I have a 4tb WD portable USB C drive which is behaving very strangely. The original problem was firmware issues which were resolvable. Only part of Mod02 was readable, but I patched it with a donor and wrote it back to the drive with a SATA PCB attached, and I can get sector access, but the data is encrypted by the original PCB. Whenever I put the USB C PCB back onto the drive and try to connect it, it won't come ready. When I reattach the SATA PCB and check the FW, Mod02 has become unreadable and the drive will not ID. If I write back the patched 02 with the SATA PCB, it will ID fine and provide encrypted sector access again.

I've repeated this multiple times to confirm the behaviour, something about putting the original USB C PCB back on the drive and powering it up corrupts Mod02 straight away.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I think the drive is a spyglass 2, so data is encrypted through the MCU, only the original PCB will work. It is possible to add a SATA connection to the original USB PCB.

it seems like he knows that. The problem is the drive corrupts 02 over and over again. However, adding a sata connection to the native pcb was my first thought as well, this will be inevitable anyway. Cloning thru usb is an awkward idea.
pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Yep, with the SATA adapter over USB PCB, the effect is the same, Mod02 immediately becomes completely unreadable.

Can you relocate mod 0x02 to a different area in the SA?

Can you install mod 0x02 as a ROM resident module? Does that ever work?

BTW, here is an idea to improve the quality of data transfers when tapping into the SATA Tx/Rx pairs:

Locating the Reset* pin on USB-SATA bridge ICs:

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=3381

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

unreadable or corrupt?

Franc, as per my understanding, the module is ok just after writing, it gets corrupt/unreadable on/after next power cycle. (OP, pls confirm)
messing with sata lines is pointless, the problem is not in the data transfer over the interface.

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Yes, I know. I was just adding the results of my investigations for future reference ("BTW").

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Here is a WD ROM where mod 0x02 is ROM resident:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?p=239894#p239894

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

that's a very special case, i think, as per my analysis (and memories about the analysis), structure of 0B/20B is pretty much hardcoded in fw, so you can't easily add items to it.
But. If writing is bad, there will be a bunch of other problems with this drive unless properly handled.

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

Writing is still possible, I had to move the location of a couple of mods including Mod02, maybe I'll try to change its location again.