Accessing My Book Live HDD (via usb enclosure) from linux

Hi all,

A week ago my My Book Live is stuck on blue light and the LED at the ethernet port does not light up. Nothing shows up on the router ip list either. Preceeding that, for around 2 weeks, the drive randomly stops working, and I had to power off/on for it to be accessible.

Tried different cables and direct connection to PC and MAC - all failed.

Anyway, I pryed open the enclosure to put it on a usb enclosure. And since Windows does not read the filesystem (though I could see 4 partitions) and is prompting me to format the drive, I just downloaded and booted into Ubuntu.

The hard disk shows up in Linux but I am getting this message:

Error mounting: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdi4,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

Right now I am running TestDisk to analyse the drive and it is taking a long time to get through 2TB.

Not experienced in Linux at all and using Google to source for solutions. Anyone care to share how I can access my files on the drive?

BTW what partition table type should the drive be?

I got the following choices:

 [Intel ] Intel/PC partition
>[EFI GPT] EFI GPT partition map (Mac i386, some x86_64…)
 [Humax ] Humax partition table
 [Mac   ] Apple partition map
 [None  ] Non partitioned media
 [Sun   ] Sun Solaris partition
 [XBox  ] XBox partition

Hi, I had exactly the same problem

The Mybooklive 2Tb that worked flawlessly suddenly refused me access to the UI. I actually thought that maybe i had forgotten my password so I carried out a reset using the reset button. No my drive starts up but does not obtain an IP address at all from the router. The green light constantly blinks but I cannot gain access by any method.

Reading some of the other posts it seems that as I had automatic updates set, the most resent update has bricked the device.

My device has a lot of important info so I like you took the drive out and put it in a USB enclosure, after 4 or 5 hours trying different versions of Linux Distro I still could not get the unit to mount due to the large block size.

I went back to Windows and found a really good program for mounting EXT4 drives on windows 7 http://driesve.tumblr.com/post/1560794187/how-to-mount-an-ext4-drive-in-windows-7.

Install the program and make sure you install the patch as the program by default will only read ext2 and 3 drives.

Im currently 13 hours into a copy from the bricked WD drive to a Netgear Stora NAS which has never let me down.

If you have any problems with the program let me know and ill try and help.

I really hope WD get to the bottom of these failed updates and release a recovery tool as the drive was not that cheap and i live in the middle east so sending it back is not really an option.

1 Like

Will give it a try once TestDisk is done with the analysis. Been a few hours already.

So you’re saying there’s nothing wrong with the data/disk itself but rather the large block size is causing the mounting problems? I can see 2.0 TB File system in devices on Ubuntu but just can’t access it due to the error mentioned above.

Yea, they should really release a tool to directly access the data and I am Asia too.

Posted the problem on superuser, haven’t got a solution there atm.

Hey it worked!

Cheers

Thanks for your help!

Your solution actually works, but at least in my case it is horribly slow and unreliable. After some searching I found Raide Data Recovery for Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 which works much faster :)  http://www.ufsexplorer.com/rdr_ext23.php

Hi bar_pet, did you have to purchase the license to actually get your files? Thanks

Hi komirad, was it the TestDisk that work or was it guin166 link that work? TIA

Same problem here. No network connectivity between the MBL 2Tb and my router, even though the NIC lights were working. Would not pick up an IP address. The front light on the MBL was green. Did all standard troubleshooting…changed network patch cables, tried different router ports, etc. The HDD was not making any unusual noises…clicking, grinding, etc. So I assumed that the HDD was still ok.

Removed the HDD from the MBL case and mounted it in an external USB enclosure. Used this free tool to recover the files:

http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

More or less the same problem here, but Im with 1TB MyBook Live. The amber light is on, the green light is blinking now and then, ti can feel some activity with the disk inside, but i cant access it somehow, direct or smartware. none of the system (XP, Win 7, Ubuntu) connected via network can utilise or access the Book Live.

Im thinking of opening the case and connecting it directly via SATA on my PC. Should it work?

p/s: lots of valuable data in it. 40% utilization :frowning: