[Desperate] WD Elements SE Portable 1TB dead

[yorgos]

Hello all,

last week I bought a WD Elements SE Portable 1TB drive (external with USB interface soldered onto the PCB). This Monday, the drive suddenly/without any warning/out of nowhere it just stopped working . I take extreme care of my toys, so physical damage is out of the question. The only thing I can think of is that the motherboard fried the disk or that the disk was of really, really bad quality.

I don't care about the hdd, it was relatively cheap anyway, but unfortunately I put some valuable stuff in there that I would like to get back.. So, being a student with a limited budget, I have tried almost every DIY technique to get my precious data back..

It's not a logical problem as...
- I tried to analyze the disk with R-Studio and GetDataBack for NTFS without success: GetDataBack gives lots of "Error 1117 during ReadLogicalLBA".
- I also tried to access the disk under Linux. It gives I/O errors.
- When I run Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows it gives me a "ReadCapacity Failed" error.

Great, it's a hardware problem.. Fortunately I have bought two of those crappy disks, so I have a working PCB that I know for sure it is compatible. Being a newbie and desperate, I guessed I'd just swap the PCBs and everything will be OK. That failed After some googling I discovered the controversial technique called live PCB swap which I tried. That failed too; as soon as I wake up the disk it just clicks repeatedly..

Ideally I'd like to swap the U12 chip (I hope it's not fried..) but I don't have the equipment for that kind of tricks so I don't have the slightest clue as to what to do next, I think I will abandon the effort since I don't have the money necessary to consult a DR expert. Unless you have any other idea.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Product name: WD Elements SE Portable 1TB
Product number: WDBPCK0010BBK-01
HDD Model: WD10JMVW-11AJGS0
Board number: 2060-771961-000 REV P1

[jignesh]

Hello all,

last week I bought a WD Elements SE Portable 1TB drive (external with USB interface soldered onto the PCB). This Monday, the drive suddenly/without any warning/out of nowhere it just stopped working . I take extreme care of my toys, so physical damage is out of the question. The only thing I can think of is that the motherboard fried the disk or that the disk was of really, really bad quality.

I don't care about the hdd, it was relatively cheap anyway, but unfortunately I put some valuable stuff in there that I would like to get back.. So, being a student with a limited budget, I have tried almost every DIY technique to get my precious data back..

It's not a logical problem as...
- I tried to analyze the disk with R-Studio and GetDataBack for NTFS without success: GetDataBack gives lots of "Error 1117 during ReadLogicalLBA".
- I also tried to access the disk under Linux. It gives I/O errors.
- When I run Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows it gives me a "ReadCapacity Failed" error.

Great, it's a hardware problem.. Fortunately I have bought two of those crappy disks, so I have a working PCB that I know for sure it is compatible. Being a newbie and desperate, I guessed I'd just swap the PCBs and everything will be OK. That failed After some googling I discovered the controversial technique called live PCB swap which I tried. That failed too; as soon as I wake up the disk it just clicks repeatedly..

Ideally I'd like to swap the U12 chip (I hope it's not fried..) but I don't have the equipment for that kind of tricks so I don't have the slightest clue as to what to do next, I think I will abandon the effort since I don't have the money necessary to consult a DR expert. Unless you have any other idea.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Product name: WD Elements SE Portable 1TB
Product number: WDBPCK0010BBK-01
HDD Model: WD10JMVW-11AJGS0
Board number: 2060-771961-000 REV P1

Hi Dear Friend yorgos
U R Lucky Ur WD Drive Is Not Passport.
WD Elements Drive Dont Have Encryption Technologies.
Just Try To Replace Eprom From Old To New Working Board And Tell Me What Happend.
My Experiance Tell That Ur PCB Is OK There Is No Problem.
Problem Is May Be Firmware Or Head Is gone Bcoz U Said Its Constant Clicking But In The WD Drive I Dont Say That Is Head Problem Bcoz I Have Recover Sucessfully Lots OF Drive With Clicking Sound Without The Changing Head.
In The WD Drive Always Clicking Is Not Head. Perfect Diagnosis Is Required In WD Then I Say Finaly What HAppend.
Sorry For My Bad English.


Your Friend
Jignesh Pankhania

[yorgos]

Hello my friend, thank you so much for your reply! It is very encouraging to hear that the drive does not have any encryption technologies. If i understand you correctly, your advice is to desolder the U12 chip/EEPROM from the donor and solder it to the patient. If that's the case, I don't think I do it on my own because I'm not very good at that stuff (messing with electronics).. I guess I'll put the disk away for a while and retry sometime in the future when I feel that I can do it.

Thanks again!
Yorgos

[ShaneWard]

If you can post the image of the Board and all the components on it then I am sure a simple TV repair shop or electronic place can solder the chip onto your new board for you cheaply.

[HaQue]

There are places that sell replacement PCB for HDD with a ROM transfer service. Or a DR company can help you. As you have not tried DIY yet, you have probably kept costs down.

[fzabkar]

How do UVCView and HD Sentinel identify your drive?

UVCView talks to the USB-SATA bridge IC whereas HD Sentinel attempts to communicate with the HDD behind the bridge.

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_ID ... ew.x86.exe
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

[northwind]

I think vital info is missing: How does drive behave. "Dead" or "Stopped working" are too generic and almost never tell the truth.

OP said drive is clicking after pcb swap, which is probably normal due to wrong adaptives.

But how does drive behave? Is totally silent when powered on?

[yorgos]

Hello all, thank you very much for all your precious advices, I am much obliged.

It turns out it's *not* a problem with the PCB. I've had the EEPROM changed by an electrical engineer and the patient shows the exact same symptoms as before (with it's own PCB) while the donor works perfectly fine. So, I'll just put the disk in a box and one day maybe I'll have it examined by one of you guys.

Thanks again!
Yorgos

EDIT1: I'm not so sad though, I've learned quite a few things and it taught me a very good lesson : always thoroughly test an HDD before putting it in "production".

EDIT2: I've had some private messages offering help. Thank you so much! Unfortunately I haven't participated enough in the forum to be able to reply to or send private messages

[swiss_ts]

Hallo. I have same identical drive. If plugged in it sounds normal (spins) and led blinks. On a win machine Drive letter will not be attributed but USB device viewer gives me following:
---===>Device Information<===---
English product name: "Elements 1042"

ConnectionStatus:
Current Config Value: 0x01 -> Device Bus Speed: High
Device Address: 0x02
Open Pipes: 2

===>Endpoint Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x07
bDescriptorType: 0x05
bEndpointAddress: 0x81 -> Direction: IN - EndpointID: 1
bmAttributes: 0x02 -> Bulk Transfer Type
wMaxPacketSize: 0x0200 = 0x200 max bytes
bInterval: 0x00

===>Endpoint Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x07
bDescriptorType: 0x05
bEndpointAddress: 0x02 -> Direction: OUT - EndpointID: 2
bmAttributes: 0x02 -> Bulk Transfer Type
wMaxPacketSize: 0x0200 = 0x200 max bytes
bInterval: 0x00

===>Device Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x12
bDescriptorType: 0x01
bcdUSB: 0x0210
bDeviceClass: 0x00 -> This is an Interface Class Defined Device
bDeviceSubClass: 0x00
bDeviceProtocol: 0x00
bMaxPacketSize0: 0x40 = (64) Bytes
idVendor: 0x1058 = Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
idProduct: 0x1042
bcdDevice: 0x1007
iManufacturer: 0x01
English (United States) "Western Digital"
iProduct: 0x02
English (United States) "Elements 1042"
iSerialNumber: 0x05
English (United States) "57584D314138313734333937"
bNumConfigurations: 0x01

===>Configuration Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x09
bDescriptorType: 0x02
wTotalLength: 0x0020 -> Validated
bNumInterfaces: 0x01
bConfigurationValue: 0x01
iConfiguration: 0x04
English (United States) "USB Mass Storage"
bmAttributes: 0x80 -> Bus Powered
MaxPower: 0xFA = 500 mA

===>Interface Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x09
bDescriptorType: 0x04
bInterfaceNumber: 0x00
bAlternateSetting: 0x00
bNumEndpoints: 0x02
bInterfaceClass: 0x08 -> This is a Mass Storage USB Device Interface Class
bInterfaceSubClass: 0x06
bInterfaceProtocol: 0x50
iInterface: 0x06
English (United States) "MSC Bulk-Only Transport"

===>Endpoint Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x07
bDescriptorType: 0x05
bEndpointAddress: 0x81 -> Direction: IN - EndpointID: 1
bmAttributes: 0x02 -> Bulk Transfer Type
wMaxPacketSize: 0x0200 = 0x200 max bytes
bInterval: 0x00

===>Endpoint Descriptor<===
bLength: 0x07
bDescriptorType: 0x05
bEndpointAddress: 0x02 -> Direction: OUT - EndpointID: 2
bmAttributes: 0x02 -> Bulk Transfer Type
wMaxPacketSize: 0x0200 = 0x200 max bytes
bInterval: 0x00

What's wrong?

Thanks

[Keatah]

@Yorgos:

I hope you learned the lesson of making backups. No matter how thoroughly you test something before putting it into "production", it can still fail.

[andy1]

Western Digital drives are pathetic & I have only had bad experience with them.
I had the same drive with the same problem and the data is lost permanently without very expensive (unaffordable) data recovery.
I will now stick to Seagate.

[Keatah]

No drives, seagate, western digital, hitachi, samsung, whatever.. No drives are reliable enough that you can trust your information to one single disk.

While precision instruments, they are also engineered and built by people at the lowest cost possible.

I'd worry more about having a backup as opposed to fretting over a brand.

[BlackST]

Western Digital drives are pathetic & I have only had bad experience with them.
I had the same drive with the same problem and the data is lost permanently without very expensive (unaffordable) data recovery.
I will now stick to Seagate.

Seagate drives sometimes are even more problematic...

[HaQue]

I was just about to say that Seagate as with any other brand will have issues, and Keatah pretty much sums up anything else I was going to say.

If you want to see which brand is the "biggest piece of crap" in your view, easy, just have a failure of that brand and suddenly you will see them talked about everywhere.

here is a survey I made up for this post with real details and real results of sketchy data:

I have a problem samsung hard disk
About 48,000,000 results (0.44 seconds)

I have a problem "western digital" hard disk
About 4,710,000 results (0.31 seconds)

I have a problem hitachi hard disk
About 3,910,000 results (0.33 seconds)

I have a problem seagate hard disk
About 8,790,000 results (0.36 seconds)

I have a problem fujitsu hard disk
About 3,430,000 results (0.34 seconds)

I have a problem toshiba hard disk
About 7,260,000 results (0.37 seconds)

Ever seen a car you have never seen before, from that moment you begin to notice them everywhere

[craig6928]

dame it sounds like you got headlock issues my western digital element
just locked up one day no reason at all just went to turn it on.

is the drive blue light blinking on and off fast.


seagate drives are ok but they are crap i had a 2tb fail me with in one month.
lucky i bought some 1tb and they are working fine.


end of the day nothing is safe not even cloud storage
im backing up all my movies onto both hard drive and dvr.

last one i lost had over 1500 movies i ripped from dvds
it taken us months to do and scan all my dvd cover in.

[andy1]

Are headlock issues possible to fix yourself with some equipment?