Open unrecognized WD 2TB hard drive

Elyspira

Commendable
May 24, 2016
3
0
1,510
I have a 2 TB portable Western digital HD with Usb 3.0 It only comes up by connected devices and by device manager. But it doesn't show up in my PC by my devices and drives.

I opened the plastic case and found a set of 12 'pins' which i believe needs a external dock or some wires or sorts to be connected.

Can someone tell me what that 12 pin is called and if it's possible to get my data out by any way ?

Thanks
 
Solution


Yes, but that is only because of the magic of a RAID rebuild. Because you had a single drive failure- not part of a RAID set- you are out of luck. There are data recovery services that can help you out for a very large sum o' money, but that is outside the realm of most mortals. The good news is, that because your loss was a USB drive, it was not as severe as if it had been an internal drive.

RainCaster

Reputable
Jun 24, 2015
18
0
4,520
I have a whole shelf-full of those WD 2T drives. They only seem to last me about 15 months, then they stop being recognized, and my RAID system slows down. That header on the drive is set at the factory with the settings needed to make your drive behave normally. Placing jumpers on any of them will change that behavior in unexpected ways. BTW, several of those pins contain a serial link for manufacturing test setup- you don't want to short those beauties. So what do I do when another of these goes bad? I replace it with one from Seagate, as those seem to last longer.
 

Elyspira

Commendable
May 24, 2016
3
0
1,510


What do you mean replace with a Seagate ?
 

RainCaster

Reputable
Jun 24, 2015
18
0
4,520
For me, my RAID box came originally filled with 5 2T WD drives. They have all failed within the first two years, and as they have, I have replaced them with equivalent drives made by Seagate. I have also had several 2T USB3 drives from WD that failed in about the same length of time. All of those I had bought at Costco as backup drives for various machines in my lab. Each of those USB drives has failed in a very similar manner.

Currently, they are $62 on Amazon.
 

Elyspira

Commendable
May 24, 2016
3
0
1,510


Thanks for that. But you were also able to get out all the files you had on your WD devices ?
 

RainCaster

Reputable
Jun 24, 2015
18
0
4,520


Yes, but that is only because of the magic of a RAID rebuild. Because you had a single drive failure- not part of a RAID set- you are out of luck. There are data recovery services that can help you out for a very large sum o' money, but that is outside the realm of most mortals. The good news is, that because your loss was a USB drive, it was not as severe as if it had been an internal drive.
 
Solution