I'm having a problem imaging an external WD MyBook drive.
When I connect the drive using USB to my Win XP machine, the following happens
- In Disk Management, the 500 GB drive is detected and a 500 GB NTFS partition named MyBook appears both in Disk management and in Windows Explorer.
- In Windows Explorer, a new (virtual) CD drive appears named WD SmartWare.
This way, I can access the data on the drive without any problem.
If I image the drive using a USB write blocker, it's OK. But if I remove the drive from the enclosure (to make the imaging process faster, the drive is detected by Windows, but no partition is found. Also, the virtual CD does not launch. When I look at the drive in Encase or FTK Imager, I only see "Unallocated Space".
And if I plug the disk back in the USB-SATA PCB board that is used in the external enclosure, everything works!
I tried mirroring the drive to another SATA drive from another manufacturer, the same thing happens. So, it should not be related to the hard drive firmware.
So, even though I'm able to image the drive through USB, I would like to understand why can't I see the drive when plugged directly into the drive using a SATA connection.
Has anyone encountered this issue before? Can anyone explain this to me?
Thanks.
Which model number MyBook is it?
P/NWDBAAF5000EBK
MyBook Essential 500 GB Hard Drive
I suspect that you have a model that supports hardware encryption.
Have you check the raw device to see if there are actually data on it?
When I check the drive while connected through USB, I can see the whole file/folder tree. It's only when looking directly at the drive in SATA that the file system isn't recognized.
From the W-D press release
My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives also feature user-selected password protection combined with military-grade 256-bit hardware encryption, which scrambles files before they are stored. Typically found only on much more expensive drive systems, the encryption acts as a virtual padlock to keep users' data safe.
I believe that the files on the data partition are encrypted even if a password is not set. I don't have one handy, but the Virtual CD may be firmware.
That would make sense. Thank you.