Jan 4

How to Open a Western Digital Elements 500GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive Case

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I found myself needing to upgrade my MacBook Pro. So I went out and bought a WD 500gb Elements drive (External p/n:WDBAAR5000ABK-NESN Internal p/n:WD5000BEVT) to quickly swap out my old drive and get some needed space. Before actually performing the upgrade though, I cloned it using Carbon Copy Cloner and when that was finished, removed the old drive and replaced it with the new drive.  Western Digital came out with a revised enclosure that’s a little different than the last generation, so I decided to make it a blog post. Enjoy!

For this tutorial, I used my handy-dandy swiss army knife.

1. Start by taking the swiss army knife and inserting the screwdriver end (not the knife!) into the top portion of the drive and gently sliding it across the top. It may be a little difficult at first getting the edge of the screwdriver into the plastic edge.

2. Continue alone the left side of the case with the blade. You may here popping as you go along the edge which is normal.

3. Then move the blade to the other side of the casing until you hear a few more pops when the casing separates itself.

4. When there is sufficient room, finish removing the back piece with your hands. Keep in mind, there are a few more clips that will make noise, this is normal.

5. Here is a picture of the two pieces separated completely. Notice the clips on the back piece. These made the cracking/popping noise when you took it off.

6. To remove the drive, start by taking out 2 rubber fillers at the bottom of the case between the plastic and the hard drive.

7. Here is a picture of the rubber fillers removed.

8. Next, insert the blade into the bottom of the drive and gently pull the drive out of the case. It is not held in by screws or glue, but it is quite snug in the case.

9. Then remove the 4 remaining rubber fillers on the sides (they act like screws).

10. Turn over the hard drive and slide it out of the metal casing.

11. Remove the USB to SATA connector on the top by sliding that off as well.

12. Here is all the pieces laid out and a close up of the hard drive.

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13 comments so far...

  • Dan Said on January 11th, 2010 at 8:21 pm:

    THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!! This helped me so much. I tried al other tech support forums and everything I could think of.. this is the only place I found explicite directions on how to open this type of WD product.

    Thanks
    Dan

  • Erik Said on January 15th, 2010 at 8:56 pm:

    Very useful post. I was wondering how to open this sucker. Thanks!

  • DarkSky Said on January 23rd, 2010 at 6:28 am:

    Perfect post!
    It was exactly wath I needed!

    Thank u very much!

    DarkSky

  • Droid Said on May 1st, 2010 at 7:44 am:

    You save me from destroying the case. Thank you!

  • Brad Said on May 3rd, 2010 at 7:11 am:

    hey :)
    when i got mine open a small z shaped bit of metal fell out with like a clamp on one side….
    now that im putting it back together where does it go ????
    bout 3cm long

  • ccc Said on May 16th, 2010 at 3:05 am:

    NOTE FOR 1TB: The latest 1TB SE Elements drive no longer has a standard SATA interface. I took apart a drive today (date on drive is 06 APR 2010) and found that the USB port is now integrated to the drive itself and instead of a SATA interface there are 12 ATA-style pins that are covered by the LED. So if you want 1TB internally in your laptop, look elsewhere.

  • Loc-Deu Said on June 6th, 2010 at 4:48 am:

    hi, thank you for this tutorial… i tryed first to watch youtube but this is the only ( and best ) i found, thank you :)

  • William Said on June 7th, 2010 at 11:59 am:

    Thank you very much for that tutorial. great ! ! !

  • retroK Said on June 10th, 2010 at 6:38 am:

    Excellent, thanks for the how-to. Now I can exchange the hd of my PS3 Slim.

  • Inigo Said on July 16th, 2010 at 6:23 am:

    I’ve just purchased a WD Elements SE 750GB, do you know if the internal HD is 9.5mm / 10.5mm high? Thanks in advance, and best regards!!! Thanks a lot for your great tutorial, It’s the best I’ve found about opening a WD 2.5 case in all Internet…

  • Inigo Said on July 17th, 2010 at 3:37 pm:

    NOTE FOR 750GB / 1TB: The latest 750TB / 1TB SE Elements drive no longer has a standard SATA interface. I took apart a drive today and found that the USB port is now integrated to the drive itself and instead of a SATA interface there are 12 ATA-style pins that are covered by the LED. So if you want 750GB / 1TB internally in your laptop, look elsewhere. Besides, the integrated USB port is a micro USB (new standart for chargint mobiles), not mini USB, so if you expected to use your old mini USB – USB cables just forget about that. I decided to give it back to store since I just wanted it to insert in a USB 3.0 case and since it is not SATA interface I couldn’t use it as I was looking for. By the way, it is 12.5mm high and it has a WD Scorpio Blue in it.

  • Tobias Said on August 3rd, 2010 at 2:06 am:

    Hey, I also have WD Elements Drives and I would like to open them. But it is an older model, you can see it here:

    http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-External-WDE1UBK10000/dp/B001JTQCU8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1280826266&sr=8-6

    It uses Mini-Usb, not micro-usb. Do you think it will still have a SATA port or is it the same as with the plastic cases?

  • charmaine nash Said on August 26th, 2010 at 10:20 am:

    tq for the toturial

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