Ever wanted to see the inside of a Western Digital MyBook? I have. One of my 500GB Western Digital MyBook’s died, three months out of warrant … how convenient. Instead of trashing it, I decided to take it apart and see what kind of hardware was used.
This particular MyBook was a 2007 model with the single green activity indicator.
WD MyBooks: backup (left), failed (right)
I opened the case with a flat head screw driver and broke several case attachments in the process. If you can press the locks inward that are located at the front then you should theoretically be able to slide the inner body out without breaking anything. Don’t ask me how to go about that though.
Incorrect way to open a MyBook
Viewed from bottom with two locking attachments visible
Outer casing (left), internals on right
I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had used a SATA hard drive. I was even more surprised when I discovered that they had not soldered the connections so I was left with a fully functional SATA to USB controller.
SATA / USB Controller
You can never have too many backups. Fortunately, I kept the drive mirrored with another 500GB MyBook making this a stress-free drive failure.