WD My Passport Ultra 1TB not mounting

[Archon Prime]

Hi guys. make this short and sweet.

got a WD My Passport Ultra 1TB Model: WDBZFP0010BBK-03 that was brought in to see if I was able to get it mounted or get the data off it. (pictures, etc).

I tried with my mac and my windows 10 machine - nothing mounts or is visible in Disk utility in Mojave, and neither in Disk management on windows. It does acknowledge that it's connected and I can see it for eject, however it only shows "Eject my passport ultra" no drive letter, etc assigned obviously.

In device manager I get:

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.

with the following events:

Spoiler: Events

Device USB\VID_1058&PID_0810\575832314133345632393630 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.

Last Device Instance Id: USB\VID_05DC&PID_A83A\AA45RZA9QDSIIRQ1ZH
Class Guid: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}
Location Path: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1400)#USBROOT(0)#USB(8)
Migration Rank: 0xF000FFFF00000020
Present: false
Status: 0xC0000719
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device USB\VID_1058&PID_0810\575832314133345632393630 had a problem starting.

Driver Name: usbstor.inf
Class Guid: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}
Service: USBSTOR
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters:
Problem: 0xA
Problem Status: 0xC0000001
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device USB\VID_1058&PID_0810\575832314133345632393630 was configured.

Driver Name: usbstor.inf
Class Guid: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}
Driver Date: 06/21/2006
Driver Version: 10.0.17134.1
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Section: USBSTOR_BULK.NT
Driver Rank: 0xFF2000
Matching Device Id: USB\Class_08&SubClass_06&Prot_50
Outranked Drivers:
Device Updated: false
Parent Device: USB\ROOT_HUB30\4&a3f7854&0&0

so I'm thinking the drive is fubar. but curious if anyone has some ideas before I quit on this one. Maybe something from @lcoughey or anyone who's ran into this one.

 

[nerd2u]

Sounds like the drive has lost its partion information. I would try making an image of it then accessing the image to see if you can read the data.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[labtech]

When you connect the drive via USB, does it spin up and stays spinning? Or it spins up, clicks a few times and spins down?

 

[GTP]

Can you crack open the case, remove the drive and mount it directly to a sata port. The electronics in the box are probably fried.
Seen this many many times.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Can you crack open the case, remove the drive and mount it directly to a sata port.

It probably has a USB PCB, so that's not going to work. Normally what I do is swap the ROM to a compatible SATA PCB, fix the slow responding problem that 90% WD drives encounter, then (assuming that's the only problem) clone the drive and recover data from the clone using the decryption function of the recovery tool. A proper diagnosis is required before all of this.

 

[Archon Prime]

Yeah, I leave the physical repairs to @lcoughey and his team if I was to go that route. I don't do drive repairs. If it's functional and I can mount it in some form, I'll image and recover. But other than this, if it's not a simple solution I'll refer them.

Sounds like the drive has lost its partion information. I would try making an image of it then accessing the image to see if you can read the data.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

I can't image the drive if it's not coming up in any shape or form. I figured if I was able to get R-studio to even see it, I could do it. But it won't even do that. I tried different cables, etc.

 

[HFultzjr]

Have you tried mounting it or seeing it in your favorite (Parted Magic ?????) linux distro?

 

[Archon Prime]

It won't load up on linux. doesn't work on multiple machines so I didn't think it would anyway.

 

[Markverhyden]

It probably has a USB PCB, so that's not going to work. Normally what I do is swap the ROM to a compatible SATA PCB, fix the slow responding problem that 90% WD drives encounter, then (assuming that's the only problem) clone the drive and recover data from the clone using the decryption function of the recovery tool. A proper diagnosis is required before all of this.

I think that WD Passports have been using those combo boards for several years. Customer called up 3-4 years ago wanting me to look at one he had that stopped mounting. Typical story.

customer - It's my backup
me - Great, just get another Passport and copy all your stuff over from your machine.
customer - It's not on my machine, it's on my backup
me - A backup means you have two copies of something in/on different devices. So you don't have a backup

I cracked it open thinking I could just pull off the USB2SATA bridge but no such luck. That's why I do not recommend those anymore. The problem is it's getting harder and harder to find external portable drives with a separate, removable bridge.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I cracked it open thinking I could just pull off the USB2SATA bridge but no such luck. That's why I do not recommend those anymore. The problem is it's getting harder and harder to find external portable drives with a separate, removable bridge.

The alternative is usually a Seagate Backup Plus with a Rosewood-family drive inside. They can be a real b!tch to recover data from because Seagate locks down the firmware. WD drives on the other hand, are usually recoverable - not necessarily by the user but neither are most Rosewood drives. Seagate makes trash drives IMHO, and are best avoided.

 

[labtech]

When you connect the drive via USB, does it spin up and stays spinning? Or it spins up, clicks a few times and spins down?

@McFarland IT I was hoping you would answer my question, too... oh well.

 

[lcoughey]

We get these drives on a daily basis. If it isn't accessible right away for you, there is likely little you can do to recover the data and you are likely just causing more damage every time you plug it in. A good portion of the time, we are able to recover the data at our minor recovery rate, but in many cases, they failed because of being bumped or dropped with the heads themselves being damaged.

It is probably best to give me a call to speed up the communication...I just noticed this post now.

 

[Archon Prime]

@McFarland IT I was hoping you would answer my question, too... oh well.

Sorry @labtech I missed that. It spins up, stays up. about 2 minutes plugged in I can hear a beep, but it's still spinning. computer sees the device connected.

@lcoughey I'm going to refer them to you guys if they want to get the data off. I'm not really sure if it's super important for them, but I'll give them that option

 

[labtech]

Sorry @labtech I missed that. It spins up, stays up. about 2 minutes plugged in I can hear a beep, but it's still spinning. computer sees the device connected

Yeah, it is struggling reading. Likely lots of bad sectors & firmware issues like @Larry Sabo mentioned and possible weak head(s) like @lcoughey explained. Very common on these models.

 

[pcpete]

It won't load up on linux. doesn't work on multiple machines so I didn't think it would anyway.

Even if it won't mount in Linux, will it let you image it with ddrescue? After plugging it in type dmesg in a shell, if so does it detect the size of the drive, then you may have a chance

 

[labtech]

Even if it won't mount in Linux, will it let you image it with ddrescue? After plugging it in type dmesg in a shell, if so does it detect the size of the drive, then you may have a chance

I kindly suggest that imaging in this condition is not recommended, as it is not in the end user's best interest (the owner of the data).

The drive has reading issues, where "reading" means the heads being able to read the firmware (the main firmware is stored on the disks, which is where the capacity/size of the drive is coming from and posting to the host OS) and, further, user data.

Now, as is, every single time the drive is being connected, the host OS not only tries to read data from the drive over and over excessively, but also potentially tries to write to drive (as most OSes are designed to run checkdisk scans and what not). Furthermore, the drive's firmware, internally, is reallocating bad sectors to defect lists, trying to cope with the deteriorated condition, potentially chugging away data from sectors belonging to files. The longer the drive stays powered on as is, the more of this reallocation is happening in the background.

When the drive mounts and posts the correct capacity and there aren't many bad sectors, sure, ddrescue or whatever basic imaging/cloning tool, that has bad sectors skipping functionality, could work and succeed in obtaining a decent outcome. Anything beyond that is jeopardizing with the owner's data.

We see those My Passports every day requiring firmware modifications, mechanical work, etc after they have been pounded by trivial attempts to read data from.

Just as a heads up, the 3TB and 4TB versions of My Passport sound perfectly normal upon powering on, even when they have light mechanical damage. Those models have been starting to fail in large numbers now that they have been out there on the market for 1+ years.

Before proceeding with full imaging. it is critical to understand what is the root problem(s) with the drive (bad heads, firmware, only bad sectors, PCB, motor, etc). With trivial testing, if the drive isn't mounting or if it mounts and begin imaging and it skips a lot due to bad sectors, then should really stop the recovery attempt. It is not a good idea to continue, as it causes more damage.

 

[pcpete]

I kindly suggest that imaging in this condition is not recommended, as it is not in the end user's best interest (the owner of the data).

The first few parts of the thread the OP only said it did not mount in Windows or Linux. If that was being the only symptom, to connect it to a linux machine(unmounted) to see if the drive was detecting the proper size and drive name is reported is a decent way to determine if it is initializing properly. If it was initializing properly, then to do a quick check if it can read sectors at a good rate is a fair test to do to determine its health. At that point you could decide how to handle it from there.

But, I missed this at the end of the thread, which I just read this morning. this changes things.

It spins up, stays up. about 2 minutes plugged in I can hear a beep, but it's still spinning. computer sees the device connected.

 

[Archon Prime]

Ya I don't mess around with customer data. After I tried on 3 machines and several programs, I left it as is. The drive is in working order, but I gave them a referral to Recovery Force ( @lcoughey ) place. If they decide the data is worth it, they will setup something with them. They are a returning client of mine so I'm not worried about the loss.