Help! All data in mybook live gone and owner password unknown

Luckily my data were not wiped out. But I have lost write access to the mybook live connected to my home LAN. I can read the files but not add new files or create folders. The disc was setup for local network access with one shared folder on the LAN. The internet access wasn’t enabled.

I was down to my last nerve with them five days ago. Now I have none left. Like you, I have questions that have gone unanswered even though I’ve asked them multiple times. I sent them the freakin’ logs along with all the other information they requested. I’ve spent hours in their chat queue. I would’ve expected the courtesy of a reply from them even if it’s along the lines of “We’re unable to answer those questions because we are too busy covering our butts, so quit asking us”.

I wish I had the knowledge to attempt to recover my data myself. :worried: In the meanwhile, I’ll keep checking in to see the success that some of you are having recovering some of you data which gives me hope that some of my deleted files, photographs, documents, videos, etc., can be recovered.

Have any of you used a company called Drive Savers for data recovery?

Understand completely. It is obvious WD has devoted minimal resources to an attack on a known vulnerability, resulting in their customers loss of memories and critical data.

After the 3rd request for log files I removed the hard drive from the MBL.

It was a little tricky, there are plenty of UTubes,
I started with a very small screw driver on back side (flat), once I got it started I inserted a credit card in the corner so it couldn’t close again.
I did this on all 4 corners of the back. Turns out there are 4 clips, 2 on each side of the rear panel that have to be depressed.

Watch the videos online to remove the actual hard drive from the case, then the printed circuit board (Ethernet to SATA).

You can purchase a USB to SATA adapter online or if you have a desktop PC it is faster to connect the drive directly to a spare SATA.

There are many File Recovery utilities and a lot of help on the this forum. Just ask.

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OMG! while the video is informative, my head is spinning and working harder than the HDD in the MBL ever did. Nevertheless thanks to @dswv42 for sharing this lesson/session about EXT4 file system, its advantages over others, etcetera.

I don’t mind learning these new skills, but at this moment a recipe to recover data from the MBL drive will be a great boon. Thanks again to @dswv42.

Oh I forgot to mention that I have started a new thread seeking opinions from the experienced technologists in this Forum. Please go over and provide your thoughts and insights there. Thanks.

After this MBL Fiasco: Not Waiting - WD Legacy Products / My Book Live - WD Community

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@dswv42
Very informative.
Thank you, Jeff

Hello Rlud.
You are right!!
They have lost my business 2 and i´ll tell all of my friend´s and all others
to take hands of WD-NAS-PRODUCTS.
WD has known about it for al long time…and they do NOTHING!

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Hi John!

Get into your ROUTER and ban the WD for the Internet.

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Hi all, I was poking around on this forum after my drive was reset as well, and figured I’d at least make an account to share my solution.

I called ACE Data Recovery about a week ago and they said they were familiar with what was happening and their proprietary software was performing well in recovering the data in this situation. Anyways they were right, and I’m about to pick up a new hard drive that has all (99%) of my data on it. They were quick and professional about it and I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved… Feel free to ask me about it I am not ashamed to laud them and their efforts.

I know it is difficult to “compare apples to oranges”, but how much did they quote you to provide you this recovery service? Are they going to return the MBLs after they are done with the recovery? Finally, are they going to provide a written certification that any data or images of data retained by them are either: (i) going to be completely destroyed after they ship you your recovered data, and (ii) maintain any data nuggets left over, whether advertently or inadvertently, in a strictly confidential manner just as they would with their intellectual property?

@iiHunt0197 - ACE Data Recovery has a data recovery lab within 5 miles of where I live. I’ll probably go over and talk to a person if possible and see what my options are. I’ll circle back here and update this post after I have some details.

The quote was around $600 for me, I forgot how much I had on the device in terms of data but it was many photos and documents, as well as home videos. They gave me the option (for free) to either keep my MBL or have them recycle it. They were able to certify that they completely got rid of all my data as well. I also wanted to clarify the hard drive they gave me with my data was “free.”

Have any recovery options been able to salvage the folder structure?

thank you very much, but this is way over my knowledge.

I wonder one thing: is a recovery possible when connecting the MBLD via lan to my notebook? or is it necessary via USB (in order to bypass the WD-OS)?

UPDATE:

I just saw this update from WD Customer Support …

Thank you for your continued response. My name is Jack K.

Western Digital understands your concerns, and we take the privacy of our customers very seriously. The My Book Live programs we’ve implemented are under the strict supervision of our legal team as well as our Privacy/GDPR team. At this time we cannot provide the requested document, however, any time a customer returns a drive to us, even outside of this particular My Book Live program, the drives are wiped completely for customer safety as well as ours.

Sincerely,

Jack K

Western Digital Technical Support

http://support-en.wd.com

This is adding insult to injury … If WD is already doing this, then why are they hesitant to certify that they have either wiped data completely (all traces of it from their retention) or provide a statement that they will abide by the strictest confidentiality required applicable law.

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@iiHunt0197 - thanks for the update.

I was able to get the hard drive out of the case and drop it in a HDD Docking station. First thing that pops up is unrecognized format, then it wants to format drive, I quickly canceled that and started recovery software. It recognizes the drives and I started the scan. I’m at about 2 hours it is at 56% and 14,272 files found.

@Wired57
Good news!
What recovery Software are you using?
What size is your MBL?
Thank you, Jeff

Wondershare Recoverit but I may not use it. May try to find a cheaper solution.

2 TB