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 Post subject: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: August 31st, 2016, 3:29 
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Joined: August 23rd, 2016, 15:32
Posts: 19
Location: Bangladesh
My WD My Book Essential 2TB usb3 drive suddenly lost it's partition. After going through many forums I still can't decide what to do. This is what happened:

1) It never showed any problem before. But one day when I connected it to my laptop it didn't show up as a drive letter (it had a single partition). When I went to Disk Management the disk showed up as offline and it prompted me to Initialize the disk. Assuming there's something wrong with the SATA-to-USB bridge board I did not initialize it at that moment and I decided to take it out from the enclosure and connect it directly in a SATA port in a desktop machine.

2) After connecting it to the desktop directly in a SATA port it still showed the same thing and prompted me to initialize the disk. I didn't know what initialization would do to the disk and on an impulse went on with initializing it as MBR. Seeing it didn't help I stopped there and did not create partition or format the drive. Nothing has been written on the disk since.

3) I have tried with various partition/data recovery softwares but wasn't able to recover ANY of my data. After searching for solution in many forums I came to know about the encryption of the bridge circuit. My adapter has a Jmicron chip.

4) I think the bridge adapter is still working because I had connected another sata hard drive with it and I can read/write data through it via usb3 cable.

5) I would be really thankful if someone helps me with this.

Sincerely
Golr


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: August 31st, 2016, 10:52 
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Joined: June 30th, 2016, 10:16
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I used Hirens boot disk and booted to mini win 7 and used PARITION GURU. I recovered ALL MY FILES of of the MY BOOK External DIsk. 4 years of pictures recovered.


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: August 31st, 2016, 12:05 
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Joined: August 12th, 2016, 12:54
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Golr wrote:
My WD My Book Essential 2TB usb3 drive suddenly lost it's partition. After going through many forums I still can't decide what to do. This is what happened:

1) It never showed any problem before. But one day when I connected it to my laptop it didn't show up as a drive letter (it had a single partition). When I went to Disk Management the disk showed up as offline and it prompted me to Initialize the disk. Assuming there's something wrong with the SATA-to-USB bridge board I did not initialize it at that moment and I decided to take it out from the enclosure and connect it directly in a SATA port in a desktop machine.

2) After connecting it to the desktop directly in a SATA port it still showed the same thing and prompted me to initialize the disk. I didn't know what initialization would do to the disk and on an impulse went on with initializing it as MBR. Seeing it didn't help I stopped there and did not create partition or format the drive. Nothing has been written on the disk since.

3) I have tried with various partition/data recovery softwares but wasn't able to recover ANY of my data. After searching for solution in many forums I came to know about the encryption of the bridge circuit. My adapter has a Jmicron chip.

4) I think the bridge adapter is still working because I had connected another sata hard drive with it and I can read/write data through it via usb3 cable.

5) I would be really thankful if someone helps me with this.

Sincerely
Golr

You need to use software PartitionGuru best in this case http://www.partitionguru.com

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: August 31st, 2016, 12:23 
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Joined: February 9th, 2009, 16:13
Posts: 2520
Location: Ontario, Canada
If your data is valuable to you at all, seek professional data recovery assistance. Otherwise, your first step should be to get a full clone of the drive.

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Recovery Force Data Recovery


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: August 31st, 2016, 14:57 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15463
Location: Australia
Can you show us the drive's SMART report?

http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

Can you see sector 0 using DMDE (freeware disc editor)?

http://dmde.com/

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 1st, 2016, 14:59 
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Joined: August 23rd, 2016, 15:32
Posts: 19
Location: Bangladesh
fzabkar wrote:
Can you show us the drive's SMART report?

http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

Can you see sector 0 using DMDE (freeware disc editor)?

http://dmde.com/


Should I get these reports by connecting the drive via the bridge circuit to a USB port or by connecting directly to a SATA port?

Thanks


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 2nd, 2016, 15:12 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
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Location: Australia
You should be able to access the information via USB. If not, then use SATA. You could also try HD Sentinel for the SMART report.

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 3rd, 2016, 14:08 
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Joined: August 23rd, 2016, 15:32
Posts: 19
Location: Bangladesh
fzabkar wrote:
You should be able to access the information via USB. If not, then use SATA. You could also try HD Sentinel for the SMART report.


When I connect via the bridge-adapter(USB3) the following things happen:

1. Crystal Disk Info doesn't show the drive at all. and

2. Hard Disk Sentinel shows the drive but with 'unknown' status:
Image
and there is no info shown on the SMART tab.

Here are the other reports:

Windows Disk Management through SATA connection:
Image

Crystal Disk Info through SATA connection:
Image

Hard Disk Sentinel through SATA connection:
Image

DMDE Partitions report through USB connection:
Image

DMDE Sector-0 report through USB connection:
Image

DMDE Partitions report through SATA connection:
Image

DMDE Sector-0 report through SATA connection:
Image

Thanks for your help :)


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 1:43 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
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Location: Australia
Sector 0 looks the same when viewed via SATA or via USB. Are you using the original WD My Book Essentials bridge PCB?

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 2:59 
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Joined: March 30th, 2016, 12:29
Posts: 127
Location: Germany
Golr wrote:
DMDE Sector-0 report through SATA connection:
Image

Thanks for your help :)


Drive is encrypted.
You can see it on sector 1.

Could you please show us sector 3907024928?
This could be the key sector, depending on what type of encryption chip is used.

If I'm right you can upload this sector as binary file...
So I could have a look at it... to see if I can help you to decrypt the drive without a working usb bridge.

Best Regards,
Roberto


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 10:24 
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Joined: August 23rd, 2016, 15:32
Posts: 19
Location: Bangladesh
fzabkar wrote:
Sector 0 looks the same when viewed via SATA or via USB. Are you using the original WD My Book Essentials bridge PCB?


Yes this is the original PCB that came with the enclosure.
A few days ago I tested the PCB with another SATA hard drive from a laptop to check if the encryption works. To my surprise data written through the PCB can be read successfully without the PCB. It seems like the encryption feature of the PCB has somehow become non-functional, but it's still working perfectly as a bridge (if that's even possible)!


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 11:07 
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Joined: August 23rd, 2016, 15:32
Posts: 19
Location: Bangladesh
Roberto wrote:
Golr wrote:
DMDE Sector-0 report through SATA connection:
Image

Thanks for your help :)


Drive is encrypted.
You can see it on sector 1.

Could you please show us sector 3907024928?
This could be the key sector, depending on what type of encryption chip is used.

If I'm right you can upload this sector as binary file...
So I could have a look at it... to see if I can help you to decrypt the drive without a working usb bridge.

Best Regards,
Roberto



The following is taken by direct SATA port connection:

Sector 3907024928:

Image

Although I am not sure if I went to the sector in the right way. In DMDE I went to Editor > Physical Sectors, then put that sector value and clicked Ok:

Image

Here's the binary file of sector 3907024928:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 5738571322

Best Regards,
Golr


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 11:41 
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Joined: April 3rd, 2011, 0:19
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Given that you have already written a non-encrypted MBR over the encrypted one, and that the device wasn't properly mounting via USB, I'd say it's time to seek out a professional who has PC-3000 and can properly handle this case.

The drive likely just needs a slow responding fix in the firmware, and then to be decrypted (and MBR to be restored/data recovered). Most labs shouldn't be charging more that $300-500 USD for a case like this. But, the more you mess around, the more data you could potentially destroy and the higher the cost could end up in the end.

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 12:28 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15463
Location: Australia
@Golr, try "reallymine" (freeware).

https://github.com/andlabs/reallymine

If you need help with this tool, the author has a forum in which he is an active member.

I don't understand why your bridge is not decrypting your data, but if it is due to a missing key sector, then you can retrive it, and all the remaining firmware modules, using a HDDSuperTool script.

https://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ects=0&d=1

If your drive has a "slow responding problem", then apply this script:
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ects=0&d=1

There is no need to stop your DIY efforts just yet.

Best of luck.

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 16:07 
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Joined: March 30th, 2016, 12:29
Posts: 127
Location: Germany
@Golr

Have you taken a look at sector 3907024928?
If there are only zeros then you can also check sector 3907026307.

Could you please show these two sectors or upload them as binary file?
You can do that with dmde like you did it with sector 0.


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 4th, 2016, 23:26 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
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Location: Australia
I'm wondering why DMDE identifies the bridge as "JMicron USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge:1.0:57442D5743" instead of a WD product (57442D5743 = "WD-WC"). Also, I find it strange that the range of sectors (0-3907029167) is the same in USB mode as in SATA mode.

Could the drive (WD20EARX-32PASB0) be a SED model (I suspect not)???

Could there be a problem with the "ROM" firmware on the bridge PCB? If the ROM were bad or invalid, then the bridge IC would identify itself with its own Product and Vendor ID.

How does UVCView or USBDeview detect the bridge?

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ew.x64.exe
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_ID ... ew.x86.exe

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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 5th, 2016, 6:24 
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Joined: March 30th, 2016, 12:29
Posts: 127
Location: Germany
Golr wrote:
Here's the binary file of sector 3907024928:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 5738571322


Sector looks very good on first sight :D
But I cannot test it now.... do you have a password set?
If yes... could you please send it to me in a private message?
Then I can have a deeper look at the sector.


Best Regards,
Roberto


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 5th, 2016, 6:33 
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Joined: August 23rd, 2016, 15:32
Posts: 19
Location: Bangladesh
Roberto wrote:
Golr wrote:
Here's the binary file of sector 3907024928:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 5738571322


Sector looks very good on first sight :D
But I cannot test it now.... do you have a password set?
If yes... could you please send it to me in a private message?
Then I can have a deeper look at the sector.


Best Regards,
Roberto


I never set a password on this drive.

Best Regards,
Golr


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 5th, 2016, 7:38 
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Joined: March 19th, 2015, 15:01
Posts: 1387
Location: isreal
reallymine can't help you (I think) its user password protected.


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 Post subject: Re: Need help recovering data from external WD USB 3 disk
PostPosted: September 5th, 2016, 7:49 
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Joined: March 30th, 2016, 12:29
Posts: 127
Location: Germany
jermy wrote:
reallymine can't help you (I think) its user password protected.

It's not necessarily user password protected.

The key sector is always encrypted, regardless of whether a password was configured or not.
At least with the used encryption chip type, in this case JMS538S.


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