Clone drive criteria for WD My Book/Cloud/Passport recoveries

[LarrySabo]

What attributes must a clone drive match to be transparently recognized by the original enclosure PCB (USB/Ethernet bridge)? I'd like to avoid buying a matching drive if I have one that will do. I am not talking about the clone drive being used as a HSA donor.

If I clone the patient SATA drive, recovering what I can (including GPT and magic sector), what parameters of the clone drive need to be compatible (besides Maximum LBA)? For example, can I use another brand drive, or another WD model, family, FW?

Edit: What about the encryption key located in Mod 25/38? It won't be there on the clone drive.

 

[Jared]

I've actually used Samsung and Seagate drives with My Book adapters and they worked perfectly as long as the encryption key is in the sector near the end and the LBA is the same. Actually once I didn't feel like adjusting the LBA of a drive that was only a few lba numbers off, so I just copy/pasted the key that many sectors back, and it worked too. Apparently the "key sector" location is just an offset from the highest LBA.

 

[LarrySabo]

Thanks, Jared. I was going to experiment with a few different drives and see if they worked but that saves me a lot of time.