Need Info. If I shuck a WD Elements (8TB) ....

[Photoman15]

If I shuck a WD Elements (8TB) that has data on it already, will the data be there when I put it in the PC (SATA)?

[BobVonBob]

Very likely no. Most drives like that need to be reformatted after shucking.

[kelvinhall05]

Yeah, but iirc you will have to do a tiny bit of modification to the connector to get it to work with a normal PC. I don't remember exactly what the procedure is but be warned it may not work immediatly when you just plug it in.

[Quinnell]

Just now, kelvinhall05 said:

Yeah, but iirc you will have to do a tiny bit of modification to the connector to get it to work with a normal PC. I don't remember exactly what the procedure is but be warned it may not work immediatly when you just plug it in.

I think that depends on the external drive in question.  I shucked an old WD My Book years ago and no modifications were necessary.  

[Photoman15]

4 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Yeah, but iirc you will have to do a tiny bit of modification to the connector to get it to work with a normal PC. I don't remember exactly what the procedure is but be warned it may not work immediatly when you just plug it in.

Do you mean data or power? I know about the 3.3 v power cycle thing.

 

[KaitouX]

4 minutes ago, Quinnell said:

I think that depends on the external drive in question.  I shucked an old WD My Book years ago and no modifications were necessary.  

I think most new ones need it now days, mine needed it.

[kelvinhall05]

7 minutes ago, Photoman15 said:

Do you mean data or power? I know about the 3.3 v power cycle thing.

 

Yeah I meant power, but one reddit post I just saw said it doesn't need anything. Might as well give it a shot.

[Catsrules]

25 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

Very likely no. Most drives like that need to be reformatted after shucking.

Really? From my understanding most external drives just have some USB to SATA adapter so as far as the drive knows it is just normal SATA. That data will be totally fine plugging directly into a SATA port on the computer. 

 

Although some drives will not come with a SATA interface and the USB interface will be physically part of the drive but that is usually the 2.5" style to save on space.

 

And as other have mentioned there can be some power issues but that isn't a data problem but power problem.

[Photoman15]

Some people have claimed that the little circuit board that comes with the externals includes encryption circuitry and that's why they come up as needing to be formatted. But the list of external cases/encrypted is not around.