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Amazon has the WD 18TB Elements drive for $299US - Can it be shucked? (alien.top)
submitted 2 years ago by [B] to c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum
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I know WD has been clamping down on shucking capabilities lately, by requiring the drives to use their proprietary USB interface - more so on the MyBooks, but I don't know bout the Elements series.

Is this worth getting to shuck? And what model drive is usually inside?

Thanks!

--- DS

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[–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

What you know is completely false. There is no known 3.5" external that isn't a completely "normal" 3.5" internal drive inside. Yes, I'm aware of multiple times when some (usually Mac) users came with the idea that they need WD software to format their drives but that is only because they just can't find the buttons to partition/format a drive.

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  • [–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I don't know if they still do this, but MyBook* used to use encryption on their interface, preventing use of the drives outside the enclosure. Not an issue if you're planning to format the drive outside the enclosure.

    *AFAIK, this is still true for 2.5" portables, which also have the USB interface integrated into the mainboard.

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  • [–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    I don't know if they still do this, but MyBook* used to use encryption on their interface, preventing use of the drives outside the enclosure. Not an issue if you're planning to format the drive outside the enclosure.

    That didn't prevent you from USING the disk, but it would just prevent you from using the encrypted data via the enclosure - without the enclosure. The disks themselves were perfectly normal, even regularly branded (green or even red) at the time.

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  • [–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Op is referring to boards with usb headers, rather than sata, I think.

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  • [–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago

    AFAIK, with the exception of WD and Toshiba 2.5" portables which have the USB interface integrated in the mainboard, there is no 2.5" or 3.5" drive in any external that is proprietary or locked in any way to prevent it from being used as an internal once formatted.

    This is especially true for Mac users. You don't need to buy pre-formatted Mac externals. You can always format any external to whatever file system you choose.

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  • [–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    There's some that need a SATA pin bypassed to be used internally. It's not too much of a pain but it is something.

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  • [–] [B] 1 point 2 years ago

    No, it is less than nothing, it is a FEATURE of internal drives, that can be used ONLY internally, if the drive has the feature it can do MORE internally. Now of course if one has a power supply that isn't wired accordingly to SAT3.3 (2016) standard this "more" thing is telling the drive (again, in a standard way, it'll happen the same if one buys just any internal with this feature) to turn off.

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