wd usb portable "slow issue"

[professor_jonny]

Hi there

I have a wd 2.5" usb hdd and it seems to be really slow and has issuies mounting because of i/o errors and I believe bad sectors or weak heads or something like that.

Some time ago I used wdr to fix a desktop sata drive with the slow issue by patching one of the modules and clearing the g or p list from memory.

does this issue effect the usb wd drives also and what tools to i need to fix this if so ?

I booted up ubuntu and ran testdisk and it can find the partition table and list files on the drive but it took forever.

I want to fix the slow issue and them run ddrescue on it to make an image to extract files from.

[michael chiklis]

Is your usb drive attached to a sata/usb bridge or does it have usb native pcb?
If it is attached to sata/usb bridge then open the box, pull out the drive and attach it directly to the sata port of your motherboard, then see if you can fix with WDR.
If drive has native usb pcb then you have to find a donor sata pcb compatible with your drive, copy rom from your original usb pcb to donor sata pcb, and attach the drive to the sata port of your computer, then try to fix it with WDR.

If you will be able to fix bad mods then clone the surface with some cloning tool, if heads are weak or without knowledge the best thing is to send the drive to a pro, especially if data are important.

[professor_jonny]

It is a native usb drive.

The drive inside the case is a wd7500kmvv-11tk7s1 (750gig)

Where would I find a replacment sata pcb for it.

i have the tools to desolder the eeprom from the board and attach it to a new sata board if it is that easy.

[fzabkar]

It's quite possible that your drive is encrypted, in which case you would need to revert to the original native PCB after applying the "slow fix". Therefore it might be preferable if you were to try reading and programming the flash memory in-circuit using an SOIC clip.

To locate a suitable SATA PCB, could you tell us the 2060-nnnnnn number on the PCB? Could you also identify the markings on the Marvell MCU and motor controller ICs?

[professor_jonny]

I think ill send it to a pro as it does not belong to me and they are keen to get it sorted.