WD My Book Essential stopped working

[stemp23]

Hi all,

my ext. hdd (Western Digital WDBACW0020HBK My Book Essential 2TB) stopped working (nothing happened when connecting the power cable, no led / no hdd spin up):
- tried different power cable, same issue
- removed it from case (warranty already run out) and put it into pc as a second drive
- hdd is detected in bios / under disk management (unallocated disk space) but has no drive letter
- tested via Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Results: Quick test FAIL - Extended test PASS
06-Quick Test on drive 1 did not complete! Status code = 05 (Failed electrical test element), Failure Checkpoint = 99 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 1!



I've used testdisk to recover data, but the files that were recovered seem random:


My guess is that the hdd is working, but it is encrypted (never set a password).

I've read a post stating:

Check these components:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/bi ... diodes.jpg

If they are OK, and if there is no visible damage elsewhere, try to spin up the drive inside your PC. Don't write anything to it, though.

Here is a picture of the pcb (I cant see anything weird but I have no clue about that ):
4061-705094-001 rev ad


Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks and a nice weekend to all of you.

Kind regards

[Roberto]

Can you please show us sector 0 and sector 1... so we can see if it is protected.

[stemp23]

Thank you for the quick reply. Could you please tell me how I can do this?

[pcn]

Use DMDE disk editor (free, dmde.com) and open the drive, do not use show partitions in first dialogue. Post a screenshot of the hex content (first sector).

Also post smart values of that drive with crystal disk info. If drive is encrypted (I think it is) but fine your DIY options are:

1) repair bridge-board
2) get a known working bridge board on ebay
3) decrypt data with reallymine (search forum for info)

If drive has errors it might be a good idea to first do a clone (with ddrescue) and then only work with that clone.

[Roberto]

Thank you for the quick reply. Could you please tell me how I can do this?

You can download one of this tools or a similar one:
WinHex - https://www.x-ways.net/winhex/ (Demo Version)
HexWorkshop - http://www.hexworkshop.com/ (Demo Version)
Hxd - https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ (Free)
Dmde - https://dmde.com/ (Free Edition)

After installing for example HexWorkshop you start the application and make the following:
Menu Disk --> Open Drive
Menu Disk --> Save Sectors (Starting Sector 0 and Ending Sector 1)
Please also save sector these two sectors: 3907026307 and 3907024928

For other applications the menu commands are similar.

Then you can upload the binary files to this thread.

[stemp23]

Thank you for the information. Here we go:

Use DMDE disk editor (free, dmde.com) and open the drive, do not use show partitions in first dialogue. Post a screenshot of the hex content (first sector).

Also post smart values of that drive with crystal disk info. If drive is encrypted (I think it is) but fine your DIY options are:

1) repair bridge-board
2) get a known working bridge board on ebay
3) decrypt data with reallymine (search forum for info)

If drive has errors it might be a good idea to first do a clone (with ddrescue) and then only work with that clone.

DMDE
1) This is weird. I have never installed an OS on that disc, it was a pure data storage hdd. Maybe when I put it in the pc and checked it on disk management, something happend (which im not aware of)



SMART

Thank you for the quick reply. Could you please tell me how I can do this?

You can download one of this tools or a similar one:
WinHex - https://www.x-ways.net/winhex/ (Demo Version)
HexWorkshop - http://www.hexworkshop.com/ (Demo Version)
Hxd - https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ (Free)
Dmde - https://dmde.com/ (Free Edition)

After installing for example HexWorkshop you start the application and make the following:
Menu Disk --> Open Drive
Menu Disk --> Save Sectors (Starting Sector 0 and Ending Sector 1)
Please also save sector these two sectors: 3907026307 and 3907024928

For other applications the menu commands are similar.

Then you can upload the binary files to this thread.

Attachments

WD_Saves.zip

sectors
0 - 1
3907026307
3907024928

(1.44 KiB) Downloaded 717 times

[fzabkar]

It appears that you accepted Windows' offer to initialise your drive. You now have an empty partition table in sector 0. This is not a serious problem.

DMDE is showing a sector range of 0 - 3907027054, ie the drive's capacity is being detected as 3907027055 sectors. A 2TB drive normally reports a capacity of 3907029168 sectors.

The difference of 2113 sectors corresponds to a HPA that is created by Gigabyte's Xpress Recovery BIOS. Some Gigabyte motherboards will steal 2113 sectors from the end of the drive and use it to store a backup of the BIOS. You need to restore the full capacity of your drive.

The following article explains the problem and provides a solution.

GigaByte BIOS bug results in loss of 1TB capacity:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=150&p=275

[stemp23]

It appears that you accepted Windows' offer to initialise your drive. You now have an empty partition table in sector 0. This is not a serious problem.

DMDE is showing a sector range of 0 - 3907027054, ie the drive's capacity is being detected as 3907027055 sectors. A 2TB drive normally reports a capacity of 3907029168 sectors.

The difference of 2113 sectors corresponds to a HPA that is created by Gigabyte's Xpress Recovery BIOS. Some Gigabyte motherboards will steal 2113 sectors from the end of the drive and use it to store a backup of the BIOS. You need to restore the full capacity of your drive.

The following article explains the problem and provides a solution.

GigaByte BIOS bug results in loss of 1TB capacity:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=150&p=275

Thanks for the information and the link. I have fixed this using seatools. Now DMDE shows Sectors 0 - 3907029167. What are the next steps to get hold of the data?

[Roberto]

Thank you for the sector binaries.

I have checked the Encryption key from your uploaded sector.
It is capable of decryption of your uploaded sector 1.

So there seems not to be any encryption issues.
As you mentioned there is no password set.

So I would first try the instructions from fzabkar.

[stemp23]

After having fixed the HPA I am now scanning the HDD with partition find and mount

Fast Intellecutual Scan: nothing found
Normal Scan: nothing found
Full Scan: -currently running-

[stemp23]

After having fixed the HPA I am now scanning the HDD with partition find and mount

Fast Intellecutual Scan: nothing found
Normal Scan: nothing found
Full Scan: -currently running-

Update:
Full Scan: nothing found

[Roberto]

Update:
Full Scan: nothing found

I guess this is because the encrypted data is not decrypted by the drive.

But your data should still be there and you should be able to decrypt it with my decryption tool.

You need to make an image of the drive with dmde.
Therefore you need another drive with enough free space.
After you have created the image let me know... then I'll send you the decryption tool.

Best Regards,
Roberto

[Roberto]

Have you taken the image with dmde ?

[stemp23]

thanks for the feedback. no, not yet as I haven't got an hdd with enough space yet, that's the biggest one I own atm

[stemp23]

Finally found some time and did the following:

- create an image of the drive with dmde (~2TB)
- install reallymine
- run reallymine with "reallymine decrypt G:\image.bin F:\decrypted.img"

I let this run a couple of days, but as its progress (according to written filesize on F:\ vs. original filesize on G:\) was only about 30% and I will be on vacation before it reaches 100% I had to cancle it.

Is it normal that it takes THAT long (over a week) or can this be sped up?
Both HDDs (Seagate Expansion Desktop 3GB) are connected via USB 3.0 on a decent pc (AMD A8-6600 APU @3.90 GHZ - 4GB Ram), that is only working on this job.

[Roberto]

Is it normal that it takes THAT long (over a week) or can this be sped up?

You can try my attached decryption tool for windows.
If you need another version (linux or mac) please let me know.
You'll find the password in your private messages.

Please let me know the speed of the decryption.


Best Regards,
Roberto

Attachments

ImageDecrypter_v1.0_build2310.rar

(3.53 MiB) Downloaded 595 times

[juspreet]

pls sir can i have the password

[Forhad Hossen]

If it's 3 years old, it is very possible it could have just worn out. What does it show up as in explorer?

[stemp23]

Hope you guys had a nice Christmas.

I now have a little free time to look into this again (problem still not solved).

I found the following spare parts online and was wondering if this would actually fix my problem (which would you recommend if any):

1) WD My Book Essential Controller board 4061-705094-001 Rev AD 4060-705094-001
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/WD-My-Book-Essen ... 5#shpCntId

2) Western Digital My Book controller board 4061-705094-001 Rev AD
http://parts.com.hk/1/index.php?main_pa ... GeHqh7RYv5

3) WD controller board USB3.0 4061-705094-001 REV AA AB AC AD AE AH
http://parts.com.hk/1/index.php?main_pa ... GeGrR7RYv7

These parts are quite expensive (compared to a new HDD) but if this would fix the issue, I would definetly consider it.

A few months back I contacted WD support asking them if they could provide any spare parts or tell me which I would need, but their "answer" was something along the lines of looking for a needle in a hay stack (seems like they were just not willing to help).

[inflex]

stemp23,

Had one of these come in the the other week myself. Turned out the switchmode controller on that little circuit board had given up. I replaced it from a donor and it's working and I was able to recover the data off to a new drive.

If you have a multimeter, connect the power to the board with a random dummy drive, and see if you find any voltage on the on/off button pin (C56, top-right on your photo), you want the voltage from that fine trace going towards the front of the button. If you have no voltage there, it may "just" need the power controller replaced. You can see what I did here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yufLqOl ... aDfC_63dFY )