Hi!

I have been trying to gain access to my old WD External HD. I was working through this on another forum and was able to accomplish the following:
1. Get the HD out of the enclosure, plugged it into my SATA dock and it wouldn't turn on.
2. I was then informed that I probably used the wrong plug at some point which caused a fuse to short and that's why.
3. I was instructed to test R64, R67, D3 and D4 with my multimeter.
4. From the above tests, it seemed like D4 was causing the issue, and I removed it.
5. I plugged it back into the SATA drive and it started to spin and I got this prompt on my laptop:
https://imgur.com/a/3ro6jWA

6. After running r-studio, everything seemed to be good but the drive was encrypted. Here is what I got for Sector 0 and 1 then spot-checked other sectors and they looked the same.
https://imgur.com/a/bbqZfDO

7. I connected the PCB back in, and I power it up that way, but I just get a white light on the back of the PCB and a faint green light on the PCB as well. I don't hear the disk running or anything.
https://imgur.com/a/o8VisWi

I was also told that there seemed to be some oxidation, but as the HD did boot up on the SATA dock, I should still be fine.
Here are some additional images:
https://imgur.com/a/YC4qWEZ


I am pretty amateur at all this, but I am pretty good at following instructions.

Any ideas on what I can do next would be greatly appreciated. I have a lot of old family photos and documents I am trying to access.

Thank you!!!

We need the image of the bridge pcb too, component side as clear as possible.

_________________
Data Recovery Services in the UK.
https://www.usbrecovery.co.uk/

The SATA-USB bridge PCB maybe dead.
Buy one from e-bay with same PCB number.

deleted

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi Saltwater - thank you so much for the help. I will check on ebay. I am a little concerned that this unit is so old.

What would be the PCB number from the images I included here?

https://imgur.com/a/ARu0yaZ

Thank you again

@keen360, I'm following up your PM.

This is your bridge PCB:

https://i.imgur.com/AP2YzPu.jpeg (component side)
https://i.imgur.com/vRazZY8.jpeg (bottom side)

These are your two eBay candidates:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/qLoAAOSwAG5j2vI8/s-l1600.jpg (PCB #1)
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PTMAAOSwnHNj3YZR/s-l1600.jpg (PCB #2)

All three PCBs appear to have an Initio INIC-1607E USB-SATA bridge IC (E = encryption). I expect that all support hardware encryption, although I have no idea whether this is always enabled.

There appear to be two PCB manufacturers used by WD, either APEX or ELEC (?). The YYWW or WWYY date codes (WW = week, YY = year) are 3609 (week 36 of 2009), 1011 (week 11 of 2010) and 0940 (week 40 of 2009). APEX uses YYWW, ELEC uses WWYY.

There are two main physical differences between the two PCBs.

Your PCB has a 5V regulator consisting of U7, Q5 and L5. One eBay PCB is similar, but the other has a much beefier looking 5V regulator consisting of L4, Q1, and NX7101IDM (IC).

The other difference is that the newer eBay PCB has a dual MOSFET chip at U5 whereas the other two PCBs leave this location unpopulated. Instead, those PCBs without this chip bypass it with two resistors, R46 and R47, each measuring 0 ohms (?). The MOSFET chip switches the +5V and +12V power to the HDD's SATA power connector. Basically, the difference is that in your case the HDD is always powered while the newer PCB enables the bridge firmware to switch off the power in standby mode.

On the back of the PCB, near the SATA connector, are two test points, TP5 and TP6. I suspect these may be the +5V and +12V SATA power supplies. Try to measure these voltages with respect to ground. You can use a screw hole as your ground reference. If both voltages are missing, measure the voltage on either side of L6 near the DC barrel connector. There should be +12V.

One more thing. There is a SOFT POWER pushbutton, SW2. Examine the markings on the enclosure to confirm that this is a standby power button and not a reset button. If it is a reset button, don't touch it. Otherwise, if it is a power button, then see what happens.



In short, I expect that all PCBs are most probably compatible.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks to Lardman and fzabkar, I was able to get this resolved. I appreciate everyone's input! Thank you.