Damaged micro usb (soldered) on WD Elements SE 1TB External.

[vennsoh]

Hi guys,

I have a problem with my WD Elements 1TB.
The product number is WDBABV0010BBK-00.
The SATA is WD10TMVV.

I have found some images online.
This is how it looks,
http://obrazki.elektroda.pl/7853506200_1303823762.jpg
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa362/Jaganmohan_p/WD02.jpg

My problem
The micro usb that is soldered on to the PCB is damaged. The external drive is working all good and okay until one day I realize I could not plug in my cable to the micro usb port.

The micro usb is damaged.

Solutions
1) Get professionals to do a data recovery but that is too expensive. And there is a good link here showing you how you could by pass the micro usb and wired the PCB.
http://www.datarecoverytools.co.uk/2010/05/05/how-to-connect-and-recover-usb-only-western-digital-drives-with-hd-doctor-suite/

2) Get a new micro usb and replace it. I will go with this. Do let me know if this is not feasible. I do realize the micro usb on Western Digital is slightly different. There is this black color, 2 holes thingy underneath it.

- - -

However before I start anything, I need to know what micro usb to buy. I did a bit of research and if I am not mistaken, I think I need a Micro-B.

Here is an image,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Types-usb_new.svg

I have a house mate who is a PhD in electrical engineering. He could do all the soldering for me.
But is there anything I need to tell him so he could be aware of when he is swapping out the damaged micro usb?

Do I need to take out the hard drive from the PCB before any soldering work is done?

Where would be the best place to get electronic parts? I did some research again, it seems mouser.com is the best?

Cheers,
Venn.

 

[inzone]

What you could do first is remove the hard drive from the enclosure and connect it to the inside of the computer like a regular hard drive and remove all of your files for safe keeping and then atempt your repairs.

 

[vennsoh]

Hi inzone, thanks for the reply. However your advice will not work. It only works on older external drives. There is no SATA only USB on this. The entire new 2.5" WD Elements line are only USB and no more sata.

 

[inzone]

Well that puts an unnessecary restiction on the drive as far as recovery and repairs go , you only have the one option. I haven't seen the new setup so tell me is there a drive inside the enclosure and is that drive connected to the enclosure by the same micro usb? Could you still bypass the enclosure and connect the drive with the micro usb? You do see where I am trying to go with this and that is to somehow bypass the enclosure to gain access to the drive if it is the enclosure that is faulty , which it is if the connector is loose.

 

[vennsoh]

f you are interested, this vid shows you the dissection if the drive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64j_U-E2qpc

The drive is connected to the PCB. The micro usb is soldered on to the PCB.
The problem I am having is that the micro usb port is damaged.

I would like to think there are in fact 3 options for me,
1) Change the PCB (thanked god WD Elements doesn't have data encryption).
2) Change the micro usb.
3) Bypass the usb and wired the PCB.

Obviously, option 2 will be the easiest.

- - -

My questions will be:
1) Do I need to separate the hard drive from the PCB before I do the soldering?
2) Is that a micro-b usb?
3) The micro usb on WD is slightly different. What is that black color, 2 holes thingy underneath that micro usb? It is not the usual micro usb on the market.

 

[inzone]

Acording to that video you can't seperate the PCB from the hdd , it's part of the drive. Is this drive still under warranty? I would send it back rather then trying to do any repair , provided you can get your files off it. Maybe if it's still under warranty and you contacted WD and told them you had important files on it if they could do the repair and send you back the repaired drive.

 

[vennsoh]

Yeap, I would love to send it back to WD however the warranty is long over. I am pretty sure you can separate the PCB from the HDD. You just need to unscrew it. I think you have mistaken the annotations on the video.

 

[wahssai]

f you are interested, this vid shows you the dissection if the drive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64j_U-E2qpc

The drive is connected to the PCB. The micro usb is soldered on to the PCB.
The problem I am having is that the micro usb port is damaged.

I would like to think there are in fact 3 options for me,
1) Change the PCB (thanked god WD Elements doesn't have data encryption).
2) Change the micro usb.
3) Bypass the usb and wired the PCB.

Obviously, option 2 will be the easiest.

- - -

My questions will be:
1) Do I need to separate the hard drive from the PCB before I do the soldering?
2) Is that a micro-b usb?
3) The micro usb on WD is slightly different. What is that black color, 2 holes thingy underneath that micro usb? It is not the usual micro usb on the market.

Hi Vennsoh,

Would you happend to know where I can buy a new PCB for this drive? I don't want to get the wrong part,

Thanks

 

[vennsoh]

Hey mate, I didn't try to source out for a PCB.
Have you tried to pry open your casing?
It has the serial number written on the HDD. You need that to pin point the correct model.

I guess your best choice will be eBay.
If you are getting electronic spare parts, try mouser.com

If you are using WD Essentials I guess you can forget about getting a new PCB.
Because the data is encrypted. You won't be able to read the data after swapping to a new PCB.

 

[vennsoh]

Hey guys,

Good news!
My housemate has managed to get the data off from the drive by soldering fine gauge electrical wires to the individual prongs in the micro usb. Those has to be some mad skills given the fact that micro usb is the smallest among all.

The next thing I will do is to fix the external drive.
I will need to see if my housemate has an idea for that.

Will update.

 

[vennsoh]

2 very helpful links related to damaged micro usb.
http://forum.hddguru.com/western-digital-mybook-essential-data-recovery-t17398.html
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839

 

[fonjcmj]

Well, let me try to contribute a little. I do not have the tools to do this :
Good news!
My housemate has managed to get the data off from the drive by soldering fine gauge electrical wires to the individual prongs in the micro usb. Those has to be some mad skills given the fact that micro usb is the smallest among all.
However, I did manage to fix the damaged micro-USB by soldering wire to the PCB using a ordinary small soldering iron I need to buy a good one (from the web as these old one are hard to get from the shops) to know which points to connect. The following are the details :
Of the five USB connections : Shell, black, red, white, green
The shell can easily by soldering to the contact of the shell of the micro-USB. This is also connected to the black.
The black is available from the one of the 12 pins - with the PCB side facing up (micro-USB on the other side of the PCB) counting the 6 x 2 pins from the right (odd pins on top even pins on bottom) - black is on pin 6 (third column from right, bottom)
The red is available from both pin 10 and 12 (verify your pin counting - pin 10 and pin 12 are connected)
White and Green are only available from the PCB contacts, not from the 12 pins.
With the same PCB facing up orientation, there are five dot contacts on the left of the 12 pins forming roughly a triangle with its bottom at roughly the same site of the micro-USB on the other side. Counting from the lower left on a clockwise fashion 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with #3 being the peak of the triangle. green = #1, white = #2.
Thanks..