I just stumbled upon this forum in a final attempt at pulling my files off my 1TB MyBook Essentials (WDH1U10000N) bare drive. I don’t have the enclosure anymore because I plugged it into a laptop power supply and seemingly fried it. Stupid me threw the enclosure and the USB-SATA bridge away thinking it was useless. So I don’t know what chip was on the USB-SATA bridge board or even what version the board was… Is there a way for me to use Ubuntu and somehow pull my drives off and move them to another USB drive? I have a Dell laptop running Windows 7 and access to another (my work machine) running Windows 10. I’ve run Ubuntu off a USB pen drive but haven’t done it in YEARS! I'm no engineer or coder but if pointed in the right direction, I can hopefully do this... If someone can help me get my files off this drive I’m willing to make a “donation” for the efforts…

I thought about buying another MyBook with the same model number to try and swap the bare drives but not sure if that’s even worth it. If that could work, is the model WDH1U10000N the same as the WDU10000H1U? Would it be a futile exercise since the chances of having the same USB-SATA bridge version as my original is a shot-in-the-dark?

I should also mention that back several years ago, I did try plugging the drive into my desktop via SATA with no luck and now I’m worried I screwed it up even further…

I heard about a decryption tool that Roberto created and will run for members here... Is he still active on this forum or does someone know his email addy?

I've also found Thomas Kaeding's Linux-mybook-tools on github but since I don't know what my chip was on the bridge-board how can I use his method?

I’m picking up a dual docking station on my way home from work and digging into this more tonight.

The usual result of an overvoltage with a 19V laptop power adapter is a shorted 12V TVS diode on the HDD PCB. Does your drive still spin up via SATA?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I had sent the PCB from my drive to hdd-parts for a clone to be made and that is now on the drive and it will spin up via SATA.

What is the model number of the HDD?

BTW, normally the USB-SATA bridge PCB survives these kinds of overvoltages.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Ugh.

I think its a WD10EAVS.

Try the reallymine tool. It should auto-detect the bridge type by inspecting the encryption key at the end of the drive.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I have no idea how to use reallymine...

Then send a PM to Roberto.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Is there a Windows exe for reallymine? Or do I need to run it in Ubuntu?

Just sent him a PM. Thanks for chiming in fzabkar.