Hi All,

I've read several of the threads in this forum. Some members apparently have the ability to repair these units, changing PCB's, ROM chips, etc. I would be glad to talk to those about their fees and that process. Any advice on how to fix this drive would also be appreciated. Only 7 weeks old, I could no longer access the drive that has 1876GB of data (full). The WD drive was only unplugged 3-4 times. I don't believe the actual hard drive is damaged.

Links below are actual screenshots!

Here's what I have tried so far.
1) Changed USB cable, power cords, power access, etc. Tried 2 other PC's to access the drive, no luck.
2) Posted a thread on WD Forum w/screenshots for advise.
3) Tried TestDisk. During setup it could not find the partition. Moving forward anyways it produced read errors every few seconds. It was adding GB sized .txt log files to my laptop so I had to stop the app, not enough room.
4) On WD forum, some mentioned the "MRB file might be corrupt" and "partition data could be corrupt".
5) Called WD Support. They suggested using their Data LifeGuard Diagnostics app. The drive only shows up as a "Logical Drive" in their software. In order for the app to work it must show up under the "Physical Drives" category.
6) Took unit apart to inspect PCB boards - pics below.

PC Details and WD Specs:
1) WD My Book Essentials - 2TB USB3.0 unit that apparently uses hardware encryption.
1) Windows 7 64-bit laptop with 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 esata port.
2) I have a new WD My Book Essential 3TB USB3 drive that is working fine.

Symptoms are as follows:
1) After a reboot, it took longer than usual to recognize and access the drive so I moved on with my business. Over the next of 4-5 hours and a couple more reboots, it became harder each time to access the drive. It finally wouldn't allow any access.
2) When drive is now connected it only displays the drive the icon. It does not display the graph that shows available/used space like other drives.
3) When connected, the drive starts a scan in the Explorer bar at the top. This bogs down the PC making it virtually unusable. Must disconnect WD drive to get the PC back to normal. Waiting hours for this scan to finish produces no change, no access.
4) The drive is recognized in the Windows "Drive Management" but shows 1MB of "unallocated" space.


I didn't want to discount the idea of a bad USB port so I decided to inspect the PCB's. Some things look suspect on the boards. See below images.

Click here for HI-Res version of Image1 below:


Click here for HI-Res version of Image2 below:
Notice colorization of all the contact pins in the lower right of the image.


Click here for HI-Res version of Image3below:
Notice black colorization of the contact pins, center of image.


Click here for HI-Res version of Image4 below:
Notice corrosion in upper right of image.


Click here for HI-Res version of Image5 below:

Well, apparently I'm not allowed to edit my own post so...I forgot a couple things:

Does it appear software can be used to access the drive or would I need PCB work?
There was no smell or anything unusual when the drive stopped allowing access.

ISTM that your drive has an internal fault. It does not appear to be PCB related.

That said, I would clean up the oxidisation at the contacts of J1. Use a soft white pencil eraser. Don't be too vigorous. The oxidisation appears to be the fallout from materials changes mandated by RoHS.

BTW, I believe that the 1MB of "unallocated" space would be due to the fact that the first partition in a Windows 7 box begins at sector 2048 rather than sector 63.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

BJ12, i have the same failure symptom that you mentioned in your first post. I tried to clean up J1 with soft white pencil eraser as suggested. But the same symptom appears. So, please let me know if you already find out the solution to retrieve the data out from your 2TB HDD.

Thanks all. Several days ago I cleaned PCB connections, pins, etc. using rubbing alcohol and another "secret" method from my days repairing video games (1980's). I still can't access the drive. The owner of TestDisk thought encryption might be at the core of the problem because of the way his application was generating repeated errors and GB sized txt log files.

Is there a way to test and see if the USB port is working OK? Does this unit have symptoms in common with those that needed resoldered ports? One thread shows how connect an eSata cable to the PCB - but that board appears to be different than either of mine.

@BJ12,

I'll just make one comment, since you're already getting help from fzabkar:


Although that USB bridge board is very likely encrypting the data (I'm not an expert on those WD external drives to say for sure - I stay well away from them, for this and other reasons), you (or TestDisk) would still be able to read from the disk via SATA if the fault was the USB bridge board. However what you read would appear to be rubbish, as it would be encrypted.

If your attempts to read via SATA are resulting in read errors, that is not an encryption-related issue.

Bump. Anyone interested in fixing this for some money?

We can take a look at your drive.

Check PM.

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www.datarecoveryne.com