{"id":1833,"date":"2011-11-26T14:59:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-26T20:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/?p=1833"},"modified":"2023-06-25T15:48:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T20:48:36","slug":"how-to-open-a-western-digital-elements-hard-drive-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/how-to-open-a-western-digital-elements-hard-drive-case\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Open \/ Take Apart a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\nh2{\nmargin-top: 30px; border-top: 1px dotted #999; padding-top:10px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-attachment-id=\"1834\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/how-to-open-a-western-digital-elements-hard-drive-case\/wdelements\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"225,225\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"WDElements\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1834\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements-150x150.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements-177x177.jpg 177w, https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements-35x35.jpg 35w, https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements-164x164.jpg 164w, https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements-185x185.jpg 185w, https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/WDElements.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Recently I decide to add more space to my server. For some reasons, the internal hard drives are always more expensive than the external one, even the hard drives are exact the same thing. So I decide to buy an external hard drives first, and disassemble the case and take the hard drive out. I guess Western Digital doesn&#8217;t want you to do it, so there is no easy way to open the case. In fact, it is pretty easy to take out the hard drive without breaking the case. And I am going to show you how to open the Western Digital Elements hard drive case. The whole process should take no more than 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>Step 1 &#8211; Get the Tools Ready<\/h3>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need any fancy tool to get the job done. Simply use a precision screw driver such as 1\/32&#8243; flat and a regular Philip screw driver (PZ1) are enough.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-01.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>Step 2 &#8211; Knowing the Plan<\/h3>\n<p>Since Western Digital uses a self-snapping cover to snap on the case, it is good to know where are these clips.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-02.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>Step 3 &#8211; Open the Case<\/h3>\n<p>After knowing the locations of these clips, simply use a screw driver to open the case carefully on these locations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-03.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>Step 4 &#8211; Almost Done<\/h3>\n<p>After removing the cover, you will see something like this. Unscrew the 4 circled screws with the Phillip screw driver and take out the hard drive very carefully. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-041.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>Step 5 &#8211; Remove the Connectors and Protections<\/h3>\n<p>We are almost there. All you need to do is to remove the blue protections and the circuit board.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-06.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>Step 6 &#8211; Completed!<\/h3>\n<p>Now the hard drive is ready. Simply snap it into your desktop and it is ready to go!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-05.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case:<\/h2>\n<h3>The Adapter<\/h3>\n<p>Now you have an extra USB-SATA adapter available. You can simply build you own Lego SATA enclosure with it. However, keep in mind that it only works with Western Digital hard drives. If you plug in a non-Western Digital hard driver such as Seagate, it won&#8217;t recognize it at all.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/OpenWDElements-07.jpg\" title=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\" alt=\"Open a Western Digital Elements Hard Drive Case\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Updated on June 25, 2023<\/h2>\n<p>WD is doing something weird to their hard drives since 8TB. You can\u2019t directly plug the WD hardrive to your power supply. There are three methods:<\/p>\n<p>1.) Tape or strip out the connector on the power port to disable the 3.3V pin. Google: \u201cHow to disable the 3.3v pin on Western Digital USB White Label Drives\u201d. Personally I think this is a bit unreliable (if you tape to cover the connector) or risky (if you strip out the connector)<\/p>\n<p>2.) Use a \u201cSATA to PATA power converter\u201d and \u201cPATA to SATA power converter\u201d, i.e., Power supply -> SATA to PATA power converter -> PATA to SATA power converter -> Hard Drive. You can find them on Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>3.) If you use server grade components, such as Dell PowerEdge servers, typically it comes with a hard drive bay, i.e., it comes with a hard drive enclosure and you need to slide your hard drives into the big box. The big box contains everything including the data and power supply. Based on my experience, it works great with the new WD hard drives.<\/p>\n<p>4.) Get a power supply that work with WD hard drive. Some people say Consair works with the WD hard drive. I have exact the same model but I can\u2019t get it work.<\/p>\n<p>Have fun.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Derrick<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I decide to add more space to my server. For some reasons, the internal hard drives are always more expensive than the external one, even the hard drives are <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/how-to-open-a-western-digital-elements-hard-drive-case\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94,95,144,6,69],"tags":[135,176,134,133],"class_list":["post-1833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-problems-computer-help-pc-support","category-howto","category-sever-problem","category-technology","category-troubleshooting-technology","tag-diy","tag-howto","tag-wd","tag-western-digital-elements"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1sqzr-tz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3242,"url":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/freebsdhow-to-remove-zfs-meta-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":1833,"position":0},"title":"[FreeBSD\/Linux]How To Remove ZFS Meta Data","author":"Derrick","date":"May 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I have many hard drives circulating among my servers for testing purpose. 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After doing this for many times, I've noticed that the ZFS has put many header information \/ meta data left on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computer Problems&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computer Problems","link":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/category\/technology\/computer-problems-computer-help-pc-support\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/400px-broom_icon.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4648,"url":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/zfs-on-linux-what-to-do-when-resilver-takes-very-long\/","url_meta":{"origin":1833,"position":1},"title":"[ZFS On Linux] What to Do When Resilver Takes Very Long","author":"Derrick","date":"January 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"If you check your Zpool health status and you notice an error like the following: sudo zpool status pool: myzpool state: DEGRADED status: One or more devices are faulted in response to persistent errors. Sufficient replicas exist for the pool to continue functioning in a degraded state. action: Replace the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computer Problems&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computer Problems","link":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/category\/technology\/computer-problems-computer-help-pc-support\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3342,"url":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/freebsd-zfs-faulted-kernel-ada0ahcich4000-lost-device\/","url_meta":{"origin":1833,"position":2},"title":"[FreeBSD] ZFS FAULTED \/ kernel: (ada0:ahcich4:0:0:0): lost device","author":"Derrick","date":"October 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I am so happy that I finally solved a problem today. This problem had existed in my server farms for few months already. In the past few months, I had absolutely no idea what was causing the issues. Here is my story: I built a file server using FreeBSD and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computer Problems&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computer Problems","link":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/category\/technology\/computer-problems-computer-help-pc-support\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1477,"url":"https:\/\/icesquare.com\/wordpress\/how-to-install-highpoint-rocketraid-2640x4sgl-on-freebsd-8-x\/","url_meta":{"origin":1833,"position":3},"title":"How to install HighPoint RocketRAID 2640X4SGL on FreeBSD 8.X","author":"Derrick","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This tutorial is for FreeBSD 8. If you are looking for the driver for FreeBSD 9, you can forget about it. According to HighPoint, there are no plans to update the RocketRaid 26XX driver to FreeBSD 9. 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