WD Elements write protection problem

[craig6928]

hello this is very weird issue got my western digital element 2tb
with all my movies on there
was watching it last night and all of sudden its now coming up

media is write protected

anyone know what is wrong with it

i checked it out and it does not have smart ware built into it
and its not the encrypted type board ???

are these drives failing because of heat issues ???????
or did western digital screw up the firmware along the way

it picks up correctly in windows computer management
but when you try to format it comes up media is write protected

anyone got a idea how to fix it

as i don't think there a solution out there


cheers

[lcoughey]

If I were a betting man, I'd bet in the following order.

1. PCB
2. Heads / Surface
3. SA

[craig6928]

it look to be a common problem with this type drive and no cure for it

where the hard drive works no problem then goes into media lock for no reason at all.

i was thinking they added something into the firmware like a time lock

that set the drive to work a cycle of years and then goes into write protection mode after the time is up and locks the drive up



looks like i be going after a different brand now

western digital element is a piece of crap.

thanks

[BlackST]

I have some Elements that now are "mature" if not "old" and they work flawlessly so I don't understand this theory about time lock.

I would check firmware and heads then PCB . If it is the firmware you can fix it with the appropriate tools, if it is heads it is normal wear and tear / failure (but I don't think so). PCB to me is possible to be the culprit, but 5-10 out of 100.

If you find what the problem is let us know, it is interesting as stat.

[craig6928]

this is what it comes up with

disk management will not initialized wont format

says - Virtual Disk Manager - Disk Is Write Protected

wont let you read anything at all of the disk

some how its locked out like a security lock

the hard drive picks up in disk management with the correct amount of gig and name
very weird issue.


not going to scrap it just going to try and recovery my 2tb movie collection sooner or later

[BlackST]

Then it is a logical issue, to me.

[craig6928]

hello its not a logical issue tried to format it low format and partition it fails
tried everything in dos


what i understand is that the WD Elements Control Board is not encrypted at all
just the mybook series are
plus i ran smart on the pc system and it does not pick up the drive at all in the program

but windows see the drive ok but not in my computer.

was thinking is it worth getting another control board
as this could be why the issue of the media lock has happened
this could or might be faulty.

but again you can unplug the drive from this and plug the drive in direct to the sata connection on your pc

very weird issue

but its well know issue on the web with these drives all of a sudden going into media locked

[einstein9]

hello this is very weird issue got my western digital element 2tb
with all my movies on there
was watching it last night and all of sudden its now coming up

media is write protected

anyone know what is wrong with it

i checked it out and it does not have smart ware built into it
and its not the encrypted type board ???

are these drives failing because of heat issues ???????
or did western digital screw up the firmware along the way

it picks up correctly in windows computer management
but when you try to format it comes up media is write protected

anyone got a idea how to fix it

as i don't think there a solution out there


cheers

My Best guess is the following for your case and correct me if am wrong, you either:

1- connected your wd hdd (fat32) to PS (Play Station) and were playing movies
2- connected to some kind of Movie Players which takes ext. hdd via USB port

Am i right?

[craig6928]

hello einstein9 yes i was using the drive to watch my movie collection
it was a western digital live box


thanks

[BlackST]

It's a LOGICAL issue to me (something not physical or firmware-related). You should be able to zerofill the drive (sadly loosing everything on it) and re-use it again after re-initing and partitioning.

[craig6928]

hello tried to format it with different tools


unknown reason the heads are locked
wont let me read or write to the drive

[loki]

Have you taken the drive out of the enclosure & connected the drive directly to a pc?
Have you then tried booting to MHDD to see if it says that a password is set?
Can you read SMART?
Do you have a PC3000 UDMA or Atola or other tool to test/access to the SA & modules?

Loki

[BlackST]

Mhdd should be sufficient for first diagnose.

[craig6928]

hi

yes taken the drive out of the enclosure and connected the drive directly to the pc

correct voltage on the power unit and pcb checks out electronic as working order.

wont let me read the drive as its locked both read and write


i don't have the atola at hand with me


tried the data compass and wont read

very weird issue

going to try mhdd next thought this was old now and not supported anymore.

[einstein9]

hello einstein9 yes i was using the drive to watch my movie collection
it was a western digital live box


thanks

Well, to be honest, i did alot of similar cases here but none of them matches your problem which you described here

was most the 32, and most of the people left it running thats why was not detected @ all

in your case, the problem as my best guess and others mentioned here is the hdd since its not Enc. for sure
might be heads or SA, cannot judge or guess more.

but, again good luck man

[craig6928]

so tried to get it unlocked and for sure its no go

i found something on the net about these drives that auto lock


In my high level discussion with the top customer support official of WD they admitted that incidentally some models autolock themselves, and there is no master password or back door available. The device can not be accessed or repaired and the data are lost. In my case a costly professional data recovery service in Singapore tried it, and reported that all files were badly damaged and corrupted. Only due to that autolock or other mistake caused by a WD firmware update.


going to scrap the drive

and go with seagates from now on

[einstein9]

so tried to get it unlocked and for sure its no go

i found something on the net about these drives that auto lock


In my high level discussion with the top customer support official of WD they admitted that incidentally some models autolock themselves, and there is no master password or back door available. The device can not be accessed or repaired and the data are lost. In my case a costly professional data recovery service in Singapore tried it, and reported that all files were badly damaged and corrupted. Only due to that autolock or other mistake caused by a WD firmware update.


going to scrap the drive

and go with seagates from now on

This is really strange case, but as a piece of advice here for you

ALWAYS REMOVE THE GATEWAY FROM YOUR NAS/MEDIA Unit

sometimes the damn device (as u mentioned here) do AUTO FW update and stuck @ the middle of the process and you spend hours investigating
and all leads to dead-end (as in here now)

I ALWAYS PREFER THE MANUAL WAY.

and for this specific case my friend, i did plenty of those and never had similar symptoms as you desc. here
and really willing to go through it and chk, if you don`t mind and wanted to through the drive out

i`ll be happy to double chk it in my side (if you don`t have anything personal on it)
PM plz if you are willing to.

thnx

[craig6928]

hello thanks for the update i have the wd tv setup to Manuel not to autoupdate.

but you know what you might be right NAS/MEDIA Unit
that possible screwed up the drive.

im going to try some more things and check the firmware.

thanks for the offer m8

[mujeebas]

Although the Post is quite old but recently i came across this problem (write protect) But in my case only the enclosure itself giving the this error I Put the same Harddisk in different type of enclosure it works like charm tried in pc work well.I Put another drive in that enclosure and got the same write protect error so it maybe the enclosure PCB Fault.
Thanks for Reading