Hello All, I have had the same issue with my Western Digital My Book 1130 (1TB) WRITE PROTECTED!!
The source of the issue Smartware firmware update and or an SES issue. My drive was a wreck wouldn’t mount or initialize. I couldn’t format it using any mainstream tool to include the Western Digital tools. I sat on the phone for about an hour with the a Western Digital support tech (he was pretty good). He said that I would have to take it to a lab! Called Best buy and they said it would most likely cost around 1600$.
I have an answer of sorts if you are willing to learn and work if not go pay 1600 dollars at best buy for them to rebuild your data in a clean room. ~~> : ( > $$
DISCLAIMER! In no way am I responsable for the desctruction of your software, hardware. just be careful and don’t accidentally use the dc3dd tool to wipe out your windows partition. make sure the device is recognized using the lsusb command…
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Patience, Coffee, the abillity to read and follow directions.
- Back Track Linux | Debian Linux | Ubuntu (or what ever) I used Bactrack Linux because it came with the tools I needed. dc3dd
- Windows with Administrator acoount
- WD Universal Firmware Updater
- Backtrack Linux (Find a download and install tutorial on google)
- dc3dd - pre installed with backtrack.
- Computer knowledge, If you have the money and are a rock go to Best Buy.
step 1: Caffiene
step 2: Call Western Digital and tell them how dissapointed you are in there firmware update.
Step 3: Uninstall all of that Smart Ware **bleep**, to include an SES, etc…
Step 4: Attach hard drive to USB port and turn on the drive.
Step 5: Boot into your Backtrack Live Disc ( Download Backtrack 5R3)
Step 6: logging into Bactrack Linux Live CD
Once the installation of BackTrack is done, the default username and password required to log in are root / toor.
NOTE : You will not be able to see the password as you type it.
Starting the GUI Environment
After you are logged in you can start the GUI Environment by issuing the startx command.
root@bt:~# startx
Step 7: Find the drive; click on System>Administration>MountManager. The devices will be displayed on the left you are looking for your my book it will most likely be /dev/sdc or /dev/sdb BE VERY CAREFUL AND CHOOSE THE CORRECT DRIVE!
My drive was labeled /dev/sdc Yours may be different but it will start with ‘/dev/xxx’ all lower case.
DOUBLE CHECK by opening a terminal see Step 7, and typing the following:
root@bt:~# fdisk -l
this will output:
Disk /dev/sda:120 Gb blah
blah
blah
blah
Disk /dev/sdb: 500 GB
Disk /dev/sdc: 1 TB ( this was what my drive looked like, look at the partition info dont write over your windows system partition
Step 7: Press CTRL + ALT + T to open terminal. In the terminal type:
root@bt:~# dc3dd wipe=/dev/sdc
Wait an hour or so depending on how fast your pc is.
Step 8: Once dc3dd is complete your backtrack will become unstable, it might even lock up! This is GOOD! REBOOT into Windows Reset the My Book a few times, unplug it… then plug it back in.
Step 9: If you havent already download the WD Universal Firmware Updater and run it! It should fail! and give you the option to format, YES format it!
After it formats it will ask you to proceed with the firmware update DON’T DO IT! just close the window. Do not put anything on the disk.
Step 10: recovery data that was formatted using PhotoRec | Test Disk.
Thats it, this was not easy and is a bit of a hack! recovering the data on the drive will take up to 70 hours be patient!! but it is better than paying for it… and it is a learning experience. If you have questions ASK!
