Hi all

An express 'thank you' to anyone who can confirm whether or not this might be possible.

I am an IT tech and I have a customer's WD My Passport 1TB drive which he's locked with the drive lock software & forgotten the password.

The situation is all legit as he has provided us with a drive receipt and he's essentially wanting the pictures of his former dog recovered.

In prep for trying to bypass the security we've set a password on a different drive (one of our techs), used MHDD and successfully recovered the password from the .22 bin file.

The test drive that worked had a SATA interface but the customer drive has a USB3 connector soldered onto the PCB.

It's now my understanding that MHDD is unable to assist unless we're dealing with an ATA drive and I've a hunch that a USB3 to SATA convertor cable won't help our situation either.

It's a shot in the dark but has anyone worked with the newer USB3 connected drives and would you know if bypassing the WD Unlock is possible with this setup.

Thanks in advance.

Andy (Clegghorn)

When people say they have a password set on WD USB drive they usually refer to WD SmartWare password, which in most cases(so far) is not an ATA password.
Moreover those drive are encrypted with AES and user password would lock the drive, preventing it from being decrypted
Generally speaking (with some exceptions) bypassing WD SmartWare password does not exist because it's involved in encryption process.

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Sometimes when smartware SW asks for a user password this doesn't mean it been set .
Ask your customer about is he sure he used user locking option or not. In a case when he didn't use it , there is a chance to restore data .

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Angel Data Recovery

Thanks for both your reply's.

The customer definitely did create a password (We've beengiven a list of possible's) and I'm assuming it's the WD Smartware software that generates to WD Unlock window which is requesting the password. (See attached).

I can obviously push the drive to request a re-format but would welcome a method of being able to access the data and rcover the required photos.

Maybe it's just not possible, in that case "Well done WD for a secure method of protecting your data"

Then either the customer have to remind it, or in alternative pay a lot of money to have drive data recovered OR live without data/wait for better times leaving the drive "as is" (data is still there albeit encrypted).

I can't tell you more or anything different, sorry.

this is where the password hint wold have been extremely useful to pay attention to.

does the password util have a lockout feature with incorrect tries? maybe write a program with VB using the IIRC, keypress function to bruteforce, or a script with Sikuli (http://www.sikuli.org/). and try variations of all the possibles.

What's the USB chip make?

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Hi all

Thanks for your efforts. I've contacted the customer as the price he's willing to pay isn't enough to warrant spending any moretime researching and implimenting a fix.

So the answer is ... don't gorget your pasword

Hi.

I live in Spain.

My case is exactly the same. My "hint" was: "the usual password".

The software would not recognize at all any password.


In my opinion, under Spanish Criminal Code, WD business is ilegal. I am going to start a criminal procedure against them.

I will tell you how it goes.

In most civilized countries this is perfectly legal today. For the few where this type of encryption is illegal, WD sells models where the encryption has been disabled. However that doesn't mean someone couldn't buy one online and have it shipped into the country. Trust me, you're wasting your time.

I'm guessing that whoever put in the hint of "the usual password" knows what the password is. If you're a member of law enforcement, it should be easy enough to figure out what the "usual password" is by serving up warrants to other accounts they have online, or by analyzing passwords saved in their computer browser, etc.

If you aren't in law enforcement, and you're trying to access someone else's data, then the encryption is doing exactly what it's supposed to do by keeping you out of a place you don't belong.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Exactly.
I don't understand why you are frustrated. Passwords exist for a reason and the drive is doing exactly what it's supposed to do: keep everyone unauthorised away from the data.

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http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
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