Open (Take Apart) WD Elements External Hard Drive

Open (Take Apart) WD Elements External Hard Drive

[@vlelet]

I have wondered how to open the case. This is very helpful. I can leave it open and put a small fan on top in summer. Thanks a lot!

[@poetnk]

Just opened up both an Elements 500GB and a 1TB drive today. These are slightly different than the Elements drive I had in the past (thicker, but shorter in physical size as well). Opening it up, there was a drive inside without connections for SATA.. ie: no power or SATA connection. The only connection was the USB connection to the back, which also provides its power.

[@clowncarqingdao]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Salvaging drives to put into one 5 bay enclosure and two WD drives I didn't assemble myself but bought them pre-assembled. This helped tremendously and saved me a lot of guesswork.

[@moonbird]

Fantastic, thank you. The WD housing is crap but the drive and data is safe, thanks to this video I'm blissed out!

[@yeswellnomaybe]

Thanks heaps! It's so much easier to spudge/pry things open when you know where the clips are!

[@AdhamOhm]

One thing about external drives is that if they ever "fail", there's a good chance that the drive itself is still perfectly functional. It's usually the USB/SATA converter circuit inside that breaks first. Unfortunately a lot of people just throw these externals out thinking they're no good, when the drive inside could be salvaged and be used as an internal, or at least have the files recovered.

[@DanielSmedegaardBuus]

Quick and less damaging way: Just use the screwdriver to open the one hinge at the back (where the plugs are located) enough to get a ruler or other hard plastic thing in between the bottom and the casing (as seen in the video), then slide the ruler around the sides of the case towards the front, and the rest of the hinges will pop right open without force.

[@TroyOi]

Just what I needed! Thank you for this valuable public service. :-)

[@aketrak]

Tanks alot for the instructions! Just bought a 2 TB version extremely cheap, gonna use it in my freenas.

[@kinstar]

@Apfitt yep you can use any external hard drive and hook it up to your pc. There basically the same hard drives you get in laptops made to be portable and more shock resistant. All you have to do is just take it out and plug it into your pc as normal

[@JoBot__]

Thanks for the info. I had one of these drives (non-functional) lying around, so I decided to take it apart to figure out what was wrong with it. Looks like the 1TB 3.5-inch SATA HDD inside had failed. The rest of the hardware will make a nice SATA to USB adapter once I find its power adapter.

[@quiznex]

Thanks for the video. I was able to take out the HD and place it into a USB 3.0 case. Awesome!

[@Cinique1984]

It's a green drive? Wow...nice, I didn't expect that. Thanks for the vid! :)

[@mohanccna551]

thank you..my hd was all infected with ants...I didnt know how to open ..ur video helped me thank you very much

[@ShirtOffLJay]

@Amerguin what kind of case did you put it in? looking for a new enclosure for my HD

[@ceniotec17]

So brief and excellent explanation, thank you excellent!!!

[@GlenZabriskie1]

the data is still there, but the little USB connector is just hel in by 4 solder posts inside the case. If you know someone who can resolder the 4 contacts for you, youll be back in business. Or just remove drive and use internally.

[@DNTOUR]

Thanks, I have been looking for this guide for some time... ;)

[@chuckylicious19]

Thanks for the video. My enclosure failed this morning. Hard drive is fine (whipped it out and tried it elsewhere), but looks like the actual circuit board for the SATA and power points has died.

[@zhussain211]

OMFG THANKS DUDE! my hard drive's usb part broke inside so now i have to use it as an internal x) thanks again man

[@SergioCorreaLegisos]

Thank you very much! from Chile.

[@TotallyOperator]

Worked like a charm, thanks! :)

[@TubeHacker01]

How many rpm's will it have??? Great vid, it sure helped a lot!!!

[@DanielSmedegaardBuus]

Older ones (before mid-April 2011) are a little bit tougher to open than newer ones.

[@papzilabzi]

Thanks for the guide!

[@paulomontenegro]

Helped me a LOT!

[@kn1t30wl]

do you have a guide on how to disassemble 2.5 inch WD elements external HDD? or is it the same as the 3.5 hdd?

[@M4KERB]

Just opened mine, not sure why I even bought an external in the 1st place. Mine was a 32mb cache Caviar Green. WD10EADS. I guess I'll just put her in the case to go with a Blue and Black. The USB speeds are just too slow.

[@smtseng]

@rfvtgbzhn Sometimes WD put a 32MB cache drive rather than 8MB cache drive . So, uou can think it is a " free upgrade " .

[@aliensporebomb]

Those cases are designed to superheat the drive so they fail so they think you'll buy another. Thanks for this video.

[@JoBot__]

Tinfoil hat type theory if I'm being completely honest.

[@aliensporebomb]

@@JoBot__ Some powered cases have fans to cool the drive and prevent heat buildup.

[@JoBot__]

@@aliensporebomb True, but there is no point to intentionally designing a drive enclosure so that it fails. That's not gonna get people to buy another drive from them. That's just gonna get those drives seen as unreliable. There is no way they are dumb enough to think it'd benefit them. I know I am arguing with something you said 12 years ago and it is rather pointless though.

[@aliensporebomb]

@@JoBot__ Not to mention, the reason I mentioned that is they ended up buying those for our office at the time and a lot of them were piled under tons of crap on peoples desks. They probably could have done worse. There's still a few of them around but most of them have been decommissioned.

[@JoBot__]

@@aliensporebomb Alright. Your memory impresses me. I don't believe I have seen any other person who can remember their thought process behind a comment they made that long ago.

[@blueknightjoker86]

Thanks for the help.

[@GTI1dasOriginal]

1: remove it from the case 2: turn off your computer 3: connect it to your motherboard (powercable and sata cable) 4: turn on your computer 5: if it recognizes it in the boot: hurray! 6: when windows starts up, goto disk management 7: right-click on the drive 8: run a checkdisk for errors 9: if the partition is gone, download minitool partition wizard home edition (free) 10: try the "recover partition" option.

[@paft]

Those clip things are really easy to break so be careful. I broke 2.

[@SimbaSeven.]

I must've scored on my 4x 1.5TB Elements. They're all WD Black drives.

[@smtseng]

@Apfitt you can hook it up as a normal sata drive

[@lilmidda]

how do u pry it open? where abouts did you shove the screwdriver into? my one is TIGHT??

[@_conrad]

@CookieColt no you won't keep the warranty

[@CruelQuertos]

this was really helpful

[@rfvtgbzhn]

strange, th drive inside has 32MB cache, but according to amazon and other shops, the WD elements drives ponly have 8MB cahce. What happend to the other 24MB? Are they disabled by the SATA to USB controller?

[@TheLazyNecromancer]

*What no screws? how do I open this bitch?* *Google it* Legendary.

[@Cybirian]

This works, perfect...thnx

[@slavric]

This was helpful. Thanks.

[@kcrwd]

That was all that was needed to open it up :)

[@SurfinNSilver]

@tactileslut That's weird because the WD Elements SE Portable I have is pretty fast at transferring. In fact I drag and dropped three full length films onto it last night and it was transferring at about 450-480MB/s it only took like 7 sec.

[@Amerguin]

Thank you very much. Hard disk working in other case :)

[@Erulin68]

got to be joyous that these days external HD's are priced less then internals :) :)

[@aaronmorris5701]

worked a treat

[@mrgeebaby86]

restart your computor and it may recognise it, sometimes

[@CarlSaint]

Thank You!!! Excellent....

[@SurfinNSilver]

@Hielkenator Nope, it is USB 2.0 for sure.

[@Amerguin]

Sorry I just read your question now... 4 months later lol. You can use any 3,5" for sata disks you want... (sorry about my english)

[@Eliottdeferr]

Thanks very much !!

[@kyokushinfighter78]

hello thx for the inspirational video, it feels good when you have hope..... my WD elements just cannot be recognized suddenly, I have many important datas, can I extract the internal drive and put it it inside another USB case ? if yes, what is the name of the USB case? (company and series)

[@EGreenberg]

Great. Thanks

[@meerak87]

can I take it out, and use a 2.5 inches cover on it?

[@sktg2606]

Helpful! Thanks

[@CookieColt]

can someone tell me if you keep your warranty if you do this and use it as an internal harddrive

[@fredde94chr]

@MrCarlbillings Why? The black is faster^^

[@pepe2004]

Thanks.

[@michalhejl]

I used this tutorial to open my WD Elements Play device. Managed to exchange 3TB drive that came with the WD Elements with older 1TB drive and use the 3TB in my NAS. WD Elements Play will however not boot it's firmware with the 1TB drive. It connects with PC using USB just fine and I can move data in and out, but when I connect WD Elements Play with the 1TB drive to my TV using HDMI it gets stuck on startup showsing WD icon and then reboots repeatingly. Any suggestions please?

[@Miasma112233]

awesome super easy

[@liamisic911]

thanks man much appreciated

[@MrPeladete]

@aketrak Which features have 2 tb version ¿sata2? ¿rpm? Thanks

[@PaulKnutsonSther]

Thanks, mate :)

[@AndreAlforque]

Thank you!

[@Hielkenator]

@SurfinNSilver Then you external drive probably is'nt USB 2.0.

[@vincentvegawchz]

Thanks alot.

[@FrederikMeyer]

Mine stopped working after a couple of months, my computer couldn't find it suddenly. Did this happen to you? Is it fixable?

[@skald89]

why couldnt you show more angles of the drive inside

[@xero456]

This saved my bacon when a client fried the enclosure

[@israelminaya7178]

Obviously, the dislikers must be people from WD.

[@optimysticyet]

this is a 3.5 drive?

[@jodati]

I have one of these, it's broken :( it was knocked off desk and the usb connector piece snapped off the circuit board :( it was my 3 year old niece so couldn't get mad either. The piece of circuit board it's attached to seems to be replaceable, just remove the two screws and unplug it. But where can I get another one? anyone know? I tried contacting WD support and all they wanted to tell me was it was not covered by warranty, I knew that, I just wanted to find where to get the piece >:( anyone?

[@smtseng]

>> can I replace the hard drive inside? Yes

[@GlenZabriskie1]

If you want someone to repair that for you, for the cost of shipping, I will do the repair and return it for you. But you must still have that little piece that broke off. The USB port is just held in by 4 solder tabs. Doesnt take much for that crap EU approved lead free solder to break off. Contact me if you want my help. I am mil spec solder certified. Have worked for Bell & Howell, Tandy, CompUSA and have 30 years soldering experience.

[@XnnijD]

does 2,5" look like 3,5" inside?

[@Carl0s695]

hmm openned mine has a Cavier Black but i really wanted a Green Drive :(

[@Goona.]

@smtseng can i use my hard drive in a Cyclone Primus HDMI MKV Media Player Enclosure HD 1080P

[@ipotouchmessin]

how do you fix one after you drop it

[@shamalchand]

Thanks man.... :)

[@ptudor]

thanks

[@MrFox1231]

@psp3000legend Got a similar problum only that mine occured after a little incident where my USB 2.0 plugin got bended and posibly broken

[@danamezjohn]

Thanks :)

[@tadammetal]

thank mate! :)

[@AXmichigan]

thanks!

[@tuix000]

The usb connection point broke off place. Is it possible to still use it as a hard drive when put into a PC? Or is it gone for good. Nothing except the usb is broken. If I can use it as HDD, how do I? Thanks

[@merionbethea3121]

+tuix000 Hi....Did you ever get an answer to this question? I just had the same thing happen to me.

[@tuix000]

Hi. I opened a thread about this at www.tomshardware.com and some people said that it is indeed possible to use it as an internal drive. But only if certain conditions are met. Conditions being: 1- The PC you want to insert the drive into has to have the neccessary cablework to support the drive (the proper power and sata cables) 2- you should be able to lock the drive in place (not just insert it there half assed, moving and hitting around is no good). So my advice, find someone who understands from computer hardware.. someone you can let into your house.. let him/her take a look at your pc and the drive. Maybe you can use it as an internal drive. I haven't gotten around to trying it yet so I don't know. But usb connectors are not needed in internal drives. They are only for external connections. So breaking it doesn't have to mean that all is lost. Hope this helps PS. if your pc is a laptop, you can forget about the whole thing. If that's the case, but you still desperately need your data from the thing, you can try otherworldly means to extract it but it would be painfully slow, hard and expensive and generally a pain in the butt. good day

[@louisprocaccini747]

+tuix000 +merion bethea We can repair for you, give us a call or email 203-388-8827 or [e-mail]

[@knifeyonline]

yes of course, the usb is part of the "enclosure", it is still a normal internal hard drive on the inside. Louis you will surely die alone with that attitude.

[@Bashtiks]

than you :)

[@smtseng]

>> so does this mean u can make it an internal drive? Yes !

[@matthew022au]

@MrCarlbillings i had a Cavier Green :)

[@USdragon]

Thanks I thought the drive was dead ........

[@andyphun2008]

Fantastic help!

[@gogomobilboy]

can i use it on my ps3 ?

[@dodgemsbeatstyle]

@t0adphr0g Damn ur lucky! u better be serious!

[@florida416]

Be Aware. This drive has had nothing but problems from many users. I say NO to WD.

[@TheAcadianGuy]

MIne is 1 Tb 64mb cache

[@111Xumi111]

thanks