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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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WD Smartware Problem

June 9th, 2011, 11:13

Hello to all,

I have a WD my passport drive that droped from a certain height and was no longer recognised.

Removed the drive from the case directly to sata and is being picked up.

However due to the WD Smartware encryption partitions are not recognised when directly connected to sata and I cannot find a way for the WD Smartware software to recognise the drive and prompt me for the password.

Can i use any usb to sata adapter to connect the drive and install WD Smartware or should I only use the original WD adapter (which is not functional)

Thank you for your attention.

Re: WD Smartware Problem

June 9th, 2011, 11:25

What does "is being picked up" mean?

I would say that the drive has likely sustained a mechanical failure from the fall, thus preventing access to anything on the drive.

Re: WD Smartware Problem

June 9th, 2011, 11:33

labtech wrote:What does "is being picked up" mean?

I would say that the drive has likely sustained a mechanical failure from the fall, thus preventing access to anything on the drive.



I mean that when the drive is connected through sata it initializes and shows up in device manager hence no mechanical failure to the drive itself.

However due to WD Smartware encryption I cannot see the partitions , and the original WD usb to sata adapter does not function.

Re: WD Smartware Problem

June 10th, 2011, 4:47

You can replace the USB-SATA bridge board with one from an identical model of the same capacity.

Otherwise I suspect that the micro-USB connector may be the problem. There are numerous reports of connection issues at WD's forums.

I would attach the USB cable and perform an end-to-end continuity check with a multimeter set to the 200 ohms range.

These pinouts should help you:
http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml
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