Introduction

WD MyPassport Essential 500GB USB Hard Drive

WD MyPassport Essential 500GB USB Hard Drive

If you've ever used disk cloning software such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost, you know that you can usually boot your computer from the product CD for backup (except Ghost) and restore operations. With an external hard drive attached (USB), you can typically back up a complete disk image to this destination as long as the product you are using has drivers that support external USB drives.

My favorite backup software is Acronis True Image, which I use to create periodic drive images so that in the event of a catastrophic drive failure, I can partition a new drive, restore the latest image, and be up and running in a couple of hours with little user interaction. This sure beats reloading Windows and all the applications and settings I have already invested the time into setting-up (at least one day, maybe two initially, and then countless moments spent tweaking from there).

The Acronis media disk lets you create a bootable USB flash drive or a CD image that you can use to burn a CD for booting your computer. My preferred method for backups is running automatically as a background process to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. While this does work, network backups over wireless-G can be painfully slow...

CDs and DVDs are susceptible to scratches, and a real pain to keep swapping out in order to back up gigabytes of data. Since I'd rather use one device for both booting and storage, I looked into how to make an external USB hard drives bootable. This way, the backup software could be run on it at boot time, and the created drive image could be saved there as well (to a second partition, of course)... a win-win situation.

There is an excellent guide on how to do this, written by Paul Purviance, which you can download here: How to Create an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk. The copy I have was last updated in September, 2007. I'm not sure if any newer versions exist.

I recently purchased a Western Digital 2.5" 500GB external USB hard drive for such backup purposes. The small format allows me to keep it in my laptop bag in case I have an issue while not at home, or if I have accidentally deleted something and need to recover a copy. The only drawback to an external drive backup approach is that you have to remember to create the backup periodically. MS Outlook reminders are perfect for this.

All of my previous attempts to follow Paul's guide were successful, so without hesitation I proceeded to partition and format my new hard drive according to the instructions in the guide. This time, however, while the drive would partition and format properly, I could not boot from it. Frustrated and thinking I missed some minute detail that was causing the process to fail, I repeated the process a couple more times without success. I knew something had to be different with this drive, and I was determined to find out what that something was...

This procedure details the modification I needed to perform in order to make my drive bootable. Not all drives will require such modifications, and some drive imaging software will only let you create a bootable USB flash drive for this purpose. Modifying your hardware such as I did will likely void your manufacturer's warranty, or worse yet, render your drive inoperable, so use this procedure at your own risk. I will not be held responsible if anything goes wrong for you.

That said, here's the procedure for disassembling, modifying, and re-assembling a Western Digital 500GB My Passport Essential Portable Hard Drive (model WDME5000TN) so it will be properly recognized at boot time as a bootable disk. It's really quite simple. The hardest part really is getting the case apart without breaking it so you can successfully reassemble it afterwards.

Procedure:

Taking apart the drive can be a bit tricky. You have to be extra careful because the case is comprised exclusively of plastic. Take your time so you don't crack or break it (like I did). Clicking on a photo below will open a larger version with a descriptive caption and allow you to navigate through the list of photos:

  • 1: The drive frame/holder slides out of the shell once it has been released.

    1: The drive frame/holder slides out of the shell once it has been released.

  • 2: The drive frame once removed. The arrows indicate the small tabs which must be released in order to slide the cover off.

    2: The drive frame once removed. The arrows indicate the small tabs which must be released in order to slide the cover off.

  • 3: The drive cover. The arrows indicate the slots that engage to the frame tabs. Note that even though I was careful, a couple of slots still got cracked.

    3: The drive cover. The arrows indicate the slots that engage to the frame tabs. Note that even though I was careful, a couple of slots still got cracked.

  • 4: Once you get the cover off, the rest is easy. The drive is shown here still 'mounted' in the frame. Lift the non-connector end of the drive and the metal shield up and slide it out of the frame. As an added bonus, I noticed that Western Digital uses SATA drives in this model, which undoubtedly speeds up the transfer rate.

    4: Once you get the cover off, the rest is easy. The drive is shown here still 'mounted' in the frame. Lift the non-connector end of the drive and the metal shield up and slide it out of the frame. As an added bonus, I noticed that Western Digital uses SATA drives in this model, which undoubtedly speeds up the transfer rate.

  • 5: Pull the rubber mounts out of the drive's screw mounting holes.

    5: Pull the rubber mounts out of the drive's screw mounting holes.

  • 6: This photo shows the rubber mounts detached from the drive.

    6: This photo shows the rubber mounts detached from the drive.

  • 7: The drive is shown sitting in its metal shield.

    7: The drive is shown sitting in its metal shield.

  • 8: Slide the drive and USB adapter board out of the metal shield.

    8: Slide the drive and USB adapter board out of the metal shield.

  • 9: Now you can detach the USB adapter board by carefully and squarely pulling it straight out of the drive.

    9: Now you can detach the USB adapter board by carefully and squarely pulling it straight out of the drive.

  • 10: Here is an end view of the drive. The arrow indicates the jumper that must be removed.

    10: Here is an end view of the drive. The arrow indicates the jumper that must be removed.

  • 11: Finally, here is a photo showing the jumper removed. From my experience, SATA drives need no jumpers, and the ones in my desktop PC don't have them. I read somewhere that this jumper enables the drive to enter low-power mode. Some SATA drive manufacturers use similar pins for diagnostics.

    11: Finally, here is a photo showing the jumper removed. From my experience, SATA drives need no jumpers, and the ones in my desktop PC don't have them. I read somewhere that this jumper enables the drive to enter low-power mode. Some SATA drive manufacturers use similar pins for diagnostics.

If you've gotten this far, now the drive is ready for re-assembly. Follow the dis-assembly steps in the reverse order to re-assemble the drive. Once I did this, I was able to format the drive as bootable and install the Acronis software according to the guide mentioned above.

Good Luck!
-Dan