Western Digital Data Recovery Services Call 1.855.366.4232 For Assistance http://www.hddrecovery.ca We have spend the last few years working on thousands of these cases. It has helped us create a streamlined process for safer, reliable and thorough data recovery. Going through a Western Digital data recovery task, such as My Passport drive with a very slow response, starts with taking the proper steps to provide a clean, clear and concise verification. By discovering what works and what doesn’t, we were able to create the best procedure to handle this issue from start to finish. We’ve created a video to demonstrate our step by step process of gaining access to data on Western Digital My Passport drive with a Western Digital proprietary USB 3.0 interface that aren’t recognized when you connect them. It’s important to note that the Western Digital Passport is a very popular hard drive choice these days and we see it come in for recovery with a wide array of different problems. However, some issues are unique to Western Digital. Before going any further with your Western Digital Data Recovery Project, please note the following: If your hard drive is making a clicking sound, it needs a head replacement. Power down the drive immediately and contact HDD Recovery Services for assistance. Head replacement is not a DIY type of task. Doing this yourself or continuing to use the drive could create irreversible damage and destroy your data permanently. The hard drive in our case study video never went through any physical damage. It was never dropped, hit or bumped. The owner took great care of the drive. The drive just wouldn't load one day. It did make all the normal sounds such as: Spinning up Calibrating Stays idling Doesn't spin down No clicking sounds If you want to try R-Studio you can download it here: http://www.r-tt.com/?JGKHD000 Dealing With Encryption During Western Digital Data Recovery Process Decrypting the drive isn’t difficult. We could use either the original USB 3.0 PCB or a compatible USB board from a Western Digital MyBook that uses the same encryption revision type. If you have any questions about decrypting the drive, please contact us for more information. We’d be glad to explain this step further. SATA Conversion You have numerous options when it comes to solutions that support specialized USB drives, including ATOLA, Deepspar and ACE LAB. Through extensive testing, we’ve found our method to be bullet proof. It has never failed to deliver solid results. We’ve found that when dealing with passport drives, the best option is to combine ACE LAB products with manual SATA conversion followed by hardware decryption of the image. When it comes to SATA conversion, there are two different approaches including: 1.Find a compatible SATA PCB from the same hard drive family of the drive you’re working on. Compare the numbers on the main controllers and spindle idle controller to see if they’re compatible. To make it even easier for you, here’s a compatibility list: 2.Solder your own SATA connector. Start by buying a connector on sites such as Digikey, eBay or aliexpress. Remove the capacitors C13, C18, C31 and C37 on the component side of the PCB to disable the USB bridge. Check out the pinout for the 7-pin SATA connector to make sure you have it just right on our blog here: http://www.hddrecovery.ca/blog/slow-passport-data-recovery/ You use the existing USB connector to get the necessary 5V of power to spin the drive. Though it’s not required, it’s also a good idea to put the 10nF resistor inline with the signal leads. No matter what you do, try to keep the wires as short as possible to make it easier to work with. Fireware Issues The majority of firmware issues that occur with WD Passport drives are related to module #32, which is also known as Relo-List. To get past the problem, this module must be cleaned if there are any entries in it. You also need to restrict any further defect relocation entries or you could be faced with another firmware lockout during the imaging process. Handle the problem completely now for less trouble later on. You can do this with the help of tools from manufacturers such as Ace Laboratory, Deepspar, Atola and possibly others. The next step is to check that all other critical modules are in good shape. Run a head test to insure all the heads are responding properly to read commands. If the modules and heads are good to go, it’s time to start the imaging process. Contact us today with any questions you may have related to the Western Digital data recovery tasks and we’ll help you with your unresponsive hard drives.

• published: 01 Apr 2015
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