WD External Micro USB 3.0 Drive (that funny connector)

[aschlauderaff]

So I am trying to perform data recovery on a 1tb WD External HDD. The connector on the HDD itself is that funky little Micro-b (Micro USB 3.0) that seems to be incompatible with every other connector in the world!

So I have isolated the issue to be the actually connector that's soldered onto the board. My question is: Is there a way to recover data from this drive?

This is what the external view of the connector looks like-
http://c773974.r74.cf2.rackcdn.com/385321_307157_02_back_comping.jpg

The interal view isn't as promising. On the older usb connections, you used to just be able to pull that whole piece off and directly connect to a SATA docking station.
http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1951/passport-2tb-inside2.jpg

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nukemaster]

With the right pinout info, you may be able to solder a USB 2.0 cable to the drive(less wires, but will work).

This actually scares me that they have started putting the USB 2.0/3.0 controller on the drive it self. I have a always just pulled the drive and placed it in a system.

Now I have to look at my WDC My Book more closely.

 

[vmem]

wow, that's strange about the internal connector... you sure they didn't mess up taking it apart? lol

if you google micro usb 3.0 on amazon etc, you should be able to buy the same cable
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=micro%20usb%203.0&sprefix=micro+usb+3.0%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Amicro%20usb%203.0

 

[aschlauderaff]

vmem - Yeah that's actually how the inside of these look. That's a stock photo, not of what i'm working with. I have that cable type already too, it's just the connector is bad. I have already worked with known-good cables.

Nukemaster - i've thought of that, but I was thinking to myself there HAS to be an easier way to go about this...