WD My Book Essential failure

[rajrag]

Yesterday, my WD 1TB My Book Essential stopped working - probably power spike, because there was a burnt smell immediately after plugging in (I checked the adapter later - it shows right voltage 12V). Strangely enough there is no charred/blacked out region in the controller circuit, I am guessing some component simply blew out and it is too small to see.

I took the advice of a friend and a bit of googling (not enough, as i realized later) connected it to a empty SATA slot in my desktop box. Hard disk spinning with healthy noise, BIOS and Windows 7 detected the hard disk - so far so good.

When I went to the disk manager in windows 7 and clicked on the drive, a message popped to the effect : 'Need to initialize the hard disk". Blunder - I pressed yes.

With a bit more serious trawling - I stumbled into hddguru and found loads of information on what needs to be done to recover data from a failed WD hardware encrypted disk. From the available information it is clear that the hard disk is working well and it is only the controller that has failed. Tomorrow I will venture out to buy one more hard disk of the same kind/model and hopefully that controller can revive my dead hard disk. ofcourse, there is no guarantee that the controller revision numbers will match but I am hoping that it might work. If not, I will start the search for a spare controller board with correct revision number.

Assuming controller board issue is sorted out, when I 'initialized' the hard drive in windows 7, I am sure I have rewritten the partition table. Obviously I wouldnt be able to read the data even when the controller board is working. What do I do?

(There is a post, couple of years back, on the same issue - but dont see any resolution in that thread)

thanks.

[michael chiklis]

After you will be able to decrypt the drive with the right controller, you need to use R-studio to copy data on a third drive.
With R-studio you should be able to see all folders and files although you have cleared MBR with the initialization.

[ShaneWard]

Do you have an image of the bridge board that shorted out, perhaps its just a small component that could be replaced at a electrical shop. Once the board is working and the drive powers up, I'm sure a restore program or something might recover the disk, but you need the original bridge board for that.

Shane

[rajrag]

Thanks Michael, Shane. I was beating myself up a bit for making it worse by overwriting MBR. It is a relief that all may not be lost. I still need to the original controller - not atleast I see some hope.
Here is the controller pic - is there anything I can check with a multimeter to localize the issue?

cheers

WD 1TB MyBook controller

[rajrag]

more info : I went through the control board with a magnifier. Only place I could see any sort of heat effect is on the component L6. The base of that component looks melted - the melting looks to be only on one side and there is no charring of the board below. Could that be the reason for controller failure? (pics attached - not great quality, will try for better ones in day light tomorrow).

Rajesh

L6_2.jpg (97.65 KiB) Viewed 16784 times

[ShaneWard]

The chip on the bottom right loots like it has a burn mark on the top, so it might be damaged. Not sure what it is. Someone else might have to offer advice.

Shane

[Keatah]

Was the format full or quick?

[fzabkar]

U2 stores the bridge firmware.

U4 appears to be a dual MOSFET that switches +5V and +12V power to the HDD's SATA power connector.

The chip at U5, adjacent to the 150 coil, appears to be a PWM controller for a +5V regulator. Measure the voltage at the coil.

If U5 is damaged, but the remainder of the PCB is OK, then it may be possible to hack the board using an external +5V supply (from your PC's PSU), but you would need some electronics skill.

Was the format full or quick?

AIUI, the OP "initialised" the drive but did not format it. Therefore only the partition table in sector 0 will have been damaged. This can easily be reconstructed by hand.

[rajrag]

This bridge board has slightly different labelling.

U5 is RT8284 DC-DC step down converter.
( http://en.richtek.com/product_detail.jsp?s=566 )
U5 is appears to be blown - the input reads correct 12V but no output. There is no voltage drop across the adjacent "150" coil either. Moreover there is some physical damage to U5 on the top, not sure whether it is part of the design or melted from inside.

U2 is 4619 MOSFET - not sure how to them in circuit.
http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet- ... O4619.html

U4 is W25X20BLNIG winbond 2M bit serial flash memory.

any suggestions to rule out or check U2 and U5? thanks.

cheers

[fzabkar]

There shouldn't be a DC voltage drop across the coil, but there should be +5V between the coil and ground.

Assuming that the coil is OK, and that there is no short circuit between the coil and ground, then you might like to try replacing the RT8284.

It costs US$0.68 in single quantities:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... ND/3078258

[Matiw]

Is it my eyes, or is there no sata connector in the board ? I can only see a USB port and something else.

Thanks Michael, Shane. I was beating myself up a bit for making it worse by overwriting MBR. It is a relief that all may not be lost. I still need to the original controller - not atleast I see some hope.
Here is the controller pic - is there anything I can check with a multimeter to localize the issue?

cheers

DSC_0271.JPG

[fzabkar]

Is it my eyes, or is there no sata connector in the board ? I can only see a USB port and something else.

http://parts.com.hk/1/images/1wd_contro ... 001_01.JPG
http://parts.com.hk/1/images/1wd_contro ... 001_02.JPG
http://parts.com.hk/1/images/1wd_contro ... 001_03.JPG
http://parts.com.hk/1/images/1wd_contro ... 001_04.JPG

[rajrag]

Those pictures from parts.com.hk are exact match for my hard disk, down to the revision AA ! unfortunately they are not available in that store anymore. I found one in US though, I have placed an order and hoping to get the board in couple of weeks.

meanwhile, trying to get hold of RT8284 so that I can make this blown board functional, if at all it is possible to do.

cheers

[rajrag]

Finally got the bridgeboard (same model & rev) in hand from Aptec in US. The replacement board worked without a hitch and I could clone the entire drive. Once cloned, used 'testdisk' to recover the original partition - it took few seconds for 'testdisk' to do this. I got all my documents and photos back!. I learnt a bit during this time - thanks everyone for suggestions, especially fzabkar .

cheers,

rajesh.