware, much less enabled any passwording of the data on the drive. Jan 11, 2018 western digitals my cloud network attached storage nas devices allow users to store files locally as well access them via the web. This is ok for security, but horrible for data recovery. How to remove bitlocker encryption on windows 8 wd. All of my data, all 475gb worth was completely accessible. Sep 10, 2009 western digital external hds with hardwarebased encryption wd introduced its new my book essential and my book for mac desktop external hard drives equipped with the new wd smartware software and. The vcd contains the wd smartware installation software, the encryption and password protection application, user manuals, and other resource files. Id test it myself, but i havent owned a mybook drive since losing all my data due to a failed controller card and secret hardware encryption. Equipped with wd backup software for windows and apple time machine compatibility for mac, the my book desktop hard drive can back up your photos, videos, music and documents. In the old model i could take a disk out and put it to sata connection and read all my data and that make me feel safe to any malfunction that could happen, the new 2019 model has encryption and i can not do that, the hard disk cannot be read if i connect it to sata and. Windows open the wd security application you just installed.
I have studied the scripts on the mbwe a little closer and found the following. May 08, 2016 in this video ill show you how simple it is to setup the password encryption for your western digital passport harddrive link to hard drive. I recently upgraded my hard drive after moving to lion and decided to just start a new time machine backup from scratch to avoid headaches using a 1 tb wd my book for mac, connected through usb. Your data in western digital cloud storage devices may. Western digitals method of updating the firmware on the drives is also vulnerable to attack. We will describe the security model of these devices and show several security weaknesses like ram leakage, weak key attacks and even.
If you saw my post before i found out that you cant turn off encryption. How to change or remove encryption on westerndigital ultra external hard drive using wd security. It also includes a rearfacing power button and various connectors that are illustrated in figure 1. Can hw encryption be completely disabled on new my book series. Researching bitlocker, i know that i am meant to have a key so please dont suggest this. How to setup western digital passport password encryption. He even shows us how to format and mount a partition using their hardware based encryption. The my book duo drive has massive capacity for storing photos, videos, documents and music. Many people shuck various wd externals to use in their nasserver, myself included. Which wd disks have hardware encryption and can that be. Oct 21, 2015 encryption on some portable drives proves less secure than youd expect by jon martindale october 21, 2015 encryption is a hotbutton topic at the moment. At this point i see no way to disable the encryption unless the. My book live duo has, as most nas products, support for unencrypted ftp. A usb typec port with all cables included makes it universally compatible supports.
This confusion extends to even different models within the. Western digital hard drive data recovery definitive guide. Currently, it can only decrypt jmicron, initio, and symwave bridge chipbased devices tht use aes256ecb encryption. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup.
Once our firmware specialist had successfully fixed the hard drives firmware corruption, our recovery technicians worked to circumvent smartware encryption. I have a wd hdd and i know i definitely did not protect it with bitlocker as i have never heard of this before today when i plugged my drive in and tried to use it. When i highlight all the files and folders, it shows about 8. Oct 21, 2015 western digitals method of updating the firmware on the drives is also vulnerable to attack. Western digital encryption recovery dti data recovery. Meaning that it is not possible to switch off encryption. Feb, 2017 there seems to be confusion and differences of opinion in wd sites as to 1 which wd disks have hardware encryption and 2 whether that encryption can be disabled from ever running.
The encryption systems used in western digitals portable hard drives are pretty pointless, according to new research. Western digital mybook elite external hard drives use hardwarebased encryption chips to optionally encrypt drives using 256bit encryption. Can hw encryption be completely disabled on new my book. Should you avoid external hard drives that boast builtin. My book duo disable encryption external drives for pc wd. This includes not only the 3 terabyte drives, but all of the wd my passports, and 4 terabyte drives. I dont have a full list of wd drives with forced encryption, but i do know the mybook line was plagued by this issue. We will describe the security model of these devices and show sever. Oct, 2019 reallymine is a program that decrypts the encrypted hard drives of western digital mybook and mypassport external hard drives and some rebranded derivatives. Switch to raid1 configuration for redundancy and to mirror data on the wd red drives inside. How to remove encryption on wd my passport storage devices.
Encryption on some portable drives proves less secure than youd expect by jon martindale october 21, 2015 encryption is a hotbutton topic at the moment. Wd mybook drives all come with encryption, even if you dont put in a password originally. Removing a drive from a case and plugging it internally or in another. This confusion extends to even different models within the same wd elements and my book lines. Remove the controller card and attach the drive directly to a computer. How to change or remove password from wd ultra external. Since its based on vsftpd its only a matter of configuration to make it a much more secure ftps implementation instead. Only helpful if you dont need the drive data though. It appears anyone getting hold of the vulnerable devices can easily decrypt them. How to remove bitlocker encryption on windows 8 wd elements external hard disk i encrypted wd elements on windows 8. Even if you are able to find and purchase another exact wd my book duo and. If the my book stopped working and the data on the.
If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page. These wd guys are unbelievablecompletely agnostic of the problem. Hi waterdays, wd my book drive has a built in 256 bit aes hardware encryption which cannot be disable manually. Raid0 mode provides superfast performance with up to 360mbs2 sequential read speeds using the usb typec port. I would like to disable the hardware encryption function of the mybook essential external drive, so i can connect the hard drive inside via sata as an internal drive. Selfencrypting western digital hard drives easy to crack. Oct 20, 2015 the encryption systems used in western digitals portable hard drives are pretty pointless, according to new research.
The my book drives builtin 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security tools helps keep your content private and safe. Dont buy a passport for security if you want a secure hard drive, dont buy a wd passport. My wd my book external drive, i can access it, and only a few files are visible, most of the folders which used to have files in them show 0 bytes and are empty. Western digital external hds with hardwarebased encryption. The my book duo device has a single front led that shows the various conditions for device power and device activity. You can get around the encryption by using another enclosure and formatting though.
So, imencryped my wd my passport with a password, and i want to remove the encryption but i deleted the drive utilities. So, a yes reply means that the user has been given the capability of completely disabling all hw encryption, and a no reply means that wd has chosen to not address the problem outlined in the post below. That key is encrypted, based on your password, or if none is used, on a factoryset key. So i picked up a 750gb wd my passport at bb a couple days ago, oblivious to the added drive locksmart bu crap on the label i was going to format it anyway. Im guessing if you find yourself in possession of a my booklike i have and want to feel your files are safe in the future. Martin hinner writes on his site that the mbwe supports hardware based encryption. My book essential edition is a small, elegant, and easytouse usb external hard drive.
Which means if the enclosure becomes defective, you can not simply remove the hard drive and insert it into a different enclosure and recover your data because its encrypted. Ace announces data recovery solution for failed wd self. With all the shiny new 16tb my book sduos people will be getting i figured this might be a common question. Set a personalized password to activate hardware encryption and data protection. Wd my book and wd my passport drives have the hardware encryption feature while other products such as the wd elements dont. Security researchers have found severe flaws in the encryption methods used in certain hard drives from western digital. The my book duo drive comes with 256bit aes hardware encryption with wd security software built in to help keep private content secure. Quoting the abstract should be enough to show how dire the situation is. Wd my book and wd my passport drives have the hardware encryption. Jul 30, 2014 how to remove bitlocker encryption on windows 8 wd elements external hard disk i encrypted wd elements on windows 8. In this video ill show you how simple it is to setup the password encryption for your western digital passport harddrive link to hard drive. Western digital mybook drive lock encryption failure and. It is impossible to access decrypt the drive if the enclosure circuit board fails, even if the drive itself is fine. About your wd storage device my book duo user manual 2.
Windows users click here a small portion of drive space on your new my passport or my book hard drive has been used to create a virtual cd vcd. I followed the prompts and unplugged my wd drive and replugged it back in. Wd my book drives and encryption automatically enabled. The wd virtual cd containing the program to enter my password to access the drive was gone. We managed to recover all of the clients unencrypted data. Your data in western digital cloud storage devices may still. How to disable encryption on backblaze external usb restore hard drives so they dont prompt for a password at every boot or connection. The encryption key is stored in a block near the end of the raw disk raw not in the enclosure. These devices are used primarily in homes and small businesses. How to remove encryption on wd my passport storage. Western digital selfencrypting hard drives riddled with. Western digitals my cloud network attached storage nas devices allow users to store files locally as well access them via the web. How to remove bitlocker encryption on windows 8 wd elements. In this post im using my western digital my book live duo but this is applicable to most western digital nas products and many other brands as well.
Is there a wd external nonportable drive 1 or 2 tb without encryption. I could find some good uses for those enclosures or at least one duo one but the unavoidable encryption that can render all the data on the drive unreadable is a bit of a dealbreaker. I bought a my book duo, just the enclosure to replace an older model my book duo i have but broke down. How to disable encryption on backblaze usb restore hard. The correct way to deal with the kek is to not store it on the drive, instead having the unlocking program that you run on your computer generate it each. Recover data from broken western digital mybook spiceworks. A usb typec port with all cables included makes it universally. Western digitals encrypted hard drives come under fire from.
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