Western Digital My Book essentials 2 TB enclosure died, drive dieing

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Majestic

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Hi guys,


I have a clients Western Digital My Book essentials 2 TB enclosure that died, and I believe the drive is dieing (not dead yet) as well. When I connect it to the computer I get "disk can't be intiialized) in disk manager. When I connect it (after disassembling the enclosure) I get unitialized 2 tb disk in disk manager. I have since learned that Western Digital has hardware encryption on it even without a password.

So this leads me to the question-- If I were to find another WD My book essentials and swapped the enclosure onto this drive, would it work? I realize that that the build on the pcbs probably need to be the same.

Anybody have experience with this?
 
As long as it's the same Model/Type enclosure and in working order it will work. It sounds like the circuit-board on the original enclosure is going bad but the hard drive is fine.....
 
If you change the board you change the key. Evey post I have found with this problem says that the only option is to repartition the drive and put it in a regular enclosure.
 
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I always warn customers against encryption. In most cases it is really not required at all. When I tell them of the possibility of total data lost in a failure they usually weight the options and opt out.

I think this guy is screwed...data recovery is not likely to help. WD even warns not to bother calling them in the even of a loss.
 
Tony_Scarpelli said:
I always warn customers against encryption. In most cases it is really not required at all. When I tell them of the possibility of total data lost in a failure they usually weight the options and opt out.

I think this guy is screwed...data recovery is not likely to help. WD even warns not to bother calling them in the even of a loss.
Click to expand...

The thing is the guy never set any password on the drive. It's more a matter of Western Digital wanting to tie their customers to them. In order to even read the drive the hardware has integrated encryption (whether you ask for it or not). Simply put, without their enclosure (And the exact build with the right key) you cannot access your data.

I have already been on the phone with a couple of data recovery companies whom have experience with this and have confirmed this. They asked me to send in the enclosure with it.

Majestic
 
I'm confused. The encryption is contained within the enclosure? No external key needed? So, when not broken, if I grab the whole unit I still have your data? How is that protection?
 
EvolutionElectronics said:
Ive had this problem before and I just had to download a seperate program from one of the manufacturers that allowed you to type in the password and unlock it.
Click to expand...

Which manufacturer? There is a unique key associated with the enclosure - or at least I believe so. If it was western digital, what was the utility?

regards

Majestic
 
Majestic said:
Hi guys,


I have a clients Western Digital My Book essentials 2 TB enclosure that died, and I believe the drive is dieing (not dead yet) as well. When I connect it to the computer I get "disk can't be intiialized) in disk manager. When I connect it (after disassembling the enclosure) I get unitialized 2 tb disk in disk manager. I have since learned that Western Digital has hardware encryption on it even without a password.

So this leads me to the question-- If I were to find another WD My book essentials and swapped the enclosure onto this drive, would it work? I realize that that the build on the pcbs probably need to be the same.

Anybody have experience with this?
Click to expand...

This is exactly why I get my customers to take to the Cloud as an extra backup.

Cheap enough and is a great insurance in case something like this happens.
 
I've had personal experiences with the problem, but didn't solve it at the time. Next time I run into it, I'm going to try the suggestions from this post in DataRecoveryCertification GGroup:
JimmyW:
I spoke with the DR tech on this case. He explained that, as others
suggested, the internal drive is encrypted through the USB bridge (the
Initio chip, I presume). Unless the user employs SmartWare, the drive
is accessible to anyone who can plug it into a USB port. If the hard
drive is removed, it is not accessible through SATA. However, the USB
bridge is not drive specific, but only WD model specific. So, if I
have the drive and know the WD model, I can pick up a WD enclosure of
the same model, attach the internal drive to the USB bridge, and
access the drive. In the case at hand, they cloned the original and
did just that.

Jimmy
Click to expand...
Wish I had saved the drives I had encountered to try this, and I'd also be interested to know what program was used to decrypt the drive.
 
nlinecomputers said:
I'm confused. The encryption is contained within the enclosure? No external key needed? So, when not broken, if I grab the whole unit I still have your data? How is that protection?
Click to expand...

Larry Sabo said:
I've had personal experiences with the problem, but didn't solve it at the time. Next time I run into it, I'm going to try the suggestions from this post in DataRecoveryCertification GGroup:

Wish I had saved the drives I had encountered to try this, and I'd also be interested to know what program was used to decrypt the drive.
Click to expand...

Ok so in other words the drive isn't accessible without software installed on the PC? That makes more sense. I assume that it also can be password protected as well?
 
nlinecomputers said:
+100. At least not without other back ups and an end user with a firm understanding of the issues.
Click to expand...

I agree, but again that's what I use the cloud for.

Rather than the customer paying me to remove the drive and install it in a new enclosure, they can call me up to start the restore after they've bought their new external from me.

All in all when you look at the charges for me to go out and fix something like an external drive VS buying a new drive and downloading their stuff, it's cheaper to go with a secondary system.

That said (though maybe others don't see it the same way) I've rarely had problems with WD.
 
I normally prefer WD but I think what happened is that during the tsunami that took out hard drive mfgrs for about 5 months and drives went up in price about 250%.

A few of us figured out quickly we could go source still cheap USB drives and take the 320/500/1 TB sata out of them cheaper than you could buy a stand alone WD SATA drive.

So this only protects WD in the future as we will have to wait or pay high fees for sata drives and cannot buy from walmart, sams clubs and such the external drives to disassemble. They created a physical barrier for our using their drives.

To me it is stupid as they are still selling their own drives but I guess they see not being able to gouge us that much more, important to them..

This is a stone thrown at my trust and goodwill of WD.....I guess I will go with Seagate external drives.
 
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nlinecomputers said:
Ok so in other words the drive isn't accessible without software installed on the PC? That makes more sense. I assume that it also can be password protected as well?
Click to expand...
That would be true only if they had used SmartWare. If they had just used the drive as an external drive, the method I quoted would allow cloning the drive and extraction of the data. I don't recommend SmartWare because it requires the drive to be connected and running all the time, which wears out the drive prematurely and leaves the contents vulnerable to malware. I think you can use SmartWare and leave it powered off or disconnected and the software will detect when it is next online and catch up, but I don't expect most users would do that.

My first encounter with this problem was a pro photographer who lost all of his photos because the drive failed. The second was a customer who also left it on continuously; when it was time to upgrade to a new computer, he discovered that his backups had been failing for many months because of a drive/enclosure failure. Fortunately, his old PC was still functional and the data accessible on it.
 
I am going to the mfg with this issue as I have had it happen as well.

I have asked them about this issue and will post the reply when I get it.

This is info from there site:

Data Recovery
If the drive is spinning and shows up in Disk Management (Windows), or Disk Utilities (Mac OSX), but cannot be accessed, then the drive's partition table is most likely damaged or corrupted. It may be possible to still extract the data utilizing data recovery software. Western Digital does not provide data recovery software. However, there are several kinds of Data Recovery software available. If you do a web search for Data Recovery it will yield plenty of data recovery software options.
If the drive does not show up in Disk Management (Windows), or Disk Utilities (Mac), and you have tried all the troubleshooting options relevant to your drive, then your drive has most likely failed and you will need to contact a data recovery company to retrieve your data.

Western Digital does not provide data recovery services. However, we have a list of recommended preferred data recovery partners that you can use for data recovery services.


Circuit Board
Western Digital does not sell or replace circuit boards for our hard drives nor are we aware of any other companies that sell them. Replacing the circuit board on a hard drive is not a recommended method for recovering data or drive functions as this will void the warranty on the hard drive. For every hard drive model that Western Digital manufacturers, there are many firmware changes that would make it very difficult to find a circuit board with the same firmware of the defective drive. If you attempt to install a circuit board with a different firmware than the original, this may damage the hard drive further. If you need to recover the data on your drive, please contact one of our recommended preferred data recovery partners.

Drive Repair
Western Digital does not repair or recommend repair services for our drives. Any repair services performed on a WD drive will void the warranty. If your drive is under warranty, please see Answer ID 8: How can I replace a product under warranty?.
 
Official reply from WD

Dear Brian,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Jose Acosta.

We truly apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. If the drive is spinning and shows up in Disk Management (Windows), or Disk Utilities (Mac OSX), but cannot be accessed, then the drive's partition table is most likely damaged or corrupted.

We recommend using one of our data recovery partners.
You may find useful information in WD’s Data Recovery Services List which can be found on the link below:

http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?wdc_lang=en

It may be possible to still extract the data utilizing data recovery software.

Although we do not have any specific software that we can recommend, many of our customers have had great success with Ontrack's data recovery software.

Please see the link below for more information.

Title: Ontrack Data Recovery Freeware

Link: http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/

If you do not want to buy Ontrack's recovery software then I recommend you try searching the web for other data recovery programs. Please see the link below for more information.

Title: Google Search - data recovery software

Link: http://www.google.com/search?q=data+recovery+software


If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,
Jose Acosta


My reply:

Hello Mr. Acosta,

Thank you for the reply, however my question remains unanswered. The subject was about the my book essentials and here is the email again. I need to know specifically, if there is any hope of recover in the below stated case.

______________________________________________________________
"Hi,

I am a self employed repair technician. I have ran into this problem and so have a few other people on a tech forum I am a member of.

The enclosure, for whatever reason ceased to work and the drive could not be read. When taken out and hooked to a recovery computer it tells us it needs to be initialized. We are assuming this is because of the encryption.

If I am correct, the key for the encryption is built into the board of the enclosure. If this is the case and the enclosure is bad, is there any way for recovery of that data or is our only option to initialized and repartition the drive?

Thank you,

Brian VanOrder
Freedom PC Solutions"
_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your time.

Brian


His final email:

Dear Brian,

Thank you for your reply.

Certainly, it is possible for the data to be recovered on the unit. The information we sent you is on the ways that you can recover the Data on the unit. Below a link with more clear information on this matter.

How to recover data on a drive, obtain a circuit board, repair a drive, or find a list of WD data recovery partners.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers...sion/L3RpbWUvMTM2MTk3NTY4OC9zaWQvZE84enFWamw=

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,
Jose Acosta

Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com

Note: If you have not visited our community forums, please make sure to do so. You may also find answer(s) to your question(s) there.
Link to WD community forums: http://websupport.wdc.com/rn/cl.asp?i=$incidents.ref_no&e=$contacts.email.addr

This electronic message contains information from Western Digital and is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential. The dissemination of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please respond back to this e-mail or contact us by phone (http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?wdc_lang=en).



I guess I was hoping for an answer like "I'm sorry but without the embedded key the information will not be recoverable." In my opinion, if they stated this then they are admittedly selling a problem waiting to happen.
 
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