The PC Board in my 3TB “My Book Essential” failed with visble signs of heat on the board.
The drive itself is fine, runs perfectly in a generic case. However, the data is not visible. I have run a deep scan using testdisk and Sellar Pheonix. Would moving the drive to a new 3TB Mywook Essential allow me to see the data. In both cases the only files are DriveUnlock.app and some .h files. (DriveUnlock will not run - reported as damaged)
I understand from web searches that the drives use a proprietary firmware that makes the data inaccesible on a failed chipset. Will buying another My Book 3tb and installing the drive allow me to read my data? Other options?
You might try looking for a board on Ebay this link explains a little about the boards http://community.wd.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839. If the board has a bad diode then you may be able to bypass it. The one person who may be able to help is fzabkar check his posts or try sending him a PM.
A local repair shop is willing to take a look at the board and offers a no fee evaluation. Has any one had luck with this approach? I would like to bring as much of the information he needs as possible. Suggestions ? Any advice on what he should be looking for?
I am a local computer repair shop (probably in another part of the world) with a customer’s drive that has a
similar problem to yours. USB connector is broken off and I am on this Forum.
When taking on this kind of job I am hoping for less knowledgable customers with easier data recovery issues
than this but that’s another story.
I get an “uninitialized partition” when connecting it to Windows through Sata on motherboard. Doesn’t look good.
Your local computer guy is not going to specialize in WD data encryption and retrieval along with the various
issues that different kinds of drive models may have. Just as little as a GP doesn’t specialize in neurological disorders.
I am surprized and a little disappointed that there’s not more support from WD fro broke PCBs. It’s hardly an unthinkable stroke of bad luck and there’ll be ppl losing data. But then that’s what backups are for I guess.
From what I have seen on this forum I have no choice but to solder on the broken USB and quote the customer
