Hi,

disk cannot load the systemware. it shows the virtual cd but cannot run. I removed the disk from the caddy and shows block of bad sectors somewhere from about 2% of the drive.

I have imaged the entire drive, unfortunately the bad sectors included, to another 2TB drive using udma and then deepspar as the previous produced same result.

is there any way to recover data off this systemware thing?

Clone the drive and put the clone back into the WD enclosure. The drive is encrypted by the Initio chip on the USB controller. That may work for you. Just depends on how many bad sectors are on the drive.

Yes, but not every disk will be accept by this enclouser.

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Angel Data Recovery

this is exactly what i have done but it seems like part of the code needed for the virtual cd to load is located where the bad sector is, making the virtual cd unable to load the necessary files needed for the unlocking process. I have downloaded a systemware manager thing from the wd site, installed it and run but the software cannot find the drive.

not sure what to do next.

My understanding is that the VCD begins at the end of the user area, and the Initio "stuff" is located after that.

See this thread:
disk-with-sata-usb-adapter-remove-virtual-rom-t18492.html

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A backup a day keeps DR away.