What size is your hard drive? If it’s a 3TB I can send you my MBR and partition table and you can SSH into your drive and copy my MBR and partition table to your drive, then reboot and do a quick factory restore and you should get your whole drive back. It might work on a 2TB as well…
EDIT Post removed as it didn’t work
I downloaded the image and unzipped it to the public share ran the command and then rebooted the drive via putty, wont boot past the yellow light now. Any thoughts?
output from outty below:
login as: root
root@192.168.0.9’s password:
Linux MyBookLive 2.6.32.11-svn52288 #1 Wed Oct 26 18:57:59 PDT 2011 ppc
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Disclaimer: SSH provides access to the network device and all its
content, only users with advanced computer networking and Linux experience
should enable it. Failure to understand the Linux command line interface
can result in rendering your network device inoperable, as well as allowing
unauthorized users access to your network. If you enable SSH, do not share
the root password with anyone you do not want to have direct access to all
the content on your network device.
MyBookLive:~# dd if=/DataVolume/shares/Public/MBR.img of=/dev/sda bs=15728640 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
15728640 bytes (16 MB) copied, 0.112285 s, 140 MB/s
MyBookLive:~# reboot
Broadcast message from root@MyBookLive (pts/0) (Thu May 9 23:45:53 2013):
The system is going down for reboot NOW!
MyBookLive:~#
Hmm, I really thought that might work. Just for the heck of it do you mind debricking the drive again using mybook.img. Then boot up the drive but this time run the command but don’t reboot. Do a quick factory restore after you run the command and see if the space available changes in the dashboard. I would leave the drive and board out of the case for now.
if that doesn’t work, debrick again using mybook.img but this time run the command to copy the mbr and partition table from the system rescue cd terminal and then put the board back on and try booting again.
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Thanks I will try this later today and I will report back the findings
When you say “if that doesn’t work, debrick again using mybook.img but this time run the command to copy the mbr and partition table from the system rescue cd terminal and then put the board back on and try booting again”
Is this the same command as before? once the mbr.img file has been copied to the public share? and the dd command ran?
Thanks
Good question 
Put the MBR.img on the same usb drive you put the mybook.img on.
Then
-
Use the dd command earler in this guide to copy mybook.img to the drive
-
Then run this command
If the MBL shows up as SDA in gparted then
dd if=/mnt/mybook/MBR.img of=/dev/sda bs=15728640 count=1
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I have unbricked the drive with the mybook.img file but then I could not connect to this forum to get the other commands so I will try the next steps tomorrow, Thanks a lot for your help with this
I tried it the last way I told you to try on a 250GB hard drive just for giggles. The drive booted and It seems the partition table stuck but the dashboard showed 0/0 for drive usage and total space. When I ran parted, it threw an error that lead me to believe it would have worked if I had a 3TB drive.
Good luck
I ra the command again for the MBR fix and this brciked the drive again
Was this for a 2TB drive?
once I ran the command Gparted could not see the drive and the space was all unallocated
I have since used the mybook.img file again to unbrick and then I tried to use Gparted to extend the partition, This worked and when conncting the drive to the network again the space now shows 2TB
thanks for your help
It was from a 3TB drive…
Darn it, why didn’t I think of using gparted lol…
Would you mind posting the exact steps after the debrick using mybook.img
I’m assuming you used gparted immediately after running the script and extended the OS partition and applied the changes. Connected the drive back to the PCB and booted up. Did you then have to perform a quick factory restore or was the data partition already showing 2GB?
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here is my log of a failed debrick session. It is the third failure, after failing to correnct the problem of not being able to access the dashboard using the non destructive debrick. All I am trying to do here is implement the drive like it was a new one. I have already backed up my data
***************
root@sysresccd /root % mkdir /mnt/usb
root@sysresccd /root % mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
root@sysresccd /root % cd /mnt/usb
root@sysresccd /mnt/usb % mdadm -S /dev/md0
mdadm: stopped /dev/md0
root@sysresccd /mnt/usb % ./debrick.sh rootfs.img /dev/sda destroy
********************** DISK **********************
script will use the following disk:
Model: ATA WDC WD20EARS-11J (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
is this REALLY the disk you want? [y] y
********************** IMAGE **********************
********************** IMPLEMENTATION **********************
everything is now prepared!
device: /dev/sda
image_img: rootfs.img
destroy: true
this is the point of no return, continue? [y] y
dd: writing ‘/dev/sda1’: No space left on device
11+0 records in
10+0 records out
10485760 bytes (10 MB) copied, 0.00709157 s, 1.5 GB/s
dd: writing ‘/dev/sda2’: No space left on device
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.000723173 s, 0.0 kB/s
dd: writing ‘/dev/sda3’: No space left on device
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.00235852 s, 0.0 kB/s
dd: writing ‘/dev/sda4’: No space left on device
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.00235824 s, 0.0 kB/s
Testing with pattern 0x00: done
Reading and comparing: done
GNU Parted 3.1
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type ‘help’ to view a list of commands.
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart primary 528M 2576M
(parted) mkpart primary 2576M 4624M
(parted) mkpart primary 16M 528M
(parted) mkpart primary 4624M -1M
(parted) set 1 raid on
(parted) set 2 raid on
(parted) quit
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.
Warning: blocksize 65536 not usable on most systems.
mke2fs 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
/dev/sda4 is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
mkfs.ext4: Device size reported to be zero. Invalid partition specified, or
partition table wasn’t reread after running fdisk, due to
a modified partition being busy and in use. You may need to reboot
to re-read your partition table.
destroying was done, would you like to continue with installation? [y] y
mdadm: size set to 10176K
mdadm: ADD_NEW_DISK for /dev/sda1 failed: No such device or address
mke2fs 1.42.7 (21-Jan-2013)
mkfs.ext3: Device size reported to be zero. Invalid partition specified, or
partition table wasn’t reread after running fdisk, due to
a modified partition being busy and in use. You may need to reboot
to re-read your partition table.
mdadm: cannot get array info for /dev/md0
synchronize raid… done
copying image to disk…
dd: writing to ‘/dev/md0’: No space left on device
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.00188329 s, 0.0 kB/s
mount: /dev/md0: can’t read superblock
cp: cannot stat ‘/mnt/md0/usr/local/share/bootmd0.scr’: No such file or directory
./debrick.sh: line 359: /mnt/md0/etc/nas/service_startup/ssh: No such file or directory
umount: /mnt/md0: not mounted
mdadm: stopped /dev/md0
BLKGETSIZE: Inappropriate ioctl for device
BLKGETSIZE: Inappropriate ioctl for device
all done! device should be debricked!
I debricked the drive using the mybook.img file as before, then with the drive still conncted to the PC I rescanned the drives in GParted. This presented with an error saying that there was space unallocted. I then used GParted to resize the partition of the 1.8TB drive by using the GUI.
This completed so I removed the drive and put the connectors back on and conncted it back to my network, Good sign as the drive light went green. I opened up the website and saw that the space was 2TB. for completeness i ran a factory reset (quick) on the drive and then logged back on, still showing up as 2TB which is awesome as I thought I was going to have to lose the drive and fork out for another!
Any new firmware releases I can safely say i WILL NOT be attepting, lol
Again, thanks for your help here
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@Gardian8 thanks for the info. This opens up another way to debrick any MBL in the event the script fails. Glad you are back up and running
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I have had success at completing the debrick roots.img, but no cigar.
Also tried debrick mybook.img as well as ssh into the drive and do a no reformat factory reset.
Now, I still have full functioning Twonky server, but denied access to the UI/dashboard.
The latest “feature” is red LED, no SSH, no Dashboard but Twonky at :9000 lives on.
No DHCP or communication with the router, as the IP has been 169.254…233 for the last few days.
Prior to that, the Green LED had been flashing for some time, but you could still access the shares.
I am thinking about doing a NTFS format of the drive in windows, then booting the rescue and doing a debrick rootfs destroy or a debrick mybook to see if that will get a complete functional install.
This is on a 2t MBL. I also have a 1T MBL that is still functional (didn’t allow update firmware due to the need to maintain an updated Twonky install for functional transcoding to make the drive useful). I have swapped network boards from the 2t MBL to the 1T MBL, and the 1t still functions. Whatever the problem is on the 2t setup is on the physical drive and was damaged from allowing it to update.
This is acually worse than replacing a DVD or HD on an XB0x 360, where you have to flash the drive firmware to make MS box use a non MS appliance. But, at least the XBox 360 works at the end of the process.
I am thinking I have an updated Brick, courtesy of WD.
Will throw a another 6 to 8 hours at it tomorrow, before buying another drive to replace the “updated” one and starting from scratch. It would probably be more cost efficient to just buy a new MBL with updated firmware rather than allowing a working, established system take the update. What a novel approach to emulate progress…
I’m stumped why neither method is working for you. I would try to format the drive like you said and try again.
Thank you very much nfodiz!
Your guide worked like a charm :smileyvery-happy:
My first MBL was bricked when I did the most recent firmware update 2.42.02-012.
I got an RMA and returned the drive. I got my replacement drive and guess what,that one bricked too.
At that point, I was too frustrated and annoyed to be bothered with another RMA.
Thanks again!
Wow talk about bad luck lol Glad it worked out for you in the end though
Hi Nfodiz, its me again, my NFS server is working now, i can see it from my media player, the best part, i didnt do anything just appeared, i have a question, does this server have some configuration page or file ?? i would like to see if i can change something like the buffer… Thanks…
There is not an immediate file to adjust nfs server settings that I know of
An Update.
I spent another half-day on Sunday and came up with a few observations.
These are based on a complete and destructive recovery to offset a suicidal update from the mothership…
If debrick.sh rootfs.img constantly errors out, reformat the drive completely as NTFS in GPARTED, then try again
If you fail in the terminal from the rescue disk, reboot and try again. Don’t try a second time without rebooting.
If you want to use a thumb drive to load the mybook.img, and get a destination full error, format it to NTFS using GPARTED and give it a go. Until I did this, a 16 gig thumb drive wasn’t big enough to copy the 4 gig image. When you mount it to debrick, use NTFS instead of VFAT
On a successful completion of the debrick script, enable the swap via SSH, or via the Rescue terminal
Use GPARTED to view the partitions to see if they look correct
If the router doesn’t see the MBL to give it an IP Address on the network, connect the MBL directly to a computer and use the 169.xxx.xx.xxx VPN assigned by the computer to things that show up as Ethernet, but are brain-dead and can’t find a router…
Use a browser to force the UI to load, if your attempt to debrick is successful so far, but the drive still isn’t seen on the network by the router…
If you are able to get the UI to load using the 169.xx.xx.xx address; immediately assign it a Static IP in the realm of your network.
Export the configuration to your PC and save it where you can find it if you have to re-enable SSH
Check to see if it is alert enough to see that it has a drive installed. If it shows 0MB of a 0GB drive; it is still partially comatose. In this case, do a full factory destructive restore form the UI
After the factory restore, if it still won’t connect on the network, when reconnected to the router, make it’s IP static in the UI by direct connecting it to the PC again by using 169.xx.xx.xx VPN.
Reboot and reconnect to the router during the boot process (this may require some preparation to have it close enough to do this. I kept an extra network cable to my router close to where I was recovering the MBL.
At this point, it should show up on the network, the UI should work correctly, and it should now be aware it has a drive installed, and the size should be correct for the model you have.
Never put it back into the case until you are sure it is working. Handle it carefully when out of the case, no need to wear out the plastic. Mine was removed and reinserted enough that it should have come with a zipper to make it easy to recover from a firmware upgrade.
I make no promises this will work for anyone else. However, it may be able to help someone avoid 12 to 72 hours of frustration, and circular failures.
I am still reloading the data I recovered with he Linux reader app, and still running a static IP on mine. I doubt I will be brave enough to return the IP to dynamic and DHCP assigned. I have a block of 10 IP addresses reserved in my router for static IP, and the DHCP starts on the 11th, so I can get by with it without address conflicts
I appreciate the hard work and effort by others that gave me a chance to get this done.
