Just received the new SATA to USB connector I ordered (Ugreen) and this “sees” the disk and connects it to the USB 3.0 port. I am now scanning the drive with EASUS and it is already finding lots of files… Still approx 5 hours to go, but things are looking brighter than this morning… Once finished I will make notes and scan with R-Studio as well to compare results. Will report back once that is also done.
You can remove the drive from the MBL and install it into a SATA port in a desktop PC. It’s a standard 3.5" drive. Early units shipped with WD Green drives and later with WD Blue.
I’ve removed a 2tb WD Green and upgraded to 3TB Blue a few years ago. Not difficult, most difficult bit was trying not to break the case… I’ll not be as worried about that this time when I reclaim the drive from the MBL 
In terms of whether its safe, its not formatted for windows so won’t be readable natively by windows anyway so install the drive… delete any existing partitions and then reformat and you’ll be good to go.
I tried several file recovery programs and they found a lot of files to be recovered. Now Defender is showing malicious files, I was able to remove all but 1 of the files. Need to check the credibility of these companies, some are located in China. I am doing all of the scanning with the internet disconnected. From now on I will do all my backups with internet disconnected.
So after a lot of time and messing around I have managed to recover pretty much everything using a Windows 10 laptop with 1tb of space and out of the box software.
First issue was getting the drive out but a quick google search showed how to do that.
Then jumped onto Amazon and purchased a USB to Sata connector.
Next I ran a few sweeps of the drive using Photorec which I downloaded from
https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk-7.2-WIP.win.zip
I did multiple sweeps looking for different file types and created a recovered files folder for each type so I didn’t need to split them up once the recovery was done.
So one folder for mp4s, scan and save there. Another folder for docs, pdfs scan again and save and finally one for images.
One issue I found was that the recovery software picked up thumbnails as well as the actual images which wad annoying and the recovery structure just seems to be a dump of everything into sequential folders.
I ended up with 600 folders containing between 500-1500 files after about 36hrs scanning.
But moved everything into one folder, sorted it by size and deleted the small thumbnails, leaving just the files I wanted.
I now have the slow and labourious test of sorting everything back into the relevant folders I want them in but so far have spent less than $10 on fixing this.
Next step will be trying to find a way to get it back as a NAS without risking same thing happening again without much ability/functionality to modify my router…
Will give a blow by blow on setting this up if I figure it out and anyone is interested!
Thanks to everyone else here who suggested recovery options, massive help.
4 Likes
Mine saw it as an empty USB drive. It wasn’t until I started the software that I saw drives that could be scanned. EASEUS recovered 2.5 TB from a 2TB raid1 drive. Lots of duplicates. It recovers all the files as “lost name files” plus it recovers files that it can name or it can find attributes for into sorted folders. I see farther down the thread that you got it going. Good Luck!
so i finally got my 2 bay docking station. windows 10 recognizes the drives.
the screenshot is from r-studio.
my issue is now, how can I access my old RAID0 partition (2*2TB)?
What options does the RAIDs tab give you?
More info here:
Raid Recovery Using R-Studio - Server Hardware - Spiceworks
Software I used:
Can RAID 0 Be Recovered? Yes! Here Is How To - EaseUS
1 Like
For anyone who still struggle to recover the data, please read this and create a request through WD support, I got contact by them and they will help to recover my book live data FREE.
The last couple of days I have attempted to use ext4magic that @dswv42 suggested. I was only able to get to identifying the Superblock and Inode information, and was unable to go any further - I was totally lost. The YouTuber just left it by saying that figuring out the directory structure (at the inode) was beyond the video lesson, I tried using TestDisk which is not very user friendly. Ever since I have been on the lookout for tools with some sort of a Graphical User Interface (GUI), and I found this one …
Their website appears to suggest that it is Free and can recover from Linux Ext partitions and runs on Windows OS.
Anyone tried this? Your help is indeed appreciated.
1 Like
yes, but
- you have to send in your MBL(D) and never get it back no matter what they can do
- you have not control what “economically reasonable” is. basically they can do nothing a just say they tried
- complietly unsure if the also recover file names
1 Like
Yes, it’s true. But by myself I am trying now with PhotoRec, it’s so slow and also file name can’t recover + some files doesn’t get recovered.
I hope they are have some other professional tool to recover my files faster.
I’d be interested in a blow by blow account on setting this up. Was your original WD NAS setup using RAID? Thanks
thank you. i will try after my vacation
I think one issue is that the MDLD works right now. so I have to tell the revocervy programm to go back to the old setting (ie raid0)
Reporting in with my experience of OpenWRT. Even though my device was apparently unaffected, there was no way I was going to trust it on a network, so I connected it via LAN to an offline computer to back up the data, then jumped through all the hoops to get OpenWRT installed. It is working incredibly well. The media PC near the router can copy files from it at speeds passing 40MB/s; quite a step up from the standard firmware. I’ve yet to set up an FTP server on it, but so far so good.
1 Like
I just received my UPS shipping label from WD to ship my drive in for recovery.
It’s being sent to Secure Data Recovery Services in Richmond Hts, Ohio. I’m located in Vancouver, Canada. It seems odd, since that company has a location 20km from where I live.
My questions have gone unanswered, too. 
The courtesy of a reply of some sort from them would be greatly appreciated.
1 Like
I’d be interested, too!
Has anyone found a way to wipe the drives completely? I really don’t like the odea of sending a drive that potentially has data on it out. Second is anyone else reluctant to take the 40% trade in if this ■■■■ is as vulnerable as it appears to be? Aside from this its a wet dream for a dictionary attack. I don’t think the new ones even have a lockout capability.
I may be getting in over my head but if the drive won’t map in WIN 10 is there another way? Factory data reset doesn’t work.
