WD My Passport Ultra USB PCB to SATA PCB Swap for Recovery

[dataminer]

Hello All. New to the forums. I have some very basic questions regarding a data recovery from a My Passport Ultra 2TB with a USB 3.0 interface. The drive spins up and is recognized correctly in the Device Manager, but is otherwise not recognized or visible (as a drive) in any operating system or software recovery applications used. I'd like to use our DeepSpar on it, but we don't have the USB add-on for it yet. I'd like to swap the USB PCB (2060-771961-001) to a compatible SATA PCB so that we can use the DeepSpar on it.

Drive Info:
WD My Passport Ultra
WD Green
Model: WD20NMVW-11AV3S2
Date: 08 MAR 2015

Questions:

- What would be the recommended SATA PCB? (and where best to get it?)

- Do I need to swap the existing (old) ROM chip to the SATA PCB for the initial recovery?

- I'm assuming the recovered data would be encrypted, so how best to unencrypt after the recovery?

Would be interested in any input or advice that might make the job go a little easier.

We don't have a PC-3000 yet.

I'd also like some opinions on how well the DeepSpar USB add-on is working out for anyone using it. I was thinking of investing in the PC-3000 before considering the DeepSpar USB add-on due to the high cost of the add-on.

Thanks in advance.

[Roberto]

- What would be the recommended SATA PCB? (and where best to get it?)

771960, 771939, or 771959

- Do I need to swap the existing (old) ROM chip to the SATA PCB for the initial recovery?

You need to transfer the data only... It's not necessary to swap the chips.
But there are many people on this forum who have much more knowledge than me in this regard.

- I'm assuming the recovered data would be encrypted, so how best to unencrypt after the recovery?

You can use reallymine (linux) or a tool from me (windows and other systems possible) which I can send you over email.

Thanks in advance.

You're welcome.

[dataminer]

Thanks for the quick response Roberto. Very helpful info. I might get back to you for that application. Any other advice would be appreciated.

[maximus]

There is a slight possibility that this could still be handled with software tools. If this drive suffers from the WD slow issue then HDDSuperTool could possibly perform the slow fix on it. There has been a report of a drive of the same model would not accept the VSC commands, but since then I have also learned that it depends on the bridge and it could be possible that drives of the same model made at different times could have a different bridge chip. See the link below for more information. It might be worth a try, and if the slow fix can be applied, and the drive only has some bad sectors or reasonable bad area and not a bad head, then it may be able to be cloned with software (such a HDDSuperClone).

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... usb-drives

[data-medics]

- Do I need to swap the existing (old) ROM chip to the SATA PCB for the initial recovery?

You need to transfer the data only... It's not necessary to swap the chips.
But there are many people on this forum who have much more knowledge than me in this regard.

If he doesn't yet have any professional tools like PC-3000 to read/write the ROM, then yes he would need to transfer the U12 ROM.

[data-medics]

There is a slight possibility that this could still be handled with software tools. If this drive suffers from the WD slow issue then HDDSuperTool could possibly perform the slow fix on it. There has been a report of a drive of the same model would not accept the VSC commands, but since then I have also learned that it depends on the bridge and it could be possible that drives of the same model made at different times could have a different bridge chip. See the link below for more information. It might be worth a try, and if the slow fix can be applied, and the drive only has some bad sectors or reasonable bad area and not a bad head, then it may be able to be cloned with software (such a HDDSuperClone).

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... usb-drives

While I am impressed with this new software tool, I must say there is no substitute for imaging using a SATA PCB. Even DDI4 with USB addon, which is a hardware imager for USB drives, can't do as well as you can with converting to SATA. Despite having this tool, we pretty much always convert them now.

[dataminer]

There is a slight possibility that this could still be handled with software tools. If this drive suffers from the WD slow issue then HDDSuperTool could possibly perform the slow fix on it. There has been a report of a drive of the same model would not accept the VSC commands, but since then I have also learned that it depends on the bridge and it could be possible that drives of the same model made at different times could have a different bridge chip. See the link below for more information. It might be worth a try, and if the slow fix can be applied, and the drive only has some bad sectors or reasonable bad area and not a bad head, then it may be able to be cloned with software (such a HDDSuperClone).

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... usb-drives

Thanks maximus, I'm going to check out those software tools.

[dataminer]

There is a slight possibility that this could still be handled with software tools. If this drive suffers from the WD slow issue then HDDSuperTool could possibly perform the slow fix on it. There has been a report of a drive of the same model would not accept the VSC commands, but since then I have also learned that it depends on the bridge and it could be possible that drives of the same model made at different times could have a different bridge chip. See the link below for more information. It might be worth a try, and if the slow fix can be applied, and the drive only has some bad sectors or reasonable bad area and not a bad head, then it may be able to be cloned with software (such a HDDSuperClone).

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... usb-drives

While I am impressed with this new software tool, I must say there is no substitute for imaging using a SATA PCB. Even DDI4 with USB addon, which is a hardware imager for USB drives, can't do as well as you can with converting to SATA. Despite having this tool, we pretty much always convert them now.

Thanks data-medics. I'll plan on swapping the ROM chip then if I have to go that route. It's very helpful to know that you generally continue to convert to SATA even though you have the USB add-on. We do have the DDI4 now (which generally works great and has increased our ability to recover data), but it sounds like you might agree that, in terms of cost vs. return, our next best investment should be the PC-3000 instead of the USB add-on for the DDI4. Also, do you need to swap to SATA PCBs for the PC-3000?