Hello everyone!
I'm new, first day here. Please go easy on me.

I used to work on 3.5" HDDs 20 years ago and I thought I got this, but WD's SED is making me scratch my head. Your help will be much appreciated.

My church pastor pry-ed off the USB-C connector a little and let the drive spin up and down for awhile. I wonder if repeated power failure damaged something on the board.


WHAT I'VE TRIED SO FAR

1. I tried soldering down the USB-C connector. Drive spun up fine and made normal head sound, but the drive was reading UNKNOWN - NOT INITIALIZED on diskmgmt. I've tried every recovery tool on MediCat but none were able to get any data off of it.

2. I tried to SATA convert from the original board but I damaged the E73 contact. I couldn't successfully get it connected. However, during this attemp, I've removed the MLCCs for USB-SATA bridge, so I am no longer able to use USB or SATA on this original board anymore. Nor would I be able to use screw on piggy back board since E73 contact is ripped off the board.


MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

Now I want to try moving the BIOS onto a 800022.
Is there an MCU I need to move as well?
If I get an "unlocked" board, do I still have to move over the MCU?
I've seem someone use a ROM reader and some software to decrypt SED lock.
Can I use CH341A and some combination of free softwares to get this done under budget? (we certainly don't afford PC3K)
Would anything like github/reallymine work on Spyglass2?
Is Spyglass1 compatible with Spyglass2?
Do I have to do a firmware update after soldering in the BIOS?
When it was showing UNKNOWN - NOT INITIALIZED, could have been just a translator issue?

Thank you in advance for your time.

TLDR; How do I do a board change on WD50NDZM?

Sounds like you have done some solid research and can figure out semi professional solutions. Everything is matching up except for one critical component: Experience! You could be digging a huge hole with the approach your taking.

https://udenna.medium.com/the-dunning-k ... a74071bce3

Beginners loves making simple problem worse! Why not slow down a little and upload some quality photos of what the original problem is first?

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

I love your approach. I agree I And yes! I literally dug a huge hole where E73 contact was

And thanks for asking for the pictures. I was having trouble attaching them to the OP.