Data recovery from WD 4TB ext USB drive

[Kerrya]

So newer USB drives from WD don't adapt a SATA drive to a USB interface anymore the USB is built into the drive.

So this drive is not recognized by Windows anymore. Normally, I would simply detach the USB interface and plug the drive directly to a Linux Computer running HDD Superclone via a SATA connection. However that's no longer possible.

There are no USB tp SATA adapters that I can find that will convert the USB signal to SATA.

Any ideas on how to recover the data on this drive>

Any help appreciated.

Kerry

 

[Porthos]

Any ideas on how to recover the data on this drive>

Send it to a data recovery company. There are many who are members here.

 

[Kerrya]

Thank Porthos, but I'm more interested in learning how. I do send drives out for recovery when there are hardware issues, but The3re is no indication this is hardware yet.

 

[lcoughey]

The drive is encrypted directly to USB PCB. Swapping the PCB for a SATA board is out of the question.

To recover the data, you will need to read the ROM, modify it to unlock SA access, write it back and hope that it will be enough to access the SA. if SA.

If not, you will need to modify the USB board with a SATA connector and hope that will help get access to the SA.

The odds are, after you get SA access, you will need to backup & repair key SA modules, load them into RAM and hope that is enough to get access to unencrypted data.

However, most of the time, you still end up having to change the heads 2 or 3 times and may still not get access to the data.

Tools needed:

ROM programmer
PC3000 or MRT
Clean room
Head change tools
Donor drives

I'm trying to keep this simple. Did I miss something @300DDR & @labtech?

 

[labtech]

The drive is encrypted directly to USB PCB. Swapping the PCB for a SATA board is out of the question.

To recover the data, you will need to read the ROM, modify it to unlock SA access, write it back and hope that it will be enough to access the SA. if SA.

If not, you will need to modify the USB board with a SATA connector and hope that will help get access to the SA.

The odds are, after you get SA access, you will need to backup & repair key SA modules, load them into RAM and hope that is enough to get access to unencrypted data.

However, most of the time, you still end up having to change the heads 2 or 3 times and may still not get access to the data.

Tools needed:

ROM programmer
PC3000 or MRT
Clean room
Head change tools
Donor drives

I'm trying to keep this simple. Did I miss something @300DDR & @labtech?

This is it pretty much in nutshell. Perhaps we could add soldering tools and skills for when ROM programmer is iffy and need to manually do swap, as well as solder SATA interface into proper channels.

@Kerrya
Those easy USB bridge removal and convenient swapping days are pretty much over. Those model drives are pretty much gone and recycled.

Most WD external drives nowadays have multiple issues, especially anything 2017 and newer. On power on, they could sound absolutely normal, but they could still have mechanical issues, firmware issues and bad sectors, of course.

Sometimes you may see a corrupt exFAT partition issue or something trivial, but very rarely.

Also, for the WD 3.5" SATA drives, most also are now SED locked (Self Encryption Drive). Again, cannot swap PCBs, as it won't solve anything. Also, the PCBs are pretty well built nowadays, so they rarely have failures, unless we are talking about electronics issues related to power surges, wrong spec power adapters plugging in, people trying to shuck HDDs from external drives and try to trick the "spin down" setting, and so on.

This also applies to 2018 and newer Seagate & Lacie (also a Seagate product) external drives, which, like WD, have factory based encryption in the hardware.

So, PCBs cannot be swapped and reprogrammed. Matter of fact, powering drives on with a donor PCBs on both WDs and Seagates could cause further firmware damage, which can be a nightmare to resolve. Sometimes it may be impossible to solve.

For Toshiba external drive, they have not yet introduced hardware encryption. But as you have likely seen, Toshibas also have USB integrated interface. Straight PCB will not work with Toshibas either, due to specific/unique firmware parameters stored in the hardware.

 

[Markverhyden]

Tools needed:

ROM programmer
PC3000 or MRT
Clean room
Head change tools
Donor drives

I'm trying to keep this simple. Did I miss something @300DDR & @labtech?

Forgot one tool.

Expert data recovery tech

 

[britechguy]

Expert data recovery tech

But one becomes one of those (if one so chooses) via practice, practice, practice. One even just "learns a bit, possible just enough to be dangerous" by intentional fiddling and practice.

I get the sense from an earlier comment from the OP that this is just such an exercise and where actual data recovery is secondary. If, however, that's not the case then it's insane, absolutely insane, to try to DIY in this specific circumstance.

Tool to task, and all that . . .

 

[Porthos]

I firmly believe that externals should be for system images only or IF the DATA is on more than one device.
Externals are disposable and should be treated as such.

All your eggs in one basket and all...

 

[Markverhyden]

But one becomes one of those (if one so chooses) via practice, practice, practice. One even just "learns a bit, possible just enough to be dangerous" by intentional fiddling and practice.

I get the sense from an earlier comment from the OP that this is just such an exercise and where actual data recovery is secondary. If, however, that's not the case then it's insane, absolutely insane, to try to DIY in this specific circumstance.

Tool to task, and all that . . .

I call those fishing expeditions. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's on the up and up. I know what the OP talked about switching boards. But they were always like for like, as in SATA for SATA same model. Had relative success with drives 15+ years ago. When I came across the USB2SATA boards I gave up. I even tried swapping between 2 brand new drives and they failed.

 

[Markverhyden]

Thank Porthos, but I'm more interested in learning how. I do send drives out for recovery when there are hardware issues, but The3re is no indication this is hardware yet.

If it's not showing up in device manager or /dev it is hardware.

 

[britechguy]

I call those fishing expeditions. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's on the up and up.

And fishing expeditions are GREAT for learning. I agree that it has to be on the up and up, but I have no reason to believe otherwise.

I take it as a given that anyone in this business knows that data, and particularly other people's data, is of the utmost importance and that no unnecessary risk will be taken unless it's been discussed, thoroughly, before doing so. In most cases most of us, when faced with any uncertainty about the viability of a drive, and where the client has stated, unequivocally, that they want the best possible chance of getting it back, that we ship it off to those who do this for a living.

I have done (and attempted but not succeeded) "home brew data recovery" but in all cases it was either my own drive or one where a client asked me to do it after declining professional data recovery and understanding that nothing might come back. It's been quite a while since I last did so.

 

[Porthos]

And fishing expeditions are GREAT for learning.

But the new WD drives need the following as stated.

Tools needed:

ROM programmer
PC3000 or MRT
Clean room
Head change tools
Donor drives

 

[britechguy]

But the new WD drives need the following as stated.

Which, don't you think that having those who know about this saying so is GREATLY educational?

Posting here is the first paddle-stroke of a fishing expedition. For all I know, the OP may have already turned around and headed back to shore.

But if what you quoted, from someone very well-positioned to speak definitively, doesn't serve as a sign that reads, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here!," then nothing will.

Knowing when to stop, just stop, is a useful lesson to have acquired. And if it's not, as yet, been acquired: Once burned, twice shy.

 

[fincoder]

So this drive is not recognized by Windows anymore.

Not even in disk management? If so then that's it I'm afraid. Data recovery specialist would be required.

 

[Kerrya]

Thank you

I appreciate the detailed process, and it is far beyond my ability as I have no intention of purchasing PC3000 or the other components required. But I do like getting a clear understanding of what is involved.

I will see if the client wants to pay for data recovery and let you know

Kerry

​

 

[Kerrya]

Here's how the story ended:

I was able to get HDD SuperClone to clone the drive on Linux through the USB interface.

The cloned drive was visible to Windows Disk Manager, but it would not assign it a drive letter.

I was able to get ReclaiMe File Recovery to rescue the data to yet another drive

So the client has their data. I'm sure the deal was probably a corrupted partition (this was not a boot drive).

But here's what I don't understand. Why could there not be an adapter from USB to Sata with the necessary logic to do the conversion in the same way that you can go from Sata to USB with an adapter that also has the required logc built into it.

After all the drive is exporting unencrypted data when it is read, and there must be circuitry that can be designed to convert the signal into Sata format.

I understand this does not yet exist, but it seems some enterprising adapter company could do it replacing the need for ROM swapping and so on.

Just some thoughts

Thanks everyone for the information.

Kerry

 

[300DDR]

But here's what I don't understand. Why could there not be an adapter from USB to Sata with the necessary logic to do the conversion in the same way that you can go from Sata to USB with an adapter that also has the required logc built into it.

After all the drive is exporting unencrypted data when it is read, and there must be circuitry that can be designed to convert the signal into Sata format.

I understand this does not yet exist, but it seems some enterprising adapter company could do it replacing the need for ROM swapping and so on.

There are PCBs that go on top of the USB and convert it to SATA (pictured). But they are often a pain to get lined up perfectly, and it's usually easier to solder the SATA interface manually (I like using something like this: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801864229036.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa.

 

[Markverhyden]

Here's how the story ended:

I was able to get HDD SuperClone to clone the drive on Linux through the USB interface.

The cloned drive was visible to Windows Disk Manager, but it would not assign it a drive letter.

I was able to get ReclaiMe File Recovery to rescue the data to yet another drive

So the client has their data. I'm sure the deal was probably a corrupted partition (this was not a boot drive).

But here's what I don't understand. Why could there not be an adapter from USB to Sata with the necessary logic to do the conversion in the same way that you can go from Sata to USB with an adapter that also has the required logc built into it.

After all the drive is exporting unencrypted data when it is read, and there must be circuitry that can be designed to convert the signal into Sata format.

I understand this does not yet exist, but it seems some enterprising adapter company could do it replacing the need for ROM swapping and so on.

Just some thoughts

Thanks everyone for the information.

Kerry

It's not the USB or SATA or bridge between the two. They exist because standards have been developed which dictate their use. The bump in the road is the drive controller board. That's where each OEM does their special sauce stuff, including encryption. Each board is unique to each model so thats why there's no inexpensive solutions. Such tools do exist and their prices can be eye watering.

 

[britechguy]

I firmly believe that externals should be for system images only or IF the DATA is on more than one device.
Externals are disposable and should be treated as such.

I agree, but that external drive can be "device 2 (or 3 or etc.)." The probability of having your backup drive die at the exact same moment as "the original" is just vanishingly small.

If I could convince every client to have one backup, on one external, I'd be thrilled beyond words. And that's even if they're using OneDrive or similar for part of their data storage (which need not be duplicated locally). Just back up all the local stuff and, preferably, keep a full system image backup for good measure as often as is necessary.

 

[Porthos]

If I could convince every client to have one backup, on one external

The ones I can get to even buy an external, Make macrium images monthly.