USB port broken - Talk to me about replacing the bridge board

Portable Drives My Passport
1

Hi - well, today the USB port on our 1 TB My Book bit the dust (after very light use and rarely unplugging).  After listening to my husband swearing and threatening to trash it, I decided to look up options for getting our data back and found you guys :slight_smile:

I have read several threads and it appears my most likely options are:

  1. buying the same drive and putting the old disk drive in the new enclosure. 

  2. finding another USB connection and having someone solder it on. (not thinking this is my best option - don’t know anyone that I would trust to do this locally and I don’t have the tools to do such either)

  3. buying a replacement bridge board, such as this:  http://www.ebaydotcom/itm/2pc-Controller-Western-Digital-My-Book-4060-705059-001-upgradeto-4061-705059-003-/200846295086

  4. using my kid’s college tuition fund to pay for professional data recovery. 

Now, I’ll be honest.  I am not the most computer-savvy gal and have never done any repair work on things like this, but I am pretty handy with tools and directions and what not.   What do you consider to be the best option for someone in this predicament?  Not getting the data is really not an option - we have days’ worth of music on there, pics, etc.  How hard is it to replace the bridge board and are there any online directions, pictorials, videos, etc.?  My limited Google search hasn’t found much, but I haven’t yet had the time to really do an in-depth search.  

2

You wouldn’t necessarily need a computer type to resolder the port just somebody who does general electronic repairs. If this drive came with Smartware it is hardware encrypted by the board with the broken port. If it didn’t come with Smartware there are other options like connecting as an internal or in a third party enclosure. Maybe this post about bridge boards will help you http://community.wdc.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839

Joe