Most of the free/cheap data recovery tools expect to see a SATA or IDE interface. They usually can't do much useful stuff via USB.

A common problem with WD drives is the "slow issue". Most commercial tools, eg WDMarvel, have a single-click fix to "deal with slow responding". However, there is a way to achieve the same end using freeware, provided that the drive comes ready.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29187&start=20
http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?t ... 4345#p4345

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

fzabkar, once I set up the SATA connection, could I use WDMarvel to one-click fix the slow problem, and then reconnect the USB board to pull the data off? I assume the encryption would keep me from copying from SATA directly.

Thanks for your help.

Yes, that's the plan. However, there is no guarantee that the drive doesn't have other problems.

See http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=827

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

fzabkar, if I want to use a manual fix instead (with SeDiv), how can I go about doing that exactly? I am having trouble accessing WDMarvel since their payment structure is so strict. Still looking into it though.

The procedure is explained in the two threads that I provided earlier. It involves an MHDD script.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Right but it looked like the script was customized to that particular HDD. How can I figure out what I need to do in my particular case?

Sorry to hijack this old thread, didn't see a more recent one when I searched.

Hard drive has the following symptoms and specifications:
Model number: WD10JMVW-11AJGS0
PCB Serial: 2060-771961-001 REV A

Drive is recognized over USB and drivers are successfully installed. WD SES Drivers

Drive does not show up in "My Computer"

If "Disk Management" is used in windows to initialize the device it prompts with the following error (see screenshot), the "My Passport Drive WD10JMVW-11AJGS0" is "Disk 5" in the screenshot.

The drive has not been dropped, it does not make clicking sounds, the pcb does not get hot, it does not have a burnt or ozone smell to it.

My question is if I swap the pcb for a 2060-771960-001 will the data be read off the drive? and if yes will it be encrypted?

Does swapping the board out still mean I need to swap the BIOS firmware chips on the boards?

Sorry for this I've read a lot of posts and I can't seem to get a clear answer.

it's a SED drive


yes

Hello,
I have a drive that stopped working from USB3, i'm trying to get back the data stored inside.
The drive is a WD10JMVW with a PCB marked : 2060-771961-001 REV A
I did solder wires to the capacitors C13 C18 C31 and C37 to try to run the drive from a sata interface.
It didn't worked, so i bought another PCB and swapped U12 and sadly broke U14.
I can get the drive to show up in windows device management, but i cant mount the partition and read any data out of it.

Do you have any idea why and how i can fix it ?
Thank you

May be because it's encrypted?

Yes, the time to ask for advice about this is before you try a lot of things and make it potentially worse. Fortunately the U12 is the only one that's mission critical (had you broke it instead of the U14 you'd be completely screwed). Your best option is to take it to a professional who has proper tools to image and decrypt the data from the drive.

If your data has little value, you're intent on trying it yourself, and the drive is now appearing in disk management with correct size then what you can do is:

1st: Image the data onto an exact same LBA size SATA drive using ddrescue in Linux (tutorial here). You must be sure to image to the very end as there is usually an encryption key stored near the end. This step is critical because most often My Passport drives stop connecting due to bad sectors near the beginning of the drive, not actually due to a bad PCB board. I know you'll think I'm wrong about this, but trust me I work on a half dozen or more of these each month.

2nd: Find a My Book USB bridge board which uses the same encryption chip as your original USB PCB does. It's the square chip near the USB port (post a pic and we can perhaps help identify the board you need). Using that it should be able to decrypt the data from the cloned drive.

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