Electronics · External Hard Drives (HDD)
Do I need the encryption and password protection features on WD My Passport and My Book drives?
Reviewer consensus
They're useful if you store sensitive documents, but specialist-community threads consistently warn that WD's hardware encryption can make data recovery extremely difficult if the controller board fails, even when the platters are intact. If you don't specifically need encryption, several r/DataHoarder threads recommend leaving it disabled.