ATTENTION! I HAVE MANAGED TO RECOVER MY FILES FROM MY WD MBL, FOR FREE!
(Sorry for caps, I just want to make sure people see this because I think it’ll work for most people.)
Disclaimers: Individual files have been recovered, but the original folder structure has not been restored. I have confirmed with .avi video files. Some file formats might not actually have been restored, I’m not entirely sure how files were redetected, whether the program actually restored each file block or recognized filetypes based on data patterns. The files were restored, however the names for the files and most other metadata were not.
Requirements:
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A Windows PC (might work on Linux)
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A spare disk (to recover your data, needs to hold all your prior data. If you are unsure how much storage is necessary, the program used will tell you how many GB of data was recovered.) (Make sure the disk is already formatted and mounted)
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The ability to connect a 3.5" HDD into the PC (I used an external dock; internally plugging in via SATA should work as well)
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https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/ (software used to recover the data)
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Optional: https://diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ (lets you view ext format disks on Windows)
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Time and patience
What I did: -
Installed the software I linked
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Going thru the setup wizard
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Select the WD MBL PARTITION (NOT the physical drive). The type should be ext3 or ext4.- The program will scan the partition. This step may recover a few files, but for me there was nothing found.
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After the scan, on the top there will be a message with a button “recover more files”. Click that!
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Select “full disk” scan, and select all the filetypes (or all the filetypes which you want to recover).
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The program will rescan, showing you how many blocks/inodes it has found (part of the ext filesystem). When it’s done, you should see folders by file extension, containing the files.- Last, select any folders/files you want to save, and right click → save. Navigate to your spare disk, and then start saving.
I had a bit more than a terabyte of data to recover, and as of now it’s predicted to take more than 2 days to recover the data to another network mounted storage drive I have. Once the program completes I’ll share what the result is if I remember.
