You mean Locky ransomware. I'd get another Passport. You're already familiar with it.

Curious who is helping you with this ?

I, too, support Western Digital Passport. I have the 1T model and am very happy with it.

Other than that...I'm not sure I support the advice you were given relative to your current Passport. But...not knowing all the facts that elicited that recommendation...I can't give argument to support my hesitation to do what you were advised to do. I would, however, advise you to seek a second opinion from an IT expert....and/or take your system to a professional to make corrections. I agree with azinoh that "the files should be considered permanently unrecoverable."

Thanks for the responses. You know I will have to go back and reread the advice I was given. I may not recall it correctly. Will provide a link.

That would be the advice given by a Malware pro, there are folks that work on decryption of those files and the work is on going mostly at Bleeping computer so that is why that advice would have been given to you. Just in case a fix comes along. There has been some progress in some variants of ransomware.

The hard drive business was commoditized long ago. Meaning, when comparing like to like (size, speed, interface, etc), the experts consider any one to be the same as any other with any differences being inconsequential. As between major brands - Western Digital, Seagate, Fujitsu, etc., you'd be hard pressed to find real differences. Other than price. Sometimes a manufacturer will have a troublesome batch that has statistically greater problems or failure rates than their mean experience suggests but that's something they all experience and it's why they track batch results closely.

I've purchased drives over the years from all the major brands, in single units for personal use and dozens at a time for business use and have had ones that lasted forever and ones that failed prematurely from all sources. Hard drives fail, that's a fact, which is why RAIDs, mirroring, and redundant backup hardware and software techniques were developed very early on as digital information became more prevalent and its protection essential for businesses and other non-personal uses.

Ive owned two Le Cie backup hard drives and found them excellent.

LaCie is part of Seagate, it's been how they've tried to portray higher value for higher cost. With greater style and sizzle components to try to earn higher than commodity prices. Inside, it's Seagate all the way.

(And if I remember correctly, LaCie was originally focused on selling to Apple users. That's the part of the PC market where higher prices have historically been charged for what essentially has been much the same thing as elsewhere. But the buyers and loyal Apple users have long thought their products superior and so have been willing to pay more. Companies that have made accessories for Apple products have long been happy to keep up the premium pricing strategies.)

"But the buyers and loyal Apple users have long thought their products superior and so have been willing to pay more. Companies that have made accessories for Apple products have long been happy to keep up the premium pricing strategies.)"

Companies that have made accessories for Apple products have worked hard to match the look of the computers to which they were attached (the early iMac lines required five colors to match). Those companies don't just ask their supplier which color of beige is cheapest for the enclosure; damn what it looks like with anything else. In addition, back when LaCie was "something", Apple was SCSI-drive only, which cost more than MFM/RLL/ATA/whatever in the Intel world.

Now, of course, as you point out correctly, it's a fancy box around a Seagate drive. If what the box looks like is important to you, pay the extra money. If you don't give a rip about that, save the money and buy the Seagate equivalent. Or whatever else meets specs and has "the right price". The "Apple Tax" is completely voluntary. :-)