How To: Take Apart A Western Digital My Book Enclosure

Ever wanted to take apart your Western Digital "My Book" enclosure? If you also happen to think that the drive inside that enclosure runs too hot, this video also shows you how to put the drive in another enclosure with a fan and an eSATA port.

You may encounter sticky shielding tape inside your enclosure. Some of mine had it and some did not.

Be careful if you do this. Make a backup of the data. Use good quality tools.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• how
• to
• disassemble
• take
• apart
• western
• digital
• my
• book
• enclosure
• drive
• transplant

[Me4SummerTime]

I tried this with my 'my book' and it will not work 'read' when I plug the USB in...I tried it on many different machines too... it only works when I use the original 'my book' bridge circuit.... im confused... I tried other hard drives and they work in my new external case.... so im thinking there is something weird going on with the drive from my my book...

[uxwbill]

@Me4SummerTime There is nothing special about the drives used in these full-size enclosures. (The 2.5" models appear to use a specialty drive with a USB port right on the logic board.)

If you have one of the newer drives models with SmartWare, that may impact operation when attached to anything other than the WD bridge board. If your other systems have VIA chipsets, you may need to set a jumper on the drive to force the 1.5 gigabit link speed.

[1ncic]

Where do you order or get the better inclosers? I am all for runnung the hd cooler but I don't know where to get the incloser. Thank you noncic1@yahoo.com

[uxwbill]

@1ncic Almost anywhere computer parts are sold...eBay, Newegg, Tiger Direct, many other places. I have had good results with the Vantec NexStar 3 series of enclosures lately. I recommend the USB/eSATA/Firewire one the most, even if you don't want or use Firewire. It has an Oxford bridge chip and those work very well.

[Ruflcopta]

You say it runs cooler and has a longer life, but what about quicker? Are the drives crap and slow or are they good drives bottlenecked by USB? I'd like to know before I open up mine and throw it in my Desktop as an internal.

[uxwbill]

@Ruflcopta If your computer can extract more data over a faster data bus, yes. At the time this video was made, the drives were nothing but regular Western Digital desktop hard drives. I'm told that some of the Passport and portable models are a special drive with a USB port directly on the drive's PCB.

[mubd1234]

Great video. You are quite a natural presenter.

[TastyTacoBoy]

I got this same drive. I've quit buying WD after this thing lost my data twice and there are so many other people with the same reviews. JUNK. I'm putting it right in my PC or another case instead. Supposedly, it's just the bad drive enclosure.

[thedamnmushroom]

The flipside of this situation: I was in a Goodwill and bought a 500gb MyBook for $15. Or rather, what I got was what you're left with after this video -- a poorly ventilated case with USB, FireWire, and eSATA ports with a power supply. But hey, I needed to open it anyway so I could someday put a drive in, right?

[frenor0302]

Thank you!

[EbonyFrank]

@uxwbill So I got an enclosure from this Geek dot come website or something like that for $20 it's by Element, a 3.5" hdd external enclosure.. and I was able to connect my hard drive to the cables and wires that came with it, but it had no assembly instructions in the manual ... there is one big yellow strap of ribbon or something that connects to the electrical/usb outlet part of the enclosure but fits nothing on my hd & power comes on but no computer recog of a device. I don't know ? to do?

[sherri0629]

My Book recently stopped working. Its under warranty so WD will replace, but I have about 300 GB of data that I need off the drive and can't access it. So I tried to open the case so I could connect it directly. I could get it out of the case fine, but mine doesn't look like any I've seen posted. It has a metal bracket holding the circuit board inside and has a little flat screw that will not come off. I can send a pic if interested, but without removing that screw, you can't get it off

[Matthew55904]

I myself prefer WD Drives as i have Seagate drives and am using one in one of my computers its a 320GB model and one thing i noticed is Seagate drives not only have a HIGH failure rate ever with proper cooling but also run BURNING HOT Seagate Barracuda 7200 drives are so hot you can fry an egg on em you need a HDD fan with any Seagate Drive or it wont last i have even found that Seagate IDE HDDs have the same problem so i am no longer a promoter or fan of Seagate WD runs cooler and lasts longer

[Matthew55904]

i have found that is is much cheaper to get HDDs by buying an external and taking the HDD out of its case and then into your computer as the price of Internal HDDs have skyrocketed and External Drives are much cheaper