My Book 2TB failure and failed recovery attempts

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Y

yotk

Reputable
Aug 20, 2014
5
0
4,510
Dear community, your assistance would be highly appreciated...

2 years ago I purchased WD "my book essential 2TB". It has been my backup storage and I liked it very much (so much I even bought one for my mother to use for her backups - the importance of this detail will become clear in a moment).

3 days ago my laptop (win7 x64 ultimate) failed to recognize it. Here is what I've tried so far:

  • ■ many (MANY) utilities to analyze HDDs, none helped. In Diskpart->list disk the hdd is "online" but 0 capacity and can't be initialized in "diskmgmt" due to I/O error
    ■ connect to PC (win7 x64 ultimate) - not detected
    ■ removed from casing and connect directly through SATA port (low port # and high port # to avoid motherboard hdd size targeting) - not detected in OS
    ■ Check the bios - HDD not detected in BIOS (which is updated btw)
    ■ Took my mother's functioning my book, opened it (after backing up of course), took the SATA to USB controller and transferred it to my HDD - not detected (BIOS sees the HDD model but with 0.0gb and not accessible in any way)
    ■ Took my mother's HDD controller board (side note, mine is WD20EARS, hers is WD20EARX), put it on mine - not detected (BIOS sees the HDD model but with 0.0gb and not accessible in any way)
    ■ (no logic but still...) Took both the SATA to USB controller and the HDD controler of my mom's still not detected (BIOS sees the HDD model but with 0.0gb and not accessible in any way)
    ■ (no logic but still...) Made bootable gparted CD, tried data recovery with testdisk, it was stupid because again... it is not detected
So far that's it. Have I missed something?

The priority is to try and save as much data as possible, if it's not possible (with "in house" knowledge and tools - don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on "data doctors") I would go on just formatting the HDD and keep using it.

As said at the beginning, your help would be highly appreciated,
Best,
Yotam

p.s
In all the attempts I can feel the reading head moving inside the metal casing of the HDD. So it's probably not a power issue.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Y

yotk

Reputable
Aug 20, 2014
5
0
4,510


No, I actually took quite a good care of it. Moved it around in hard case, "safely removed" as much as I could, etc.
In addition (after reassembly everything), the small led light on the front of my case is blinking rapidly while my moms drive is mostly on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
F

fzabkar

Judicious
Sep 22, 2010
9,280
697
36,390
Essentials models are encrypted, even if you have not set a password. The USB-SATA bridge PCB handles the encryption. Therefore, if you connect to the drive via your computer's SATA controller, your data will be gibberish.

Secondly, when the drive is in the enclosure, it becomes a USB mass storage device. A small section at the end of the user area is reserved for a SmartWare Virtual CD (VCD). When you connect the USB device to your computer, the bridge firmware enumerates itself as a multifunction device consisting of a VCD and a regular USB mass storage device. If the device shows up in Device Manager, then it could be that Windows is detecting the bridge PCB rather than the drive behind the bridge.

A tool such as USBDeview should identify the bridge:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

According to feedback from an end user, two bridge PCBs are compatible if the first 2 sets of digits are identical, and the firmware is compatible if the letter codes match.

For example, if your PCB is a "4061-705059-003 Rev. AA", then you need to match "4061-705059" and "Rev. AA". I don't know if this is a hard and fast rule, but it worked for this particular individual. It is also what his PCB supplier told him.

Thirdly, you cannot just swap HDD PCBs, even between identical drives manufactured in the same factory on the same day. This is because each PCB stores unique, drive specific calibration data. These "adaptive" data need to be transferred from patient to donor. In most cases there will an 8-pin serial flash memory chip at location U12, but in some cases the data will be stored within the main Marvell MCU. Some PCB suppliers include a free transfer service.

Lastly, the bulk of a HDD's firmware resides in a hidden System Area (SA) on the platters. When the drive spins up, it attempts to retrieve this firmware (run-time code, defect lists, LBA-to-CHS translator, etc), write it to SDRAM, and then transfer control to it. Unfortunately, when the drive develops media or head faults, some of these modules may become corrupt or inaccessible. The drive then remains busy and doesn't identify itself. If the PCB contains the wrong adaptives, then the drive cannot access the SA, so it identifies itself using the information in flash memory (aka "ROM) on the PCB.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yotk

Reputable
Aug 20, 2014
5
0
4,510


Sorry for the delay in the response and thank you for the extensive reply.
I've got much more smarter from it but still have no clue how to resolve my situation of lost 2TB of data. Do you have any suggestions?

Best
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Y

yotk

Reputable
Aug 20, 2014
5
0
4,510


1) Once plugged, it starts to spin, I can hear the head moving for about 5 seconds and then it stops while the platters seems to keep rotating in constant speed without stopping.

2) It doesn't become ready regardless of how long I wait.

3) The WDR tool didn't recognize the drive. I've used WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic and the result are here.

Is this the information you are looking for?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom