Good day everyone.

I apologize if this is not the right place to post this. But I really need help from someone who has more knowledge about WD external hard disk. The story goes like this.... Everything was fine until 2 days ago suddenly my WD Passport Ultra 1TB refused to accept the password which I've always entered whenever I want to unlock it. It keeps on saying invalid and sometimes the unlocker became slow/hang (or the font became blurry.).

I'm 100% sure the password is correct because I'm using the same password when I login to Windows 8 on my laptop. This happen once before but it went fine after that. I've noticed this happened when I'm done updating Windows 8 or Windows Defender. And it's been 2 days now I couldn't access to my hard disk. And I don't want to wipe the data/format the hard disk, I have many important documents and pictures I want to keep especially the pictures and videos of me and my late friend.

Please, anyone can help me on this?

It's possible that the drive either is not properly initializing, or it may have a bad sector where the encryption key is stored.

Recovery is most likely possible, but will almost certainly require professional data recovery tools like PC-3000. Where are you located? If you're in the USA I can certainly take a look at it and likely recover for a reasonable price, or if not I'm sure we can recommend someone closer to you.

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

Thank you both of you for replying.

Sorry, I'm not located in the USA. And I haven't try yet on other PC (we have only 1 lappy in this house, and that's mine).

Something strange I've noticed about my hard disk was the white light keeps on blinking. And the unlocker is very slow to appear on the screen, always give me message 'WD Drive Unlock (Not responding)' or 'WD Drive Unlock has stop working' when I tried to enter the password (other than message 'Password Invalid')

And honestly I don't think this is because of virus or malware in my lappy. Perhaps Windows Defender or Malwarebytes should let me know if there's a threat to my lappy?

Is there any other way how I can unlock without formating the disk?


Regards,
Phoenix

Sure Spildit, I will try on my friend's computer later. To be honest, I don't really get your explanation on paragraph 3 and 4. But I assume you were trying to say I should send the hard disk to WD office, weren't you? Sorry, I'm not so good in comp & tech stuff, still learning.

I'll update my findings end of today. Meanwhile, it would be very helpful for me if anyone who had the same situation as mine could advice me what to do. And please don't be suspicious on me, this is my own hard disk and I remember clearly what is the password.


p/s : I like your avatar

Usually (excepts problems with attachment - wires, connectors etc.) this problem appears when drive has problem with writing option, because drive needs to make changes in service area to allow access into user area. If you checked already USB wire and connector and it's OK, let him rest for a few days (keep unpowered), then try get access again. If it will not help so think about your data because it's enough serious problem. Generally, user cannot solve this problem.

Good day everyone.

I've tried on my friends laptop and computer, but it still shows the same symptoms:-

1) Slow unlocker appear on screen (the window that pop up so you can enter password)
2) It became somewhat blurry after I entered the password, kind of lag. After few seconds, it will shows 'Invalid password' or 'Not responding'. Or WD Drive Unlock.exe has stop working.
3) Inconsistent blinking
4) The sound of the external hard disk seems telling me it's working when I connect it to my lappy.


I know this sounds funny/ridiculous, but I just want to know is it possible that the password changed itself whenever I updated the Windows version/Windows Defender/firmware?

And does it helps if I give you the hint (it's right below the blank column for the password)? I don't even know what it is, only set of number and you can guide me to unlock it?

Suitsof, the wire and USB connector are fine. Do you think I need to rest my hard disk and not use it for few days?


Kind regards,
Phoenix

Yes, sometimes heads recover it's r/w options with time with unclear reasons. I think, this is your only chance to remove DR profi help.

Good luck

If the drive is slow responding it might be a firmware issue or mechanical problems. And yes, these passports can "loose" their password by that or they can become locked by a unknown password, we had such cases and when you look in the wd forum you can find some users with locked drives. For suddenly passord-locked drives there is no known solution if I'm not wrong.

In your case I would assume mechanical or firmware problems that can not be solved without special tools. One can try to clone the drive to a compatible wd drive (with dd_rescue or dmde to skip some bad sectors), change pcb after that but you have to modify rom also, so that is nothing you can do quickly without expert knowledge and the right tools.

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030 Datenrettung Berlin GmbH (Germany)
HDD, SSD, NAS, RAID Datenrettung - 030-datenrettung.de

First, you are wrong
Second, there is no suddenly password-locked drive, there is suddenly password-refused drive. I agree with mention about background processes (slow responding - by Acelab) that can prevent utilize the correct password, and it's corresponding to conditions of heads. So without DR-pro there is no any serious chances excepts a little miracle.

Good day everyone.

So I already let my hard disk unused for few weeks and tried again to enter the password. Same thing happened, now I really don't know what to do.

Is there any way than wipe/format the disk? Is there a software I can download to crack or maybe use brute force to find the password?

The password hint written down below the empty box is useless. It's all in number and I don't think that's the password hint I entered when I set my password for my disk before.

@PhoenixPhoenicia
Hi,

I am facing same issue from yesterday.

Will you please let me know if you got any solution for the same.

I have very important data in WD Passport.

Looking forward for your valuable response.

If it's very important Data.... send it to a pro. There is very little, if anything that you will be able to do yourself, sorry.

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East Anglian Data Recovery Services
http://www.eadr.co.uk

"If it's your only copy - then it's not a backup!"

Hi ,
I Can Help If You Like Me To Take a Look ,I am In Chandigarh In India Myself

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com