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Peredur3
 Post subject: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: January 30th, 2021, 19:02 
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Joined: January 30th, 2021, 18:48
Posts: 1
Location: United States
Hello.
I bought a WD60EFRX-68MYMN1 off eBay, as a project to play with.
The listing said the drive had been trimmed to 1.2TB, and I was very interested in how.
Turns out, the drive was at some point and may still be a 6TB red from 2015. I noticed 1.2TB is the space you get from one platter. I'm assuming there are 4 other platters or read/write heads severely degraded, and that a refurbishing company created this product to get some sort of money recovered from a bunch of drives.
Windows reports ~1.2TB as unallocated, there are no other partitions
Read/write speeds around 170MB/s and 140 MB/s if I'm remembering correctly.
I first went with trusty gparted and then graduated to hddsupertool in xubuntu.
There is no space taken by HPA or DCO.
The refurbishing company seems to have created their own firmware and the drive thinks it is called a WD12EFRX.
I thought I could try shoving a factory WD60EFRX-68MYMN1 firmware to the drive with hddsupertool but I haven't been able to find one. I then thought I could do some hex editing of module 02.bin, and see if it works or bricks.
This drive is disposable to me, I knew when I bought it I would probably break it. I also realize if I can get it back to a 6TB drive, it will probably be very unreliable. But I'd still like to try.

TL;DR
With a WD red drive, is modifying LBA sector count in module 02.bin going to make a pretty brick
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: January 31st, 2021, 13:45 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15532
Location: Australia
Can you show us a photo of the label and each side of the PCB?

WD's warranty checker identifies the WD60EFRX-68MYMN1 model as ...

Quote:
REMBRNDT 5400 64M SATA3 6GB/S 6.0 TB 10HD NAS

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HighFivin
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 1st, 2021, 1:06 
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Joined: January 31st, 2021, 23:56
Posts: 2
Location: United States
I picked up one of these also and came to basically the same conclusion: hacked firmware limiting it to 1.2TB. I'd like to try restoring the factory firmware but don't have it to load unto the drive, I can't answer your question about modifying the LBA sector count, but if you try it let me know how it goes. As it stands a 1.2TB drive isn't really super useful to me, but I knew it was a crap shoot to begin with.
I must have gotten the drive in the photo because mine came with the post it note in the listing photo.
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 1st, 2021, 19:10 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15532
Location: Australia
eBay listing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-Red-6TB-NAS-SATA-Hard-Drive-5400RPM-64MB-Cache-3-5-WD60EFRX-PLEASE-READ-/324461443240#viTabs_0

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/E30AAOSwuwtgC0YF/s-l1600.jpg

    WX21D15A778E
    OUT OF WARRANTY
    WD60EFRX-68MYMN1
    REMBRNDT
    5400
    64M
    SATA3
    6GB/S
    6.0 TB
    10HD
    NAS
    24-Apr-2015

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flowersun
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 1st, 2021, 19:14 
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Joined: February 1st, 2021, 18:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
That drive has 5 1.2tb platters, for a total of 6tb :P. Only 1 platter and only 2 of the 10 heads are active :wink: . There are programs that can change this, but I do not know more, sorry! :oops:
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diybit
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 2nd, 2021, 1:20 
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Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
Even if you success re-enabling those heads, they was surely disabled for a reason.
But perhaps a selfscan with ARCO process can eventually repair them, maybe they disabled it because too much long to try a repair on 6TB...

You need WDMarvel full to go further with safety, do not manually edit 02 because there are other things in the ROM.

I cannot certify you, but as I remember from my reads, those heads can perhaps be directly re-activated by just checking the checkbox inside WDMarvel, because they are not system heads.

fzabkar will maybe success manually re-activate them...
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diybit
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 2nd, 2021, 8:44 
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Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
Does your drive is in the same situation as flowersun, with only head 0 and 1 enabled?

Show us a screen of your head map from WDMarvel, and also one for your model list.
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SimpleText
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 3rd, 2021, 12:30 
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Joined: February 3rd, 2021, 11:57
Posts: 5
Location: United States
I have one of these as well, same situation.


Attachments:
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diybit
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 4th, 2021, 13:10 
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Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
Do the screens there:
- Heads > Edit head map in ID0A
- SA Operation > Model list editor

Drives have physical and virtual head number, the head map will show your physical heads, there is a chance that enabling other heads will works if your actual enabled physical heads are 0 and 1.

BUT! It seems that many infos about others heads were removed! I don't know if there are not there because of the trim, but I doubt of it...

I suggest you waiting for the fzabkar report, in the flowersun thread.

BTW, those drives stories seems little strange, because you usually get one defective head, or eventually another, but all others seems strange. Like it's not sure if they even contain the others platters. (maybe try weight/compare them)
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flowersun
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 4th, 2021, 15:41 
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Joined: February 1st, 2021, 18:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
I weighted mine and it came out as 707g, which is pretty close to the 26.45oz figure I found on Cnet :wink: .
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SimpleText
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 7th, 2021, 13:02 
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Joined: February 3rd, 2021, 11:57
Posts: 5
Location: United States
This is what I got when I ran his WD flash analysis program:

Quote:
Analysing flash.bin ...

Searching for LDSCs and verifying PCMBlocks ...

LDSC LDSC Att PCMBlock RAM size PCMBlk CS
Start ID CS Start - End address RAM / ROM Exp/Act
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 5A 3E 04 120 - 1DC7 4B688 1CA4 1CA4 000B5629 000B5629 OK
20 01 B8 0C 1DC8 - 213C 24000000 374 374 57 57 OK
40 02 BC 01 213D - 760D 0 c 6BF4 54D0 A0 A0 OK
60 03 94 01 760E - 7DE6 D9F0 c 9C8 7D8 99 99 OK
80 04 D7 03 7DE7 - A627 402E0 c 32D0 2840 0E 0E OK
A0 05 96 03 A628 - A8B8 601E2A00 c 43C 290 D5 D5 OK
C0 06 3D 01 A8B9 - 1C52D 382CD800 c 17A48 11C74 31 31 OK
E0 07 55 11 1C52E - 201EE 30080000 c 5114 3CC0 90 90 OK
100 08 15 01 201EF - 43B73 38000230 c 32750 23984 46 46 OK

LDSC = PM Loader Config String (32 bytes)
ID = ID byte of LDSC (byte #0)
CS = Checksum byte or word
Att = Attributes
PCMBlk = Program Code Memory Block
Exp = Expected checksum for PCMBLock
Act = Actual checksum for PCMBLock
c = compressed PCMBlock
size = size of decompressed (in RAM) and compressed (in ROM) PCMBlock in bytes


ROYL directory module 0x000B found at 0xFFEB6

Active directory flag = 0x03

Identifying SA regions ...

Reg# Reg size Reg loc
----------------------------
0x00 0x00083630 0x00000000
0x01 0x00083630 0x0009B000

Verifying ROYL modules ...

ID Size (bytes) Address Checksum
dir hdr dir hdr
-----------------------------------------------------
0001 N/A 00004000 N/A 0008235C N/A
000A OK 0000004E 00000200 000FF000 00000000 OK
000B OK 0000013B 00000200 000FFEB6 00000000 OK
020B OK 0000013B 00000200 000FEEB6 00000000 OK
0181 OK 00000BA0 00000C00 000FD400 00000000 OK
0030 OK 00000400 OK 000FD000 00000000 OK
0047 OK 00000800 OK 000FF6B6 00000000 OK
000D OK 00000108 00000200 000FF04E 00000000 OK
0303 OK 0000C000 00000200 000FF156 FF00FFFC BAD
004F OK 00000500 00000600 000FF1B6 00000000 OK

ROYL directory module 0x020B found at 0xFEEB6

Active directory flag = 0x02

Identifying SA regions ...

Reg# Reg size Reg loc
----------------------------
0x00 0x00083630 0x00000000
0x01 0x00083630 0x0009B000

Verifying ROYL modules ...

ID Size (bytes) Address Checksum
dir hdr dir hdr
-----------------------------------------------------
0001 N/A 00004000 N/A 0008235C N/A
000A OK 0000004E 00000200 000FE000 00000000 OK
000B OK 0000013B 00000200 000FFEB6 00000000 OK
020B OK 0000013B 00000200 000FEEB6 00000000 OK
0181 OK 00000BA0 00000C00 000FD400 00000000 OK
0030 OK 00000400 OK 000FD000 00000000 OK
0047 OK 00000800 OK 000FE6B6 00000000 OK
000D OK 00000108 00000200 000FE04E 00000000 OK
0303 FFFF 0000C000 01FFFE00 000FE156 FE04FFDA BAD
004F OK 00000500 00000600 000FE1B6 00000000 OK

dir - Module ID/Size as reported in directory module (0x20B or 0x0B)
hdr - Module ID/Size as reported in module's header
N/A - Not Applicable
BAD - Module has invalid checksum. This may be due to non-existent module.

ROM modules saved to Flash_00\000Bmods and Flash_00\020Bmods

Active directory is 0x0B

Analysing active 0x0A module ...

Head map checksum (Expected / Actual) = 0x0000 / 0x0000 - OK
Number of heads (physical / in use) = 10/2
Head map #1 = 0x0003 / 0b0000000000000011
Head map #2 = 0x03FF / 0b0000001111111111

DCM = | R | Z X J C N D D
: : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : unknown
: : : : : : : : top VCM
: : : : : : : ACA
: : : : : : bottom VCM
: : : : : HSA
: : : : media
: : : preamp
: : latch
: base
spindle motor

Analysing active 0x0D module ...

Firmware Version = 82.00A82
World Wide Name = 50014EE2612DBD32
Model Number = WDC WD12EFRX-68MYMN1
Serial Number =


Analysing active 0x4F module ...

ROM version = 0003000A

Analysing active 0x47 module ...

Preamp values
-----------
0 022D456A
1 0337446A
2 00000000
3 00000000
4 00000000
5 00000000
6 00000000
7 00000000
8 00000000
9 00000000

Microjogs
-------
0 0000
1 0000
2 0A0A
3 0A0A
4 0A0A
5 0A0A
6 0A0A
7 0A0A
8 0A0A
9 0A0A

Head/Media DCM = JX


Attachments:
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wd_demo_Capture1.JPG [ 39.36 KiB | Viewed 18085 times ]
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fzabkar
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 8th, 2021, 18:00 
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Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 15532
Location: Australia
I need to modify my program to account for module 0x303. The error is not real.

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SimpleText
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 17th, 2021, 12:29 
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Joined: February 3rd, 2021, 11:57
Posts: 5
Location: United States
so no errors? Op have any success enabling the unused heads?
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diybit
 Post subject: Re: Trimmed drive
PostPosted: February 17th, 2021, 13:39 
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Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
Re-enabling others heads will surely works as I have said, but previously you have to re-define all the values that were removed from the model list editor. (take example on another full firmware for this drive, module 0C)

Then you will surely end up with a non functional drive because many "adaptives" values about others heads are missing. (re-disable those heads to go back to your initial situation)

flowersun have to ask in the WDMarvel forum for the ARCO steps procedure to re-init those values. (we see strange "Preamp values" and "Microjogs", but strange Microjogs H0&1 are 0000... this drive is largely higher than my knowledge capacity, so I can't help you more with safety, sorry...)

Perhaps ask the vendor to know why all those heads were disabled.

Be aware that what you want do can be very complicated when seeing the actual state of the drive, and the most tiny error will likely brick it for good. So without any experience in this domain as you seems, I suggest you not touching it if you don't will end up with 0TB.
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