Dropped a MyBook WD 8TB Helium Drive

[fzabkar]

I saw someone questioning if my post is "true" on https://groups.google.com/g/datarecover ... 9EdF6I0lIk.

Just to clear, I was not the one who questioned your post. I merely conveyed your experience to that other thread to show that Seagate does in fact recover data from helium drives with physical problems.

[suricate.ch]

I saw someone questioning if my post is "true" on https://groups.google.com/g/datarecover ... 9EdF6I0lIk.

Just to clear, I was not the one who questioned your post. I merely conveyed your experience to that other thread to show that Seagate does in fact recover data from helium drives with physical problems.

I saw that, no worries.

[coolproductz]

Dropped a MyBook WD 8TB Helium Drive onto slate floor from 2M ... I attempted to plug the drive in to see if it worked .. all I heard was a high pitched sound then nothing. The drive still spins. I'm not sure if the platters are scratched or not - I think they may not be?

I took the drive to Ontrack which I believe is worldwide and they said there was mechanical failure (I knew that already!) and no one in Hong Kong has the equipment to open & repair. And they said that even if they could repair the hardware, the data is encrypted by WD, so the data would be unrecoverable - is this last part correct?

I'm thinking of getting an xray of the HE drive to see what position the arms are at and if they are mangled. I see somewhere on this forum that this sort of drive has been unscrewed/disassembled successfully ..

My next question is - if the arms just need placing back in the correct rest position, if the drive is opened in a vacuum environment, and then reassembled with no He inside, would the drive work enough to get back the data?

The other idea is to drop the disc from the same height the opposite end to see if this helps!

Any advice please ..

So after a few months of trying to get my data back from my helium drive .. still not successful.

First, I sent my Helium drive to Ontrack - they said immediately they cannot work on helium filled drives. I then sent my helium drive to a company in the UK called datarecoveryspecialists.co.uk and also known as www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk. I had a long conversation on the phone and they convinced me that they have equipment & experience to recover data from helium filled drives. So after the initial free tests, they were not able to recover any data. So after paying them GBP 550+VAT (I did not pay the VAT as I do not live in the UK) They said the tests would include the following: This is the quote from the email below:

"The good news is we have a plan of action to retrieve this data, the bad news is standard recovery techniques have been unsuccessful is retrieving usable data.

Our Engineering Team has come up with a course of action that will result in the best chance of retrieving your data. If you choose to go ahead with this course, A level 5 Engineer will be assigned to your media and work through all possible processes to gain access to your data which will include the following:

· Usage and access to all parts available in our library, purchasing of parts externally is included also.
· Forensic analysis scans to ‘rebuild’ all bad sectors
· Complete sector by sector rebuild of the image
· Dedicated PC 3000 for logical issues
· As much lab time as need to exhaust recovery options.

We have a very good track record in recovering data from situations such as this, but of course we do not know how much if any data until these processes are completed. Our engineers have told us they believe this job has a high likelihood of success. But we cannot stress enough that there are risks of retrieving no data."

Basically I do not know exactly what procedure they uses, as I only got sketchy updates. But they did say they replaced the heads twice at no additional cost. Eventually they did inform they managed to recover 75% corrupted imaged, which they did not include when I asked for the return of the drive.

I had asked on several occasions, if a helium environment was used .. I never got an answer .. I also never got images or video to show progress.

So a couple of questions : If the drive had new heads installed, and a 75% corrupted image was somehow recovered, would that have been a readable image if the helium environment was used? And .. if helium environment was not used, even with new heads installed, would the arms at the wrong distance above the platters, damage the platters more.

The helium disc is with my cousin in the UK and so if anyone reading this knows anyone else who has REAL EXPERIENCE with helium drives, ley me know.

Is the data on this helium drive still recoverable??

Thank you!

[Lardman]

You really should have searched the web before sending the drive to fields - I'll say nothing more.

Do I understand you correctly that you paid 550 quid and received nothing in return, not even the 75% corrupt recovery they claim to have obtained?

I'm not sure how Sean feels about Helium drives but it's worth containing www.pcimage.co.uk to see if he'll have a crack at it or at least give you an evaluation. I'm not taking them in yet and I certainly wouldn't want one the fields have played with.

[DRUG]

Jesus Christ.

It's disturbing what people do when they are desperate to recover data...

550£ for a Indian Scam company? Wow, I must really update my prices.

I can work on SOME models, and I have a small HE injection pump and seal method. But I can tell you one thing, even if the data is still recoverable, it will be 10 times harder to retrieve it because there is no way to know what was the HE standard level on that specific drive, and there is no way to know if they spinned platters, or if they tried to run it with oxygen or without a re-seal.

I haven't R&D'd WD HE drives, only HGST, but you are up for a treat...
Perhaps a guy like Doomer might want to take your case.

I would take it but it would be on a no warranty and charging for the time. (When we say this means that recovery chances are low and no one wants to waste time)

Best of luck tho and keep us posted of your progress.

[fzabkar]

... there is no way to know what was the HE standard level on that specific drive ...

Some Seagate He drives report a He pressure of around 600 mbar via terminal.

[Doomer]

I haven't R&D'd WD HE drives, only HGST, but you are up for a treat...

It's the same thing, WD do not produce their own He drives, they re-brand HGST.

Perhaps a guy like Doomer might want to take your case.

I'll pass.

[coolproductz]

You really should have searched the web before sending the drive to fields - I'll say nothing more.

Do I understand you correctly that you paid 550 quid and received nothing in return, not even the 75% corrupt recovery they claim to have obtained?

I'm not sure how Sean feels about Helium drives but it's worth containing http://www.pcimage.co.uk to see if he'll have a crack at it or at least give you an evaluation. I'm not taking them in yet and I certainly wouldn't want one the fields have played with.

Thank for your reply - I will contact pcimage (who is the contact there and phone number?). Yes I paid GBP 550 and I will request the 75% corrupted image (I may need to supply them with a hard disk to put it it on though) I have now seen the scam alerts by web search.

The persons are Fields recovery I was dealing with are Daniel Rees (20 years experience in HDD he said) Steven Garvey, Matthew Smith & Roger Cáceres - I have talked with all of these persons over the phone except Roger Cáceres. Can these all be scam artists and they do not handle hard disk drives at all??

[DRUG]

... there is no way to know what was the HE standard level on that specific drive ...

Some Seagate He drives report a He pressure of around 600 mbar via terminal.

What do you think this drive would report now?
0mbar or would the sensor bug at the lack of HE?

[DRUG]

I haven't R&D'd WD HE drives, only HGST, but you are up for a treat...

It's the same thing, WD do not produce their own He drives, they re-brand HGST.


But firmware is the same or does it change?

[fzabkar]

I haven't R&D'd WD HE drives, only HGST, but you are up for a treat...

It's the same thing, WD do not produce their own He drives, they re-brand HGST.


But firmware is the same or does it change?

The firmware architecture appears to be the same, or at least I can use the same tool to parse both firmware.

WD does some deceptive things in regard to their "5400 RPM class" versions of HGST drives. It would appear that they are 7200 RPM HGST models whose performance has been nobbled in some way.

[Doomer]

But firmware is the same or does it change?

The firmware is compiled specifically for WD but there are not many things that differ from generic HGST firmware.

[guru]

Sexy HGST can OEM self configure too

[michael chiklis]

But firmware is the same or does it change?

The firmware is compiled specifically for WD but there are not many things that differ from generic HGST firmware.

Just for curiosity, in your opinion is it possible to replace PCB from this type of HGST drive with an "equivalent" WD pcb?

[Doomer]

Just for curiosity, in your opinion is it possible to replace PCB from this type of HGST drive with an "equivalent" WD pcb?

There are numbers on PCB that need to be matched, if they are matched then it wouldn't matter the origin of that PCB

[lijesh]

Hi,
Any update on this?

Dropped WD MyBook 14TB.

[ShaneWard]

Hi,
Any update on this?

Dropped WD MyBook 14TB.

Hopefully you got backup, count it as a loss and move on. If not and you need data, I suggest first port of call, because its a Helium Drive, is to see if WD can recover the data and send it to them. They made the drive, they should be able to recover data, surely...