Hello all, I have a 1 TB older mybook. My son knocked it off of its stand and it snapped the usb port from the board. I removed the drive from the enclosure and connected inside my computer. Windows detects the disk in disk manager and prompts me to initialize it, I initialze using mbr and I get the disk is unallocated. How can I get my data off this disk? It had no partions except what it came with. I did use the WD software to remove the smartware. This drive is way beyond its warranty but was working fine, any help would be most appreciated thanks.
Well first drives that get dropped are frequently physically damaged and beyond do it yourself recovery. Drives thst use Smartware are hardware encrypted by the board where the USB port broke. You might get an electronics repair place to solder the port back on or try finding a replacement board here https://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/70/session/L3RpbWUvMTM5MDMyNjIwNS9zaWQvZVBrTU9YS2w%3D or look for a board on Ebay. This explains a little about the boards http://community.wd.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839
Joe
I have the same problem. And getting that flimsy board sodered isnt my option. I want to know how to transfer all the data to another HDD, without installing the drivers. These HDDs are very flawed and making them completly hardware reliant only adds to this flaw.
Can i clone the HDD and then install the image on another HDD?
If you manage clone the image it will probably still be encrypted on the new drive. The circuit board is what encrypts/decrypts the data. A lot electronics suffer from the lower quality now that they quit using leadbase solder.
Joe
1 Like
I have another, 2TB WD Book, fully functional inside the case, can I take out the 2TB out of the case and put 1TB WD instead and try to retrieve files from the 1TB that way?
And how can I find out which circuit board I have on the 1TB (your link doesnt provide any info) in order to have a new one ordered?
Thx for the follow-up, proves how useless WD has become. Who was the [Deleted] who invented the casings for MyBooks anyway? Why were they made standing up, instead of laying down flat? Why are the USB connections so flimsy, god **bleep** [Deleted] company
I lay mine on their side!
Joe
