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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

February 20th, 2018, 22:26

Hello,

I'm trying to help someone who has to unlock a WD external HDD :
https://www.leboncoin.fr/vi/1386164926.htm

I'm not sure if it's the exact model shown on the picture, but similarly, there's a key to type in order to unlock the drive, and it disconnects after 5 failed attempts.
That person had the key (about 10 characters long) stored in a text file on another HDD, which failed (if I understood the situation correctly, the external HDD was the backup – Murphy's Law in full effect...). The failed HDD was brought to a data recovery company in Paris : they said that it required a head swap, the whole process costing upward of 700€ (and still 200€ in case nothing could be recovered ! :shock: Is it standard practice in the business ?). And that same DR company declines the request of trying to unlock the locked HDD, for legal reasons.

I read this subject and a couple others regarding similar issues (here, [http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34093]here[/url]), but I'm kinda confused so far. Could someone sum up if this can be done by a user with no access to expensive hardware or software, and what are the known working methods ? I'm not in the same area so I could only provide remote assistance. (Since the key was in a text file and probably copy-pasted each time that HDD was connected, I suggested scanning the whole system partition using something like WinHex with at least three known consecutive characters, in case it could have been stored in a system file / temporary file and still be there somewhere, but it's a long shot.)

@ Roberto : How much would you ask from a private user to apply your decryption tool, and would it work in this case, for (I believe) a WD Elements HDD ? (The prices on page one have been $*** erased.)

Thanks.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

February 21st, 2018, 15:29

abolibibelot wrote:@ Roberto : How much would you ask from a private user to apply your decryption tool, and would it work in this case, for (I believe) a WD Elements HDD ? (The prices on page one have been $*** erased.)
Thanks.

I can definitely undercut the 700 € for this case. :lol:
But we would first have to check if I can do a decryption. :shock: :cry:

Please check your private messages.

Best Regards,
Roberto

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

March 20th, 2018, 10:25

Hey buddy. You still selling the tool ?

Is it necessary if I just want to image the drive (and has the default PW) ?

- As you+others mentioned -
May I create my own dictionary via your software and autic a list it generates?

I may in fact try to go nuts making a really good PW list... with, as I believe you and others mentioned, the option to customize it predicated on the permutations of specified "root" terms and conjugations of a mixture of multiple terms which are relevant to the client; (childs birthday + favorite sports team, etc.)

Thanks. :)

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

March 21st, 2018, 8:55

trumanhw wrote:Hey buddy. You still selling the tool ?

The price is certainly too high for the complete tool :)
Therefore I only assist in decryption cases.

trumanhw wrote:Is it necessary if I just want to image the drive (and has the default PW) ?

No you can image the hdd without my tool.
You don't need it for this purpose.

trumanhw wrote:May I create my own dictionary via your software and autic a list it generates?

You can of course create your own dictionaries and send them to me.
I will then check them on the case.
But normally I generate such things by my own :wink:

trumanhw wrote:I may in fact try to go nuts making a really good PW list... with, as I believe you and others mentioned, the option to customize it predicated on the permutations of specified "root" terms and conjugations of a mixture of multiple terms which are relevant to the client; (childs birthday + favorite sports team, etc.)

I can take over this job for you.

trumanhw wrote:Thanks. :)

Nothing to thank for :D

Best Regards,
Roberto

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

March 28th, 2018, 13:27

Hello,

I have a WD My Passport Ultra and today my computer was reset by my university. I completely forgot that my WD had an automatic unlock for my PC, so after resetting it did not unlock anymore and asked for a password. When putting the password on my WD, I immediately saved it somewhere where I could always access it. Nevertheless, after trying roughly 200 variations of the password, the drive is still locked. Very, very, very frustrating. I'm gonna try a couple hundred more, but I have a feeling that it is hopeless.

So I am wondering if it is possible to use the decryption tool to recover my password / documents and what it would cost?

Thanks!

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 3rd, 2018, 11:07

StefanKoenders wrote:So I am wondering if it is possible to use the decryption tool to recover my password / documents and what it would cost?

Thanks!

Yes a decryption should be possible.
But first let's see if it is makeable by yourself or if you have to send the harddrive to me.
Can you try to extract all modules with hddsupertool?
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool/download

But please be careful not to "damage" something with hddsupertool.
Only use the extract all modules function.
It's not working with all WD My Passport models, but maybe you have luck :)

Best Regards,
Roberto

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 3rd, 2018, 13:53

Thanks already for your reply.
The link shows me the download option for HDDsupertool, but it also says that it can only be used with Linux.
Unfortunately I'm a Windows user, so is there any way to use this program or should I somehow install Linux on my computer to get this working? If the latter is the case, it will probably take some time to get the modules extracted, because I first need to get a hang of Linux :(

Kind regards,
Stefan

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 3rd, 2018, 20:17

You might extract modules from WD drives under windows by using WD Marvel
https://wdmarvel.com/en/demo/

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 5th, 2018, 14:05

I have downloaded WDMarvel, installed it and have got it running. But.... i have no idea how the program works and have a feeling that this is not really a program where I should just try pressing some buttons.
So, for extracting the modules, am I correct that I should use the S/A operations list?
Could you give me a short description of how to use the program, because I cannot really find a 'extract modules' button. :shock:

Best regards,
Stefan

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 7th, 2018, 14:14

So I started WDMarvel, with my WD My Passport Ultra connected via the USB-port and selected the IDE/Controller selection of which I think is the one connected to the WD Passport (I figured this out by disconnecting the drive and the one controller that disappeared is the one I selected).

The S/A operations -> modules operations does show me a list, but it is empty. with the following notification:
7-4-2018 19:56:09: Error determining head count
7-4-2018 19:56:09: Error reading module Dir, state - Data size 0
Reading all modules in this state does nothing.

As I open WDMarvel, it very specifically says to disable or uninstall any IDE/SATA controller of the harddrive on which the programs functions. I made a restore point before as I suspected that this would not end well, and it didn't. My laptop entered an endless loop of failing to startup, so I restored it to the previous metioned point.

Is it possible that my WD Passport is not recognized as the Unlocker is not bypassed? This is also the only drive that I see in my explorer. I know from before, when I still could access my WD Passport, that multiple drives showed up.

So I have the feeling that it is better to send the harddrive to Roberto instead of trying to extract the modules myselft :( Or am I missing something very obvious?

Thanks in advance & best regards

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 7th, 2018, 14:28

The obvious thing is that you probably should connect the drive directly to a sata port in your computer.

If that cannot be done, and you have no access to another computer to try then yes, it would be easier to send the drive to someone with the necessary knowledge and tools than risk destroying the drive/data in the process.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

April 8th, 2018, 15:42

Yeah this is definitely not my expertise and by now I have to admit that I am not going to get this done by myself :shock:

Indeed, my drive has a USB PCB only. I have no idea if there is a connection in the enclosure and if so, I am definitely not able to connect it. So best guess for now is that I contact Roberto per PM to see if he can help me.

Best regards.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 2nd, 2018, 8:53

Spildit wrote:Wishing you good luck on this one and please do post back if you manage to get the drive decrypted.

The hard drive will be sent to me.
I'm waiting for it and will post the results.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 4th, 2018, 10:24

Hello Roberto.

If a WD Passport is encrypted and if we forget the password is it possible with your software to discover the key to decrypt?

Waiting for a reply.

Regards :)

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 4th, 2018, 11:51

infofaster wrote:If a WD Passport is encrypted and if we forget the password is it possible with your software to discover the key to decrypt?


Yes, depending on the encryption chipset, JMicron for example is solveable in many / most cases without knowing the password.
If you remember parts of the password the chances get higher and it can be bruteforced for all encryption chipsets.

Best Regards,
Roberto

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 4th, 2018, 11:58

I have one 2.5 USB drive with the chip asmedia ASM1051W BSP43107B2. Can you crack this one? and if yes what is the price of your software? Thank you

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 4th, 2018, 16:24

infofaster wrote:I have one 2.5 USB drive with the chip asmedia ASM1051W BSP43107B2. Can you crack this one? and if yes what is the price of your software? Thank you

Can you please upload images of both sides of the PCB?
You can also send me a private message with your email if you want.

Thank you very much.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 7th, 2018, 5:20

Roberto, here it is the images from the PCB.
Image , Image
Can you help me in this case? Thank you very much.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 7th, 2018, 10:55

infofaster wrote:Can you help me in this case?

I can not say for sure, but I think it should work.

Re: WD My Passport Decryption Tool

May 14th, 2018, 14:06

Spildit wrote:Wishing you good luck !!!

I think luck is exactly what I need for this case
But with the help of god everything is possible :D

Spildit wrote:Please do post your results when you do manage to decrypt the drive (or not) !

HDD is in my hand, but I can not say much yet.
Will come back later to report.
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