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Convert old external hdd from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 ?

m0k
By m0k
in Storage Devices
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Go to solution Solved by corrado33,
3 hours ago, Captain_WD said:

Hi there :)

 

The USB connection on a drive is simply the bus it uses to connect with the PC. The drive inside the enclosure may or may not work with higher speeds. Consider this as driving a car on a road with a speed limit. Regardless of the limit of the road, the car can only reach certain speeds, but on the road that has a speed limit below that of the car's capabilities, the car won't reach more than the road's limit. 

-snip-

 

Captain_WD. 

Captain, why does WD use hardware encryption? Do the vast majority of people who use those drives need it? I can only see it causing problems for more people than it actually benefits. I just don't get it. It's not like a thief is going to go through the trouble of stealing JUST the drive and not the enclosure. The only reason I see for it is to make sure people don't take apart your enclosures! (Not trying to be critical here, I love WD drives, this just seems odd to me.)

 

OP: Yes, you can remove the drive from that enclosure, however you would have to transfer all of your data off of it first as only that specific enclosure can read the data currently on the drive. I took two WD drives apart (both with hardware encryption) and put them internal to my computer, reformatted them and they work fine.

Posted (edited)

I have an old 500GB WD Passport external drive, it operates with a single usb 2.0 connection

If i take the HDD out of this enclosure and stick it into a USB 3.0 enclosure is it just plug and play? will it then operate with usb 3.0 speeds? 

the drive inside my WD Passport is a WDC WD5000BMVV-11GNWS0 SATA 3gb/s 8mb cache, 5400rpm
 

Edited by mok

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Posted

@Captain_WD

 

Hey Captian, I think this might be of your assistance 

 

He should be able to answer this question. :)

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13 hours ago, mok said:

~snip~

Hi there :)

 

The USB connection on a drive is simply the bus it uses to connect with the PC. The drive inside the enclosure may or may not work with higher speeds. Consider this as driving a car on a road with a speed limit. Regardless of the limit of the road, the car can only reach certain speeds, but on the road that has a speed limit below that of the car's capabilities, the car won't reach more than the road's limit. 

 

On another note, WD My Passport drives feature hardware encryption which means that the data on those drives is encrypted and cannot be read outside of the enclosure. If you need your data I would suggest not to remove the drive from the enclosure. Moreover, removing the drive from the enclosure voids any warranty that the drive may have left. 

 

Some of our drives feature proprietary soldered USB connections so you won't be able to use it with other enclosures or internally. 

 

Thanks @IAmLamp for the mention! 

 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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3 hours ago, Captain_WD said:

Hi there :)

 

The USB connection on a drive is simply the bus it uses to connect with the PC. The drive inside the enclosure may or may not work with higher speeds. Consider this as driving a car on a road with a speed limit. Regardless of the limit of the road, the car can only reach certain speeds, but on the road that has a speed limit below that of the car's capabilities, the car won't reach more than the road's limit. 

-snip-

 

Captain_WD. 

Captain, why does WD use hardware encryption? Do the vast majority of people who use those drives need it? I can only see it causing problems for more people than it actually benefits. I just don't get it. It's not like a thief is going to go through the trouble of stealing JUST the drive and not the enclosure. The only reason I see for it is to make sure people don't take apart your enclosures! (Not trying to be critical here, I love WD drives, this just seems odd to me.)

 

OP: Yes, you can remove the drive from that enclosure, however you would have to transfer all of your data off of it first as only that specific enclosure can read the data currently on the drive. I took two WD drives apart (both with hardware encryption) and put them internal to my computer, reformatted them and they work fine.

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16 hours ago, corrado33 said:

~snip~

Hi :)

 

Hardware encryption offers quite a lot of benefits such as you don't really wait for your system to encrypt your data if and when you want to since it's done on the go and it's not putting and workload on the CPU. Moreover, if you have software encryption or a simple password it is much easier to break that when connecting the drive internally (removing it from the enclosure). For those who do not wish to have this feature WD Elements Portable is always available and if you simply need an internal drive without losing your warranty you can simply get a regular 2.5" WD Blue.   

 

As for the caused problems, wouldn't you agree that is is far more likely for a person with an issue to post something online and give it a voice than a person with no issues whose product works as it should (this concerns all products in general)? :)

 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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On 11/7/2016 at 7:18 AM, Captain_WD said:

 

23 hours ago, corrado33 said:

 

Thanks for the info, this drive is at least 5 years old so im definitely not worried about warranty issues.
And yes as a safe precaution i was going to back-up the data before transferring it into the new enclosure. 

 

 

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22 minutes ago, mok said:

~snip~

Thanks for posting back :)

 

Make sure you have backups and check the health of the drive before trusting it with important data that you can't afford to lose. 

 

Let me know if you need any help with anything else! 

 

Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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2 hours ago, Captain_WD said:

Thanks for posting back :)

 

Make sure you have backups and check the health of the drive before trusting it with important data that you can't afford to lose. 

 

Let me know if you need any help with anything else! 

 

Captain_WD.

you sound like you know what youre talkign about
so can you help me overclock my WD Black hdd from 7200rpm to 10k ?  or from 7200rpm to ssd?
xD

 

just kidding okthxbye
 

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