I have an ancient My Book for Mac Essential, that is at least 10 or 15 years old, can’t remember when I purchased it. I had a Powerbook g4 running Tiger when I used it. I am now hoping to retrieve the files off it, although I do not have the Powerbook or any Mac. I have a Windows 11 laptop with MacDrive on it. The My Book will not power on. Should I remove the HDD and connect it via a SATA-to-USB 3 connector? I’m assuming the HD inside the My Book is a 3.5" SATA drive. Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated.
Hi @MyBookForMac
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting:
Essentials models are encrypted. The USB-SATA bridge PCB inside the enclosure handles the decryption.
You need to fix the drive or replace the bridge PCB, whichever is the problem.
Did you ever overvolt the drive with the wrong adaptor? If so, there is an easy fix.
Hi, thanks for responding. The drive is a very old My Book for Mac Essential, I haven’t used in years. From the USA, I am in Australia now. I had it shipped to me, and thought I could plug the usb2 into my Windows 11 laptop and MacDrive would read it. I believe when I used the US-to-Australia power plug adapter, it fried the power connector on the bridge pcb, I heard the zap (the My Book was and is intact, I never tried to open the enclosure). At that point the HD was not engaged. So now the power does not come on. I am having the old Mac laptop I used with this HD shipped to me, the WD Smartware and password should still be on there. In theory, if someone can fix the power supply on the bridge pcb, or get the right bridge pcb replacement, and I get a reliable power supply, the HD should work with my old laptop. Please advise, and thank you for your time.
thank you, I will try that. I do believe my HD is so old it is no longer supported and is out of warranty.
The usual result of such an overvoltage is a shorted 12V TVS diode on the HDD PCB. If this is your problem, then simply snipping the shorted diode is all you need to do.
TVS Diode FAQ:
Thank you. I am definitely not going to try it myself! But if I end up taking it to a data recovery, I can explain all this to them, thank you so much for this explanation.
If you do this yourself, it will probably cost you nothing. If you send it away, be prepared to pay AU$500 or more.
Yes, I realize that. I watched a few videos on YT about removing the burnt diode from the board, I do not have those tools or those skills. I am more afraid of losing the data, it is irreplaceable. Maybe $500AUD is worth it to me for those files, I have to decide. Do you think it would be better for someone like me to just order the exact pcb bridge, if I can find it, and replace that? No soldering or multimeter or whatever. I understand from my research that there is a chipset on the pcb bridge that must be the exact same one as the one in my enclosure. Thanks again for all your responses, I am slowing learning exactly how this drive is built and which part failed. Thank you.
The bridge PCB probably survived. It is the HDD PCB that usually fails. You won’t know until you look.
Thank you! So the thingy that got fried could be on either board. I did not realize that. So if the drive is actually ok and the data intact, this fried element still must be fixed/replaced. If the fried thingy is not fiaxable/replaceable, is retrieving the data from the HDD doable but just really expensive? or is it not possible?
You are probably best advised to engage a pro service. They will remove the “thingy” and your drive will most probably work, without replacing the thingy. But you would have read this information in my FAQ, although I call it a “TVS diode”.
Yes. Thank you for your kindness and patience. Nothing to do until I get my old Mac shipped here from the US. Then see if it has the WD Smartware and password. Then if the My Book still won’t power on, disassemble the enclosure and have a look at the two boards. At that point I will post photos, and possibly try myself to remove the offending part? Thank you so much for your correspondence and all the other vital info you have posted here. We all owe you a fortune!
UPDATE:
I got hold of the old Mac G4 laptop that I used with the WD My Book back in the day. I also purchased a brand new USB Mini-B cable and an expensive reliable US-to-Australian power supply. I hooked it all up. The My Book actually powered on (!), the light flashes about ten times and then on solid, I hear what sounds like the drive spinning up, but could be a fan? — anyways, the drive does NOT mount on the Mac desktop. I hooked it up also to my contemporary Windows 11 laptop with HFSexplorer, and it is not detected either in the regular file window or in HFSexplorer. Any advice?
