WD My Passport Not Encrypted

Bankole Oladoja

Bankole Oladoja

Member
Hello,
How possible can this be ?.. a 2TB WD My Passport is not encrypted (WD20NMVW-11AV3S2).
After converting to SATA, it reads normal and currently imaging it, and all is green on DE, except some few bad sectors..
Is it possible ??
 
pclab

pclab

Moderator
Yes, it's possible.
For what I know, in some countries WD cannot use the auto encryption.
 
Jared

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
Yes, Larry is absolutely right. I've run into two or three like this. All from people who frequently travel internationally and likely picked them up abroad. Seems its a feature that can be disabled at the factory.
 
H

hddguy

New member
They are encrypted, but encryption is not done at the USB bridge, it is done at processor level. Data sent to the HDD is encrypted by controller and stored in encrypted form, but when read it is decrypted by processor and displayed in non-encrypted form. This way is simple for secure erasure by simply changing key at processor, and also for fast enabling of encryption by simply hashing the key with a password. So if security via Smartware software is not enabled, data will be decrypted by default with no intervention. If security is made active, data will be instantly inaccessible without set password.
 
lcoughey

lcoughey

Moderator
HDDGUY, I think you are missing the point. This is a case where the data is not encrypted by the processor and is still 100% accessible when converted to SATA. I'd say that this is the case for about 5% of the Passport drives we get.
 
H

hddguy

New member
lcoughey":36m1gorl said:
HDDGUY, I think you are missing the point. This is a case where the data is not encrypted by the processor and is still 100% accessible when converted to SATA. I'd say that this is the case for about 5% of the Passport drives we get.
Click to expand...

Encryption is made internally so it is irrelevant which interface it is read through as the bridge is not responsible for it. The model in this case is Shrek LT and should a secure format be made via Smartware utility it will render all current data unrecoverable because of change in key. Passports that do not encrypt but accessible over SATA are Elements models.
 
Jared

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
HDDGuy, some countries have laws prohibiting data encryption. And, in those countries the My Passport drives have the encryption disabled (despite having the symwave or initio chip). It surprised me the first time too. But I've seen one or two since then, and Luke has too. It's uncommon but they do exist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top