WD My Passport Ultra, no partition map and slow reads

[JGAN]

Hello,
Newbie here. I have a WD My Passport Ultra 1TB with a 2060-771961-001 PCB that wasn't being recognized by the computer at all. The LED would flash a few times, then go steady, then flash again. It seemed to spin up fine and I didn't hear any clicking.

I followed this guide here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27819

I removed U14, then desoldered C13, C18, C31, C37 from the JMS side as it said in the thread, but what wasn't clear was whether to leave the caps on or not. I left them on and soldered on the A and B wires from the SATA port to the other end of the caps that would normally go to the JMS chip.

The drive is now recognized as a 1TB WD drive, but Windows/Linux/Mac/Rapidspar do not see a partition map. It also reads incredibly slow; ddrescue was reading at like 320kb/s.

Rapidspar says the heads are 100% healthy and 79% of tested sectors contain data. Drive CPU/RAM, ROM are ok, but Translator and Defect Lists only have partial access.

Any ideas what could be the issue? Does it have something to do with the encryption from the JMS chip? What would be the next step here to recover data?

[MindMergepk]

windows/linux/mac are not seeing partition because drive is proabbly encrypted by USB bridge and now you have adopted SATA PCB.

In most of the cases we see atleast 1 or more heads are weak/victims, however if you trust Rapidspar about head findings, search forum for slow-fix.

Even if you manage to apply slow fix, you still have to deal with encryption.

Remember DIY has its pros and cons, if data is important it is better to send drive to a DR Comapny

[JGAN]

Thanks,
This slow fix? http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool

[drHDD]

You need fix slow responding problem, make sector by sector copy to other drive and use reallymine to decrypt data.

[JGAN]

Just to confirm, this is the slow fix you are talking about? https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=20#

Or I heard about this "HDDSuperTool" from SD computing? Can someone clarify?

[drHDD]

Yes. This is it.

[JGAN]

Which?

[fzabkar]

You could use HDDSuperTool scripts to patch modules 02 and 32.

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool/scripts/wd_royl_patch_mod02?attredirects=0&d=1
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool/scripts/wd_royl_patch_mod32?attredirects=0&d=1

[JGAN]

I applied both of them but the drive is still extremely slow. Was I supposed to power cycle the drive between each patch? Or only after applying both?

What program can I use to tell if the patches were applied successfully?

[JGAN]

Sorry, those were dumb questions. Real question: What software can I use to write zeros to module 02?

[JGAN]

Basically I'm only copying at like 800 kB/s currently and it's going to take me like 15 days to ddrescue this drive. I saw this post: http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=848#p3408

If I keep a backup of the module, is there a risk here to damage the drive or contents if I zero out the module?

[maximus]

Basically I'm only copying at like 800 kB/s currently and it's going to take me like 15 days to ddrescue this drive. I saw this post: http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=848#p3408

If I keep a backup of the module, is there a risk here to damage the drive or contents if I zero out the module?

DO NOT WRITE ALL ZEROS TO MOD 02! That post was an experiment that just happened to work because it overwrote the byte that performs the slow fix to mod 02. I am not sure exactly what would happen if you zeroed the whole module, but you could very likely lock yourself out of the drive in which case only a professional with proper tools could write the module back again. If you play with modules without knowing what you are doing you might as well kiss your data goodbye.

The slow fix patch only modifies a single byte in mod 02, and a specific section of mod 32. If you used HDDSuperTool to apply the patches then you should have the before and after bin files. You could dump mod 02 again and compare it to the before and after and it should match the after (patched). If you are not sure and you are allowed to attach files then zip the files and attach it to your next post.

Are you getting any read errors, or is it just slow reading? Does it look like it reads in bursts? You could import the ddrescue recovery into HDDSuperClone and see if it induces the skipping algorithm. If it makes a pattern with skip runs then weak head, if runaway skipping causes skip resets then it is some other problem.

EDIT: Have you checked the smart data? The smart data might give an indication as to the health of the drive.

Remember DIY has its pros and cons, if data is important it is better to send drive to a DR Comapny

+1

[JGAN]

Sorry, did not mean zeroing out the entire module, only the section after the key as described.

I did compare the original and patched module right after I asked those dumb questions and saw it had been applied successfully. The drive actually ddrescued completely overnight at a good rate of 19mB/s. I guess it was just a combination of bad blocks in the beginning of the drive and my impatience for this data

Thanks for everyone's help. Now to decrypt the drive. I'm also considering putting U14 back on and reconnecting the USB interface just to see if the drive would work again as it might be easier to get data off that way or if I can't decrypt it.

Attachments

Success!

[Roberto]

Thanks for everyone's help. Now to decrypt the drive. I'm also considering putting U14 back on and reconnecting the USB interface just to see if the drive would work again as it might be easier to get data off that way or if I can't decrypt it.

You can decrypt it with reallymine... or if this is to complicated for you because of it is a linux tool...
you could use my tool for decryption which is for windows OS.

If you want to use the windows tool let me know...
I then need the keysector (should be sector 1953519648 on your drive) as binary file
and preferable also sector 0 and sector 1 of the drive.

Then I could send you a windows tool for decryption.

Best Regards,
Roberto

[JGAN]

Shit, reallymine is unable to find the key sector. Is it still salvageable?

Also, out of curiosity, can I take the U14 chip off another board?

[fzabkar]

What are the markings on the JMicron chip? I'm wondering if the HDD is a SED, in which case the encryption is handled by the drive, AIUI.

[JGAN]

It is a JM538s. Question, if reallymine can't find the key sector, does that mean there is a password on the drive? Doesn't reallymine normally ask for a password then?

[fzabkar]

It is a JM538s. Question, if reallymine can't find the key sector, does that mean there is a password on the drive? Doesn't reallymine normally ask for a password then?

There should be a key sector, irrespective of whether a password has been set.

Try to dump all the SA modules. There may be a copy of the key in the SA, eg module 25.

http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsupertool/scripts/wd_royl_dump_mod_all?attredirects=0&d=1

[JGAN]

Ok, will try that. Is it alright if I upload the file here? Or is that a security risk?

[Roberto]

Ok, will try that. Is it alright if I upload the file here? Or is that a security risk?

No... you can upload the modules... this is no security risk.

If you also upload sector 0 and sector 1... then I can check if the decryption works.