My book essential ... NEED HELP PLEASE!

[DirtyDawg]

I use this my book essential on my iMac and one morning recently I woke up, turn on the my book essential and although the light lit up it wasn’t functioning, not even spinning up.  iMac doesn’t even see it although WD QuickView recognizes it but it says nothing is on it.  I finally just decided to erase it, but I would rather get the data off of it first, but when I used the WD formatter for external drives it told me the drive was locked and the program was stopping.

Would that be what the format program is just saying because the platters aren’t spinning up?  Is my hard drive fried? Can I even get the data off of it somehow?

Thank you for any help

By the way, I’ve already replaced the power cord, that is not the problem, and I have a new usb 3.0 cable coming today to see if that is it.  I just really need to get that data on that drive in a bad way.

[SuperTech_IT]

Sounds like either the 12V from the USB to SATA board isn’t working, or the control board on the drive itself is bad.

You need to decide how badly you need the data off that drive, because it’s going to cost a few bucks unless you’re good with electronics or really know your stuff with regards to board swapping;

I’m one of the cheapest people around that even offer this service, and you’re looking at about $100 if it’s an “easy” repair (plus shipping both ways) up to $200 for more difficult ones.

No charge (other than the shipping) if I cannot repair it.

Quote this forum at SuperTech-IT.com when scheduling your repair.

[DirtyDawg]

That’s too steep for me.  I appreciate your taking the time to reply though.  I’ll never buy another usb 3.0 drive again as this is the ONLY drive that has ever just quit on me. All the others have lasted long enough for me to outgrow them and pass on to my kids.  If this becomes the trend, not sure what I’ll do as I’m still growing.

Answer me this please, if you will.  Why is it that WD Quick View and other programs see the drive but don’t recognize the fact that it has data on the drive?

[SuperTech_IT]

Because the logic circuits all run on 5V, but the drive motor requires 12V to spin.

This is why I say it sounds like the 12V may be severed at some point, or the motor driver itself has failed.

Also, what the system is really recognizing is the USB to SATA interface - not the drive.

Even without a drive attached, you will usually still see the “mass storage device” etc.

The failure may actually have nothing to do with the fact that it’s an external drive.

Not spinning is usually a fault on the drives own controller, but in an external, there is one extra place it can occur, which is the 12V feed to the drive.

It MAY also be that the external power supply is not quite providing the 12V needed to run the device.

Let’s try a little self diagnosis here - 

Remove the power adapter plug from the drive and measure the voltage at the tip.

It should read around 12 - 12.5 V 

ANYTHING YOU DO PAST THIS POINT WILL VOID ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES YOU MAY HAVE

Now disassemble the external drive casing, and disconnect the USB to SATA interface from the drive and connect the power supply to it.

Above are typical 3.0 and 2.0 USB to SATA interface boards

Measure the voltages at the hard disk power supply connector (beside the SATA connector, but also a part of it)

.

You should have 3.3, 5 and 12 V at their respective pins from ground of the same connector or power supply.

If the 5V is there, and the 12 isn’t, then you need a new interface, or to have yours repaired.

Remove the drive from the external casing, and connect it to either an external drive dock, or to the power connector of a PC. If it spins, you know the problem is in the USB to SATA board.

If it doesn’t, then the problem is the drive itself, and is no fault of being an external drive.

If the drive spins, and is NOT a security capable drive, you should be able to connect a SATA cable and read it or read it in an external SATA drive dock.

If the drive itself is defective, you CAN find drive boards on ebay - BUT they are not that cheap, AND you have to make sure it’s an EXACT MATCH.

Even at that, I would only use it long enough to retrieve the data to a new drive unless you are 100% positive that your board is an exact match. Boards that are a “good enough” match will usually work well enough ro read off the data, but once you get into read/write operations, the drive will become easily corrupted.

If your drive is security capable, even if no password was set, if the drive works, you still won’t be able to read your drive until you get a replacement USB board because the drive is still actually encrypted.

Hope that helps.

Normally, I don’t do board swaps if the drive is intended to be returned to active service - I actually repair the original board, but I often have to buy a compatible board for the parts (almost always the brushless motor driver IC), which is why it costs what it does through me.