Hey guys, I need some help. I recently purchased a 'My Book Essential Edition 1 TB Hard Drive ( WDBAAF0010HBK)'.
It was working very good till one day i plugged it into my laptop and nothing showed up. No usb connect sound, nothing on my computer, nothing in device manager. I figured something went wrong with the usb port in the hdd. (Cable works fine, i used it with my phone to check). Not caring much about the warranty as DATA WAS PRIORITY. (I can always put it back in the casing. I didn't break it or anything) I thought connecting it via SATA to my desktop would allow me to get my necessary files. The drive inside is a 1TB WD10EADS Caviar Green HD, running smoothly (no clicking sound, very good condition). It doesn't show in my computer and when i go into disk management, it says that the drive needs to be initialized. The same thing happens on any system (windows 7, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE). I've even tried to use a SATA-USB connector wire.
I did NOT initialize as i know this will lead to formatting. Sat to read on this topic and have found out somewhat of bad news.

The USB-SATA connector in the enclosure has a INITIO-INIC-1607E chip. And i've read that it encrypts all data to the hard disk and vice versa.

Now. The data is extremely important to me and I live in a place with no WD support. I work in an IT industry and know what will happen if i give it to the IT people here. They'll try to recover using softwares, which won't work as it's all encrypted.
I read on a few topics that there's a way to solder the SATA connector to the 1607E IC. I cannot find the link anymore, after searching tediously. I am also uploading a picture of the USB-SATA Module.

So, Is there anyway to get my data back through softwares ? like something that can read encrypted data. Or any slight hardware method. Another friend of mine has a WD external drive too. If i replace the USB-SATA module with mine, will I be able to get my data back ?

I would really be grateful if this issue could be solved.
Thank you.

JMan

PM sent.

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Angel Data Recovery

JMAN You didn't mention the OS version however I am guessing XP or Win7 and NTFS. Sounds like the computer see's the drive which is a good thing since the hardware encryption is difficult if not impossible to overcome. I suspect you have some logical file system corruption and windows can't read the MFT table correctly and thinks nothing is on the disk. You can try r-studio http://www.r-tt.com or one of the other many data recovery programs to scan the drive and attempt to recover the data that way.

Don't panic. The solution involves an easy DIY repair.

The usual problem, as reported in WD's forums, is a bad connection at the USB connector.

The simplest solution is to resolder the connector, or remove it and reattach it with fine wires, or reattach a larger connector.

http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml

Alternatively, you can just replace the USB-SATA bridge board with one from another external WD drive.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks guys,
I have already called my friend to get me his WD so i can get his enclosure to back up. In the meantime, I'm running a very reliable version of EASUS Data Recovery wizard.
At the moment, it's showing 9 files found, and only some 2% is done... probably gonna take 15 hours or something...
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.. and hopefully I'll get my stuff back..

I will keep everyone informed..
TC

JMan

Waste of time. It is encrypted . Any soft willn't help.
Just wait for your friend's enclouser .

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Angel Data Recovery

Very true.. learnt that the hard way.. tried 3 softwares over 24 hours.. nothing..

all the software on the world will not help on this case
outside its useless n waste of time

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Kuwait Data Recovery - UNIX GTC
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. By: Albert Einstein

Is hardware encryption same on all boards? Can you take symwave chip board and use it with drive that had initio board?

No.
Moreover , there a lot of "Initio" boards which incompartible between each other. Depends on too many parameters.

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Angel Data Recovery

If we leave out the hard drive as parameter... Would same board version and rev have a chance to be incompatible?

Thanks for the answers.

Same boards with same chips , same version (rom and others) are compatible of course.

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Angel Data Recovery

A WD user tells me that she swapped Initio bridge boards between two different WD products but the replacement board was unable to decrypt her drive, no doubt due to differences in the Initio firmware.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.