I am now another victim of a broken mini USB port on my WD 2TB drive. Although it is out of warranty, I called WD Customer Support hoping they could help me with a fix - even if it’s not covered. They directed me to the Geek Squad to recover my data. Geek Squad estimates over $500 to recover my data (onto another drive), with no repair to my current drive. $500 cost because of a $1 part broken!! Can anyone offer me a solution to either replace the port, or acquire a new circuit board to attach to the drive? I don’t expect it to be free, but there must be a solution that is less costly than $500 (plus a new drive). Thanks for nothing WD customer support! It will be a long time before I consider another WD product!
Broken USB ports leave the users with only a few chioces. Drives that came with Smartware are hardware encrypted and the data cannot be recovered by connecting as an internal drive or using another case. First if the drive is still in warranty then opening the drive will void the warranty. You can try getting another USB port soldered on at a electronics repair place. I know some have been repaired by soldering fine wire to the board and then the other end to a USB port. You can try getting an identical drive and try that board. These boards change frequently and there is no guarantee it will work. You can look on Ebay for a replacement this link explains a bit about matching up the boards http://community.wdc.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839 again no guarantee.
Joe
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PROBLEM SOLVED!!
I PURCHASED THE BOARD BELOW ON EBAY FOR $22, AND IT TOOK ABOUT A MINUTE TO CONNECT AND ALL MY DATA IS RETRIEVED, AND THE DRIVE IS BACK TO WORKING ORDER.
WHY COULDN’T WESTERN DIGITAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT JUST SUGGEST THIS SOLUTION, RATHER THAN SENDING ITS CUSTOMER TO THE $500 GEEK SQUAD SOLUTION???
WD Mybook / Elements control board PCBA 4061-705078-001 AF AE AA Support All Revwable for this variation
Glad it worked out for you.
Joe
George G,
I had the exact same thing happen to me and I’m not sure I can fix it. I followed the link you provided to the ebay product. Any idea if this will work on a 1TB model? Did you just open the outside case and was it hard to fix? Thanks!
Dani
Dani
Look at the link I posted above and it explains a bit about the boards. Any drive that comes with Smartware is encrypted.
Joe
