@Wired57 Any followup?
Ok I am ready to send my WD MBL in for Recovery.
I removed the drive form the case to back it up and run my own recovery SW (EaseUS) on it.
I was able to recover many files, but no file names or directory structure.
Do I have to put it back in the case?
Has anyone had their file recovered?
How long does it take?
Thank you, Jeff
Looking the thread I expect WD rejects your WDL because has been tampered.
You should put drive back in the case and hope that WD doesnāt find some excuse to refuse the recovery.
Put it back in the case. Otherwise they might deny service because it has been tampered with. Also, your Case Number is tied to the Serial Number on the MBL. For my MBLD, it took a about a week to get from Oklahoma to Ohio by FedEx. Less than a week for recovery. About another week to get the 4tb MyPasssport back with my files described previously:
Hardly any had their original file name. It is in the attributes of some files.
Will get new 4 tb Seagate hard drive today to copy files to. Did a scan with DMDE and it looks good so far. Just need the extra room to recover all the files. I copied the My Book Live drive so Iām working with the copy in case I mess it up.
Iām going to send my info in today to see what they say about the class action lawsuit.
I presume that you also removed the drive from the case to take a copy / perform data recovery then put it back in the case before you sent it to WD?
Yes. My unit was a DUO so the drives slide right out and back. It was setup as RAID 1 so both drives were the same. My EaseUS software actually recovered more files but there were lots of duplicates and fragments of non-data files that werenāt any good. ie. CAB files that could not be addressed any longer do to loss of name and folder structure. Many other types as well. I erased them easily enough since EaseUs put them in file type folders
Good plan. I am trying to get recovered with WD. What class action are you filing?
Thanks for the update. All good stuff. So if the attributes are there it may be easier to find filename? I used EaseUS it sorted by File Type=>Username=>TimeDate Stamp filenames.
Somewhat helpful but still a pain. There were many duplicates files.
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Put it back in the case. Otherwise they might deny service because it has been tampered with. Also, your Case Number is tied to the Serial Number on the MBL. For my MBLD, it took a about a week to get from Oklahoma to Ohio by FedEx. Less than a week for recovery. About another week to get the 4tb MyPasssport back with my files described previously:
rshare:
I have looked thru each directory and the best I can tell is XLSX and DOCX files retained their file attributes including last modified. I have thousands of JPGās but all that Iāve checked also retain this info. MP3ās retained their attributes such as Title, Track#, Artist, and Album, etc. but NOT last modified. All other types and files including the mp3ās had a last modified date of December 31 1969 11:00 PM. Folders were dated when created during the recovery process. Hope this helps. Iāll edit this if I learn anything new. MID files retain last modified.
Hardly any had their original file name. It is in the attributes of some files.
I sent my information in
I was able to find my directory structure with the DMDE program trying to figure out if I can recover it.
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Interesting WD would refuse it due to tampering when I asked their live chat guy that exact question amd got a reply:
My Question:
Although we havenāt yet, if the drive has been manually attempted to be recovered (by removal from the dock, using a SATA to USB using recovery tools on a pc) is it still eligible for the program?
Their Answer:
Yes, the drive will still be eligible however we do not take responsibility for any damages inflicted during this process that would interfere with the data recovery attempt and might cause data loss.
I used the free version of DMDE but not sure where to find the directory structure. It does seem to recognize a lot of files and like a number of the other programs put them into buckets for excel, word, pdfās etc but would like to find the original directory structure.
I found most of the directory structure and some of the files in them. Free version wonāt recover folder so I created it and recovered files with original name and dates. Most of the files Iāve had to recover from raw. Most of the pictures did not keep original names and dates but some you could find in details. Itās a good idea use docking station to make a copy and recover from the copy.
All of my shipping labels were attached to the email that āOscar Dā sent me, when he said that my drives were being shipped from Scotland to Ohio.
I had asked a few questions before I send my discs off. Iāve waited a few weeks now for a reply, but āEddieTā has replied with an answer to all of my questions. Nothing earth shattering, but it still makes me wary of sending them back:
- I am unsure about getting a replacement from WD, but am interested in the discounted offer. If I buy a replacement, can I get it delivered before returning the compromised one?
Once the data recover team ill recover the data from the drive then we will provide you a 4-% coupon code at the same time.
- If I return my drives to you, will you send drives of the equivalent capacity in return (i.e. I have 3Tb of 6Tb full - will you send me 3Tb in return, or will you send me 6Tb?)
You will receive your recover data in the My Passport drive and the size of the drive will totally depend on the data that you have on the drive.
- Are there any assurances that you can give, that the new product I may purchase from you will not be prone to the same vulnerabilities as the one I am sending back and also that the replacement product will be a. new and b. properly supported and not due to be unsupported soon?
I would like to inform you that Western Digital is still manufacturing both My Cloud Home and My Book and we recently launch the new firmware update on the MY Cloud Ex2 Ultra device with the better security and it will not going to be end of life anytime soon.
- A general answer to why the drives cannot be returned and re-used by me in a different way (not in MBL format) after the data has been recovered?
I would like to inform you that sometimes to recover the data from the drive, the experts have to dismantle the internal parts of the drive which makes the drive unusable. Thus the dismantled drive being unusable are not returned.
I would like to inform you that Data recovery is an unpredictable process and no expert can give the 100% success rate for the data recovery. The data recovery experts will try their best to recover the maximum files from the drive. As of now for the My book Live drives the customers were to get the maximum files recovered. However, again this is an unpredictable process , thus we can not give any surety.
- How confident are you that the data can be recovered by yourselves? Have you had a good success rate thus far?
I would like to inform you that Data recovery is an unpredictable process and no expert can give the 100% success rate for the data recovery. The data recovery experts will try their best to recover the maximum files from the drive. As of now for the My book Live drives the customers were to get the maximum files recovered. However, again this is an unpredictable process , thus we can not give any surety.
- If no data can be recovered by yourselves, is it possible that I can have the drives back to try and recover the data myself? I do not want to lose both the data AND the ability to try and recover it myself.
If no data can be recovered , as of now we are not returning the drive as after several attempts of data recovery, there is a almost negligible scope of further data recovery on the drive. However if you want to get the drive back, please let us know so that we can further escalate the case to the concerned team to check if the drive can be returned to you or not so that they will not be scrapped by the data recovery service. At this moment I can not confirm about the return process if the data is not recovered.
These were the packing instructions that I got sent:
The following instructions will help you correctly package your WD
storage device. You should always pack your media firmly in bubble
wrap. Tape the sides of the wrap to prevent your hard drive from
slipping out during shipment. Please do not tape anything over factory
label.
External drives and NAS drives do not need additional static
protection, as their enclosures provide protection against
electrostatic discharge and minor impacts. Keep your hard drive in its
original enclosure. Please DO NOT include power cables and interface
cables with your shipment.
Pack your external hard drive firmly in at least 3-6 inches of bubble
wrap. Alternately, you can use your external hard driveās original
packaging, provided that you still have all of the inserts that came
with the device.
I think youāll find itās all 3 labels in the same pdf file. Print 3 copies off.
My drive has successfully arrived in Ohio from the UK so now itās the waiting game
This might be a daft question, but Iāve got 3Tb of data on my 2 x 3Tb Live duo (according to the control panel)
Iāve not set it up in any Raid format, so would I be OK to buy a 4TB drive to make a copy of the disc onto? By that I mean, would the 3Tb of data all be on one of the drives, or will it be spread over both drives, in which case I would need to get 6TB of recovery disc space?
Were u sent 3 labels or just 1 pdf?
1 pdf with 3 duplicate commercial invoices and the shipping label itself. 1 invoice goes in the package for the recipient i.e. Secure Data in this case, and the other 2 invoices go on the outside of the package in a wallet with the shipping label, 1 being for source country customs (UK) and other for destination country customs (US)
