User profile for user: Rayen-Nevaeh
Rayen-Nevaeh Author
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4 points

Mac keeps asking for password to access my WD My Book Studio

I had an iMac that I bought in 2011. When I was encouraged to start doing Time Machine backups, I went & purchased a My Book for mac which worked really well.. until it didn't. I had to have it replaced under warranty for a My Book Studio. I had done many Time Machine backups over the years & also dragged over stand-alone folders of music, photos & videos.


My problem is this. One day my computer just froze. I can still turn it on but it takes around 9 hours to get to the home screen & then nothing will load & the rainbow pinwheel just spins. I thought, okay.. that's fine.. it's getting really old & I don't have to worry because I've backed up all my stuff.


I decided to order a reburbished older 21 inch desktop instead of a new one so I had access to a SSD for my camera disk & so that everything I had backed up (including the time machines) would have a better change of working because I wouldn't be jumping too far ahead in operating systems.. (I'm currently using 12.7.2 - late 2015). I'm extremely happy with the "new" computer UNTIL I plugged in the WD My Book. Immediately it asked me for a password... problem is, I never set up a password. The hint is PP, which is ALSO something I never did (who would use initials for a hint?) I contacted WD.. I did all this troubleshooting... they told me I had to contact Apple who would provide the password. So I rang Apple & they INSIST that I created a password & CHOSE to encrypt the HD WHICH I DID NOT.


I downloaded WD Security & confirmed that there is NO PASSWORD SET for the hard drive. I set up one & took it off to see if it did anything, but nothing changed. It kept asking to retrieve something from my keychain, but that didn't do anything either.. (I think that was only to do with the new password I had just set up). When I try to mount it via WD Discovery, it comes up with a dark green Book OS icon, but there's nothing in it but an empty "backup" folder. It claims there only 120mbs of data on the entire drive. The My Book studio icon - when working, is a dark yellow.


So is there anything I can do? I have tried & tried to gain access to my old computer, but I just can't.. & no password I try will let me into the HD.


Is it some kind of encryption password that was done automatically? Because I remember speaking to Apple years ago about the fact that when it performed a time machine backup, it would say "encrypting data".. but why would anyone choose to backup all their precious memories if the HD is tied SOLELY to the computer it's backing up? I mean, isn't that the whole point of the backup.. so that you can use it on another computer if yours stuffs up?


Anyway, any advice would be greatly received.


Thank you in advance.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Jan 26, 2024 2:02 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
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Posted on Jan 26, 2024 6:43 PM

I believe older versions of macOS & Time Machine did provide an option for users to encrypt their TM backups. It is possible you did this and saved the password in your Keychain so that backups could be performed automatically. Without the password, I don't believe there is any way you can access that TM backup.



Rayen-Nevaeh wrote:

My problem is this. One day my computer just froze. I can still turn it on but it takes around 9 hours to get to the home screen & then nothing will load & the rainbow pinwheel just spins. I thought, okay.. that's fine.. it's getting really old & I don't have to worry because I've backed up all my stuff.

Sounds like the hard drive probably failed. Depending on the severity of the failure, you may be able to have a professional data recovery service recover data from it. Don't attempt to do this yourself and do not power on the broken Mac since that will most likely just make the drive failure even worse...perhaps to the point where even a professional data recovery service will be unable to recover any data. I have successfully performed data recovery from hundreds of failing hard drives....it is not easy to do correctly. I only consider myself an advanced amateur since the professionals have access to expensive software to control the failing drives for more reliable recoveries, plus they may even rebuild the drive in order to access the data. You only get one chance at recovering data from a failing hard drive.


I had done many Time Machine backups over the years & also dragged over stand-alone folders of music, photos & videos.

FYI, it is never a good idea to mix a backup drive with a data drive. Plus is that other data in stand-alone folder (music, photos, videos) the main source copies, intended to be another backup copy? If it is the original source items and the only copy is on the external drive, then that also needs to be backed up. But backing it up to the TM partition located on the same physical drive is not a backup since what do you have if the drive has a physical failure? Both the original data & the TM backup are gone.....not much of a backup.


If the those stand alone folders are intended to be another backup....again, it isn't much of a backup if both backups are on the same physical drive (TM backup & stand alone folders as backups).


A backup drive should be dedicated solely to TM backups. If you want to store data on an external drive & that data is important & unique and is the only copy, then that external data drive also needs to be backed up. If you want to have a second backup with just stand alone folders (in addition to the TM backup), then you need to store those stand alone backup folders on yet another drive or external media.

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
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Jan 26, 2024 6:43 PM in response to Rayen-Nevaeh

I believe older versions of macOS & Time Machine did provide an option for users to encrypt their TM backups. It is possible you did this and saved the password in your Keychain so that backups could be performed automatically. Without the password, I don't believe there is any way you can access that TM backup.



Rayen-Nevaeh wrote:

My problem is this. One day my computer just froze. I can still turn it on but it takes around 9 hours to get to the home screen & then nothing will load & the rainbow pinwheel just spins. I thought, okay.. that's fine.. it's getting really old & I don't have to worry because I've backed up all my stuff.

Sounds like the hard drive probably failed. Depending on the severity of the failure, you may be able to have a professional data recovery service recover data from it. Don't attempt to do this yourself and do not power on the broken Mac since that will most likely just make the drive failure even worse...perhaps to the point where even a professional data recovery service will be unable to recover any data. I have successfully performed data recovery from hundreds of failing hard drives....it is not easy to do correctly. I only consider myself an advanced amateur since the professionals have access to expensive software to control the failing drives for more reliable recoveries, plus they may even rebuild the drive in order to access the data. You only get one chance at recovering data from a failing hard drive.


I had done many Time Machine backups over the years & also dragged over stand-alone folders of music, photos & videos.

FYI, it is never a good idea to mix a backup drive with a data drive. Plus is that other data in stand-alone folder (music, photos, videos) the main source copies, intended to be another backup copy? If it is the original source items and the only copy is on the external drive, then that also needs to be backed up. But backing it up to the TM partition located on the same physical drive is not a backup since what do you have if the drive has a physical failure? Both the original data & the TM backup are gone.....not much of a backup.


If the those stand alone folders are intended to be another backup....again, it isn't much of a backup if both backups are on the same physical drive (TM backup & stand alone folders as backups).


A backup drive should be dedicated solely to TM backups. If you want to store data on an external drive & that data is important & unique and is the only copy, then that external data drive also needs to be backed up. If you want to have a second backup with just stand alone folders (in addition to the TM backup), then you need to store those stand alone backup folders on yet another drive or external media.

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User profile for user: Rayen-Nevaeh
Rayen-Nevaeh Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 26, 2024 8:18 PM in response to HWTech

I honestly don't understand any of this. I never asked for it to encrypt any data.. in fact, I rang them & spoke for hours over the fact that it was. It never asked for a password.. nor did I make the hint "PP". I don't even know what that would mean. Whenever I set a password hint, it's always clear what the answer is.


As for the keychain, can I access it outside of the computer? Is it connected to my Apple account? Because passwords are usually connected to an account - not a device.. like Firefox & Google. I never used Safari, if that has anything to do with it.


I have managed to get my computer to boot & open up one of the folders. Took 16 hours. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it at all, other than it's taking hours to do one thing.


I guess I thought this hard drive would be like my old windows Buffalo... just plug it in, drag over folders & then plug it into any other computer & it's all there. My mistakes were the I didn't want to have THREE external hard drives AND that I never tried plugging the WD into another computer before my computer failed.


My only hope at this point if I no longer have access to my old computers' keychain info is that if there was something that could be plugged into the computer via USB that would extract all the info without having to use the mouse or keyboard, as there's like a 10 minute delay before anything registers.


As for the My Book, there was nothing wrong with it. I never kept it plugged in permanently; nor did I set it to automatically do a time machine. The last time I plugged it in, it worked perfectly.. I guess that's why I never thought it necessary to go the extra mile & plug it in on another computer, which I had no access to anyway. I can't believe in this day & age you have to have a back up of a back up & a spare.

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User profile for user: Rayen-Nevaeh
Rayen-Nevaeh Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 27, 2024 12:53 AM in response to Rudegar

Thank you, but like I said... it's not a WESTERN DIGITAL password.. it's an Apple ENCRYPTION password that ties THAT hard drive to THAT computer.. so that unbeknownst to me, it wouldn't be able to be used if it was stolen.


I believe now it has something to do with FireVault being set to "on" automatically without me knowing on early iMacs. Funnily enough, no Apple support member mentioned that I should check it & switch it off, as that may have solved the problem.


Too late now.. 😠

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Mac keeps asking for password to access my WD My Book Studio

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