Hi to all,

I received a WD My Book Essential (WDBAAF5000EBK) that contains a WD5000AADS inside. The whole device wasn't powering up so the customer took it to a 'computer repair shop' and they removed the drive from the enclosure, ran some freeware tools on the drive and got nothing.

I have it now and the HDD itself is fine, have backed up resources in PC3K and imaged it 100%. I'm obviously not getting any data off the drive as I'm guessing it's all encrypted thanks to the Initio INIC-1607E on the 'bridge board' inside the enclosure. The 'bridge board' PCB looks damaged and I can see at least one component that is burnt.

Having searched older posts someone suggested getting a replacement bridge board from another WDBAAF5000EBK enclosure and access should be restored? User had not setup any additional password etc. Is this a good way to go, and if so would U2 need to be moved across?

Thanks and regards.

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

You have PM

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_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

I have it on good authority (from a data recovery professional) that your particular external enclosure does not require any chip transfers. All you need is a USB-SATA bridge board (4061-705059) from the same model, with an identical capacity.

BTW, a common fault with these enclosures is a physical connection problem at the micro-USB connector. If so, then that's a simple soldering job.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

The burn't component on the bridge board caught my attention and I didn't even check the micro-USB connector, which is indeed loose. The one side has lifted up and will need to be reworked, silly slip up on my side. Thanks for directing my attention to that.

The burn't diode at D6 is just an activity LED from what I can see. If this is burnt will it cause any other problems on the board and prevent the unit functioning? I'm going to get the micro-USB connector reseated (outsourcing this as my soldering skills aren't up to it) and hopefully it's as easy as that. If not then it's back to plan A.

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Nick_CT, I hope your customers satisfied with your work

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

Meaning?

_________________
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

If the LED is shorted - it might. It's only an LED - remove it while you recover the data. Test it to see if it lights. If so, put it back on the board. If not, replace it.

Nice catch on the connector. I too would have seen the burnt component and attacked there and possibly missed the loose connector. Had the diode not been burned, I would have gone for the connector first.

why bump a old thread... Surely they fixed the problem by now?

that means he sorted everything out on his own.prob solved.