Storage Solutions WD My Passport- What if situations!

nRiTeCh

nRiTeCh

Skilled
Many of us have this popular external drive.

Need to know what are the rescue or DIY options if unfortunately some day:
  1. The disks fails to be recognized in the OS.
  2. Data needs to be recovered
  3. The usb connector malfunctions.
I believe shucking isn't possible on this model yet any ray of hope of somehow remove the actual drive from the casing and attach to our pc via sata.
 
For 1- If hard disk is recognized in BIOS then you can run disk check utility in windows or fsck in linux. If data is very critical then do nothing and contact data professional.
For 2 - Run for data recovery professional
For 3- Not understand quite, but may be use another usb connector...
 
nRiTeCh said:
I believe shucking isn't possible on this model yet any ray of hope of somehow remove the actual drive from the casing and attach to our pc via sata.
Click to expand...
Correct. The direct SATA interface isn't exposed. For data, your only options are restore from backup or take it to a Data Rescue service, as others mentioned, and then pay and pray.
 
Image7681063473011883976.jpg


Are you taking of these type of drives @nRiTeCh ?
These can be opened by a screw that is hidden behind the sticker at back. The plastic case can be opened with some thin metal spudger. I did the same thing to a verbatim case which did not have any screws and got a 2.5" hdd from it. The hdd was attached to a USB pcb which some how got corrupted and the hdd was showing bad sectors when connected thorough that usb pcb. I removed the pcb and connected the drive directly through powered case and no errors or bad sectors!!
All of these drives have a 2.5" laptop hdd connected to a pcb which powers them through the usb port. If you look closely, all of them can be opened. Just need some imagination.
 
6pack said:
All of these drives have a 2.5" laptop hdd connected to a pcb which powers them through the usb port. If you look closely, all of them can be opened.
Click to expand...
Not if the USB is soldered in directly with the disk. WD portable ones typically have this unlike the Seagate ones.
 
Oh. I understood what you meant after looking at this video.

Then only option is to have 1:1 backup on another disk or redownload everything you had on the disk again if they are from free source.

I use this vvv disk catalog software to keep track of what i lost if a disk failed suddenly. Then i decide if i want to download again or just won't bother if i have another copy somewhere.

Virtual Volumes View

VVV uses a relational database to store its data.
vvvapp.sourceforge.net
 
6pack said:
View attachment 157886

Are you taking of these type of drives @nRiTeCh ?
These can be opened by a screw that is hidden behind the sticker at back. The plastic case can be opened with some thin metal spudger. I did the same thing to a verbatim case which did not have any screws and got a 2.5" hdd from it. The hdd was attached to a USB pcb which some how got corrupted and the hdd was showing bad sectors when connected thorough that usb pcb. I removed the pcb and connected the drive directly through powered case and no errors or bad sectors!!
All of these drives have a 2.5" laptop hdd connected to a pcb which powers them through the usb port. If you look closely, all of them can be opened. Just need some imagination.
Click to expand...
Yes this model. But per research it doesnt have the usual sata controller behind the usb interface. The usb is hard-soldered to the hdd so seems no way for any diy thing.
This is not in best of end consumers interests as one have to opt for wd prof. recovery services or some others.
 
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