The best option IMO is to buy a new board for the WD enclosure or solder on a new usb port. You could even buy a usb extension cable and cut it and solder the wires to the WD board fairly cheaply.
WD tends to use some 'trick' in their boards to maintain compatibility with older systems and when you move them to new enclosures this can happen. You should see what happens when you do this with a 3tb drive. LoL
Lastly, please remember that important files should always have more that 1 copy stored on more than 1 device. You need to plan on drives failing and minimize your risk of losing them.