My Passport WD10JMVW inaccessible, strange symptoms

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

Hello,

A friend asked if I can recover data from a My Passport WD10JMVW external 1.0 TB USB 3 hard drive.

When I plug it into a PC, it makes some “ordinary” sounds and the light flashes a bit before remaining steady.

In Windows, it appears in Disk Management as “Unknown” and “Not Initialized.” Attempts to initialize it report “I/O error.”

The “WD Drive Utilities” recognizes it, but reports it is 0 bytes. The “WD Security” app does not recognize it.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

In “WD Drive Utilities,” Diagnose, Run Drive Status Check reports “SMART Status Failed.” It does not permit other tests.

However, in the “Drive Erase” menu, under Unlock Drive, it says “Too Many Invalid Passwords.”

It offers me to erase the drive, but I don’t want to do that. I’m not sure if this is a “real” error. The owner does not believe to have encrypted it. I’m not even sure this model permits it. Is that error a symptom of a more fundamental drive problem, or does it only appear when legitimate? If legitimate, how can I even get to a dialog where it permits me to offer it a guess?

More generally, does this combination of symptoms point to any specific diagnosis?

I’ve tried a couple of Linux Boot CDs, but they hang when detecting it and proceed if I unplug it.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Hi, it looks like you have a defective unit, I would try a different USB cable and different USB port on the computer, if you have done that or it doesn’t work, you might need to contact a professional data recovery company.

3

Thank you for your assistance. Can you perhaps explain to me why the WD Drive Utilities reports “Too Many Invalid Passwords” when the user claims to have not set one, I was never asked to enter one, and I do not believe the device even supports it? Does this error commonly appear incorrectly on damaged drives?

4

Hi. I would appreciate it if you have a moment to answer my question above. Thanks!

5

Hello,

I know it’s been years since your post but I’ve the same problem with the same device. Did you find any answer about this problem ? Do you know if it’s the PCB or the read head or anything else ?

Thanks for your help

6

Hello! Yes, I solved it. The drive is actually encrypted - even if you didn’t select a password, there’s a default one. I had to build an Ubuntu server to use software to mimic the chip, it took days/weeks but I recovered everything. There is even an academic paper on it. If you need further guidance, I should be in a better position on 17 April or so. I’ll check if there’s a way to send you my contact info here. If not, I’ll make a note to return to this thread.

1 Like
7

Are you using a Mac version?

8

Hello. I’m not sure if you’re asking me or Claire. I do not believe the drive I assisted with was Mac-specific. If I remember correctly, the user had used it with a Windows PC.

9

Hey,
Thanks for your answer ! Yesterday my drive read heads died (with the famous clic clic) so it may explain my firmware problem (I read it stop to protect data). I had the same problem, the wd security app couldn’t recognize it, and the wd drive utilities failed, I wanted to have a look on the drive erase menu you talked about but now I can’t do anymore. I have nothing to loose so I’ll try to replace the read head but I’m really interested on your way to mimic the chip (if I succed to change the head I’m not sure the firmware will unlock by itself).
I use a windows PC.

10

Sometimes when a third party assists they may be plugging it into a different operating environment, (i.e MAC/PC) and that could cause the drive to appear to be inaccessible.

11

Claire74

This is not typically a user replaceable part. What you ‘have to lose’ is your data. If it’s important, it’s recommended to see data recovery. Good luck!

12

I know I have only small chance to succed (if it’s not about the head it will be the firmware or anything else) but it’s my father’s drive and he doesn’t want to pay that price so data are lost anyway.

13

Hello again!

If you are hearing unusual sounds or physical malfunctions, your problem may be entirely different from mine.

However, here is what I learned, and how I succeeded in recovering data from a MyBook drive when a USB bridge failed after encrypting the whole thing with a default key:

Very few USB external drives are actually a hard drive with a USB connector. Almost all of them are a conventional PC hard drive, plus a “bridge” that converts its interface into the USB you plug into. I learned that, on most of those models, Western Digital uses USB bridges that, in addition to changing the disk’s block size, encrypt your data whether you choose a password or not. For added headache, there are at least five different companies making the chips, all of which work in their own special way.

The risk here is when these hard drives go bad. The very nature of a USB bridge complicates access to the drive, and exacerbates any data recovery. Further, sometimes the actual bridge is the part that goes bad. Either way, Western Digital tells you that you’re out of luck – unless, of course, you contract one of their recommended data recovery services, to the tune of several thousand dollars.

Thomas Kaeding worked out how to break their encryption with software. It takes weeks, but the data can usually be recovered.

His work is prominent in this thread: How to decrypt a WD MyBook drive after its removed from the enclosure? - #129 by kgrandolph

His github site is GitHub - themaddoctor/linux-mybook-tools: tools for opening some encrypted WD My Book drives in linux, and his tutorial is here: linux-mybook-tools/Mounting encrypted WD disks in linux.pdf at master · themaddoctor/linux-mybook-tools · GitHub

Someone built an executable called reallymine to automate it for certain types of missing USB bridges: GitHub - andlabs/reallymine: WD MyBook encrypted hard drive decryption (still WIP).

I just did it “from scratch” on an Ubuntu VM, using a ddrescue image of each damaged disk. The image itself appeared unreadable until I learned of this process. The results were visible right away, and once I was encouraged by that, it took weeks for it to finish. I recommend putting the apparatus on some sort of UPS.

If you need assistance recovering the disk data itself - encrypted or not - there’s someone in Maryland, USA, that I could recommend. He would charge you, but likely not as much as a commercial service.