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

By: devin

devin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:55:26 +0000

I imagine that would be some major surgery and probably wouldn’t work. I haven’t seen the new boards, so I’m not sure.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:34:05 +0000

Can you just swap the hdd board with a sata connection?

By: charmaine nash

charmaine nash — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:20:47 +0000

tq for the toturial

By: Tobias

Tobias — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:06:08 +0000

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?

By: Inigo

Inigo — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:37:41 +0000

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.

By: Inigo

Inigo — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:23:38 +0000

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…

By: retroK

retroK — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:38:11 +0000

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

By: William

William — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:59:40 +0000

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

By: Loc-Deu

Loc-Deu — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:48:30 +0000

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

By: ccc

ccc — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:05:01 +0000

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.