Hello again,

Has anyone worked on one of these drives before? It has 1 pin out to the left, to the right of that is 12 more pins (6 on each row), there is the USB port to the right and another 2 pins on the same row to the right of the USB port and has no SATA nor IDE adapters. I have tried a number of ways and wirings to connect it as an internal drive but nothing works so far.

http://img251.imageshack.us/i/dsc00642b ... Bu8YZ4SejA

Appreciate any reply.

Upload a detailed photo of both sides of the PCB.

There should be two, capacitively coupled, SATA Tx/Rx signal pairs running between the bridge chip and the MCU (assuming the bridge is a separate IC). You can remove the capacitors and then tap into the Tx/Rx pairs with a SATA cable.

However, even after doing the above, you may encounter encryption.

BTW, what were the "number of ways and wirings" that you tried?

Yah WD Passport USB drive. No there is no connector for this one. Yes there is a way to do this. Is the answer available = no. You are going to have to find a pro in your area to do this one for you to get off your data. Is it possible to change PCB answer is no.

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Iorana Haraharaini

I love these new drives...

I like them already...

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A fool with a tool is still a fool.

Why would you want to change this to an internal disk drive? Surely a standard SATA disk drive is cheap enough these days.



Also, most of these disks come with WD Smartware which is activated via connection through USB only, so as much as I hate to admint it fzabkar is right...

I have attached some pictures. I am in the same situation and need to retrieve the data, encrypted or not. Any information would be helpful.

Does your drive spin up?

If using Windows, can you see the Initio INIC-1607E USB-SATA bridge chip with Microsoft's UVCView?
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_ID ... ew.x86.exe

I believe these photo clips identify the SATA Tx/Rx signal pairs, coupling capacitors, and test points.

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/WD ... V_TxRx.jpg
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/WD ... V_caps.jpg

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Drive: WD Passport 1 TB

When plugged into any desktop and laptop port:

1) It lights up and stays lit up.
2) It makes five distinct growling noises and then idles.
3) It isn't recognized by the PC nor by Microsoft's UVCView.

When taken out of the shell, it contains a 12 pin connection output and a micro-b USB connection output.

The pinout of 12 pins is unknown. WD said, quote, "This is not a connection we provide support for. It is there for data recovery companies to recover data in emergency cases. We do not have any schematics regarding the pinout of the 12 pins, again, sir, this is only for data recovery companies who plug their special connection to recover data."

Can anyone answer this:

If the drive is lighting up, should I even try shortning up the cable from 18 to 6 inches? Devices are normally built with lamps which light up after a certain amount of voltage gets through it. I am trying to eliminate the cable problem. Two other 18 inch cables didn't work and I am thinking of shortening one of them to 6 inches to try it.

Problem is physical

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

What's the problem?

I don't know about the "growling noises" (media problems???), but the first thing I would try is a USB Y-cable to pick up power from two USB ports.

Alternatively, some Gigabyte motherboards can provide a 3x power boost from a single USB port:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Passport ... 5004#M4946

Also, many WD users are reporting physical connection problems with the flimsy USB connectors. You would be advised to perform a point-to-point continuity check between the USB pins on the drive's PCB and the corresponding pins at the USB connector at the computer end of the USB cable.

http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks for the USB pinout, will try.

Motherboard replacement is not an option now. The plan is to recover the data and get a different hard drive. Perhaps, someone knows of something as small as a passport, but better quality?

Regarding the USB Y Connector. I have read about this connection and looked for a cable to purchase, but I haven't found a Y Cable for this specfici type of USB 3.0 to Micro-B connection. Would you happen to know any vendor who sells them?

http://media.bestofmicro.com/Superspeed ... 9528-1.jpg

USB 3.0 can supply up to 900 mA. Your USB drive probably uses less than that at spin up, so a Y-cable should not be required. To rule out this possibility completely, you could use a powered USB hub.

If it is a connector issue, then I suspect that either the Data+ or Data- pin may have come adrift at the drive's PCB. If it isn't a connector issue, then it could be that the drive is not coming ready.

BTW, I wasn't suggesting that you replace your motherboard. Many Gigabyte motherboard owners are unaware of the 3x power boost, so I just wanted to let you know in case you had such a board.

The following threads may be worth reading:

wd10tmvv-t16204-80.html
disk-with-sata-usb-adapter-remove-virtual-rom-t18492.html

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you, that's a lot of good information.

Can you clear up one thing? I am not sure whether these are two different things you are talking about, they seem conflicting.

Sorry, I assumed that your USB ports were 2.0, which is current limited to 500mA. A typical Seagate 2.5" Momentus drive draws 850mA during spin-up and about 450mA thereafter.

Users report beeping noises for those drives that are having difficulty spinning up when connected to insufficient power. "Growling" sounds like something else, though.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Ah ok. My desktop and laptop are USB 2.0. They are both about five years old. I think the Y cable, based on your last post, then would come useful. I will receive it in a few days.

I tried the Y cable that came in today, it still does the same thing.

1) Lights up and stays lit on
2) Makes the following noise 5 times in a row



What do you suggest next?

solved this problem?
Were you able to recover data?
Because I have the same problem

I haven't solved the problem. I put the hard drive away. Eventually, I'll have a forensic data recovery done on it.