Hi all

I was hoping for some help figuring out what happened to my WD Elements (WD10TMVV-11TK7S1 1TB 2.5") USB HD.
I've been checking some threads in the forum and have found a lot of interesting info about similar problems but nothing quite exactly as my experience.
I'd like to try a DIY approach to access the data (if possible) mainly as the disk does not contain anything crucial and since I have a fair bit of experience soldering so I'm not afraid to give things a go myself....and I'd like to try/learn a bit more in depth rescue operation to see if I can pull it off.

What happened was sudden....everything was working fine and the next time I attached the HD to my laptop....nothing happens. The drive appears as an attached device but no partition is available. I checked the drive with the WD data lifeguard diagnostic software and the SMART gives all green lights....however the surface scan will stop immediately saying there's too many damaged sectors. Trying HD tune's error scan it takes 5 seconds to fill the entire screen with 100% red/damaged blocks. Trying WxHexEditor I get error 19 "Cant read the file descriptor the media is write protected" and I also get this with other recovery software.
When I listen to the drive it sounds like it spins up properly and there are no clicks....which maybe doesn't necessarily rule out faulty heads.

From what I've understood reading the forum threads the WD "Elements" drives are generally unencrypted which would make recovery easier than with an essentials drive.

I'm wondering if trying to reflash the firmware would be a first step to take?

From what I've understood seeing images in other threads you can solder a sata cable directly on the PCB (E71, 72, 73 and 75) to bypass the USB bridge. I'm thinking this might be a possibility to try next.

Would there be other actions to try before any of these things?

Thanks in advance

/M

the drive remains spinning ? does it show the right/full capacity ?

what tools do have to make a head test ?

no, why do you think it's gonna solve something ?

you are right

what are you trying accomplish with it ?

depends on how important is the data
i.e. in some cases would be better to send it to a pro DR and not DIY

you welcome

From your description, you are not going to get your data with firmware and soldering.

Why not get a quote from a pro first and then decide if data is worth the money. If not go DIY.

Contact: Rescue IT. Forum member here: mr_spokk
Maybe he will give you a nice forum discount

_________________
Digitalsupport Data Recovery
https://digitalsupport.dk

Hi, as the information is not of care you can bin the drive, and refreshing the firmware will not help you.
The drive most likely suffer from bad sectors (or weak head(s)) that prevent you from reading it.
To read out the information you will need some special tools and knowledge, this is not a DIY job...sorry to say.

If you need some help with it, feel free to contact me here or via email on our site.

Regards/ Bosse

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Thnx for the answers.

Replying to some questions.

The data, to me, is definitely not worth spending money for retrieving but I would spend some time trying to access it myself as I take a lot of pleasure fixing things....usually sucessfully....though in this case I realise the challenge might be beyond what can be done without special tools and experience.

Answering Jermy

mikeminx wrote:
When I listen to the drive it sounds like it spins up properly and there are no clicks

the drive remains spinning ? does it show the right/full capacity ?

It remains spinning and it shows the right capacity though windows disk management wants to initialize it.
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mikeminx wrote:
....which maybe doesn't necessarily rule out faulty heads.

what tools do have to make a head test ?

I do not have any professional tools for making a head test. I found the MHDD software in the forum though I don't know if it does head tests yet.
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mikeminx wrote:
I'm wondering if trying to reflash the firmware would be a first step to take?

no, why do you think it's gonna solve something ?

Just from reading about various problems arriving with a corrupt firmware though I have no way of knowing that would be the problem in my case....the idea of a firmware reflash felt like a less risky first thing to attempt than going for the soldering iron.
-----

I'm thinking this might be a possibility to try next.

what are you trying accomplish with it ?

I read somewhere else in the forum that it's hard to get a proper diagnostic with the USB interface and also a common error for external drives is a faulty USB to SATA bridge and the first thing to do is to just remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to a SATA port....of course not directly possible with my WD drive :b

Thanks for your anwers guys.

From your experience might I ask if the WD elements models are known to often come up with the same type of errors? If so is it generally stuff which require really advanced operations like head change or changing PCB?