WD BAD PCB USB Device

[canadian69]

I have a WD external USB drive (WD Passport WD5000BMVW), it's an RMA replacement for a similar drive with a busted USB connector, but it just died on me and now only detects as a "WD BAD PCB USB Device" in device manager. It is not detected in drive manager. The system recognizes that it's connected, but otherwise is useless.

I have taken the drive out of its enclosure with the assumption that I would be able to check it on a SATA/PATA interface, but alas WD in their wisdom seem to have engineered a drive with only a soldered on USB connection and some proprietary 6 pin interface that I can't make heads or tails of. I can assume that if I knew the pinouts I could fab a cable for it, maybe change a flag bit to get it working again or something.

I am pretty much pooched here as even this RMA replacement is out of warranty now (think they only give 30 days or something) and I have tried this on several computers all with the same result. Data recovery is too expensive and although the loss of data is inconvenient (massive ebook collection) it's not likely worth hundreds of dollars to reclaim.

Through Google I picked up that some of these drives use encryption (although I did not employ the WD software when installed I get the sense it may be drive based hardware encryption) and that the 6 pin connectors is designed for data recovery labs, but I can't verify either of these points.

Would really like to get this sucker running even if its only for 15 min. If you need more info let me know, looking forward to hearing from anyone with ideas on this issue.

Same question on WD forum:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Portable-Drives/WD-BAD-PCB-USB-Device/td-p/424980
Pics:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b349/canadian69/IMG00165.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b349/canadian69/IMG00163.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b349/canadian69/IMG00164.jpg
Sorry , the photos are fuzzy on account of a crappy camera phone.

 

[plasmastorm]

Have tried to connect quite a few of these awful drives over the last year or so, WD, samsung etc. All with the soldered SUB connector you describe.
Bad news is that unless you get another with the same PCB and firmware on it you'll likely only get data from it through a recovery expert.
I have yet to recovery anything from these types of drive myself and probably see 2-3 a month in my shop.

 

[canadian69]

I saw some posts on a 1TB drive where they bypassed some capacitors on the PCB and hooked up a hand made SATA connector to access the drive, I am hoping something may be similarly possible here. Honestly I have not been able to successfully replace a PCB on any drive for many years now so I doubt that would work even if I had an identical drive to swap with (which I dont). I also read a post about replacing a clock crystal on a similar WD drive with same problem. I can't find any specific posts about this drive though. Pinouts would be really cool right now.

 

[Guest]

Have tried to connect quite a few of these awful drives over the last year or so, WD, samsung etc. All with the soldered SUB connector you describe.
Bad news is that unless you get another with the same PCB and firmware on it you'll likely only get data from it through a recovery expert.
I have yet to recovery anything from these types of drive myself and probably see 2-3 a month in my shop.

Hello my friend I got the same problem on my 1TB WD HD like this just today...any procedure that have tried to repair this issue?

 

[canadian69]

Official response from WD Support Services:

"We were informed by Engineering that the message does not necessarily indicate a bad PCB and unfortunately, it is just an indication that the drive is malfunctioning (similar to a check engine light on a car). Unfortunately, here at support we have not seen a case where replacing the PCB would allow the data to be accessed (for cases where the PCB board was determined to be defective with certainty). Also, chances of finding the exact same revision PCB here at support would be nearly impossible as many different PCB revisions are used with the same exact models. Also Replacing the PCB could significantly reduce the chances of data recovery by a professional data recovery company. Data recovery requires advanced knowledge and equipment to recover and reconstruct, file and data structures and that is why we recommend using a professional data recovery company as they have a high success rate in recovering data"