Western Digital My Book Live Teardown

The 2TB MyBook Live is an interesting desktop NAS, as it packs not only a 2TB HDD but also Debian Lenny on some peculiar hardware:

• A WD Caviar Green 2TB desktop hard drive with 64MB cache, using "IntelliPower" technology

• 256MB RAM

• A PowerPC-based APM82181 CPU running at 800Mhz, single core, with built-in RAID acceleration

• One multi-color LED in the front

• Gigabit Ethernet

• Debian Lenny for PowerPC

While the MyBook Live's book-shaped chassis is nice, the clips preventing it from opening are not.

• There are four inner clips in the back, 2 on each side of the chassis.

• Slowly work around the clips, while opening the back, otherwise you risk breaking these. If you do, it's not too much of an issue.

Luckily, a Plastic Opening Tool can be used to separate the clips from the outer cover.

Simply insert the tool into the seams near the clip areas, and slowly pry the cover apart.

You may need to use multiple spudgers or screwdrivers to help separate the cover from the inner chassis.

Be careful and don't let any of the tools slide inside the chassis.

The cover slides off once the back clips are pried apart, which makes it easier to grab a hold of the cover.

The top and bottom rails of the cover snap off from the inner chassis as you push forward.

We remove the small plastic LED extension from the front of the unit.

It seems that the actual LED is on the CPU board, and WD used a small piece of plastic to bring the light over to the front of the unit.

Some rubber padding keeps the hard disk in place, but a little push allows us to separate the hardware from the inner chassis.

When reassembling, do not force the rubber padding back in if it does not fit, most often that means that you did not align the assembly properly.

Don't pull too fast! Some clips get in the way of the board, and you have to clear them by bending the outer frame slightly outwards.

We make sure that the board doesn't snag against the chassis.

There is a large padding block on the corner of the chassis.

We simply pull on it to remove it, the adhesive is non-residual.

As you push the chassis away from the board, you may also have to push on the corner area to push the metal tab away from its rubber socket.

Pushing upwards slightly eventually gets the board to release itself from the rubber pads.

We now have access to the board, completely freed from the main chassis.

Some rubber feet cover the other two metal tabs, we remove it by pulling on them.

Next we remove the 4 metal tabs (and their bars) by unscrewing the fasteners that hold them.

There are 4 screws, two on each side of the hard disk area.

After removing the metal clips and bars, we can now remove the shield covering the Hard Disk.