Hard drive foolishness!

[Düber]

My SIL went away with my SO. Decided to take her collection of movies with her on a 2TB hard drive, as (Lucky her) she had found a cable at china mall with one end that fitted her HDD and the other end her tablet.
A few days into the holiday she felt like watching a movie, she then..

-Plugged the adaptor into the Hdd first.
-Plugged the other end into her tablet.
-She was then presented with a choice to format the said Hdd.
-She responded with a yes. (they have to be able to "talk" to each other right?)
-Felt disappointment as the movies wouldn't play.

What can I try, Linux does not see it as a block device only the serial adaptor comes up in lsusb. Windows XP also see's the drive controller but not the drive. Opened the casing to try a different controller but this drive is a all in one (ie.Usb host straight off the Hdd board). Not Interested in data recovery just to make it work.

 

[LazyLion]

It sounds like the new cable has caused a short on the board.
There ain't nuffink you can do except admire your new expensive paper weight.
And not give your SIL anything for Christmas.

 

[Düber]

It sounds like the new cable has caused a short on the board.

I don't want to say this but I fear you are right, I don't think the tablets USB port gives out enough power to spin up the drive and format 2TB.

 

[Spontaneous spinach]

Otg cable, just buy her data and a Netflix voucher

 

[gregmcc]

-Plugged the adaptor into the Hdd first.
-Plugged the other end into her tablet.

Mistake 1

-She was then presented with a choice to format the said Hdd.
-She responded with a yes. (they have to be able to "talk" to each other right?)

Mistake 2

Sounds like it's toast.

 

[Swa]

Are you plugging it in directly or not? Adapters sometimes cause issues and it sounds like the MBR got corrupted.

 

[Dimpie (JIGSAW)]

There is way to many wrongs to make it a right ...

Tablet
2TB HDD
china mall cable
format
windows XP

 

[Dan C]

First time I heard of anyone trying to run a 2TB hard drive from a tablet.

 

[Düber]

Are you plugging it in directly or not? Adapters sometimes cause issues and it sounds like the MBR got corrupted.

There is way to many wrongs to make it a right ...

First time I heard of anyone trying to run a 2TB hard drive from a tablet.

Thanks for the replies,
-I wish I could. I was expecting a SATA drive when I opened the case, but this has the drive's board and the usb adaptor all in one.
-Telling me!! (except for the XP, it has my swiss army knife collection of fixes on, fixed many windows 10 drives and pc's with it, only booted in dire circumstances. Mint is my choice.)
-Me too, me too, me too, me too.....

I'm really not sure what to say, not even in my wildest dream's would I have expected somebody to do something like this.

 

[ponder]

You might be able to wire a sata connector to the drive. On some drives you can pickup the normal sata pins nd solder to them.
make & model# of the actual internal drive?

 

[Düber]

You might be able to wire a sata connector to the drive.

Interesting,

WD 2.0TB
WD20NMVW
S/N- WXS1EB5FP7TE

 

[ponder]

Interesting,

google 'wd20nmvw sata connector'

it might also be possible to replace the pcb with a sata one but you'll transfer an ic as well.

 

[Düber]

Thanks for that, it does appear that way.
There is a site where they remove some capacitors and you then solder a SATA cables data lines to the test points.
Most sites are saying you have to transfer the encryption chip, but one or two are saying that's only necessary if the encryption was enabled with the software.
Not sure (as usual ) who is telling the truth. Might be an interesting experiment though!

 

[sajunky]

First ignore idiotic coments on XP

Thanks for that, it does appear that way.
There is a site where they remove some capacitors and you then solder a SATA cables data lines to the test points.
Most sites are saying you have to transfer the encryption chip, but one or two are saying that's only necessary if the encryption was enabled with the software.
Not sure (as usual ) who is telling the truth. Might be an interesting experiment though!

I can't say for this drive model. One thing is for sure. If encryption chip is present on the board, it is always active using factory default (unencrypted) password stored in sectors on the end of the drive. You don't need to move encryption chip. Use free software downloaded from WD site to decrypt the drive.

If the drive is in a poor physical condition, it is the best to do sector imaging to the new drive (at least the same capacity) and decrypt from the copy.

 

[Düber]

I can't say for this drive model. One thing is for sure. If encryption chip is present on the board, it is always active using factory default (unencrypted) password stored in sectors on the end of the drive. You don't need to move encryption chip. Use free software downloaded from WD site to decrypt the drive.

Okay thanks, that could explain the different instructions on various sites.
One thing of interest I found was on the WD website they talk about the 6+6(12 pin) connector (looks like a old IDE) as a diagnosis port, that can be used by data recovery firm's. But it doesn't look like anyone else has them figured out.

 

[GreGorGy]

Mistake 1

No:

My SIL went away with my SO..

This is mistake 1.

There is way to many wrongs to make it a right ...

Tablet
2TB HDD
china mall cable
format
windows XP

You forgot:

chicks using tech.


But I did like the china mall part

OP: I will say this. If the hardware itself is physically damaged, then you have nothing to lose going ahead with a solder of new logic. However, when I have had shît with drives, I have found that a walk through all OSes is useful. One of them may just see the drive. If you know someone with a Mac, maybe pop it in there and fire up Disk Warrior (a mac software, costs $ but trial will say if it sees anything) .

 

[Düber]

If you know someone with a Mac

Yes Me! I still have an Apple II !!
Afraid I don't know anybody with a Mac.

 

[sajunky]

Okay thanks, that could explain the different instructions on various sites.
One thing of interest I found was on the WD website they talk about the 6+6(12 pin) connector (looks like a old IDE) as a diagnosis port, that can be used by data recovery firm's. But it doesn't look like anyone else has them figured out.

I haven't look at (maybe I would if you provide a link), but it looks to me there are testing point on the PCB, not neccessary a connector. Not IDE, for sure.

 

[Düber]

https://blog.acelaboratory.com/pc-3...adapter-to-the-usb-western-digital-drive.html

""The pinout of 12 pins is unknown. WD said, quote, "This is not a connection we provide support for. It is there for data recovery companies to recover data in emergency cases. We do not have any schematics regarding the pinout of the 12 pins, again, sir, this is only for data recovery companies who plug their special connection to recover data."""



These are from different places, and my board is slightly different but the test points are marked the same.
When I get permission to, and back in the workshop might try it as I have nothing to lose but some time.

 

[sajunky]

Yip, there are not connectors, just testing/diagnostic points. As for the comment on pin 12, remember that WD is also in data recovery business. Such information can also be available for a few on NDA. I suggest to not play with this.

You can try to image the drive in read-only mode. Use disk editor first. The first one or a few sectors will be unencrypted. If you see something like a boot sector (LBA 0), it is fine, you should be able to image the disk. If you can't read boot sector, the drive is locked up, you should contact DR specialist. Contact Southbit on the forum.

The blog is good, but (1) I am not sure you will be able to indentify SATA resistors on your board and (2) you don't really know wether it is needed. Make test as above. Can you read boot sector and some more (encrypted sectors) without errors? If yes, then USB interface is fine, problem is with the drive.