Erasing the drive

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

While you can turn your drive off and then back on and try to remember and retype your password, if you have forgotten or lost 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.

To erase the drive:

1. If you do not see a prompt to provide your password, then either:
   • Click the drive image above the Drive is locked message on the Home tab to display the WD  SmartWare drive unlock dialog.
   • Start the WD SmartWare Drive Unlock utility by either:
     • Using your computer's file management utility to open either the WD Unlocker VCD or the WD SmartWare VCD, depending on the hardware configuration of your My Book or My Passport drive and double-clicking the Unlock.exe file
     • Clicking Start > My Computer and double-clicking the WD Unlocker VCD or the WD SmartWare VCD icon under Devices with Removable Storage
2. Make five attempts to unlock the drive by:
   1. Typing a password in the Password box.
   2. Clicking Unlock.
3. The fifth invalid password attempt displays the Too Many Password Attempts dialog.
4. Read the warning about the loss of data if you erase your drive.
5. Click the I understand check box to signify that you accept the risk.
6. Click Drive Erase.