Hello,
This is Claire here. Would just like to start out by saying that I am not involved in the recovery business in any way, and so I apologise if this is the wrong place for a layperson like me to be posting. I see that most posts here and from and for technically knowledgable folks from within the highly intricate world of data recovery, but I am at a loss in a particular situation and my lack of knowledge is the very reason I am here, so would greatly appreciate someone helping me out. I am describing my current conundrum below.
I am a photographer who had data lost in an external Hard Disc due to water damage in my office in May of 2020. I did have a backup, but unfortunately, made the cardinal sin of keeping it in the same physical room, and hence both copies were damaged - one more than the other. While one HD was completely beyond help since it was in a low storage unit, the other was kept on a desk and was only partially in water. Both were external Hard Discs.
MODEL NAME - Western Digital 4TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive, Blue - with Automatic Backup, 256Bit AES Hardware Encryption & Software Protection purchased in FEBRUARY of 2020 (attaching a screenshot of image of HD)
Model Number - WDBPKJ0040BBL
I immediately contacted a recovery team which asked me to send over the disc, which I did. They took a few days to run tests etc, then gave me a two month timeline for recovery. It has now been nearly a year and all I have received from then on have been more timelines saying that the data is all secure and there, just that there is an issue with the decryption. I have left the disc with them since I know one thing about such situations - the more hands it goes into, the more chances of something going wrong. I don't want to take it to a team to tinker with something, then say they can't help, then go back to the original guys and for them to say "well the other team has done something we can't fix now". This is where the matter rests.
I apologize for the long post but I will try and get to the point
All I want is for someone with technical knowledge in the field to help me, by just deciphering the technical jargon and PLEASE just letting me know - am I being led on or is there any legitimacy to what these guys are saying?
Without making this any longer, I will try and attach as much informational stuff as and quote their emails to me below.
_
Mail sent on MAY 16th 2020
Dear Madam,
The submitted hard disk has undergone a lab testing process for data recovery.
Lab Test Results:
Estimated Recovery %: Undetermined
Recoverable Data: All Available Data
Estimated Time for Recovery: 20 Business days
We require an email approval from your end to go ahead with data recovery. We shall start the process by purchasing spares required for recovery.
Drive condition after recovery: Tampered and non usable.
Require a backup hard drive after completion of data recovery for data backup purposes.
Payment Terms: During submission of data backup.
___
Since a lot more time passed, I asked them for an update.
____
Mail sent on July 25th 2020
Dear Sir,
The current hard drive had issues with readable heads, we have already shifted the reading heads on the hard drive. The Lab work is successful, we have the complete drive online with capacity and parameters. We are facing the issue with the firmware codes of the hard drive. Since the disk is manufactured in Sep 2019, the codes of these drives are Locked by manufacture ie. Western digital. Hence no sectors are readable from the entire drive.
We are working with our tool manufacturer and the Western digital team (as Western digital will never provide any support for data recovery) to get the codes to unlock the drive and access data.
Since it is a very complicated process to reverse engineer the drive locking mechanism, it is taking time. We shall update the final status in 10 days of time.
___
Then a follow up
Mail sent on August 11th 2020
Dear Team,
All above mentioned issues are resolved and disk imaging is completed. The current drive sector readings are completely accessible, and we have taken the complete disk image of the drive with starting to ending sectors.
We are only facing one final issue with Decryption, the original PCB board has WD Hardware encryption on the fly, for this new 2019 model of the drive called "Spyglass 2" the solution for decryption is not yet released. Expected to get the updated release in coming 2 months. The data recovery is possible once the decryption parameters are provided by the tool manufacturer.
We are closing the case currently, as soon as the decryption is available we will be able to get the data from the drive.
____
This is where the matter rests. I try and get in touch every month or so to get updates and get told the same thing - "the tool manufacturer has yet to release the update which would have your solution" or something very similar. They claim there worldwide, there is no solution available, but it SURELY will come out. Whether its a week from now, or 6 months from now, they can't say.
I really don't know what to make of the situation and whether these are just random terms being thrown at me to make me believe there's still a chance, or whether there is actual hope.
I would be really grateful to anyone who could get some real information from the above mails, and give me an opinion on whether the recovery team seems to know what they're talking about and is there such a situation with this particular Hard Disc.
In case it's relevant, they haven't charged me anything so far, which is all the more reason I can't imagine they would be making all this up instead of just saying "we can't do this, sorry".
Thank you for your time.
Claire.
This is Claire here. Would just like to start out by saying that I am not involved in the recovery business in any way, and so I apologise if this is the wrong place for a layperson like me to be posting. I see that most posts here and from and for technically knowledgable folks from within the highly intricate world of data recovery, but I am at a loss in a particular situation and my lack of knowledge is the very reason I am here, so would greatly appreciate someone helping me out. I am describing my current conundrum below.
I am a photographer who had data lost in an external Hard Disc due to water damage in my office in May of 2020. I did have a backup, but unfortunately, made the cardinal sin of keeping it in the same physical room, and hence both copies were damaged - one more than the other. While one HD was completely beyond help since it was in a low storage unit, the other was kept on a desk and was only partially in water. Both were external Hard Discs.
MODEL NAME - Western Digital 4TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive, Blue - with Automatic Backup, 256Bit AES Hardware Encryption & Software Protection purchased in FEBRUARY of 2020 (attaching a screenshot of image of HD)
Model Number - WDBPKJ0040BBL
I immediately contacted a recovery team which asked me to send over the disc, which I did. They took a few days to run tests etc, then gave me a two month timeline for recovery. It has now been nearly a year and all I have received from then on have been more timelines saying that the data is all secure and there, just that there is an issue with the decryption. I have left the disc with them since I know one thing about such situations - the more hands it goes into, the more chances of something going wrong. I don't want to take it to a team to tinker with something, then say they can't help, then go back to the original guys and for them to say "well the other team has done something we can't fix now". This is where the matter rests.
I apologize for the long post but I will try and get to the point
All I want is for someone with technical knowledge in the field to help me, by just deciphering the technical jargon and PLEASE just letting me know - am I being led on or is there any legitimacy to what these guys are saying?
Without making this any longer, I will try and attach as much informational stuff as and quote their emails to me below.
_
Mail sent on MAY 16th 2020
Dear Madam,
The submitted hard disk has undergone a lab testing process for data recovery.
Lab Test Results:
- HDD had small noise from the disk without detection in any computer & data recovery equipment.
- Hard Disk is analyzed for head defects which will read & write data from the magnetic platters. Head assembly is defective.
- Data recovery to be processed on the drive by replacing working head assembly from similar donor / spare hard disk with firmware, re-alignment & data extraction by using disk imaging technology.
Estimated Recovery %: Undetermined
Recoverable Data: All Available Data
Estimated Time for Recovery: 20 Business days
We require an email approval from your end to go ahead with data recovery. We shall start the process by purchasing spares required for recovery.
Drive condition after recovery: Tampered and non usable.
Require a backup hard drive after completion of data recovery for data backup purposes.
Payment Terms: During submission of data backup.
___
Since a lot more time passed, I asked them for an update.
____
Mail sent on July 25th 2020
Dear Sir,
The current hard drive had issues with readable heads, we have already shifted the reading heads on the hard drive. The Lab work is successful, we have the complete drive online with capacity and parameters. We are facing the issue with the firmware codes of the hard drive. Since the disk is manufactured in Sep 2019, the codes of these drives are Locked by manufacture ie. Western digital. Hence no sectors are readable from the entire drive.
We are working with our tool manufacturer and the Western digital team (as Western digital will never provide any support for data recovery) to get the codes to unlock the drive and access data.
Since it is a very complicated process to reverse engineer the drive locking mechanism, it is taking time. We shall update the final status in 10 days of time.
___
Then a follow up
Mail sent on August 11th 2020
Dear Team,
All above mentioned issues are resolved and disk imaging is completed. The current drive sector readings are completely accessible, and we have taken the complete disk image of the drive with starting to ending sectors.
We are only facing one final issue with Decryption, the original PCB board has WD Hardware encryption on the fly, for this new 2019 model of the drive called "Spyglass 2" the solution for decryption is not yet released. Expected to get the updated release in coming 2 months. The data recovery is possible once the decryption parameters are provided by the tool manufacturer.
We are closing the case currently, as soon as the decryption is available we will be able to get the data from the drive.
____
This is where the matter rests. I try and get in touch every month or so to get updates and get told the same thing - "the tool manufacturer has yet to release the update which would have your solution" or something very similar. They claim there worldwide, there is no solution available, but it SURELY will come out. Whether its a week from now, or 6 months from now, they can't say.
I really don't know what to make of the situation and whether these are just random terms being thrown at me to make me believe there's still a chance, or whether there is actual hope.
I would be really grateful to anyone who could get some real information from the above mails, and give me an opinion on whether the recovery team seems to know what they're talking about and is there such a situation with this particular Hard Disc.
In case it's relevant, they haven't charged me anything so far, which is all the more reason I can't imagine they would be making all this up instead of just saying "we can't do this, sorry".
Thank you for your time.
Claire.