Data recovery from faulty WD Elements

[McJefferson]

Hello guys,

so I have this Western Digital WD Elements (one of those without SATA connectors, USB only) which suddenly stopped working laying around since a while, and I decided to try to resurrect it.

When connected to a PC it lights up, motor starts spinning (no weird noises, seems just like as it should do) but nothing shows up. Tried different PCs, cables, OS, nothing. Just light and spinning.

I opened it up and looks like it's PCB is a bit oxidated. Cleaned it with proper products, but still got the same issues.

So I bought another new and *absolutely identical* PCB (2060-771961-001 rev b).

I managed to recover the firmware from the old PCB with a CH431a eeprom programmer, and to successfully flash the same chip (U12) on the new PCB with it.

Well, guess what, with its new PCB ithe hdd lights up, the OS recognizes it, but the motor doesn't spin and so windows tells me that I have to initialize the disk but it fails I I try so (obviously, as it doesn't move inside).

Do you guys have some advice with it? What did I miss? I still have both PCBs.

I've also a backup of both U12 and U14 of both PCB's, however the U14 of the old one looks "incomplete", half of the backup is just a lot of "FF" in hex. I've done multiple backups to ensure i got no bad readings.

Also, I managed to upgrade the firmware on the new PCB using an official WD tool. It worked, but it didn't help.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Jared]

The problem has nothing to do with the PCB, and almost never does on USB drives. It's probably a firmware malfunction which is very common on all WD drives.

with its new PCB ithe hdd lights up, the OS recognizes it, but the motor doesn't spin

As to it not spinning with the donor PCB, that's probably due an incomplete or mis-flashed eePROM chip (the U12).

the U14 of the old one

No reason to even touch that. U12 is the only one with drive-specific adaptives.

I managed to upgrade the firmware on the new PCB using an official WD tool

I doubt that. You do realize that 99.9% of the drive's firmware is stored on the platters right? The ROM chip is just a few Kb of adaptive needed to properly access the rest of the firmware. So unless you flashed it while it was on the donor HDD, you didn't do anything.

The reality is, you need a tool like PC-3000 and an adapted SATA PCB to have much chance of recovering the data.

 

[McJefferson]

The problem has nothing to do with the PCB, and almost never does on USB drives. It's probably a firmware malfunction which is very common on all WD drives.[



As to it not spinning with the donor PCB, that's probably due an incomplete or mis-flashed eePROM chip (the U12).


No reason to even touch that. U12 is the only one with drive-specific adaptives.


I doubt that. You do realize that 99.9% of the drive's firmware is stored on the platters right? The ROM chip is just a few Kb of adaptive needed to properly access the rest of the firmware. So unless you flashed it while it was on the donor HDD, you didn't do anything.

The reality is, you need a tool like PC-3000 and an adapted SATA PCB to have much chance of recovering the data.

Oh I thought I was on the right way because of the oxidation... And the fact it now has a different behaviour with the new PCB but old U12. So why it's different with this one? They should just be the same now... But one make the disk spin but isn't detected, and one is detected but doesn't make the disk spin. Damn

Nice to hear I don't need the U14. I did a backup just in case but glad I can stay with the new one only.

I reformulate: the WD tool says that the firmware upgrade was done, but of course it lies.

So, I guess my next options are only two: make one last attempt unsoldering the old U12 and read it again and see if maybe I missed something there (I doubt, because i read that little piece of sssssssssilicon a lot of times and its content was exactly the same), or proceed with such PC3000 method... Something I know nothing about, but I guess it's already explained somewhere around here... I hope it's something easy to retrieve and mildly inexpensive... But I guess it's not...?

 

[pclab]

To go for a PC3000 way, if you don't intend to use it anymore, is like buying a bazooka to kill a fly.
Your problem seems to be a firmware issue, not a PCB issue. Even if you can put the new PCB back to work, you might find that you still have the same problem.
If you really need the data, you can contact a lab with PC3000 and they will do it for you at a low price, I believe.

 

[McJefferson]

To go for a PC3000 way, if you don't intend to use it anymore, is like buying a bazooka to kill a fly.
Your problem seems to be a firmware issue, not a PCB issue. Even if you can put the new PCB back to work, you might find that you still have the same problem.
If you really need the data, you can contact a lab with PC3000 and they will do it for you at a low price, I believe.

Well I have a kind of repair lab myself so maybe I wouldn't mind to have another tool around, even if I don't plan to use it a lot, if it has a reasonable price, ofc. Also I'm not much interested on what's on my hard drive (I can barely remember), it's more about learning new stuff I stil haven't look around for those PC3000, is something so expensive/hard to find? No cheaper alternatives?

I actually asked a quotation to a local lab in my country, they said it may cost around 600€! I understand that it's probably a small price for really valuable data, but that's definitely not my case

 

[pclab]

Well I have a kind of repair lab myself so maybe I wouldn't mind to have another tool around, even if I don't plan to use it a lot, if it has a reasonable price, ofc. Also I'm not much interested on what's on my hard drive (I can barely remember), it's more about learning new stuff I stil haven't look around for those PC3000, is something so expensive/hard to find? No cheaper alternatives?

I actually asked a quotation to a local lab in my country, they said it may cost around 600€! I understand that it's probably a small price for really valuable data, but that's definitely not my case

Where are you located? 600€ seems kind of steep...

PC3000 can cost around 5000€ and more, depending on the modules, the card that you want, etc, etc...

 

[McJefferson]

Where are you located? 600€ seems kind of steep...

PC3000 can cost around 5000€ and more, depending on the modules, the card that you want, etc, etc...

HOLYCOW! Ok that's too much I live in Italy. Any other less expensive tool I can try?

I really can't figure out why it doesn't spin... I gave a try to flash the U14 too, that makes the drive spin, but it isn't recognized anymore. At least i know that the new PCB can make the disk spin.

Reflashing the backup, i guess it's better to find a way to make it move...

 

[pclab]

HOLYCOW! Ok that's too much I live in Italy. Any other less expensive tool I can try?

I really can't figure out why it doesn't spin... I gave a try to flash the U14 too, that makes the drive spin, but it isn't recognized anymore. At least i know that the new PCB can make the disk spin.

Reflashing the backup, i guess it's better to find a way to make it move...

All tools are quite expensive: PC3000, MRT or DFL (the 3 major players on the market)
U14 does nothing, don't bother with it. You just need U12.

Are you willing to send to Portugal? I can take a look at it if you want! I believe it don't be that hard. (The drive is not opened, right?)

 

[McJefferson]

Are you willing to send to Portugal? I can take a look at it if you want! I believe it don't be that hard. (The drive is not opened, right?)

That's nice from you, thank you. At the moment I'm more interested into learning something new about data recovery than recovering those data (however I'm beginning to be curious now... I really can't remember what was on that drive ). I will consider your offer when i'll have nothing else I can do, thank you again.

I have a little update, I found around a working compatible sata PCB. Let's see if I can do something interesting from it.

 

[McJefferson]

Ok so i moved the U12 content into the SATA PCB's U12, gave it a try, disc spins (!!!), BUT the HDD is detected as Unknown Device - damn! Am I moving closer to a solution? Do you know if is there an utility or something I can use to check the U12 content for errors? (i have the.bin file)