CAUTION! Erasing your drive permanently deletes all of the data on the drive. Always back up the data on the drive before erasing it.
Note: Erasing your drive also deletes the WD software and all of the support files, utilities, and user manual files. You can download these to restore your drive to its original configuration after erasing it. See Restoring the WD software and disk image.
The WD Drive Utilities software provides two ways to erase your drive, depending on whether it is locked or not:
Using the WD Drive Utilities Drive Erase function
Note that the exFAT (extended File Allocation Table) format is not configurable on some RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage devices.
Note: Selecting this option ensures all data on the device is erased. This will take several hours to complete. If you do not select this option, a quick erase will be performed and the data may be recoverable using disk recovery software.
Important: If you want to save any of the data that is on the drive, back it up to another storage device before continuing with the drive erase.
Note: Erasing your drive also removes your password. If you used a password to protect your drive, you will need to re-create it using the WD Security software.
When you have lost or forgotten your password, you can erase the locked drive by entering five invalid passwords on the Unlock Drive dialog:
Note: Erasing your drive also removes your password. If you still want to use a password to protect your drive, you will need to re-create it using the WD Security software.
Restoring the WD software and disk image
In addition to deleting all of the data on your drive, erasing the drive also deletes the WD software and all of the support files, utilities, and user manual files.
If you ever need to remove and reinstall the WD software on your computer, or move the drive to another computer and install the software there, you will need to restore the WD software and disk image on your drive. To do this, after you have erased the drive, see Knowledge Base answer ID 7 at http://support.wd.com.
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