How To Shuck a WD My Book EASY & FAST (without Damage)!

[@potatophil8432]

Please do NOT subscribe unless you like react and commentary videos. I am not a tech channel. :)

[@AridersLifeYT]

This is exactly what ive been doing with my nas for the last 8 years. i never knew it was called SHUCKING! thanks for verifying.

[@bryanoz]

Ha ha ha Shucking an oyster is the process of opening the shell to reveal the delicate meat inside.

[@w9gb]

… or for Midwest USA … Shucking Corn.

[@curiousmichael]

Just a heads-up: those four metal fixings are actually screws- if you happen to have a precision/repair screwdriver set; they're seemingly Torx 10 heads, and you can unscrew them in-place. Benefit = less bending plastic, and the rubber pieces hold the screws in place, in the enclosure, once you've unscrewed them from the drive itself. (Thanks for the video!)

[@tevee5591]

Yes 4 they put 4 screws in

[@vidvierwer]

I'm glad I saw your comment about the screws. Thank you!

[@j.d.3269]

Are all EZRZ CMR? I searched the internet but could not find a definitive answer.

[@quigg2420]

Great tip, which I used to 'unchuck' my recently bought WD MyBook. When the hdd was used as it is indended, as an external usb hdd, it made a lot of noise and you actually could feel the vibrations and even little shocks. It was so bad that I was thinking of sending it back to the vendor, but then I saw this video and gave it a try. The hdd inside turned out to be a WD140EDGZ-11B1PA0, however it is not exactly the same as an internal hdd because the middle screw hole on each side is missing. Those mounting points are needed to fit the drive in my ATX miditower hdd cage. So, with your tip I reversed the whole operation and after some time found out that the noise was enhanced by the surface of the desk it was standing on. With some extra rubber that was easily fixed to a more acceptable level.

[@Tesseus]

Thank you, I couldn't find out anywhere on which torx head to use until I ran into your comment.

[@deniswauchope3788]

Thanks! That made it easy-peasey, and I'm glad there's no damage to the case. The screws holding the HD into the inner case were T10, and I was afraid I'd break something trying to twist it out, but the torx driver did the trick. I only had a 4TB HDD (WD40EFRX, 64MB cache) in my WD case, which I wanted to put into a Mediasonic ProBox 4-bay unit in order to have fewer cables plugged into my computer. Good job!

[@wawanbalik]

Concise and precise, thanks a lot for making the video simple and not extending it unnecessarily. Vielen Dank.

[@JAMessinaJr]

Thank you for the video. It helped me but not as I expected: I bought a WD My Book several months ago. It was sitting unopened until last week when I found it would not work on any system (tried multiple Windows and Linux systems). I could not find the receipt so I figured I was out of luck. I came across this video and thought, "Hey! At least I can try removing and using the drive." After watching this video opening the WD My Book case was easy. Upon opening it I was surprised to find a Seagate drive! I bought the My Book at Walmart. It appeared to be sealed but I suspect someone traded a Seagate 80GB drive for the WD 8TB drive, repackaged it, and returned the device to Walmart. There is data on the drive. Looks like some medical software artifacts. I will see if I can determine where it came from and follow-up with the authorities if there is any HIPAA violations.

[@janasmp6985]

Dis you get your answer?

[@KatlamosQuickdraw]

Thanks for this! I thought my My Book had failed and I had lost all my files; thankfully after using your tutorial to get out the 4tb drive from the enclosure, it seems like it was the daughterboard that turned the drive into an external drive that had failed, as plugging the drive directly into my motherboard showed that it was still in perfect working order and all my files were still there. Thank you so much for this again!

[@taniaj.5644]

I am about to do this. How did you plug the drive directly to your motherboard? I bought a drive reader from Amazon, but only for this purpose. If there’s another way to do it I’d love to know.

[@KatlamosQuickdraw]

@@taniaj.5644 Once it's out of the enclosure and you remove the daughterboard, it's just a standard internal HDD, so you just use the SATA power and data cables as you would any other drive

[@familiaalmeida394]

What about the encryption? Any issues with that or no?

[@familiaalmeida394]

​@@KatlamosQuickdrawwhat about the encryption? I heard some people saying you couldnt read the files because they are encrypted

[@KatlamosQuickdraw]

@@familiaalmeida394 Nothing I had was encrypted. For the record, I'm still happily using that HDD as an internal storage drive with zero issue

[@NerfHerdsman]

2:09 to start youtube's 1/3rd rule working almost perfectly

[@RodneyDorville]

Thanks for the video. The crap MyBook power interface failed after 3 weeks. The drive is intact though and your video allowed me to recover the files and information. Thanks

[@sfperalta]

Thanks for the tips! My case was somewhat different in that I wasn't shucking the drive to use elsewhere - I actually have one of these WD externals that I have owned for 6+ years where the internal HD had gone bad. The 4 "studs" are actually the mounting screws for the drive and can be backed-off using a Torx T-8 (if you have one), which makes drive removal somewhat easier in case the plastic frame of your unit is not as flexible as in the video (mine wasn't). Since the actual internal HD is standard SATA 6GB, my plan is to replace the failed unit with a refurbished 8TB bare drive from Amazon and reuse the USB enclosure.

[@stillDJs]

Still very useful at the end of 2024. Now WD uses Torq head type screws. I had to get one of these for a security 16 channel DVR. All Walmart had in stock. Can't wait 3-14 days. Again, Thank You!

[@Macmark]

Thanks! Was able to remove an otherwise flawless WD80EDBZ from an enclosure with power supply that wasn't working! Danke Schön!!

[@HarpaxA]

Good simple & clear video, but it's hard to believe that shucking will be cheaper than actually buying the internal drives.

[@NWSanta]

Thank you for this video, friend of mine needed the drive out of his unit as it stopped working! Thanks for posting this video!

[@simonneumayr6002]

Well, what stopped wirking? The drive or the casings pcb?

[@Gosuminer]

Just shucked an 8GB WD My Book, id had a WD80EDBZ (ordered 04.10.2023). It runs noticably louder than the 5400rpm hdd I had before. Also, I had to use the guitar pick on the clips on the opposite side as well to get it to slide out. The rubber dampeners have little "feet", be careful when inserting a new hard drive as these feet tend to easily shear off.

[@airliners6430]

Randomly did this to an older 3TB WiFi WD drive. Great video, Phil!

[@biorecords1506]

this tutorial just saved my old hard drive. TLDR of it is that I needed to replace the component that accepts the cords connecting to the outlet and computer itself. still had to buy a new drive, but this saved me from having to re-download a lot of things

[@kniv3s187]

this finally answers my question of whether or not WD puts the same type of drive in their MyBooks. I bought a 3TB MyBook about 5 years ago, ca. 2016-2017, not knowing there was an actual mechanical drive inside (i'd never had a portable HD before and thought they were just oversized flash drives of some sort). When i discovered this, i decided to take it apart and found out it was a Green series, which i didn't even know was a thing back then. I now have it mounted in my PC and use it for storage of media and many of my games that dont need to be on an SSD for the sake of loading times. i've seen a few other videos where some of the drives have been Purple, but i think those might have been much older videos.

[@MoisFamilyTech]

Excellent video and great job showing the rest of us how to so this neatly! 😁👍🏼

[@dondamon9643]

Just bought a Western Digital easystore 8TB external drive. I always plug these in before shucking, because if it is defective I can return it. After shucking the drive I discover it is also a wd80ezaz drive. The most important thing I found out is that these drives do tend to run warm to hot. So as far as I have figured as long as it stays below 50-C. it should be okay. It does run at 7200RPMs so it is faster than I expected. Most are around 5400RPM. I bought mine from BestBuy for 169.99 US dollars. A regular NAS Red label is running 229.00 US dollars. So that's it.

[@ryanbartlett672]

Thanks. I was forcing to almost cracking, but your video saved the shuck.

[@bena461]

wow this is amazing, far easier than i thought it would be! i'm so glad you made this video. thank you.

[@scotttracy458]

Awwwwwwww, man! Thanks!! I ripped the case to pieces, when i heard you saying "only two thumps..."! 8-)

[@threadcoat]

Ty for the help! It works 2 yrs later, really masterpiece.

[@potatophil8432]

Hope this might help some people out there over time. :)

[@0LoneTech]

I'm going to skip that step at 3:10 where you launch the drive forcibly into a hard table.

[@DorthLousPerso]

Your video was SO much better than the other one I used first. Thank you!

[@Neokun86]

Thanks to your instructions this was very easy and worker like a charm! Inside was the same white WD80EZAZ 8TB like in your video.

[@silkwesir1444]

Thank you, today I learned a new word of the English language ;)

[@sfperalta]

I guess my case was a bit different. Both the top and the bottom of the case had to be shimmed in order to release the outer case from the inner drive carrier. Also, there was no way to remove the drive from the plastic carrier without removing at least the 2 Torx screws on the USB/power connector side of the case, the plastic was just not flexible enough. However, I was able to extract the drive successfully with your steps (and a few extra). Thanks!

[@amrob2]

Thanks for your informative video. I've purchased previously the WD My Book Duo (the 2 disk version) in 24TB capacity, that contains 2 x 12 TB drives. I needed 24 of those disks for my NAS setup. The versions of drives that I received were proper branded WD Red drives, version WD120EFAX-68UNTNO. I am now going to buy 2 of the WD My Book 6TB drives that I believe contain WD blues (I hope so anyway, otherwise I may have the power issue with the pin that needs covering).

[@photographilife]

Excellent video! I had done exactly as you said and have removed the drive without any damage or hassle. Thanks

[@corvinm]

Thanks for posting, it helped so much. I bought the WD 8TB MyBook in the orange box from Best Buy 2020.01.01 & the drive was a DAZ model. Hope that helps with your data collection!

[@mydarkarmy]

Just got this drive and your instructions worked like a charm. Thanks for the help!

[@StylinRed]

Thanks so much! I was trying to do it from the other end and it was such a pain, so I had to Google it ASAP, and found your vid! 🥺 So much easier from the bottom 😂

[@ppalombo]

Exactly what I was looking for. Very helpful.

[@edgarkoskeemusic806]

Hi Phil, thanks a lot for this video. I recently got 2 MyBooks 12TB same look (Orange Box) and they came both with WD120EDAZ (Helium filled, as Crystal Disk Info reports) inside You have Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year 2021, hopefully healthy, mate! :-)

[@atjthe2nd]

Recently I bought a My Book 8tb for 15 bucks at a local pawnshop! after testing it out, my computer was unable to see the drive. Looking at how to open the case I found this tutorial THANKS! After removing the HDD and finding the HDD was not hooked up and after further inspection, all labels were removed including the HDD's PCB! A very sad surprise was an old crummy Maxton HDD thats now in the trash. :(. Is all the extra my book hardward worth saving?

[@tehSunBro]

Does this still work with current drives? I've read that apparently WD started to mess with their drives so a regular SATA connection will no longer work. It's alrleady bad enough having to copy all the files from one drive to another first, when trying to salvage a brolen external drive, but if they don't even work at all anymore, i ain't buying no WD drives no more.

[@desukedo]

Pretty good video, I fugged up and broke the tip of a little triangule looking bump, but that was me not using enough plastic to separate before pushing There's 5 of those symetrically distributed around the sides Mine came in an orange box, WD60EDAZ and an RM 650x PSU, since some PSU won't directly let you use the drive and you'll have to tape the third pin of the power supply contact

[@MarcoLopesPT]

WD 6TB HDD are SMR!!! Avoid at ALL cost!

[@engineer9528]

Hi, I have two WD80EZAZ 8TB salvaged from MyBook. Would like to know are there any problems with USB-SATA interface PCB shown at 4:20? Will the drive work fine outside of this enclosure, without USB-SATA PCB. I somewhere read that it has a encrypting chip on that PCB so you cannot read the drive without that PCB. Is it so? Can you use naked drive without problems?

[@trinoeg8]

This is going to help me a lot, I am about to shuck a WD My Book Essentials 1TB bought like 7 years ago.

[@FaKz92]

richtig, so... so geht man mit DB - Karten während der Coronazeit um xD Man hört gar kein Akzent raus **Thumbs up** Zum Video, super content!

[@cosmickatamari]

Thanks my dude. I got it with a plastic wedger from a ifixit case. No damage!

[@ChrisMartinScruffy]

At the time of this comment, Walmart is moving towards the orange packaging and the clearance prices are really nice on the green boxed ones. A 6TB one went all the way down to $25 (yes) and I picked up a 8TB for $106. Oh and this fun fact (might not be a fact lol) but I heard that at WM if the item price ends with cents in even numbers the price hasn't hit bottom but if it's odd price amount that's as low as it'll go down in price (again grain of salt). Good luck.

[@treskate]

My Walmart had the My Book 6TB drives in orange and green both for $47.97. I picked up the orange one...just because it looked newer. I wish I could find them for $25. I'd buy a few. I'm in Houston. Maybe the green one was $25....I should have scanned it.

[@douggroves4892]

Are these drives not binned as not as good ? Having sub par HDD sold as a backup device primarily would mean it should have lower usage than a standard hdd used say in an OS and would? ?? ? ?

[@gamebriz4163]

Thanks for the video....wanted to disassemble my 8tb WD for a while without destroying the case👍

[@BLKOUT]

🙏🏽 thx man, I used two flatheads and a lockpick and it came out instantly. Just gotta watc for the for tabs and the top will just slide out. Appreciate it the info

[@alexlifeson6917]

Hi, thanks for the video. Sorry, I'm a newbie, so the one with SMR (air filled) technology is the better one?

[@Dcm210]

Do you need to cut out one of the pins or use tape for it to boot as an internal hard drive?

[@ksbs2036]

Thanks for the video. I noticed on my WD My Book there were two additional clips at the other end of the drive in the middle. It was obvious they were binding so I just used your credit card technique and the unit came right apart. My drive was a WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0 My son tells me this is likely a CMR model (he's up to date in this stuff, I'm just an olde phart)

[@knoebimac]

The credit card hint is amazing. I was able to free 2x 18TB HDD from MyBook Cases. There are 4 T10-Torx Screws that hold the drive.

[@Chef_-xv7ms]

Wow l never knew you could do this with my books! Thank you

[@smadaguod]

Hello Sir, I have a WD My Book that is over 15 years old and this morning I found it is not powered up. The power supply checks good. Any idea on how to shuck a very old model?

[@amrob2]

Further to my posting yesterday, I have now received from Amazon UK 2 x WD My Book 6TB models and 1 x WD My Book Duo 24TB model. The My Book Duo contains 2 x 12TB WD120EFAX-68UNTNO drives. The 6TB My Book devices contain a WD60EDAZ white label drive. I have taken the 12TB drives out of the duo to use in a NAS and the 6TB drives will be going into the duo to make a 12TB duo device. The white label drives work fine in the duo and do not have the power pin issue that some people experience with the white label drives. I don't know if the WD60EDAZ is blue or red drive, but I would assume from it's price that it's a white label blue drive. Main thing is, it works, so I am happy as I have saved about £30 on the price of buying individually (And I will populate the 2 empty My Book cases with a couple of 2TB WD red drives.

[@MrBitviper]

great video, straight to the point have you had any experience with 6TB drives? are there any drives that come with wd red drives?

[@sheldonpetrie3706]

great video. I just followed this to shuck a 4TB WD blue to put in my new Unraid Server.

[@wbm4848]

This has been the easiest shuck to realize. All the other ones are doing it from both sides employing guitar plugs, which most probably (?) have to buy beforhand, but this version just uses an old cut up credit card or similar and working from the rear makes it very simple, because the clamps to be addressed / opened are only on this side if you examineing the case more closely afterwards. None of the clamps broke using this method. Just use a little force to push the drive etc. out the front without breaking anything. Thanks for this video :-) The HDD itself ist been held on each side by two screws mounted deep inside those rubber "bullets" used for decoupling the drive. Just unscrew them and the drive comes out quite easily. Don't forget to look for the 3.3 V pin "trick" mentioned elsewhere here, to have the drive up and running like any other HHD, but a lot cheaper...

[@ToddKortte]

Im so glad I watched this, i was about to rip into this plastic. You method is a lot easier!

[@clanoue1167]

Got 2 of the Orange box ones at Costco Canada, I got WD80EDBZ drives out of them.

[@michaelo1982]

Hey Phil...good job..thx for that... bought two green boxed in 2020 for my nas with 14tb each..both WD140EDFZ ..one orange boxed followed in 2021 with 14tb in 2021 also WD140EDFZ (all FW vers. 11A0VA0) different look..same content :)

[@DIGGYGV8]

First time shucking, didn’t break a single tab on two MyBooks. thanks!

[@thomasgood3472]

You've got the right technique to open the casing. I've tried as well and I don't succeed without damaging the casing!

[@sunsetsam33]

Just took mine apart thanks to your help. 2 thumbs up!

[@mikecmusic]

Thx for this video. Also needed the HDD for my computer. Got a 14 TB version called "WD140EDFZ". It was interesting, abusing my guitar picks. 😉

[@bg1hvc]

This is a very helpful video, tight and neat, Thank you!

[@felgercarbful]

Perfect procedure for my needs. Thank you.

[@Cheezburgercatz]

Thanks you just helped me clean mine w alcohol bc I spilled beer on it

Muchas gracias. Se me ha averiado uno con pocos meses y quería sacar el disco para borrarlo y no quería tener problemas con la garantía. Gracias por compartir la información. Saludos desde España

[@deta3d921]

Hi which is better ? The green box or orange box ? Sorry for my stupid question and my bad english , thank you :D

[@TheRealJimmyLundy]

What about the encryption issues with WD "MYBOOK" drives. The board you removed from the HDD holds the required encryption right? So separating them effectively kills the drive right?

[@simonneumayr6002]

You should be able to use the drive normally. But you cant access data that was written on it before afaik

[@dimitrisraggas8924]

Very helpful video and well explained.Thank you!

[@rocksoupstew3620]

Thank you so much, I have been going over what to buy, And your video helped me..

[@jeffmerheb3182]

Thanks, now what to pick? Seagate internal 8tb barracuda smr or pay 30$ more and get the WD My Book 8tb and shuck it? Is it true all newest 8tb my book are Hgst hc 320?

[@Rayden440]

Please connect the drive to your computer with the USB cable and run tests on it before you remove it from the enclosure. If there is something wrong, you can skip all the effort of shucking it and send it right back for replacement. This also avoid any warranty issues if the drive is bad and you happen to damage the plastic case.

[@root.]

Which tests should you run?

[@Rayden440]

@@root. I used a badblocks in Linux. I’m sure there are Windows equivalent. Basically what is does is write patterns over the entire harddrive: 11111111, 10101010, 01010101 and 00000000. Between each patterns, the software reads the entire disk to make sure it is working as intended. This will take a very long time, my 10TB WD drives took like 5 or 6 days. So be prepared for a long wait. It’s well worth the time though, because at the end you can be sure your harddrive does not have any parts that needs to be reallocated (reallocated sectors are a sign of a failing harddrive, I would send that drive back for an exchange if I saw those during testing). While the tests are running, do be sure to regularly check the SMART data from the drive to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.

[@johngessner]

Thinking of doing this with my two 12tb My Book drives. Do any of the power connectors have to be covered up. I see sometimes that's an issue with various drives

[@JamesWjRose]

Thanks, that was helpful. Have a wonderful day

[@dolst]

As of January 2022, I got 2 of these from Office Max here in the US for $200 apiece. They contain WD EDBZ drives. 8TB, no helium, 7200 RPM. Surf Wisely.

[@ksnax]

Same 8TB drives I just got from Costco.

[@InternetProgrammer]

Excellent, I am going to throw the assembly but it was easy following what you showed.

[@justgivemethetruth]

Are all these WD My Books the same? Because my 6TB seems to be one piece except for the side opposite you started on. I can get guitar picks into that side, but so far I don't see any way to pull the drive out. NEVERMIND ... It is just as you say, I just could not get anything into the side that your mentioned it was too tight, so I worked from the other side and pried it out. Thanks.

[@arcadeportal32]

Great video! HDD going inside PC, worked great!

[@macinman]

I recently picked up a My Book 12 TB to transfer my Plex Library to. I had been using a software Raid of 2 4TB My Passport drives, but recently had the drive I used for Time machine backups fail. So I got the 12 TB to Move the Plex library to, and then separated the 2 4TB drives and re purposed one for time machine. The 12 TB My Book, i bought locally from Office Depot over here in the US, and the box was orange like your 8 TB one. I usually don't take the case apart unless it fails. I wanted to also mentioned, I had watched a similar video to this one, and the guy in that video mentioned pin modifications because some of those drives won't power up outside the original enclosure. Have you run into this problem?

[@KillaBitz]

Cool video. I did a 12tb My Book last year, it's nearly full of video already and preforms exactly the same as a red (non pro) the drive was WDC_WD120EDAZ-11F3RA0_######## (## is replacing the identity aka serial number)(this is how it displays it's model/serial in unraid) SMR is one reason I wouldn't buy an 8tb anymore. I'll try and update this post when my 14tb arrives in the next few days.

[@r.mercado9737]

Pardon my asking this question. Once you have taken the HD out of its casing, what’s the next step?

[@Trevorodunne]

Brilliant Thanks had my hard drive in 5 mins.

[@robertd1965]

Just shucked an orange box 8TB from Best Buy USA, minutes ago, inside was a WD80EDDAZ white label. Date of Manufacture was 16 Jul 2020, Thailand.

[@_EightySix]

Does this have SATA connectors to install into a PC bay?

[@daominhduc6975]

after disassembling it, can I install it for PC case as I did with usual HDD ?

[@brianj9262]

The better score is cracking these open and getting the hgst drives for a great price. Used is still better than some if these drives new

[@mkb285]

Thanks! Clear and easy to follow.

[@yuriyyaremkiv]

Hi. I bought new one today and have some tapping sound every few seconds. It's normal?

[@brandonshin4808]

Thanks for the instruction. I got 8TB in an orange box and the model name is WD80EDAZ

[@aleksandrgriadovoi9282]

Same here

[@maxmustermann2676]

What drive is that? Is it a SMR or CMR? I got the same in july 2021.

[@kevintam37]

is there a website that you can run a product code to check whether it's a red or white drive before you shuck?

[@jerwinwagan8972]

What do you call the adapter that gives with USB port and power? Thanks!

[@davidpreisner]

Worked for my 4TB. Thanks

[@ekolekol4389]

I got 2x4tb "recertified" MyBooks from WD directly...One was labelled a WD40EFRX (cmr) and the other WD40EDAZ (smr). Gparted reports ~1.8tb unallocated on both so it looks like these were 6tb drives with bad sectors and were partitioned to 4tb!? By "recertified" I expected returns etc. not partitioned out bad sectors.

[@mikakorhonen5715]

It does not matter what size they originally were as long as we saved some raw materials going waste.

[@MarcoLopesPT]

I had the same bad luck with 4TB drives... SMR! Returned them... stick to 8TB and above ONLNY! ALL current drives below 8TB are SMR!!!

[@St0neykins]

Thanks So much for this Video, worked like a charm, Had the HD out of the Black plastic case and into the Desktop in less than 5 minutes ! When my original hard crapped out a few weeks back, I went to Best Buy, but they only had small internal drives available, so I bought a 10 TB WD My Book. This Drive is just for File storage. My OP system and Programs are on a SSD drive.

[@maxc7930]

Thanks, it works fine for the 16tb version too

[@dolst]

Phil: "You will need a credit card or guitar picks..." Me over here with multiple guitar picks made from cut-up credit cards: 😎 Surf Wisely.

[@MatthewAHaas]

This worked for me, thank you.

[@Hello-hw3gu]

Thank you very much to show how to open this.