Opening up a Western Digital Passport External HDD

[ToneEQ]

Black drive, black tool, black top, that's soooo helpful.

[206Nish]

@ToneEQ

Sounds like those could be the lyrics to the song.

[exarinco]

I <3 u!

[harringtonbrown]

so are all WD drives have a SATA? or do some have IDE?

[darrenmason70]

Terrible video - its too dark and there are ZERO instructions. I wouldn't care except I can't see what you are doing.

[ntave2]

Would you be able to use this in a PS3 as its main hard drive?

[buffmanuy]

Oh dude, you suck at opening cases.

[kornypony]

what does that thin sheet of foil do?

[D427ZI]

I will lose warranty if only i open the plastic cover ?

[hutchison82]

The hdd works perfectly with the ps3 I picked mine up for 50 euros so cheap way to upgrade

[andrew23456able]

Will this work on an intel D945GCCR with sata 2?

[Guildleader117]

The only concern i have with this is will this void the warrenty or will they have no idea it was taken apart......do you have to break some sticker or seal?

[liloladok]

gay rap

[akaGOLDFINGER]

ok im a freaking idiot when it comes to stuff like this... u know im the type of kid who colored the sky green and the grass blue who always colored outside the lines,swearing the picture moved, STOP LAUGHING!!...PLEASE TELL ME WHERE DO U PLUG THAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE AT IN A DESKTOP,..I ALREADY HAVE A SATA HARD DRIVE IN THERE AND THAT PLUG LOOKS ALOT BIGGER THEN WHAT U PLUG INTO THAT TINY DRIVE?..oh by the way, YOUR A Genius, U SHOULD WORK 4 NASA

[NinjaAnarchist]

@akaGOLDFINGER I hope your joking but it is all in the manual.

[MustNotRead]

dont understand why they make em so fking difficult to open in the first place. paranoid bastards

[Raheil100]

dude i just used my nail on my thumb it was kinda quick and efficient lol

[aukseklis]

YOU'RE GREAT DUDE! øpened her up and pushed down on the hardrive toward the power plug stuck in the usb and viola! success. Now to git me shit off there before the real Bigbang. Thanks again, muchas gracias. Via condigo. Povilus

[wailingwarfare]

Why aren't they keeping these things together with screws... A lot of things can go wrong opening these ridiculous drives up. I've seen comments of people cutting themselves, dropping the things on the table, etc...

[JoshDaGoodfella]

Lol, gay rap.

[vaxter2]

thanks for the guidance.. i just opened one up... cheers.

[ruiroseno]

I broke my circuit board doing this! where can I buy replacement parts for this WD's?

[ruiroseno]

i broke my circuit board doing this! when can I buy replacement parts for this WD's?

[aklmka]

I did it really easily.

I dropped mine accidently, and the casing was already half off, but then it stopped working.

I got the model with SATA, so I just got a enclosure and running like new again.

Just got a facelift for $30 :P

[kempaf]

western inside

[Skaeda]

I'm trying to find an new enclosre for my WD passport. Actually its the SATA to USB adapter that is broken. Any ideas of where i can get a new one

[Chakotay2222]

I really dont see whats the point of having disk outside of your pc......and now that I seen this heh is so easy to put it out of that funny looking black box and put it in the actual pc case where it belongs

[killuminati007]

never heard about backup?

[gnitohgok]

can you put it back together?

[Matrixvibe]

@gnitohgok yes lol

[darkhyn]

@gnitohgok

If you are a little careful while taking it apart and don't break of too many of the connecting plastic parts, then you can just clip it back together.

I broke of one or two, but still clips together pretty tight after re-assembling

[Downstryke]

That's what I wanted to know. Other videos I watched skipped this whole process while claiming to show how!

[Cadillacs57]

thanks for the video man, my passport usb drive is fucked up, i have to change the enclosure for another one, and this video helps a ton

[Braveheart182007]

cheers mate

[Dani1165]

my nails hurt looking at this

[XxCLOUDO13xX]

hey if i put my ps3 HDD in my external HDD and hook it up to my ps3, will my ps3 b able to read all of my saved data too?

[HelloWaffle]

No, but you can format it and use it as an acctual hard disk.

[Rainier0009]

can you use this on a desktop as a hard drive?

[Matrixvibe]

yes, if your computer has sata, if not you will need a pci sata control card

[UnitedPS3]

Matrix, is that drive 1.5GB/s or 3.0GB/s?

[wtfitsed]

So If i took out my hd, and swapped it with the one in my laptop this would work?

[Matrixvibe]

yup, if see in my other video where i show how to replace a hdd on the sony laptop, i basically installed the WD passport external hdd in it and ran windows xp off of it.

[allensvlog]

@Matrixvibe This works in newer sony's, but not my vaio from 06 ^^

[ryanburke1993]

@wtfitsed depends if you have the USB HDD or the SATA HDD inside your Passport. I just opened mine and discovered there was no SATA port.

[Corcoancaoc]

black HDD, black scissors, black tape, black t-shirt. what kind of freak are you?! :P

[Slayer100]

white table though ;)

[KillRideMasterAnd]

please help me... i dropped mine and everytime i plug it in it makes a wierd ticking noise... whats wrong with it?

[UnitedPS3]

Its fucked.

[BeyondSimple]

ok, i opened it. at a certain point you just force it open. on one side i had a bit of trouble prying it with a driver so i just pulled it straight up and it worked fine.

[macformat]

WOW, SIMPLY AMAZING....... duh?

[Justin9250]

i love the beat whats the name of the song?

[mannymeyers]

DJ Unk - Walk It Out (Instrumental)

[HDT314]

I have a problem with my usb external hard drive, Everytime i plus it into my laptop nothing happens. But the blue light comes on.... on my usb hard drive.

what is wrong with my usb hard drive?

does anyone knows?

can anybody help me?

[gingey22]

Thats awesome. The Sata > USB could come in handy... especially if you have a larger HDD from another computer. Instead of finding a spare sata cable you just plug it in :D

[rikosauced]

I know music is nice and all, but some background information on the external would have been nice. What model is it? Things change.

[Matrixvibe]

this an older model WD passport 120gb, the newer revisions come in bigger sizes and also different cases, i have seen the newer ones and used them, but i havent had the chance to try to open them...lol

[icanfeelthebeat]

ah yo dis music is off da hook. big upp

[amerist]

I just got one of the newer Western Digital "My Passport Essential" drives Model WD5000ME-01. It does not simply open like you are showing in this video. I'm having the same problems as supercanardo mentioned above. Also I would hate to take it apart just to find out that what rhennosy said is true. I really wanted the SATA drive but if it's not removable I may pass on trying to open it altogether.

[rhennosy]

I just tried to do this. Western Digital has integrated the usb port into the controller board. You cannot do this anymore because there is no adapter to remove.

[drtigerlilly]

what model did you buy? just out of curiosity

[kilolora]

yes there nothing to remove ??have u did opend it yet>i dint tryed to open the scrows there have u able u do it?

[fireblast713]

Is this true, can you not do this anymore?

[kilolora]

no we can still do it i bet i have done this several times dont worry

[kilolora]

there is man whn u remove the cover down there is steel i know there are some sqeors dont open this down there is usb port try to remove it my ue hand it will come out then u can use it i have tryied it

[Messerschmitt262a2a]

why should i do this?

[redtails]

Sometimes an external harddrive is cheaper than an internal harddrive, especially when it's a 2.5 inch one

[rihat10]

So like all I have to do is do what you did and I can put it into my PS3? Right? RIGHT?!

[Relic350]

You can buy drives cheaper already out of a case at staples.

[rihat10]

I know but I already have one of these. 120 GB. So is it possible? Can I do it?

[Matrixvibe]

yes you can

[rihat10]

Thanks!

[Matrixvibe]

staples is still expensive, you can get it cheaper at local stores...lol

[supercanardo]

I have the most recent version, slightly different shape - looks a bit more like a little book. I'm looking for a video showing how to open it up because I haven't managed to do it yet... Only the largest side is willing to open up a bit using my nails, but not the sides. Any advices?

[ecklip]

a question so this HDD is sata or IDE? might as well get 1 for my ps3 if it's SATA

[Matrixvibe]

it is SATA, thats why people have been getting it because you can probably get this drive cheaper than buying just a hard drive. If you check out my tutorial on removing a replacing a hdd on a sony vgn-s470p laptop, i swaped the old broken hard drive with the WD passport 120gb and loaded xp on it.

[Ejrech64]

Interesting. Didn't expect it to be so simple inside. (I have an old 160GB model. ;) Any idea if it's the SATA-to-USB adapter that allows WD Passports to be USB-powered, or is it the HDD itself that's made specifically for that purpose?

I'd love to be able to slap adapters on other 2.5" drives and make them USB-powered.

Too bad it's probably not possible for the larger 3.5" drives, which I'm assuming draw more power than USB outputs.

Just entertaining some hopeful speculation. =]

[uN1Qu3DZ]

It's the HDD itself. All 2.5" HDDs operate on +5v only, so the USB plug can supply the necessary power. You can slap any notebook HDD in.

You are correct with this not working on 3.5" drives, they will need a different type of adaptor and a separate +5v/+12v power supply.

[Matrixvibe]

He's right, 3.5" hard drives run on 12v which requires an external power source

[azn310]

what song did u use for ur background music man?

sounds very familiar

[davitbui]

Walk it out Instrumental. google it and put zshare at the end.

[Matrixvibe]

Your welcome! Glad i could help ya out. thanks again for watching!

[uN1Qu3DZ]

Thanks a lot for the tutorial. A friend came by with a 60GB Passport and i happened to need to mess around with my older laptop's 30GB HDD, i wanted to do a full backup and slap a HDD-based tweaked installer of XP on it, as this laptop has a 2nd battery instead of a cdrom drive.

Came at exactly the right time, this Passport was IDE like my notebook's HDD, so now it's up, running and making the backup. :)

[adkenc]

thank you. i was trying to see if this was sata or ide and amazingly enough this was the only place i found an answer. 320 for $120. i just might go get one today. i can upgrade my laptop and have a nice enclosure too :) thanks again.

[memorex9998887]

just got a 320 gig wd passport elite for 178$

[crysisen]

and you need copyright for this shit lol

[Matrixvibe]

and also if you pay attention as i take off the adapter you can tell that there are no pins sticking out compared to a IDE that would have many pins sticking out.

[Matrixvibe]

im sorry but it is in fact SATA connector, only older 2.5" hdd used IDE. just to let you know im not comepletely new with computer stuff, thanks for the time to comment though

[rednecksinspace]

Thats not SATA. That's an EIDE connector (about 1000 years old, it existed with SCSI)

[sodom69]

mine also, has the scorpio inside and the hd was in some sort of metal case and NO aluminium-paper-stuff.....

and it was sata - as this was not for sure

[sodom69]

ok, if you have the model, where only three sides are "open" and the other three sides are made of one case...

just open it on the longest open´able side - use your fingernails THEN pull it out - there are some sort of rails in the drives sides (there where the usb connector is and the opposite!) so it should be easy to pull it out on these rails - just make sure you opened it with you fingernails on top and bottom - at that mentioned longest open´able side.

[sodom69]

the new model 2500me is another shape and even harder to open ;-( dont get it done so far...

the up and down sides are actually one thing....

[djchuckc]

can you use this exact same hdd for replacement in MacBook Pro??

[Matrixvibe]

Youtube is acting up, i can only post short comments, that explains all those comments...lol

[Matrixvibe]

I got my enclosure for $6. Check Tiger Direct for 2.5" sata to usb enclosure, thats what you need.

[Matrixvibe]

They are easy to find at your local computer stores, i doubt bestbuy, circuit city or etc. would have them but tiger direct has them.

[Matrixvibe]

Thats basically what happened to me with my western digital becuase i took it apart and used my own serial ata to usb adapter and it worked fine, so i just bought a new enclosure.

[Inph]

hold on... I have a 160gb passport... and you mean to tell me i can just take off the enclosure and have this thing up and running again??? I get an error that the USB device is not recognized. If I replace the enclosure, and by extension the USB port on the drive/enclosure, I should be OK? What kind of enclosure do i need to get?

[1N5AN1TY]

SO MANY COMMENTS, BB !

[Matrixvibe]

The playstation 3 can use any 2.5" SATA laptop hard drive, not only the western digital. but you brought up a good point, sometimes when these drives go on sale they will actually cost less than the laptop hard drive alone, so therefore you can just buy one of these portable drives and swap it into a laptop or ps3.

[4QBUD]

Playstation3 uses the same type SATA drive as is found in the WD Passport. You can remove a 300 gig drive (I've heard that is its max) and install it in your Playstation3. Then your old 80 gig from the playstation3 goes back in the WD case. Cheap upgrade since the 300 (320) gig passport is only about 120$.

[Matrixvibe]

no problem man, i had the same problem, so i switched enclosures

[gyunagyos]

Thank you very much!!! This is a very helpful video!!! With you help, i could open my passport. You saved me from the 100% data loose...(i hope:S :D i think, my wd's electronics died..., i'll try with another enclosure)

Thank you again!!!!

[omzarinio]

theres a few vids on a guy dimantling it usin 1 hand only

[xteaopia]

its crap though

[BJKKKartal]

Thanx for your respond, i bought it today i cannot copy anythink more then 5 Gb it says disk full but i still got huge amount of space.

I dont get why i am just formatting now do you have to put files in using the software or do you do like me,

My computer

my Passport

and paste.

[Matrixvibe]

well from my experience, once i got the drive i started using the western digital security program that was included on the drive. but that program ended up messing up all my files, so therefore i formated it within 1 month of using it and now finally the sata to usb adapter has screwed up on me but i just got a new enclosure for $6 so my passport is up and running again.

[BJKKKartal]

Hi i want to ask you somethink.

i am buying one in pcworld

some users saying it brakes quicly is it true,

and did you hade to format it when you bought it.

Thanx

[Matrixvibe]

LOL... how did it destroy it??, its simply just plastics clips, you just have to snap it back together. And also the sata to usb adapter on my drive screwed up so i bought a replacement enclosure and i decide to make this video

[goddamnmaddog]

why are you doing this?

[bjha92]

nice, so it is acculy a normal hdd, you can buy a new hdd on 500 or 750 gb and add that sata to usb adapter:P

nice video man!