A teacher in Newcastle Upon Tyne contacted Newcastle Data Recovery after experiencing issues with their WD My Passport external hard drive. The reported issues included:
- The drive appeared as RAW instead of APFS on their Mac.
- Mac Finder and Disk Utility could not access the files.
- The school IT department was unable to recover the data, as the drive appeared to be encrypted.
- The drive contained years of teaching resources, student work, and personal files.
- No backup was available, making professional data recovery essential.
Since WD My Passport drives often come with built-in hardware encryption, specialised forensic recovery techniques were required to restore access to the encrypted data.
Our Expertise in WD My Passport Data Recovery
With 25 years of experience, Newcastle Data Recovery specializes in:
✔ Recovering data from RAW-formatted external hard drives
✔ Decrypting WD My Passport drives with hardware encryption
✔ Using advanced forensic tools like Acelabs PC3000, R-Studio, and UFS Explorer
Diagnosis & Recovery Process
Upon receiving the WD My Passport hard drive, our engineers conducted a detailed forensic assessment. The key findings included:
- The file system corruption had caused the drive to appear as RAW, making it unreadable on macOS.
- The drive’s built-in hardware encryption was still active, preventing normal data recovery attempts.
- The encryption key was tied to the WD Security software, requiring specialized decryption methods.
To successfully recover the teacher’s teaching resources and personal files, we implemented a multi-step forensic recovery strategy:
Step 1: Secure Drive Imaging & Encryption Handling
- Used DeepSpar Disk Imager to create a sector-by-sector forensic clone of the drive.
- Identified WD hardware encryption signatures and extracted the necessary decryption keys.
Step 2: Decryption & File System Repair
- Used Acelabs PC3000 and UFS Explorer to decrypt the drive using the original WD security parameters.
- Rebuilt the corrupted APFS file system structure to restore original folder paths.
Step 3: Data Extraction & File Integrity Verification
- Recovered teaching materials, lesson plans, and student records.
- Verified file integrity to ensure full accessibility.
Step 4: Data Validation & Secure Transfer
- Successfully transferred the restored data to a new external SSD.
- Provided guidance on encryption management and backup best practices.
The Result
We successfully recovered 100% of the teacher’s essential data, including:
✅ Teaching materials, lesson plans, and student records
✅ Personal documents, photos, and multimedia content
✅ Archived research papers and resource materials
The teacher was able to restore all their work and continue using the data without further issues.
Why Choose Newcastle Data Recovery for WD My Passport Recovery?
✅ 25 Years of Expertise – Specialists in encrypted drive recovery and RAW file system repairs.
✅ Forensic-Level Data Extraction – Recovering files from encrypted and corrupted drives.
✅ Fast & Reliable Service – Trusted by professionals, educators, and businesses for 25 years.
If your WD My Passport hard drive is showing as RAW or encrypted, contact Newcastle Data Recovery today for expert data recovery services!