WD My Book Essential with drive WD20EACS-11BHUB0 encrypted ?

[michael chiklis]

Hello, i've this My Book Essential which wasn't detect anymore in windows (no spinning).
I opened the case and pull out the drive, drive is WD20EACS-11BHUB0.
I found burned 12V TVS diode on the pcb which i substituted with a new one, now pcb works and the drive spins.
No clicking sound (but good calibration sound) and the drive is detect in bios, but not in windows, mhdd detects it but on surface scan i get all !!
I can see the drive only in Device Manager

In WDR i checked all SA mods and rom, all good exept mod 6F (which is normal to be bad on this drive).

Is this issue due to Essential encryption?
I inserted the drive into his My Book case again but still can't be detect (but it spins), i don't understand...

What should i do?

[Vulcan]

Is this issue due to Essential encryption?

No - that would not cause the read errors you described in MHDD.

[michael chiklis]

What error would be shown in mhdd on good working encrypted drives?
How can i solve this case?

[pcimage]

What error would be shown in mhdd on good working encrypted drives?
How can i solve this case?

MHDD would show no errors on a fully working drive, it does not care about encryption.

Your drive either has a firmware problem, or a failed/failing head preventing full translator initialisation.

[craig6928]

are you getting by anychance headlock error ????


as these drives are common for doing this

[michael chiklis]

Headlock error?
What is and how do i check it?

[michael chiklis]

WDR read all SA mods correctly, was reported all good exept 6F
Also ROM seems to be good.

SA + ROM + defects:

WDCWD20EACS-11BHUB0-51.0AB51.rar

(7.59 MiB) Downloaded 698 times

There were some entries in G-list.
I resetted smart status and did fast translators on P-list, but nothing has changed.
Maybe someone can help me to find where the problem is...

[michael chiklis]

Firmware version is 25.12E

Mod 0D : 00010000 (01.00)
Mod 4F : 00250012 (25.12)
DIR Rev: 00020000 (02.00)
OVL Rev: 00250013 (25.13)

I upload again the file because WDR 3.2 didn't read mods 1E and 53, WDR 3.0 read those:

WDCWD20EACS-11BHUB0-25.12E.rar

(7.59 MiB) Downloaded 610 times

[michael chiklis]

I did move G to P but with error 3C20=FMT_ERR_REMERGE_REQUIRED
Then i did quick translator on P list but drive is still not detect in windows and in mhdd i see only !! quickly scrolling on surface scan.

So i reloaded the G-list defects from INI file backup, then i did again move G to P, i got the same error but this time i also did REMERGE G to P, and after i did quick translator on P-list

Drive is still the same.

Should i give up?

[michael chiklis]

Does affect on data SS logs?
I need to recover data on this drive...

[michael chiklis]

What option should i select to re-create P list from SS logs?

[pcimage]

My money is on a bad head.

Does WDR allow head map edit in RAM?

[michael chiklis]

pcimage you are right, head 4 it's bad.

Stupid me, i had to try before this test.
Ok, now i should depop that head on ram and try to recover data with file carving software?

P.S.

Grrrr, i forgot this is an encrypted drive, what can i do?

[craig6928]

Headlock error?
What is and how do i check it?

i wish we all knew what it no read no write

comes up hard drive is headlocked with any software or hardware tools

very weird issue.

it happens a lot the drive works then next time you use it
head lock is on.

dame that sucks that its a encrypted drive

your have to reverse engineer it for it to unencrypt it

which you can do you dont need the orginal password
there another way into the system by backdoor
which will bypass the encryption for you

[hddguy]

The head does not report a failure during startup, but when trying to load translator it detects an error on one or more heads and translator cannot properly initialize (as PCImage already stated). It has nothing to do with P-List or the translator - it is a physical issue with one head.

Also, you need to identify the position of the key and check whether this is accessible under one of the good heads, if not you need to restore it from a copy of SA.

Without it this wont decrypt, despite talk of 'backdoors' ...

[hddguy]

Does WDR allow head map edit in RAM?

Was this tried? In some cases its possible to read from the bad head also once initialized from alternate map in RAM and restored to native once access is possible...

[michael chiklis]

Was this tried? In some cases its possible to read from the bad head also once initialized from alternate map in RAM and restored to native once access is possible...

I don't think i have understood this, but i still haven't try head edit map.
Thank you everyone for help, i will try head edit and let you know what happens.

[mr_spokk]

P.S.

[b]Grrrr, i forgot this is an encrypted drive, what can i do?

I would image off the good heads, then try to see if head 4 is alive (as Pcimage stated), if not then it's time for headswap

[craig6928]

head four gone bye bye but should be able to get a good image of the drive
so long there no data where head four is
or headstack swap.

[craig6928]

The head does not report a failure during startup, but when trying to load translator it detects an error on one or more heads and translator cannot properly initialize (as PCImage already stated). It has nothing to do with P-List or the translator - it is a physical issue with one head.

Also, you need to identify the position of the key and check whether this is accessible under one of the good heads, if not you need to restore it from a copy of SA.

Without it this wont decrypt, despite talk of 'backdoors' ...

so let say that the encrytion key is in the sa area hidden in plain sight.
if you reverse engineer it your find a backdoor


these encrypted drives suck for sure

anyone have headlock issue pm as it be good to know wtf it is
and why it happens