Had PhotoRec run overnight, looks like it found quite a bit. No names for the files or directories though, so it’ll be a bit of a slog to sort through everything. Glancing at a few directories at random, I’m seeing many photos in triplicate: two in thumbnail size and one in a larger size (but not full size). Not sure if that’s from PhotoRec itself or from whatever software I was using to store the photos. Also not sure if the full-res photos are present in some other directory.
Thanks for reaching out. I was using the Stellar Data Recovery tool for MacOS, but as you said it looks like that doesn’t have Ext2/3 support. Looking at the Data Recovery Toolkit, it looks like the download only has an .EXE available, not seeing an option to download a Mac or Linux version of the tool. That does make things a bit more difficult on my end as my main workstation is a Mac.
Do all reports so far still only apply to the WD My Book Live series? I’ve fully unplugged my WD My Cloud just to be sure. It’s also an older device that has reached End of Updates 2 years ago.
I wish there were an easy way to switch the MBL off from ALL internet access, but there isn’t. That one feature (for those of us that do not require remote access) would make the drive 100% usable for us.
Since the device is old and no longer supported, then there is no reason for not allowing its users to terminate any telemetry the MBL might be using.
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I believe this also happened to me, as it occurred 2 days ago around the same time as everyone elses. Except mine is an 8TB elements device not even connected to the internet. This is the error i get when plugged it multiple computers.
never had any issues connecting before and used it daily. It makes me scared to replace it if the exact same fault can happen again (i haven’t even owned it a year).
A victim here. Can you guys please recommend a successful recovery tool for MacOS? Someone up the trend said Disk Drill
It sounds like you are really making good progress.
How will pulling the image with DiskInternals speed things up? Does it restore something?
I am prepared to rename every file if I have to = my punishment.
Someone said that the restored files are separated in Directories by file type?
I am one of those people. I never used it for online storage or access, it was behind the router firewall. Guess I was just naïve.
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
| Hazamel
June 26 |
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Yes, I was successful.
So far I can’t recommend testdisk/photorec because it’s just bad in this case and I had the least finds (and tons of Timemmachine spam).
Disk Genius went pretty good. I got solild results. Got Pictures I missed at my photorec-Run. But free version is very limited when it comes to filesize (guess everything bigger than 100kb is considered as “large file”). Only option here is to buy the professional version for 100$ because of the ext3/4-support.
I liked the preview-mode here to see how the files are and what it actually is.
Did a run with recuva over night but only checked for the images. It’s pretty slow (or buggy). Overnight wasn’t long enough to finish. Images look good. Found images I’ve deleted years ago.
Actual recovery of the data was pretty fast.
I’m currently pulling an image of the drive for further tests with DiskInternals Linux Recovery and to speed up things. After that I’ll see which tool I use for the Recovery.
No matter what tool: It’ll be a lot of work because no filenames, no folders. Things like eBooks get totally disintegrated by those tools. I’ve a mixture of images and html-pages. Some of these Books are no longer available so that’s a real loss. And it seems like old backup-Files got disintegrated too. I found images that look very much like the stuff you find in your temporary internet files.
All in all not everything is lost and hopeless. No matter what WD will do (or not) money can’t pay the time, grey hairs and cups of coffee.
As an IT professional I really feel sorry for those who aren’t and don’t have the knowledge or options to do this on their own. And I guess those are the majority of the victims because the MyBook-Series came at a reasonable price and about zero effort to use compared to a professional or semi-professional NAS-System.
Find video tutorial for opening up WD drive. Disassemble and put into a desktop computer or hook up with a SATA to USB adapter. To try recovering data, use PhotoRec or Easus. Don’t expect to get everything back. File names will be lost. Some contents will be corrupted, depending on how long the drive stayed on and what actions you took prior to this point.
No it doesn’t restore anything. I’m trying to eliminate some physical restriction like USB-Speed and external casing and so on by mounting it directly within the OS. And I’ve the option to mess around with the partion tables without risking the real physical copy.
mine is attached via usb to my pc now but the recovery programs cant find the drive but its listed as above in Disk Management
Seems like photoRec is really bad for this kind of recovery. Like I wrote earlier I got way better results with other tools. e.g. I didn’t get any of my Camera-Raw-Files with photorec.
Sorting Photos is easy with photorec. Just use the f_ * .jpg/bmp/png
t_ * are the thumbnails. Those are from the OS when you preview in Explorer or Finder.
Didn’t try my executables. But I’ve few hope that they’ll work or I can even find out what they were when not executable. Self-Extracting Zip-Files also got disinterated.
Is it the M-Drive?
Did you do anything to it with Windows like fix/format/whatsover? Is it connected properly? (No “Media” is strange)
all i have done this morning was try to connect to the drove in its case. Its then i found out it was empty like listed in this thread. So removed it from its case and connected it directly to my usb port with a cable that i used to clone a drive once before to upgrade from HDD to SSD
Could you set up your router to block all WAN traffic to the MBL?
I’m also thinking to install openwrt when I have time.
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So no extra power? Just one of these SATA/USB-Cables you get with your SSDs?
Maybe it’s not enough power HDD. I remember from “back then” that HDD-Portable-Drives always came with 2 USB-Plugs to get enough power to move the HDD. SSD doesn’t need that anymore because no moving parts. All my 3.5" HDD-Cases have an extra PowerSupply with 12V.
I installed Ext2 File System Driver for Windows download | SourceForge.net so that the drive could be read and mounted
Do you have a Desktop or Notebook? Desktop I might try to hook it up internally with a 12V SATA-Powerline (the broad part of the plug) and SATA-Connector.
If it’s a Notebook best choice might be using an existing external drive and just remove the HDD or buy one. Guess otherwise you won’t be able to add more power
That doesn’t spin the motor 
And system driver doesn’t get you anywhere because without recovery the files there’s nothing to read
