two WD Passport drives prompting for passwords ONLY on Win 10

[nlinecomputers]

The password is probably stored in the windows credentials but it will be encrypted and impossible to move to another system. If you can clone that drive onto working hardware then you have a chance at recovery.

 

[nlinecomputers]

This may help move passwords to new system.

http://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-backup-and-restore-windows-vault-passwords

 

[sapphirescales]

I was recently in a hurry and purchased a WD Passport drive from Target. The first thing I did was low level the sucker and make it a clean HDD. No way was I going to give a client a WD Passport drive with the encryption option available.

 

[Porthos]

No way was I going to give a client a WD Passport drive with the encryption option available.

+1

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I always cringe when I see a Home client with a WD passport.

Why is that?

 

[Porthos]

Why is that?

Passwords, data recovery end user screwups that they likely won't pay to fix.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Passwords, data recovery end user screwups that they likely won't pay to fix.

Ah, gotcha. We set up quite a few for backups, but give strict instructions to just leave it alone and let it do it's thing.

 

[lcoughey]

I was recently in a hurry and purchased a WD Passport drive from Target. The first thing I did was low level the sucker and make it a clean HDD. No way was I going to give a client a WD Passport drive with the encryption option available.

It is still encrypted, by the way. When you low level formatted, you wrote zeroes through the USB bridge which, in turn, encrypted each sector as you wrote them.

 

[Porthos]

For external's I just sell inexpensive Seagate's since I preach Macrium full images anyway.

 

[300DDR]

It is still encrypted, by the way. When you low level formatted, you wrote zeroes through the USB bridge which, in turn, encrypted each sector as you wrote them.

+1. There is no way [for an end user] to turn off WD encryption AFAIK.

 

[Larry Sabo]

For external's I just sell inexpensive Seagate's since I preach Macrium full images anyway.

I'll take a WD Passport over a Seagate portable drive any day, or any other drive brand over Seagate's other drives. It's one thing to blame end-users that don't keep track of passwords but quite another when not-encrypted drives fail and are still unrecoverable because of platter damage or donors that cost way more than most end-users are willing to pay.

 

[Porthos]

I'll take a WD Passport over a Seagate portable drive any day, or any other drive brand over Seagate's other drives. It's one thing to blame end-users that don't keep track of passwords but quite another when not-encrypted drives fail and are still unrecoverable because of platter damage or donors that cost way more than most end-users are willing to pay.

My clients plug them in ONCE a month and make an image. They are instructed to treat the drive carefully.
Even if they do crash the chance of both the computer that the IMAGE came from and the external failing at the same time is small.
The drives are dedicated to Macrium full images only.

 

[lcoughey]

It should be noted that most Seagate portable USB drives are Seagate branded Samsung drives. At the end of the day, if it isn't backed up, it is likely to fail and the data will be lost.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I've seen a few Seagate enclosures use WD drives. Not often but probably had supply issues at one point and needed to source drives quickly.