Unlocking your drive using the Drive Unlock utility

Whenever you connect your password-protected drive to a computer that does not have the WD SmartWare™ software installed, you can use the Drive Unlock utility to unlock the drive there. The WD SmartWare software provides the Drive Unlock utility on a virtual CD (VCD) drive that appears under My Computer in the Windows Explorer display.

To unlock the drive:

1. Locate and open the WD Unlocker utility on the drive you want to unlock by either:
   • Using your computer's file management utility to open the WD Unlocker VCD and double-clicking the Unlock.exe file
   • Clicking Start > My computer and double-clicking the WD Unlocker VCD icon under Devices with Removable Storage
2. Type your password in the Password box.
3. Click Unlock to unlock your drive.
4. At the Your drive is now unlocked prompt, click Exit to close the Drive Unlock utility.

Note: An Invalid password message means that you entered the wrong password. You can try again four more times. If you enter five invalid passwords, a Too Many Password Attempts dialog advises that you must either:

• Restart the drive and try again
• Erase the drive

To try again:

1. Safely disconnect the drive from your computer.
2. Power cycle the drive off, then on, and reconnect it to your computer.
3. Repeat the unlock procedure.

If you forget or lose your password, WD cannot retrieve it for you, and you must erase your drive before you can use it again. For this reason, you should write your password and save it in a safe place away from your computer, especially if you use many password-protected devices and have multiple passwords.