WD MyBook Essential 3TB : trying to repair, use Ultradock v5

[mpr18]

Hi,

I have a 3TB WD MyBook Essential external HD that started clicking after an electricity outage a few weeks ago.

As the disk wouldn't mount on my desktop, or just briefly, I tried to repair with DiskWarrior and Disk Utility (I'm on Mac OSX Mountain Lion). It didn't work as the disk wouldn't mount.

Decided to buy the expensive Wiebetech Forensic Ultradock v5 in order to try to make it mount without writing on the disk (the Forensic version has a write-blocker).

Result: Ultradock sees the HD, it says it's healthy, no bad sectors. Still, the disk won't mount on the computer.

I read about DCO's and HPA's, but unsure what I should do with them, let them as it is or erase them. The Ultradock can do several things like
1) Ignore all - Detects and indicates their presence, but does not remove them.
2) Temp Unlock HPA - Temporarily remove HPA only.
3) Perm Unlock HP A - Permanently remove HP A only
4) Unlock All - Permanently remove any HPA or DCO

What else could I do?

Thanks!!

[fzabkar]

There are two things working against you.

(1) My Book Essentials drives are encrypted. You need the original USB-SATA bridge PCB to decrypt them.

(2) The 3TB My Books are configured with 4KB LBAs. When you remove the drive from its enclosure, you expose its native 512e LBAs. This means that, even if your drive were not encrypted (eg My Book Elements), you would still need an enclosure that is configured with the same 4KB sector size as your WD enclosure.

[mpr18]

Woow, thanks for the news, even if they look scary.

I'm going to investigate.

Problem is neither the original enclosure nor the Ultradock v5 mounts the drive.

I could mount the HD back to its original enclosure, but since it won't mount the drive, there must be a piece of the hardware that fails

How about removing the DCO HPA ? That's probably where WD stores their native software, isn't it?

The HD however, was formatted when I bought it, as it's a PC formatted drive and I use Mac OSX.

[Matiw]

Hi Fzabkar,

May be I am mistaken but I think that the 4k Sector size in the Platter is emulated to 512e byte by the Drive controller not the USB to Sata Adaptor (Enclosure). Is it ?

There are two things working against you.

(1) My Book Essentials drives are encrypted. You need the original USB-SATA bridge PCB to decrypt them.

(2) The 3TB My Books are configured with 4KB LBAs. When you remove the drive from its enclosure, you expose its native 512e LBAs. This means that, even if your drive were not encrypted (eg My Book Elements), you would still need an enclosure that is configured with the same 4KB sector size as your WD enclosure.

[mpr18]

The big problem is that the enclosed data is very precious to me (work files etc.).

That's why I can't RMA it. Plus, I don't think I'm ever going to use a clicking drive again, I mean, it's dying for sure, sooner or later.
Just want to save my stuff before it's too late.

It's such a shame the Forensic Ultradock v5 didn't do a thing.

I could go with the buy a new pcb online, one that's exactly the same. if that's the problem...

but could be something else...

[labtech]

These drives typically have mechanical and firmware issues, both not DIY.

If the data is as important as you claim, I strongly advise to no longer power the drive on until you have a solid plan on how to recover your data.

More than likely, tinkering with conventional tools will increase chances of causing more damage.

Best is to get a sound diagnostic from a professional, which at least would allow you to:
1) understand the problem(s) with the drive
2) get an idea of pricing and determine data importance vs. cost value

Whatever place you send the drive to, do ample search and educate yourself about the place.

[fzabkar]

I have a 3TB WD MyBook Essential external HD that started clicking after an electricity outage a few weeks ago.

This tells me that either PCB is defective or/and pre-amp is gone ...

As the disk wouldn't mount on my desktop, or just briefly ...

I would think that if the drive mounts at all, even for a few seconds, then the PCB and preamp are probably OK. But I'm not a data recovery professional ...

[Cleanroom]

Seems like a bad enclosure most likely. Get another WD Mybook essential 3tb. one that is identical ( Model number is on the bottom of the casing) and try the usb-sata bridge in that one. If it has the same encryption chip and there is really nothing wrong with the actual drive it should decrypt it and you can get your data.

[fzabkar]

Hi Fzabkar,

May be I am mistaken but I think that the 4k Sector size in the Platter is emulated to 512e byte by the Drive controller not the USB to Sata Adaptor (Enclosure). Is it ?

There are two levels of translation.

The bridge firmware inside the enclosure communicates with the host USB controller using 4KB LBAs and a SCSI command set.

The bridge then breaks up each 4KB LBA into eight 512e sectors, and the HDD reassembles them internally as a single 4KB pysical sector.

USB host <-- USB, 4KB, SCSI --> bridge firmware <-- SATA, 512e --> HDD (4KB physical sectors)

The reason that Seagate and WD do it this way is to maintain compatibility with legacy operating systems such as Windows XP which are limited to 32-bit LBAs.

You can determine the actual LBA size reported by the enclosure using the following command:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo x: (where x: represents the drive that you are checking)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510009

[mpr18]

Yes, I just connected the drive briefly through the Forensic Ultradock v5 and it clicks, but not all the time, it'll click for a bit then stop, then maybe click again a while later.

[fzabkar]

Seems like a bad enclosure most likely.

Many WD users are reporting physical connection problems with the USB connector. That said, ISTM that the clicking symptom might still be related to bad heads or media.

When the drive is installed in a third party enclosure, the OS would see gibberish in sector 0. Therefore it would be unable to locate the partitions and would not proceed any further.

Conversely, when the drive is inside its native enclosure, the OS would see the partition table and know where to find the boot sector(s). It would then attempt to read them and mount the file system.

Therefore, ISTM that sector 0 may be OK, but the damage may be further into the disk.

[mpr18]

The drive is: WD 3.0TB
WD30EZRS
MDL: WD30EZRS-00J99B0
Date: 08 DEB 2011

[mpr18]

Yes, it's the green caviar sata drive from WD and you totally make sense.
Drive clicks after outage, enclosure doesn't mount the drive but lights on and powers the HD, and the Ultradock says the HD is "healthy" but still doesn't mount (but maybe that's because the drive needs the original working enclosure...)

btw guys, thanks alot for the help, I appreciate.

If the drive it's one of those caviar green sata inside a usb enclosure and if the drive is powered up by sata power cable and if it clicks, it's almost sure that pre-amp is gone or pcb is damaged. I'm voting on that because the mention of "HD that started clicking after an electricity outage" ....
If enclosure is bad but powers on the drive correctly i don't see a reason for it to just click .... specially if the drive was connected to that expensive Ultradock v5 by sata.

[lcoughey]

Before you do anything further, you have to make the decision now. Are you willing to risk losing all your data by trying to recover it yourself?

Now, the next step is to get a full sector-by-sector clone of the drive. After that, you will then have to connect the clone to the appropriate USB/SATA bridge to decrypt the drive and make the data available.

[mpr18]

It looks like a burnt PCB problem to me, what do you think?