[GUIDE] Debrick MyBookLive v2.0

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

6-7-2013 ATTENTION ALL USER’S THAT USED THE PREVIOUS GUIDE 1 DISK IMAGE

SEE GUIDE 3 ON HOW TO FIX YOUR SWAP PARTITION

6-7-2013 GUIDE 1 HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH A GOOD IMAGE

7-16-2013 Disassembly video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGLJi66vxnY (Thanks saurabhstar)

This guide is for those having issues getting the script in my first guide to properly debrick their MBL

This guide WILL DELETE all of your data so refer to the original guide for instructions on backing up data from your drive prior to using this guide and also on how to remove the hard drive from the enclosure

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/GUIDE-How-to-unbrick-a-totally-dead-MBL/td-p/435724

DISCLAIMER
Be aware that this will void your warranty and is only to be used as a last resort when you have no dashboard or SSH
I am not responsible for any loss of data as a result of you following this guide
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

I have images for a 1TB MBL and a 3TB MBL

Guide 1 is for a 1TB or 2TB MBL (Updated with new image with working SWAP)

Guide 2 is for a 3TB MBL

Guide 3 is for users who used the old Guide 1 disk image so you can fix your SWAP

Guide 1 (1TB and 2TB MBL)

  1. Download the virgin disk image (02.11.09-053) (291MB) from

https://mega.co.nz/#!AAFFnQxA!PfId_3R6RRhS_EJ01X4lbAhr8QQi0R4oainKc8gYpRE

  1. Extract with 7-zip and you should have a file called mybook.img
    http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

  2. Format an 8GB+ thumbdrive or external usb hard drive to NTFS and copy mybook.img to it

  3. Download SystemRescueCd and burn it to a CD
    http://www.sysresccd.org/Download

  4. Shut down your computer and remove the cable from your computers hard drive so we don’t erase it by mistake

  5. Hook up your MyBookLive to a SATA port on your motherboard or buy an eSATA to SATA cable or dock and hook up the drive that way. You can try a USB to SATA cable but success rates vary

  6. Turn on your computer and tell it to boot from the CD drive

  7. When the system rescue cd menu comes up, select to “directly start the graphical environment”

  8. Open gparted and check to see where your MyBookLive shows under. In my case it shows up under /dev/sda
    The drive should contain several EXT3 partitions and a rather large EXT4 partition

If your drive shows up under sdb, sdc, sdd etc.  just substitute the proper name for the drive when getting to
dd if=/mnt/usb/mybook.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M (DONT ENTER THIS COMMAND YET)

Now in gparted check to see where your thumbdrive shows up. In my case it shows up under /dev/sdb1
If it shows up under sdc1, sdd1, sde1, etc.  just substitute the proper name for the drive when getting to
mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb (DONT ENTER THIS COMMAND YET)

  1. In terminal type the commands below (Make sure you change sdb1 (For the thumbdrive or usb hard drive) and sda (for the MBL hard drive) to whatever they show up as in GPARTED)

    mkdir /mnt/usb
    mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
    dd if=/mnt/usb/mybook.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M

  2. Look for any errors in the terminal window (output should look similar to below)
    4420+0 records in
    4420+0 records out

  3. Logout of the SystemRescue CD and shut down the computer

  4. Hook up the pcb to the MyBookLive hard drive and screw it down with 2 screws for now and then hook up the ethernet and power cord and try booting the drive again without putting it back in the case

  5. Now from the dashboard do a Quick Factory restore to format the data partition

  6. When the quick factory restore is complete power down the MyBookLive

  7. If you have a 1TB MBL skip to 18

       If you have a 2TB MBL continue on to 16a

16a) If you have a 2TB MBL you now need to hook the drive back up to your computer again

16b) Again boot up the system rescue cd and select to “directly start the graphical environment”

16c) Open gparted and find your MBL and extend the data partition and click the apply button up top to apply the changes (See pictures below)

Right click the partition that is 927.21 GiB and select Resize/Move

IMG_0140.JPG
IMG_0140.JPG1024×768 221 KB

Drag the slider from the right side of the blue box all the way over to the right

Free space following should state 0

Now click the Resize/Move button

IMG_0141.JPG
IMG_0141.JPG1024×768 185 KB

Click the green checkmark the apply the changes

IMG_0142.JPG
IMG_0142.JPG1024×768 183 KB

Yes you are sure you want to apply changes so click Apply

IMG_0143.JPG
IMG_0143.JPG922×691 211 KB

Resizing partition

IMG_0144.JPG
IMG_0144.JPG1024×768 264 KB

Partition resize is complete so click the Close button

IMG_0145.JPG
IMG_0145.JPG1024×768 254 KB

  1. Log out of the system rescue cd and shut down your computer

  2. Put the drive back together as you are done!

Guide 2 (3TB MBL)

  1. Download the virgin disk image (02.41.05-034) (203MB) from

https://mega.co.nz/#!FZkASQ6T!P3DMWzaOn62jSrG4SECtIDeJeLYEdmz6w6kR9it8U68

  1. Extract with 7-zip and you should have a file called mybook3tb.img
    http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

  2. Format an 8GB+ thumbdrive or external usb hard drive to NTFS and copy mybook3tb.img to it

  3. Download SystemRescueCd and burn it to a CD
    http://www.sysresccd.org/Download

  4. Shut down your computer and remove the cable from your computers hard drive so we don’t erase it by mistake

  5. Hook up your MyBookLive to a SATA port on your motherboard or buy an eSATA to SATA cable or dock and hook up the drive that way. You can try a USB to SATA cable but success rates vary

  6. Turn on your computer and tell it to boot from the CD drive

  7. When the system rescue cd menu comes up, select to “directly start the graphical environment”

  8. Open gparted and check to see where your MyBookLive shows under. In my case it shows up under /dev/sda
    The drive should contain several EXT3 partitions and a rather large EXT4 partition

If your drive shows up under sdb, sdc, sdd etc.  just substitute the proper name for the drive when getting to
dd if=/mnt/usb/mybook3tb.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M (DON’T ENTER THIS COMMAND YET)

Now in gparted check to see where your thumbdrive shows up. In my case it shows up under /dev/sdb1
If it shows up under sdc1, sdd1, sde1, etc.  just substitute the proper name for the drive when getting to
mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb (DONT ENTER THIS COMMAND YET)

  1. In terminal type the commands below (Make sure you change sdb1 (For the thumbdrive or usb hard drive) and sda (for the MBL hard drive) to whatever they show up as in GPARTED)

    mkdir /mnt/usb
    mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
    dd if=/mnt/usb/mybook3tb.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M

  2. Look for any errors in the terminal window (output should look similar to below)
    4420+0 records in
    4420+0 records out

  3. Logout of the SystemRescue CD and shut down the computer

  4. Hook up the pcb to the MyBookLive hard drive and screw it down with 2 screws for now and then hook up the ethernet and power cord and try booting the drive again without putting it back in the case

  5. Now from the dashboard do a Quick Factory restore to format the data partition

  6. When the quick factory restore is complete power down the MyBookLive

  7. Put the drive back together as you are done!

Guide 3 (SWAP FIX) Only needed for people who used the old 1TB MBL image

  1. Enable SSH from the dashboard by logging in and changing the end of the url to /UI/ssh

  2. SSH in with either PuTTY (Windows) or Terminal (MAC) and create a swap partition and reboot

The login is

username: root

password: welc0me

Enter the commands

mkswap /dev/sda3
reboot

 The output should look similar to this

MyBookLive:~# mkswap /dev/sda3Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 500672 KiBLABEL=, UUID=c3bc3a15-4b8d-407b-b897-956cc956e138MyBookLive:~# rebootBroadcast message from root@MyBookLive (pts/0) (Sun Mar 10 14:09:02 2013):The system is going down for reboot NOW!MyBookLive:~#

3) Once the drive reboots you will have a working SWAP partition

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you get a blinking blue light when trying to boot the MyBookLive you have a bad power supply (Thanks lilmick89)

When you go to resize the data partition on a 2TB MyBookLive and all you see is 2TB of unallocated space in GPARTED it is likely due to you using a USB to SATA cable (Thanks to nutello for the heads up on this)

You will have to manually resize the data partition by following this post

http://community.wd.com/t5/My-Book-Live/GUIDE-Debrick-MyBookLive-v2-0/m-p/571579/highlight/true#M22598

16 Likes
2

Awesome guide, bookmarked. 

3

Thanks Ichigo :slight_smile:

I need a good free file hoster for a 203MB MyBookLive image. It seems filedropper already deleted the file. Any suggestions are welcome. I’d prefer not to split the file into smaller parts

4

Try using Mega.

https://mega.co.nz/

5

Updated with new link to 3TB image

6

Hi,

the 3tb image is down. Could you please reupp it? Thanks a lot.

Currently I got a 1TB HDD perfectly running thanks to your post! My intended HDD for the enclosure is a 3TB WD red. So I’m looking forward to get this running too :slight_smile:

7

Damm’ should have the page reloaded. I just saw the link. Thanks a lot :smiley:

8

Let me know how the 3TB RED works out. It should work great :slight_smile:

9

Hello,

I just registered to say: nfodiz,**  you’re the man!** :slight_smile:

I’ve had my MBL sitting here for months, almost a dozen tutorials followed including your first guide, and no luck.

This one worked like a charm. My Harddrive was damaged and I bought a new one… my MBL is giving the green light again! :slight_smile:

Just a notice, when I get to 12a) I didn’t managed to resize my partition to 2TB because Gparted give a error saying the GPT tables were corrupted, because sda3.

I first had to do the quick factory reset on the dashboard and then resize the partition and worked. 

My MBL just updated the firmware and its working.

If you ever come to Portugal I’ll pay you a beer. :wink:

Thank’s!!!

Best Regards

1 Like
10

Guide updated 6-5-2013

1 Like
11

Hello,

i’ve checked the changes you made in the guide and thats exactly it. :slight_smile:

Do the Quick restore before the partition resize.

I hope it would help others.

Thank You.

12

Thanks for your reply and enjoy your newly working device :slight_smile:

1 Like
13

Hello,

I followed step by step this procedure for my MBL 2TB, but I’m unable to resize partition from 1TB to 2TB.

After dd I connected the HDD to WDL case, go to UI dashboard (with 1TB size displayed), ‘quick factory restore’, and connected again to SATA device.

In gparted I see a single 2TB block of ‘unallocated space’. The same in other similar Windows tools.

Can you help me in resize the partition in order to use the whole available space?

I’ve done some other test, as ‘full factory restore’ after dd, partition table restore before dd, etc., but always without success.

Thank you and congratulation for your wonderful guide! :slight_smile:

14

You should see several partitions on the drive. All you are seeing is 1 2TB unallocated partition?

15

Try following (Guide 2) using the 3TB image and guide. If it works let me know and I will edit the guide

16

I used the 1TB image on a 3TB drive this morning and took some screenshots just to show the process. It worked like a charm.

Right click the partition that is 927.21 GiB and select Resize/Move

IMG_0140.JPG
IMG_0140.JPG1024×768 221 KB

Drag the slider from the right side of the blue box all the way over to the right

Free space following should state 0

Now click the Resize/Move button

IMG_0141.JPG
IMG_0141.JPG1024×768 185 KB

Click the green checkmark the apply the changes

IMG_0142.JPG
IMG_0142.JPG1024×768 183 KB

Yes you are sure you want to apply changes so click Apply

IMG_0143.JPG
IMG_0143.JPG922×691 211 KB

Resizing partition

IMG_0144.JPG
IMG_0144.JPG1024×768 263 KB

Partition resize is complete so click the Close button

IMG_0145.JPG
IMG_0145.JPG1024×768 253 KB

Drive now shows 3TB in dashboard

IMG_0146.jpg
IMG_0146.jpg942×83 8.74 KB

17

Guide 1 updated with pictures and a new 1TB disk image with working SWAP

If you used the old disk image from Guide 1 you will need to follow Guide 3 to fix your SWAP

 

18

Hello,

I’ve tried to load 3TB image, but with no success: no access to UI dashboard, fixed yellow light, same single block of 2TB unallocated space on gparted.

I’ve tried also the new 1TB image, but the result is the same than before (UI dashboard functioning with 1TB, no possibility to expand to 2TB, same single block of 2TB unallocated space on gparted).

Is there anybody that can send me a 2TB image…or can help me in expand the 1TB partition?

I’m using a SATA to USB adapted, could it be the cause?

Thank you.

19

Yes the USB 2 SATA adapter is probably the issue

20

If I had an empty 2TB drive I would make you an image but the only 2TB drive I have is slam full. If anybody has a 2TB MBL and doesn’t mind factory restoring it with an SSH noreformat command PM me and I’ll show you how to make it. You would have to restore all your users/folders/settings manually afterwards. If using DLNA, you would have to re-import your entire library as well.