WD Elements appears as 'local disk'

M1000tutorials · 2026-10-10T10:14:08-0400

I would like some advice with this enclosure (below). I bought it and it didn't work. I've attached various drives but ithose haven't worked.
I bought the same model and that didn't work either. Im changing brands . . .

What brand would you suggest that I buy? [I dont want to spend more than $25 - $30.

Thank you

BENFEI 3.5/2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Enclosure, Tool-Free Design, Supports 20TB HDD & UASP

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FM81V6CB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

jumanji · 2026-10-10T11:21:53-0400

If cost is no consideration, I would buy this https://www.amazon.ca/SABRENT-Docki...X4LSHS4/dp/B0BX4LSHS4/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1

(Personally I have Four Orico products attached to my Desktop PC in India all purchased in 2019 {one two-slot Orico dock, switched on only when necessary for backups) and two 2.5" enclosures and one 3.5" enclosure plugged in/switched on only when necessary for temporary storage and experiments} At 80y+4m I have stopped purchasing any computer electronics now - time to quit and be happy with what one has and does

)

jumanji · 2026-10-10T11:35:54-0400

BTW, referring to your post #49, your WD My Passport 25E1 USB [1.0 TB] is dead as a dodo with all bad sectors filling the reserved space and many pending bad sectors to be relocated .but has no space left for it. Cannot be resurrected by any means. You could have easlily got that report running the Hard Disk Sentinel. That would also help monitoring all your disks, When bad sectors start showing up and get relocated it will warn you to backup all data in the disk, if you intend not losing the data.

Scannerman · 2026-10-10T11:56:13-0400

Marie SWE said:
I make it easy for me... i stay away from disks with chip-encryption.

Again. User preference. Encryption can be a nasty bit of bizznizz. Fortunately, at the time, I had a friend who had connections that afforded my the privilege of decrypting what I saved to my WD My Book. My friend is gone now and I wouldn't know the first thing to do should I find myself in those circumstances once again. I think the whole deal is a scam, really : Get the user to buy the product, wait for the bridge to fail, user calls for assistance, WD special recovery services steps in.... for a nominal fee.

How much is my data worth to me? A: Worth enough to strip off the WD Elements/My Book to an unencrypted drive and likely duplicating that data in a personally configured LSI RAID array. These older style drives can indeed be "shucked" and connected directly to a standard SATA configuration or, popped inside a regular external drive bay that doesn't use encryption. At that point I completely wipe the drive (1's and 0's) and reformat it via MiniTool Partion Wizard. Now Seagate is a different matter. You can turn off encryption on Seagate external hard drives. At least you sure can on the ones I have. You can also mirror data on the ones I use. Even then these drives are used by me as secondary and tertiary backups. I never completely rely on external drives to "save the day" because they often don't and they often out right fail. That said, some backup is better than no backup at all.

My motto regarding externals? IF it can't be shucked it should be chucked. These drives are known to fail and aren't known for long life.

User preference prevails.

Scannerman · 2026-10-10T12:04:01-0400

jumanji said:
If cost is no consideration, I would buy this https://www.amazon.ca/SABRENT-Docki...X4LSHS4/dp/B0BX4LSHS4/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1

(Personally I have Four Orico products attached to my Desktop PC in India all purchased in 2019 {one two-slot Orico dock, switched on only when necessary for backups) and two 2.5" enclosures and one 3.5" enclosure plugged in/switched on only when necessary for temporary storage and experiments} At 80y+4m I have stopped purchasing any computer electronics now - time to quit and be happy with what one has and does )

I have a little clear view Orico that has come in rather handy over the years. I like it for its portability, i can slide it into a pocket easily, and it's completely transparent. I'm not quite 70 and already I feel much the same as you mentioned: Be happy with the toys I already have and leave all that over priced stuff to the next generation.

Scannerman · 2026-10-10T12:20:11-0400

M1000tutorials said:
I would like some advice with this enclosure (below). I bought it and it didn't work. I've attached various drives but ithose haven't worked.
I bought the same model and that didn't work either. Im changing brands . . .

What brand would you suggest that I buy? [I dont want to spend more than $25 - $30.

Thank you

BENFEI 3.5/2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Enclosure, Tool-Free Design, Supports 20TB HDD & UASP

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FM81V6CB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

View attachment 186124

As I stated previously, if you have a lot of drives to pan through you should get a toaster.

TOASTER << We call them "toasters" in the trade because they look and behave like toasters.

The problem with the cheaper docking stations is that they burn out fast. I went through three versions of what you have in the picture you shared and mine were made by Sabrent. Get a toaster if you want it to last. The bridges in those cheap docking stations only last a couple of years and then they die just like the WD My Books and WD Elements.

M1000tutorials · 2026-10-10T15:37:27-0400

Thank you for trhe recommendations. I couldn't find an Erico for a reasonable price.
I paid $200 for Ulanzi video editing items so price is a consideration

I was going to order this

MAIWO External Hard Drive Enclosure for 3.5 2.5 Inch SATA HDD SSD, USB 3.0 to SATA Converter Case Reader with 12V 2A Power Adapter, Tool-Free, Support 24TB HDD & UASP

https://www.amazon.ca/MAIWO-External-Enclosure-Converter-Tool-Free/dp/B0G1XMS74Y/ref=sr_1_55?crid=2H7YBVDAPO1C3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3FTo0zluLli-wX_1DjcbWmrFCX6nVWY5BRAKtYMD5LaYaS0g7P-fp4HGYvgR9dcI0-Zr65SX_3IQJn4flFeZ7Q.uFLt0xptTec2-UprRVwyzXwlgA5KzUcXfGFzNX3YtDw&dib_tag=se&keywords=sata+enclosure+orico&qid=1791658934&sprefix=sata+enclosure+orico,aps,243&sr=8-55&xpid=UUlNtGxVzLvGS

Scannerman · 2026-10-10T16:28:28-0400

I'm not familiar with those video editing devices but okay, I confess that I do own one of those MAIWO units. So far it hasn't given me any trouble and I've had it for a couple of years. I only turn it on when needed and that is likely why I haven't burned out the bridge in the thing. I don't like recommending hardware until I've had thorough use of the item(s) myself. I suppose if one is on a poor man's budget this device will work in a pinch. I still prefer using my toaster for scanning dubious drives. I have a lot of drives. I keep triplicates of my archived data. Not saying everyone should but that's just my preference. There's a reason those units are so cheap. The MAIWO outlasted my Ssbrents but to be fair it never saw the workload I put on my Sabrent units. The choice is yours. User preference prevails. I prefer toasters.

M1000tutorials · 2026-10-10T17:41:24-0400

Thank you for the information

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ulanzi+d100x

- there are reviews with people saying they didn't know how they edited without 'the dial'

- within the first 11 seconds, he says "this is one of those upgrades you didn't know you needed"

hader · 2026-10-11T08:07:40-0400

M1000tutorials said:
I would like some advice with this enclosure (below). I bought it and it didn't work. I've attached various drives but ithose haven't worked.
I bought the same model and that didn't work either. Im changing brands . . .

What brand would you suggest that I buy? [I dont want to spend more than $25 - $30.

Thank you

BENFEI 3.5/2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Enclosure, Tool-Free Design, Supports 20TB HDD & UASP

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FM81V6CB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

What I said earlier "Wow that are a lot of drives!!! How many of them are internal and external?" was meant for Scannerman with his 22 drives attached to one system. I don't want to know what this all draws power wise..... I think he does not need them all the time. Disks with Win 11, 7. You only can run one at a time.

I use an other strategy. Beside my internal 4 fast NVMe's disks. My Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 enclosure has room for 2 (2.5") SSD's and 5 (3.5"/2.5") hot swappable cages (2 thumb screws) and room for 2 additional (2.5"/3.5") not easy accisable drive cages. This has all a reason. You are using a laptop. The benifit of using a PC; If I want to change my configuration (e.g. An more powerfull RTX Graphics Card) I don't to need to buy an other PC.

And yes. Just as you I have the need for some additional storages. Out of the 2 SDD's 1 is occupied with an Linux OS. Out of the 5 (7 max) only 3 hot swappable cages with 3 3,5" (4TB and 3TB) disk are meant for storage only. Once they are full I replace them with a new 3,5" 4TB or 8TB disk.

And like you I have also a 4 WD External drives 1TB and 2TB drives. But they are all self sufficient to draw their power from the USB port. I have a special USB 3.2 card with 6 High power USB ports that draws it's power for all the USB devices directly from the power supply by a 5/12V connector. So those External Drives are connected to that USB card. Want not to draw to much power from my Motherboard USB ports. Besides that I use a 256Gb Kingston
(Kingston has with their DataTraveller range one of the highest transfer speeds on the USB stick market. SanDisk also!) USB Stick for personal data and much often used installable software and for scripts and lots of info and tools about Windows etc. 1 4TB Kingston High Speed USB stick for recovery/install purposes. 1 64Gb SanDisk USB stick which contains Ventoy and houses many .ISO distributions of Windows and Linux ready to install on a VM or on a SSD device. All my Hasleo backups of Windows are residing on a part of my 2TB High speed Samsung NVMe disk. A backup and restore from such a device is so much faster the from any USB, SSD, HDD drive. I don't need all the backups all the time. A newer backup overwrites an older one. I also make a backup of my 256Gb Kingston USB stick, OneDrive and Outlook files by using the old trustworthy Robocopy command. By using the /MIR option it only removes deleted files and add new ones at the other location. (1 on 1 copy all the time) After run once you finish in seconds! All Windows versions and Linux distributions, past personal data and photo's are stored on other disks.

And now I am getting to the point that I want to make. (Sorry for the long story above. I just want to explain my strategy) When I look at your Enfin enclosure... You sure know how to pick them. After 1 fails, you bought an other one that fails also???

(Ahem. Sorry....) I have looked at the specs (it "sounds" good) But also at the reviews!!! If I look at this device... I see red alarmbells!!! I would never recommend this unreliable product!! Just like you many other users had issues also with "the thing is not working" At a closer inspection of the comments It seems that they supplied that device with very cheap and bad USB cables. Users bought good ones and some got it working. (or not)

And this solution has one major drawback! Each enclosure does come with a power-supply cord... You bought 2 and you need 2 power sockets. If there were 20 than 20 sockets. That is not a solution. Use an other strategy. I have some 7 other 3,5" HDD's of various sizes. They are placed in 3.5" HDD Storage cabinet (See attachment) which can house 10 3.5" HDD's. I only have bought 1 USB 3.0 Docking station that can hold 1 3.5" (HDD) or 1 2.5"(SSD) device. It has a separate power supply. If I need one of those drive (they have labels what it contains) I only have to swap the current one with the other one. No need for 7 USB enclosures and 7 power sockets. (One drawback; the bare disk is visible and exposed to dust. I think there other ones that can house a dust enclosure on top of the docking station. Sabrent has a solution e.g.) If you are looking at anything you want to buy: Look at the users reviews. Not only on 1 site but on many other sites. Those users had also bought them and finds it "works flawlessly", have mixed feelings, unreliable or worse: just crap.

You can go for this solution. You can tear and break open all your enclosures throw them in the bin and save the thing that is the most important!!: The disk itself. If the USB docking station sees a few different drives with no issues you can stick others into it either. If it does not run? Toss them out of the window then. There is something wrong with the disk and not with the controller that is sitting in that docking station. But hey... which solution? You decide!... I know things can be a bit more expensive and you are looking at your budget also (so do I!!!!) You did now spent $48 in stead of $24.... For that money you could have bought 1 good one for $30. Just saying.

What about the result of that low-level program? I saw a log list which also contains many other drives that were not the target. Only the one which gave you that GPT issue. (disconnect others or target only 1 drive) Did it fail? If so then I am afraid that drive is not reliable for use. Was worth a try, you never know...

Note: Storage wise. I also am using 2 SAN storage devices of 1TB and 6TB accessible by my internal network in a separate room. The major disadvantages are; They are very expensive, can make some noise (1 does, the other doesn't), draws power (1 is always on). 1 (1TB has 5 disks in a RAID-5 config) only contain precious personal data. The other has 2 NAS Disks in a RAID-0 config. (If one fails:

) and contains some 2000+ movies for entertainment purposes. Was fed up with buying DVD's and Blu-ray's. (60% are copy's) My movie cabinet is bursting with disks.... I have now the capability to reduce it space and convert them all to real HD, 5.1 sound track and only 1 language track by using VideoProc. My 4K TV Samsung blows everything from HD to 4K by using his own internal imaging processor. And it really does it's job. I watched Youtube video music clips on HD and 4K. No difference whatso ever even when you take a very hard look at the image!!! No 4K streams for me. I watch HD TV streams live and my TV converts them all.

M1000tutorials · 2026-10-11T12:13:15-0400

Wow, thank you Hader for your thoughtful response.

I went ahead and ordered the encosure It will be here tomorrow.

Thank you

Oh, what do I need to read the two drives I have which is this?

jumanji · 2026-10-11T15:32:42-0400

M1000tutorials said:
..................Oh, what do I need to read the two drives I have which is this?

View attachment 186267

Quite obviously, you have takenout these drives from your two WD Passport external disks.

Important Things to Know

- No Standard SATA Port: Most modern WD My Passport drives have a direct USB 3.0/USB-C connection soldered straight onto the internal circuit board (PCB) rather than a standard SATA interface. You cannot easily take the raw drive out and plug it into a desktop internal SATA port

There you are. Good luck

Marie SWE · 2026-10-11T15:42:16-0400

jumanji said:
Passport drives have a direct USB 3.0/USB-C connection soldered straight onto the internal circuit board

Pretty comical that the label on the drive say "Internal Use Hard drive". *LOL*

I have not yet seen a desktop motherboard what that kind of internal disk interface contacts.

jumanji · 2026-10-11T16:24:58-0400

Marie SWE said:
Pretty comical that the label on the drive say "Internal Use Hard drive". *LOL*

That is the WD way of telling that it is for internal use in an enclosure

Marie SWE · 2026-10-11T16:46:28-0400

jumanji said:
That is the WD way of telling that it is for internal use in an enclosure

*LOL*

that one should totally be in the "word association game" thread.

M1000tutorials · 2026-10-11T16:47:25-0400

I was just doing what someone had suggested . .. take out the drives.

Marie SWE · 2026-10-11T17:25:05-0400

M1000tutorials said:
I was just doing what someone had suggested . .. take out the drives.

as it isn't Sata connector disks, so put the disk back.
What I and @jumanji talked about was how to get around chip encryption.. But i have not read the whole thread so i dont know if anyone else told you to do it.
But put the disk back as that disk has to be used as WD intended it to be used. So that one can not be put as an internal disk in a desktop.

WD Elements appears as 'local disk'

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