Yeah I’ve tried desktops & laptops on Windows, Mac OS & Linux. I now have a new enclosure and transplanted my drive, but I think the MBR is corrupted now and so can’t see the files.
It’s sad. It always may happen. But maybe there is some clever solution.
Therefore we must never forget to backup important files
Well, RESULT! I managed to save all the files! So there was nothing wrong with the disk. After connecting the controller, I plugged the drive into a Linux machine & ran fdisk. This showed that there was indeed an NTFS partition there, so I wrote the MBR to disk, ran GPARTED which showed the drive normally and healthy, ejected it and plugged it into a windows box and voilá! All my files are there!
So now I am dragging everything off, then I’m going to put this disk into an openmediavault server, wipe it, format it into an EXT4 file system and slot another 2TB drive in the same, create a RAID array and copy all my data back.
HAPPY DAYS!
Hey Thomas,
My Western Digital 4TB My Book Essential is malfunctioning. But my problem is a bit different. When I connect my drive to my laptop it get detected but only for a few minutes before disconnection. I can access the data during the few minutes. But after my drive disconnects, I can’t connect to it the whole day. The next day, again the cycle repeats and I can only access for a few minutes. I need help. I don’t know where is the problem. And if I can solve it without spending any money as I have none. I have very important data in there and I need to recover them. Please help and advice at your convenience.
Hi SBrown, below sets out my challenge with my My Book Pro 12TB that I have posted here (hope it’s ok for me to repeat the posting). I read your write-up and is considering buying a working Enclosure to solve the issue. On my Question B) below, would you be able to advise? Thanks much in advance.
— posting made —
Dear all,
Unit Detail
• Unit: WD My Book Duo 12TB (i.e. 2 x 6TB HDDs)
• Year purchase: 2016
• Configuration: RAID 1 (mirrored to capacity of 6 TB)
• Password: None set
• Product Number: WDBLWE012xxxx-00
• Running on OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
• Warranty: WD has agreed to replace the unit but will not recover the data (hence replacing the unit will mean losing all the data)
Problem Faced
• Unit was working fine where I store most of my family picture and videos (using about 2.5TB)
• One day the Enclosure did not power up (i.e. cannot switch on – no LED lights)
• I have checked the power adapter for the unit and its working fine, hence it’s not the power adapter issue
• I believe my 2 HDDs (in the Enclosure) are working perfectly fine as they had no prior issues
• With the spoilt Enclosure, I am now unable to access my stored files in the unit’s HDDs
• From recent readings I understand WD will hardware encrypt all the files; a technician had directly connected one of the HDD to a PC and the PC asked for initialization of the HDD, which he did not perform and unplugged it from the PC
• The data recovery services providers’ charges are expensive and they did not give assurance on the ability to recover any, in part or the full data in the HDDs
Resolution / Assistance Sought
• A) How to access / retrieve the data in the HDDs?
• B) And can I purchase a similar (WD My Book Duo) Enclosure and plug in my 2 HDD to access the files? If yes, (i) must it have similar Product Number (or what product numbers are comparable); and (ii) Same Storage Capacity (of 12TB)? [PS: I am currently seeking information on a 4TB Enclosure – no details on Product Number yet]
Any assistance is very much appreciated, and thank you in advance.
Warmest regards
I have several MyBook type drives that haven’t failed - yet. I thought I was covered with the redundancy of a two drive enclosure. But after discovering this problem, I’m now looking for a solution that will give me raid 1 and the disks will be formatted so that they can be read directly by Windows. I have lots of video to transfer to digital and much of it has historical value. I checked with Buffalo, Synology, Lacie, and WD. ALL use encryption that’s enclosure dependent.
Right now, I’m leaning towards using single enclosures and using software backup to mirror one drive to another. It’s not a good solution, but the alternative is to use an encrypted box which I may or may not be able to turn on and see files in 10 years.
I’m curious to learn what others are doing for long-term backup after their MyBook crisis was over?
I am not sure that I did understand you.
I have many old internal 3.5" discs or old discs of Mybook which failed working in the original enclosure As I had always a backup disc, I could perform a new format and realize if the disc is still reliable.
Now I use them all as backups.
To do this, I have bought a cheap docking station for 2 discs (~30$).
I have also enclosures but they are more expensive and limited to 2 Tb.
The docking station is cheaper, very easy to use and has a higher limit.
Thanks Aron: Yes, you did understand. I ordered a dual docking station as well for checking the drives, but that’s a good idea for backup.
I have my WD drives in a closet connected by long USB3 cables, but I could replace the MyBooks with multiple docking stations. It seems a bit crude in this day and age to have exposed drives, but it’s certainly better than not being able to read a drive in 10 years and pay someone or create a Linux box to recover them.
The first MyBooks I bought were the Thunderbolts and they apparently did not use encryption, but they were only 6T (3T in Raid1).
Steve
I have a very long experience in computers, from days when disc still didn’t exist.
But the principle of backup is still the same. How long you have a backup, you do not depend on their encryptions.
Sure it’s not very elegant to use outside 3.5" internal discs, but as they still work, I could save a lot of money using them for backup. I put them in bags in a drawer. Let’s hope that I’ll not need them too much.
And this cheap docking station is fast and easy to use. Better than enclosures.
I have a 6TB MyBook (P/N: WDBFJK0060HBK-04) that I wanted to remove from its cabinet. When I removed it and connected it directly to the computer via SATA, the BIOS and Windows diskpart could see the drive but I ran into errors accessing or reformatting it.
The accessing makes sense it was encrypted, but reformatting didn’t. I was fully expecting to lose the data on the drive after a reformat but Windows couldn’t even access the disk without I/O errors.
After a lot of searching and testing, I managed to confirm that the bare drive works just like any other SATA drive as long as you’ve removed the encryption password using the WD MyBook tools.
So, what does this mean in the context of this thread? If you’re having problems accessing your MyBook because its SATA to USB controller died, you should be able to salvage the drive and convert it into a standard drive as long as you can get access to a known-good controller board for as long as it takes to remove the encryption password.
Cheers,
Ian
I’d like to mention that there is another really unpleasant possibility: a bad disk.
Still, you didn’t mention how you made the format.
It’s a big disk, and maybe not all the formats are suitable for a 6 Tb disk.
The disk is fine - I ran a full analysis of all of the sectors on it and have since copied back a bunch of data. When testing, I tried all of the available partition types to no avail.
That’s not to say that others couldn’t have been running into bad disks, that’s certainly a possibility. I’m just highlighting the fact that the disk behaves very differently when you have an encryption password applied.
Cheers,
Ian
thomas, i had 3 drive connected to my computer.
1 Seagate HDD 100GB -
1 WD SSD - 125gb
1 wd 8tb - external (myshare)
all of a sudden after a reboot. both western digital drives were unreadable!
i do not know how this happen but on the 120 GB drive i was able to find some files in SWF and GV format that were very large files. I think these are the encrypted WD files?
How did the SDD get encrypted if it did not even have a bridge board?
Did western digital encryption program think my internal WD SDD was part of the external drive?
The external 8tb is a my book…
i did a WD test with their software and it showed no errors. it works great…
this leads me to believe it is encrypted?
can you help? what is your email?
i have been working on the 120gb SDD to see if i can get the files back.
then when i figure it out… i can try on the WD 8 GB full of family photos and a bunch of irreplaceable data. =( .
Thomas,
I have the infamous 0XE810DSE chip from Oxford Semiconductor on 2TB WD20000H2NC. What are my options as the drives are good but the enclosure is responsive. The middle white light on front is off.
Thank you,
Nicolas
Hello there
I have about 6 such My Book disks that failed to perform and many other still in use (but only as backup)
Sometimes disks were still usable and sometimes they were the real failure.
I have tried many solutions, like enclosures, desktops…
There is one very cheap and easy solution: a dual bay hard drive docking station.
But it will be more convenient to buy new 2.5" external disks and to use the old disks only as backups.
Aron
I bailed out of encrypted enclosures for backup. What’s the point of having a flakey backup that may or may not be retrievable when its enclosure fails? I bought a dual docking station that doesn’t rely on encryption. I have a couple of 14tb drives and use syncback pro to write from one to the other every week or so.
That’s the reasonable conclusion. And not to buy My Book drives anymore !
I just stumbled upon this thread in a final attempt at pulling my files off my 1TB MyBook Essentials (WDH1U10000N) bare drive. I don’t have the enclosure anymore so I don’t know what chip was on the USB-SATA board… Is there a way for me to use Ubuntu and somehow pull my drives off and move them to another USB drive? I have a Dell laptop running Windows 7 and access to another (my work machine) running Windows 10. I’ve run Ubuntu before off a pen drive but haven’t in YEARS! If someone can help me get my files off this drive I’m willing to make a “donation” for the efforts…
I thought about buying another MyBook with the same model number to try and swap the bare drives but not sure if that’s even worth it. If that could work, is the model WDH1U10000N the same as the WDU10000H1U?
I’m picking up a dual docking station on my way home from work and tackling this decryption tonight.
I think the earlier (smaller) drives are not encrypted, but I’m no engineer. I have a 6tb mybook and opened the drives with a docking station. I did nothing else, no initializing, no “yes” to any pop up on my screen. The drive just showed up and they were accessible to use. But when I put them back into the enclosure, they weren’t readable. So I’ve had it with these convenient low cost units. So as I said in my post above, I’ve switched to Startec docking stations.
I should add that I do remember my enclosure having the special connector and not the mini-USB connector. So I’m assuming, since it did have the proprietary cable, my disc has encryption.
I should also mention that I did try plugging the drive into my desktop via SATA with no luck and now I’m worried i screwed up the MBR…
