In this post we provide you with some useful insight to help determine what model Western Digital drive might be inside a particular model of enclosure. We have included pictures of the shell to help you identify these drives quicker when searching for a matching donor. If you have done some research you have probably noticed that WD uses a model number on the plastic case that does not match the model number of the device inside. For a breakdown of the model number you can see they always start with WD followed by four letters. After the 4 letter code you have four numbers which indicate the drive’s capacity. The last two characters before the dash typically indicate the color of the enclosure, but I have seen enclosures with model BL which usually indicates a blue case and they actually have a charcoal or black case.
BK = Black | BL = Dark Blue or Turquoise | GY = Gray and Black (Two-Tone) | OR = Orange | RD = Red | SL = Silver | WT = White | YL = Yellow
WD External to Internal Model Cross Reference
Let’s dive in, below you will see a number of portable Western Digital USB drive models (Elements, Passport, Ultra) matched to the internal disk drive model number along with a photo of both the internal and external labels. This WD matching guide might help you find compatible donors. 500-750GB | 1TB-1.5TB | 2TB | 3TB | 4TB | 5TB
This post about WD portable USB hard disk drives is a supplement to our previous article about WD donor matching. If you are looking for tips to find compatible heads for WD HDDs read “How To Find A Donor For Western Digital Hard Disk Drives“. Knowing how to source disk drive parts for Western Digital USB drives at reasonable prices is just one more way “we make data recovery affordable“. At Blizzard Data Recovery parts are always included at no extra charge. WD Passport and Elements external USB disk drives are one of the most common types we receive at our data recovery lab. Because the drives are portable and very popular with people on the go they have a tendency to get damaged from mishandling.
Read about Western Digital SMR drives.