Most retail external drives had USB interface permanently attached to the drive inside. depending on where you live in the world, certain local brands had specific models that, when you remove the enclosure, the drive inside can be then installed in a laptop. In Taiwan, the model S03 2TB drive from Silicon Power (SP for short) contains a Samsung/Seagate joint-brand SATA hard drive (ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD) that I'm currently using on my laptop as system drive.
@@user-hn8jm6mr8m Interesting! The last Seagate 2.5'' external HDD where I saw the innards here in Europe also contained a SATA HDD with a small SATA-to-USB converter board attached to it. Seems Seagate takes a different route than WD.
Well, thank you! Once in a while I get comments about my accent (e.g. "scary German accent"), but never before it has been described as "wonderful" :-)
I just remembered that I have one of these, I stopped using it because of this bug and was going to RMA it but never did. Seems like it wouldn't be worth it anyway and I would never trust the replacement. I've moved to only using bare disks with a direct SATA docking bay, not that firmware on SATA disks is guaranteed but it's less likely to go wrong. Thanks for tearing it down, I won't waste my time.
You're welcome. I'm happy I could save you some time. The only issue with using raw SATA disks is that the mobile ones are often sold cheaper. But that added cost might well be worth it.
Thanks so damn much for making this video! I have been having problems with my drive corrupting after it has been connected to a different system for some time and after it denied me access because of a parameter problem (i found on the internet that this basically means the drive has multiple corrupted sectors and can be fixed by running chkdsk in the command prompt in Windows but atm that hasn’t finished yet) i decided it would possibly be a great idea to put it into my laptop because it’s still a 4tb drive at the end of the day. Thankfully i now know that i can’t put it inside my laptop and make it work without some janky connection.
There was another video wherein a drive maker was asked about the various screws and tensions. It seemed it was analogous to the weights used to help balance a car tire. In the case of a mechanical hard drive, even having a screw here or there too loose (or tight) drastically alters its acoustic properties, so they are set rather specifically when they're first manufactured. Probably killed off a common mod back in the late 90's that I recall seeing where people replaced the tops so you could see the platters and spindle working while accessing the disk.
I guess at 5.400 to 15.000 RPM (90 to 250 rotations per second!) you don't want a loose screw :-) Likewise you don't want your platters even slightly bend by a screw tightened to much ;-) Modern hard disks are a mechanical marvel!However, a friend of mine took an old 4.200 RMP 5 1/4'' drive apart.It was laying around for some time and wouldn't spin up (guess the spindle was seized up). After putting it back together it worked again and he was able to read the data from it. No clean room or special tools were involved!
The problem with the warranty is that you can't delete the data on the drive before sending it to WD. For some people/businesses that's a no-go. I will tear down a USB C - as soon as one fails ;-) And you're welcome :-)
Can someone tell me... WHAT Is the name of the tool to take out those screws at the 4:30 minute mark in the video??? are they available on Amazon or somewhere???
I can't remember exactly, because it was over two years ago, I was changing tool bits quite a lot and mine were pretty worn out. But I think I was mostly using TX (TORX) bits sizes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as well as hex bits sizes 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm and 1.5mm. They all came from my LUX Tools EAN 4007875853959 bit set. It looks something like that: www.doitgarden.ch/de/p/601048200000/lux-praezisions-bit-satz-32-tlg-classic?.ch&
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was five years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@robertssmorgasbord yep thats correct bought one. Still don't know how to get heads parked in correct position. Either it's off the orange Part or to tight in the orange part
@@JJHcars Glad I could help. Regarding the parking position of the heads: Sorry, can't help you with that one. I just tear those things apart, I don't repair them 😅
grateful i saw this video before i took apart my WD passport. can't use the harddisk for what i want other than an external. the idea was to bang it in a xbox 360 harddisk housing as they're sata and this thing isn't, what a shame. didn't know that socket was integrated, never seen that config before. again, thanks for this video, saved me a tonne of headache.
You're welcome! There is the theory that western digital makes direct USB hard drives, so they can sell the SATA version at a higher price. But then, maybe they really just want to build their external drives as small as possible. Who knows.
@@robertssmorgasbord stands to reason either way. there's probably an intermediary circuit that converts to sata out there (or will be) not sure what it would be called as searching hasn't turned up anything.
@@amiga12001 I've searched high and low for an adapter/bridge that would connect a USB disk to a SATA port on a mainboard, but I was never able to find one 🙁
You destroyed the heck out of that drive. And that is so satisfying. I Have purchased the same one only three months ago... and it has just decided to stop working without any prior notice. No clicking, no light blinking, not detected on the disk utility manager, just nothing. What do you think is happening ?
Sounds like the controller board or the USB connector of the drive has given up. However, have you tried using another USB cable and connecting the drive to another USB port on your computer, respectively, connecting it to a different computer? Sometimes it's the small things ... There is also a thread below, started by Amaan Ali, covering a similar problem in great detail. Good luck!
Well, WD is currently not at its best quality wise (external HDDs). But I remember Seagate going through the same several years ago (there external HDDs died like flies back then too).
@@voldy3565 Well, the problem is that changed over time and is still changing. My current personal choice would be Toshiba - but I have no data to back that up. But other people have other preferences.
Would you believe I'm using an iPad Air 2? As lighting I have 2 x 120cm/36W and 6 x 59cm/18W fluorescent tubes on the ceiling - and at times it's still too dark.
Mine was dropped on the floor. Since then it is not readable and has some funny noise. I squeezed it at different angles and managed to recognize it somehow. I was so lucky!
Indeed you were! There are so many threads here in the comment on how to repair one of those. And to the best of my knowledge nobody has succeeded yet.
@@robertssmorgasbord I dropped mine about 30cm from the floor. However it was in the middle of transferring files and the cable got disconnected. I think that's why the head got stuck on the disc. Windows recognises the drive but I get a usb error. Do u think there's still hope in fixing it? Thanks
But they don't have a SATA port, just USB! So how would you connect them as an internal hard drives? I guess you could use an internal USB 3 connector or loop an USB cable inside your case, but that would still be slower than SATA. So no, I cannot recommend them for that us.
That's the big issue with these integrated drives. If the interface fails, you're stuck. On bigger enclosures that had separate USB-SATA boards you could simply take the drive out and hook it up to your desktop PC via the motherboard or another USB enclosure to get your data back assuming the drive is good. WD and Seagate do this for one thing. Data Recovery, they know you're going to be backing up to these drives, so will pay through the nose to get your precious stuff back. Better to buy two and keep two copies of everything than ending up paying $1000+ for recovery.
Well, I myself use a pair (even/odd principle) of external 2.5" disks for backing up the not so important stuff. The important stuff goes daily to a NAS and the NAS itself is backed up nightly to a pair (even/odd again) of external 3.5" disks. And two of those external disks (either the odd or the even) are stored in another building. You can call me paranoid now ;-) Any yes, I love the external cases with a separate USB controller. You've got a better chance of recovering your data - and - you can drop in a new disk when old one breaks. However, those cases are a wee bit larger.
Robert, they put so many screws in the board for contact between the motor terminals, and the head terminals on the drive, all the screws keep the connections tight between board and drive :)
You're right. I've seen something similar with some Seagate Cheetah sever disks I teared down lately - lots of screws. However, they should have added two more screws left and right of the USB connector to take up the mechanical stress there - probably would have save a lot of those disks :-(
Hey, I've got the 2TB variant of this same drive. It doesn't have any problems, but would it be possible to remove that interface board and find a suitable replacement with a SATA interface so that I can use it as an internal drive for my laptop? I've already got an SSD installed currently, and the old hard drive has died out. So I was wondering if I could just repurpose my WD drive as some additional storage for my laptop, instead of having to lug around this drive as an external disk.
Honestly, I don't know - but I doubt it. There are probably differences between the USB and SATA version of the drive preventing that. Anyway, you would have to transfer chips from the USB to the SATA board. See also the thread started by Amaan Ali 6 month ago. Here are the relevant links (for replacing boards on the USB versions): www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
Hi one of my 2 tb external hard diskshowing that i need to format it for further usage.....but it contains lot of data in it.....and i am scared to loose it.....any suggestions please?
Well, if you format it you'll lose your data for sure. Have you tried the usual (another USB cable, another USB port, another computer)? For software data recovery (if the hardware is still OK) see the see link in the video description (WD My Book Data Recovery | Slow Responding Fix & Encrypted Data). For repairing the controller hardware see the thread started by Amaan Ali 8 month ago (here are the relevant links for replacing board: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html ). And don't forget to backup your data onto a second drive in the future. I wish you the best of luck!
Now they make them so you can't open them and access the drive and head, so the head on mine is jammed, but I can't get to it to try to free it up. Piece of junk with valuable files on it that are gone.
Well, with todays data densities opening them outside a cleanroom is a bad idea anyway. I remember the last HDD with some sort of mechanical failure a friend of mine opened up and got running again was a 5.25''. And that was a few decades ago. Nowadays, without specialized equipment, HDDs are just black boxes - if they die they're dead. Though, you can always break the bank and send it to a professional data recovery outfit.
@@robertssmorgasbord yes. Look on TH-cam for how to shuck 3.5 external drives. Would pass on WD as they have lied about their drives recently, go with Seagate instead. The Seagate 8tb external drives is my go to for 'shucking' to put into desktop towers
I can't remember exactly, because I was changing tool bits quite a lot and mine are pretty worn out. But I think overall I was using mostly TX (TORX) bits sizes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as well as hex bits sizes 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm and 1.5mm.
Yes :-) See the thread started by Amaan Ali 7 month ago. And here are the relevant links for replacing board: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
I wouldn't be surprised if Western Digital switched to a built-in USB interface to prevent people from repurposing the internal HDDs to use inside laptops, playstations etc.
You might be on to something here. I looked at two German dealer's websites - they don't have any Western Digital 2.5" SATA drives above 1TB listed at all.
@@robertssmorgasbord I found a 2TB Western Digtial 2.5" SATA drive - the WD Blue WD20SPZX. However, Western Digital stopped using SATA drives in all their portables quite a long time ago.
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was two and a half years ago. But judging from the video I used Torx bits, and my set contains the sizes from T4 upwards. According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from about 15 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx.
On one hand, it's quite a shitty move for WD have the USD connecter integrated...making the drive useless after the MicroUSB 3.0 connecter broke... On the other hand, quite impressive compact design.
Exactly 😅 You trade reparability/reusability for a smaller form factor (and probably lower production costs). And maybe WD was just getting tired of people ripping out the disks from their external USB HDDs and putting them into PCs and laptops.
Sir, is it possible to Disable Hardware Encryption of disk drive ? thats one of the reason why some external harddrive cant be recover and instant fail unlike internal drive.
No hardware encryption was enabled on the drive I teared down. If it has been enabled, it shouldn't be possible to simply disable it to recover the content. That's the whole point of encryption I guess, that without proper key and decryption you cannot access the content. But I suspect that hard disk recovery labs have some tricks up their sleeves in regard to that. It's certainly beyond me.
Nope, I don't think so. Even if you swap identical (USB) board between identical drives you have to "transplant" the chip containing the drive data (bad sector list etc.). I cannot imagine if that works when transplanting the chip to an SATA controller board, even if (and that's a big if) it uses the same chip type to store that data (might store it in a different format).
@@robertssmorgasbord I've accidentally found this video th-cam.com/video/lSz7RwPwuos/w-d-xo.html, they say it's possible to swap the boards, but in order to make work it will be required to desolder the BIOS ROM chip from the USB board and put it on the SATA board. This is interesting, although it's not the easiest solution. They didn't show the actual replacement, maybe it didn't work out.
@@Alex626_ Yup, that's what I meant with 'you have to "transplant" the chip'. I was never absolute positive about what's stored on that chip. The firmware, the drive geometry, the bad sector list? Anyway, if you replace the controller board (same type of course) on a disk you have to "transplant" that chip.
What is the size of the TORX screw please? (I am guessing TORX 4) can i force and use a flat screw driver? I am not sure if u can use a FLAT screw to force a TORX.... normally some mechanic and electricians use FLAT screws to force PHILIPS , any suggestions if i do not have TORX4 ? I only have smallest TORX 5 ;-0 sadly
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon about a year ago you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I don't think flat or Phillips screwdrivers will work. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx (note that this will ruin the screws).
even with the best Torx bit, you'll need to know if it's metric or not,... either way, they strip out VERY easily and once this happens you'll never get the screws out. It's like WD is "putting the screws" to us.
i tried a torx (but you'll need to know SAE or Metric first), and it will strip the hell out of the screws. I don't know ANYONE that got the screws out. ALSO, there are circle aluminum sticker tabs covering something in about 5 places, shiny mirror stickers, if there are torx under these you are even more screwed because that means nine of those suckers have to come out, that's impossible
WD40NMZW? It does look rather similar with an WD40NPZZ. What's the thickness? 15mm? (9:09) it does seem like a 15mm ones. Thinking of getting a WD40NPZZ for a desktop internal storage, but I wouldn't trust it if it's actually designed for external drives. No wonder if it's only 50% more expensive than a 2TB WD20SPZX. Guess I'll just go with WD20SPZX then, even if it means I'll need 2x of it.
Sorry, can't help you with the exact height, because everything has long gone into the trash bin. However, the plastic case is 20.5mm in height, so you're probably not far off with 15mm. Anyway, the WD40NPZZ is definitely 15mm and probably just build with another controller board (SATA instead of USB 3.0).
@@mpoerot8013 You can check it on Hdd Platter Density... you can find everyting on this website like noumber of platters , heads etc ... hope it hepls rml527.blogspot.com/2010/10/hdd-platter-database-western-digital-25_2393.html
Great video. Thank you very much. This video might save my life. I have the same drive and need to make two out of one. Let's see if it works. I have just ordered the new one.
You're welcome! And good luck! Please keep in mind that you might have to transplant a flash/EEPROM chip from the old to the new controller board, e.g. th-cam.com/video/J9VLllXV6vE/w-d-xo.html .
@@robertssmorgasbord Thanks for that information. I didn't know that. I need to take the locic board of the new drive. Can I destroy anything by trying if it works? This complicates everything a bit ...
@@AConsciousnessAdventure As far as I know (and I don't know for sure!) that EEPROM/Flash contains information about the drive geometry (number of heads, tracks etc.) and bad sectors. So if you exchange boards between drives of the same type (same drive geometry) you probably won't damage anything. And if you're lucky (no bad sectors in the wrong places) you'll be able to extract at least some of the data from your old drive. But after that I would definitely switch the boards back.
Hi - I dropped this same hard drive the other day and now its making a buzzing sound. I am planning to open it up using your video to see if I can repair it. Would you recommend I use a clean room? I heard if any dust falls on the platters, it can ruin the data.
If you want to open the metal case with the platters inside, I definitely would do that in a clean room. However, if the drive has been mechanically damaged, chances are you won't be able to repair it. E.g. bending back a read/write head into the right position is next to impossible. Sorry to be the messenger of bad news 😞
After opening the case, is there a way I can connect it to an Orico dock to retrieve my files? because the USB port is faulty and is not connecting anymore.
@@emmanuelolawuyi5910 In principle yes, but they are tricky and/or costly. A) Replace the controller board with a working one from an identical HDD. You will have to transfer chips from the defect board to the donor board! See also the thread started by Amaan Ali 1 year ago. Here are the relevant links for replacing boards: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html B) Use a professional data recovery service, e.g. www.ontrack.com/en-us
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
even with the best Torx bit, you'll need to know if it's metric or not,... either way, they strip out VERY easily and once this happens you'll never get the screws out. It's like WD is "putting the screws" to us.
hello, awesome video. please I'm looking for where I can purchase the green circuit board from, my drive just stopped working, it doesn't show the white light blink anymore and it doesn't show anything on my PC. I'm really confused right now.
Hi, to the best of my knowledge you cant buy the controller board separately. Data recovery companies for example buy new hard disks and then scavenge them for parts, amongst other things the controller board. But that's only the first step. You can't simply swap the controller board. You have to transplant a chip from the old to the new board. See also some lengthy threads about that below. In any case, if the data on your disk is really worth it, I would shell out the few 100 bucks and sent it to a data recovery company. Sorry I don't have better news for you :-(
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon six month ago you'll need a T6 Torx bit.
I'm curious about how the spindle motor is factory-mounted into the base casting in manufactory? I want to remove the motor without using a hammer, or sawing off the casting.
I'm pretty sure it's pressed into the aluminium body with a special tool. If you wand to remove it - without an hammer ;-) - you'll have to press it out in a vice or - if you have one - a press.
Hi Robert, Thanks for the video. Very useful. Could you please tell which tools you are using? I need to open mine as I suspect the solder/connections are loose as I have to press the cable in to connect to the drive. I am planning to buy some precision screw drivers but want to make sure, I get the right one. Thanks a lot.
You're welcome. Regarding the tools: Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon six/seven month ago you'll need a T6 Torx bit.
Well, it depends ... Buying an of the shell 2.5'' external hard drive is definitely less hassle and probably cheaper than buying an internal 2.5" drive and a 2.5'' enclosure with SATA to USB converter. Also, large (4 TB or more) 2.5'' internal drives are a bit scarce (my preferred dealer - Alternate - offers only one 4 TB 2.5' drive'). On the other hand you got more flexibility with an internal 2.5'' drive / 2.5'' drive enclosure combo (using the drive internally too, changing the drive in the enclosure etc.). I personally would go for the external 2.5'' drive (price, no hassle). But then I have several external 2.5'' enclosures laying around if the need arises ...
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was one and a half year ago. But judging from the video I used Torx bits, and my set contains the sizes from T4 upwards. According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from 4 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx.
I'm using a tool set from Lux (German brand, model number 585395) with 30 different bits. It looks like this: www.obi.ch/werkzeug-sets/lux-praezision-bit-satz-32-teilig-classic/p/2936508
i have this same exact hard drive. it still lights up but it says it cant be recognized and i hears parts moving around inside when i turn it upside down. fixible or able to get data off of it???
Great video, but for me, I'll never ever buy again a WD external HD in my life, all failed after a number of years, end of line. I am going for the SSD's rugged ones next time, cost what it costs, I don't care.
Thanks! Well, it's indeed all about the costs, isn't it? The place I got that hard disk from has at any given time 15 of them in use. That's about 1.500 bucks worth of hard disks. A 4GB external SSD is about 600 bucks, so that would be 9.000 bucks for 15. Unfortunately they do care about costs ;-)
I have a 2019 4TB WD Element inside, looks the same as this drive.The USB port stopped working not sure by my damage or faulty. If I plug in the cord and bend a certain way the light will turn on but won't show up on computer. But it seems I cant get it steady enough to turn solid for long enough. Was wondering if I switch board from donor drive will it work or will I need to change BIOS chips and such? Any info would be appreciated. (the drive is less then 6 months old) Thank in advance
You will have to transfer two chips from the defect board to the donor board. See the thread started by Amaan Ali 4 month ago. Here are the relevant links: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
@@robertssmorgasbord I'll update when I find anything. So far the 4TB one of Toshiba canvio advance V9, I've not found out to be smr, but the same hdd's 1&2 TB are smr.
This is the model number of this drive : WD40NMZW 11GX6S1 as visible from 2:51. Search it up, it's an SMR drive. I came to this video just to find out the model number of the internal hard drive, and now it's out of my bucket list for potential hard drives to buy
I find your video very interesting, I have the same hard drisk and it has not worked for me since yesterday, I thought it could be for something internal and my question is what type of screwdriver and if possible, tell me where you bought it from?
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was one and a half year ago. But judging from the video I used Torx bits, and my set (LUX-TOOLS 30 x CV Basic, bought at a OBI home improvement market in Germany) contains the sizes from T4 upwards. According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from 4 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx.
But he noted he used two different torxs. I have the same problem. One is a bit smaller on one side than the other. I've tried 6, 5, and four with no luck. Anyone else get the sizes?
Hi Robert, till now I found out that most of Toshiba HDDs are USB-PCB not USB-SATA PCB! Only Seagate and Lacie are USB-SATA PCBs! Any thoughts? What do you think about Seagate and Lacie hdds? Which one is better? Thank you
Hi Magnificent, I'm sorry but I've got no straight answer for you. BTW LaCie is not a HDD manufacturer. They just buy HDDs and put them into stylish/rugged/expensive cases. So you really never know what HDD you'll find in a LaCie case. Anyway, to form an opinion about HDDs' reliability you have to run at least 10 drives for several years. So all I can say is that several years ago the people I've got that defect WD HDD from, the ones operating 15 external 2.5'' HDDs at once, switched from Seagate to WD, because the Seagate HDDs were dying like flies. However, that was several years ago. As for LaCie cases: I think they are very well made but too expensive for me. See also the video "LaCie External FireWire / USB 2.0 CD (!) Writer Teardown (All the Chips)" th-cam.com/video/QSYjIAEz6pE/w-d-xo.html
@@robertssmorgasbord I found out that samsung sold their HDD branch to Seagate, so, basically these companies WD, Seagate, Lacie etc, sell HDDs to each other, you really don't know if it is a new or old hdd, they renew it and sell it again!! I am switching to Toshiba is a good company! They are reliable, their reputation comes before money! Thank you for responding!
@@Magnificent1393 Well, I'm kinda Toshiba fanboy anyways :-) And yes, the HDD industry has "consolidated" considerably in the past five to the years. So it basically comes down to Seagate (which now owns Samsung's HDD branch and LaCie), WD (which now owns Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and SanDisk) and Toshiba (which now owns the Fujitsu HDD business).
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@@robertssmorgasbord even with the best Torx bit, you'll need to know if it's metric or not,... either way, they strip out VERY easily and once this happens you'll never get the screws out. It's like WD is "putting the screws" to us.
@@dabneyoffermein595 Uh, I wasn't aware that there are metric and imperial/SAE Torx sizes. I always thought there's only one scale for Torx bits ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx ). Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's not a single hard disk vendor that wants people like us opening their disks 😅
Only by donor drive parts companies; never by the manufacturer. Even then, these Spyglass boards need more than just a new PCB, or even EEPROM migration.
Yes. You might not even notice a significant speed loss compared to USB 3.0 when transferring large data volumes (it's a different story with writing small data volumes that fit into the cache of the WD). USB 2.0 can transfer 60MByte/s, whilst USB 3.0 can transfer a whopping 614MByte/s. However, my internal (!) 6GB 3.5'' 7.200 SATA HDD can continuously transfer just about 100MByte/s, and that external 4TB 2.5'' WD is definitely slower.
@@syedmoiz7854 Well, I never really measured it, but the other day I was copying a 2GB file from the internal SSD via USB 2.0 to an external 4GB 2.5'' WD and Windows 10 said I was doing about 25MB/s.
Besides the usual (use another UBS cable and/or port on your computer) not really. There where some discussions further down about repairing that thing, but they all boil down to replacing the board with a new one AND transplanting (soldering) one or two chips from the old board to the new one. If your desperate to get the data from that drive (and I mean sever hundred $ desperate) you can always try a data recovery service.
Sorry, can't really help you there. I've no idea what kind of HDD is inside a PS4. My guess is it's not possible, because the HDD inside the PS4 probably uses a SATA interface while the WD is purely USB.
@@robertssmorgasbord Sir, I’m Asking if i tear apart this 4tb hdd then the physical size of 2tb hdd & 4tb hdd will be same or not…i’m asking about their thickness.
@@SidhuLive Well, that teardown was a few years ago and I didn't measure the thickness of the drive back then. The current (naked) 2.5'' 2TB SATA WD drive (WD Blue 2 TB) comes in two versions: one is 7mm and the other 15mm thick. The current (naked) 2.5'' 4TB WD SATA drive (WD Blue 4 TB) is 15mm thick. I have no reason to believe that the drives in WD's external USB cases have another form factor, but I could be wrong.
@@hologram94 Yeah, but in my experience external Seagate 2.5'' HDs don't last as long as those of WD. ... between the devil and the deep blue sea :-) What's your experience?
Hello - Great vid and thanks for your efforts. I dropped a My Passport Essential SE drive with a USB 2.0 port. Drive was off when it hit a hard surface from about 3 feet. It initially worked. I then noted the case was slightly opened by the fall, pressed it closed and VOILA - no more data. The drive powers us, LED illuminates, drive spins and sounds fine. I'd like to at least explore replacing the USB port before trying a professional data recovery service. I assume I want to get a new USB port component verses having someone resolder the old one. Any idea how to order the correct part? Is this likely to be a standard component common to all devices that use USB 2? WD has ntot been particularly helpful with support and I doubt they will sell me one. Thanks in advance.
Before trying any soldering you could just remove the HDD from the plastic case and then experiment with applying a little pressure here and there on the circuit board, or slightly twisting/bending the USB port with the cable in. It's probably just a hair fracture or some soldered pin that came loose. Anyway, I guess to find the right replacement USB connector you'll have to do a visual search on the sites of the big distributors (e.g. www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/usb-dvi-hdmi-connectors/312?s=N4IgjCBcoMwJwCYqgMZQGYEMA2BnApgDQgD2UA2iACxgAcVArBMTfQzCC3Qz59XVQBstPqwZwOXWoIAMAdlF1ZIloNlU4fQXBkwqM0XMF7NAXWIAHAC5QQAZSsAnAJYA7AOYgAvsQC0SaBA0SCcAVyJSChAGEFMvHxAAylDcACMAAhQSV1d8FCsSR1ivIA ). And before replacing the connector you could try to just touch up the solder joints.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thanks Robert. Tried the pressure technique directly on the circuit board and twisting the USB cable without success. I was able to bugy a female USB soldering port so there is that. The existing port looks like it has been connected to some type of support chassis so not sure how difficult it will be to remove and replace it. Possibly, I can get someone to touch up the existing soldering to start. Question - before I go down this road, is it possible for the USB to power the drive correctly and still NOT be able to get data? Or does that point to something else being broken on the drive?
@@JohnAnderson-uh2os You're welcome! Touching up the solder points is probably a good next step. To answer your question: Yes, it's absolutely possible for the drive to power up while not being recognized by the computer. It just means that the USB ground and power pins do have a connection, while there is a problem with the data pins (USB 3 has six of those). I don't want to discourage you, but the problem might not be localized at/around the USB connector. The culprit (hairline fracture or broken solder connection) might be anywhere on the board.
I'm sorry, I did that teardown over two years ago, so the parts have been long gone into the trash bin. I'll try to think of you and have a look at the resistors near the USB ports should I ever come across another defect 4 TB My Passport.
Good Day Robert! Great video! Thank you so much for the upload, super informative!. I have the same exact one and I was hoping if you are kind enough to answer a quick question. I dropped it a couple of days ago and now it is not working, the funny thing is that after i dropped it, I immediately plugged it again to see the damage and it worked fine. When I plugged it in a few days later I saw the drive icon in the explorer but without the size bar showing total size and free space. I clicked on it and it said "request failed due to fatal device hardware error". I tried checkdisk but the device is inaccessible and recovery tools but there were too many bad sectors. I saw your video and opened the drive and I tried plugging it in while it was open and it worked for like 2 minutes, enough time for me to confirm that the files were indeed intact but I am getting the same error now. Do you have any advice for me on to how to fix it?
Not really. I'm just taking these things apart, not repairing them. However, from what you describe I would guess that dropping the HDD created a hairline fracture on the controller PCB. So now some traces on that PCB have only intermediate connections. It's a long shot, but you could try to apply a little pressure on the PCB at different points. Maybe this way you can get it operational long enough to get your files off it.
@@muhammadraheel4853 I am not sure it will work but this is what I did for me. After a month or two, I installed EaseUS data recovery wizard pro and plugged in the drive. It worked and It was showing in the explorer automatically but i did not explore the drive. I scanned the drive with EaseUS and recovered only the important folders. It worked amazingly well. I hope it works for you too.
Hi! Excellent video. I have a similar disk. I changed the board. And now the disk get detected but I only see a disk called MEDIA with has more de 100 PB (?). macOS says it does not recognize the disk but it can be initiated, windows just fails to get it. Do you think I could recover the data in this drive? Do you know something about this?
Yes, there seems to be a flash/EEPROM chip on the controller board that has to be transplanted from the old to the new board, e.g. th-cam.com/video/J9VLllXV6vE/w-d-xo.html . Anyway, if the data is worth it, I personally would go for a data recovery service. Though, that might set you back a few hundred bucks.
@@hawwal There seems to be a wee bit of confusion here. I never got a (new) HDD controller board. I teared down a defective (!) HDD, that of course included a (defective?) controller board. Sorry!
@@robertssmorgasbord that's wrong, they CAN be bought at several places, just google the number / string on the board. however, it seems like they are not really compatible as my ordered board (exactly the same) was not working
@@christianhabermann6527 Sorry about the misinformation I gave you there, I really didn't know - my bad. I have to admit I never tried to Google the part numbers, I just searched the sites of my usual distributors. Anyway, I'm even more sorry to hear that the one you've got didn't work 😞
@@christianhabermann6527 He was right, in a way; no hard drive manufacturer would offer the PCBs separately for sale. Those that are sold by data recovery parts companies, come off other hard drives (whether working or dead).
If you have a small enough soldering iron, you might be able to resolder the connector. I would consider that and then copy my files to a different drive. There is no telling how long a fix like that would last. I am usually careful not to bend the USB ports around with any cables plugged into them just because it would lead to having a faulty port.
According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from 6 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx (I myself can't really remember - that teardown was one and a half year ago).
@@bestenglobal Sorry to hear that, but as I said before, I really can't remember what screwdriver I used :-( But from what I can see in the video it was definitely some Torx.
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was five years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
Good question! Several years ago I witnessed Seagates dying like flies. Don't know what their quality/lifespan is today. Current WDs last as server backup mediums two to three years. But these things change over time. I myself would go for a Toshiba. But that's only my personal preference.
@@elphidieus Well, I guess it's good for storing a lot of data in a very small form factor, but I wouldn't expect any write speed records from it (5.400RPM, shingled recording): toshiba.semicon-storage.com/eu/storage/product/internal-specialty/pc/articles/mq04ab-series.html
I bought my last external 2.5'' Toshiba HDD in 2012 (it's still working), so I have absolutely no experience with the current models and couldn't possibly give you a well-founded recommendation. But I'm a Toshiba fanboy, so I would go with the Toshiba ;-)
@@besoart I'm currently also staying away from WD's 2.5'' portable HDDs ;-) But things do change. Several years ago it was the Seagate external 2.5" HDDs that died like flies.
@@besoart I never trust any single HDD. My boot drives are daily backed up to a NAS, and that is backed up nightly to one of two external HDDs. One of those external HDDs is always stored at another location. My bigger data drives are backed up to one of two external HDDs. Again, one always being stored at another location. I'm paranoid like that 😉
I'm afraid once you have removed the platters (or opened the aluminium case) there's no way to recover the data for people like us. You could try to put everything back together and maybe you get lucky (a friend of mine once took a 5 1/4'' drive apart to un-stuck the spindle - and it worked). But normally such procedures are the prerogative of data recovery companies with clean rooms.
@@kennethmucho8851 As I said, you can try, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. The smallest spec of dirt or dust within the case can ruin your day. Depending on how important the data is to you, you can also try and sent (the parts) to a data recovery company (you should tell them which platter was at what position in the stack). E.g. www.ontrack.com/en-us
The old WD my passport drives were great - still have mine from 10 years ago. The new My Passports are all rubbish, have the same one as yours in this video, just suddenly failed, all data lost.
Yeah, WD made once great products across the the board (like Seagate). Nowadays you'll have to pay the premium prices for enterprise/server disks if you want real reliability. Unfortunately they don't sell 2.5" USB HDDs to enterprises :-(
Nah, it was more like 15mm (I don't have the drive anymore, but the plastic enclosure is 21mm and wall thickness plus foam stripes is 3mm each on top and bottom).
though that model isn't sold as internal drives here www.wd.com/products/internal-storage.html... more like a second rate hdd for occassional backup uses.
I wasn't even aware that you could flash the firmware of those drives. I thin WD offers firmware for their internal drives only ( support-en.wd.com/app/products/downloads/softwaredownloads ).
Sorry to hear that! And yes, without having a fully equipped HDD recovery lab with lots of spare drives/parts you basically have little to no chance repairing those yourself :-(
this always puts me off WD drives, they don't have an internal sata connector meaning if crap hits the fan chances of hooking it upto a montherboard and getting data back are slim
Indeed! The Seagate drives are just a wee bit larger and they have a tiny SATA to USB adapter board inside. But then, in my experience Seagate 2.5'' USB drives die faster ...
@@alsiniz It's a USB 3.0 connector and I don't know of any adapters to connect a USB 3.0 HDD to SATA port on a mainboard. If your mainboard has internal USB 3.0 ports you might find a combination of cables/adapters for that. But then, you could just plug in the disk into a regular USB 3.0 port at the back of your mainboard and route the cable through some opening/slot into the PC.
Hallo Robert, ich nehme an ich habe das selbe Problem wie Akshay Vats. Der USB Anschluss an der Platine ist abgebrochen. Nun habe ich eine neue Platine bestellt (von Ali Express) und sie eingebaut. Der PC kann sie aber nicht erkennen. Man hört das leise Rauschen der Festplatte, also müsste sie ja Strom bekommen. Aber dennoch blinkt/leuchtet sie nicht mehr dauerhaft wie vorher, wenn sie angeschlossen war. Ich bin mega überfordert. Vielleicht hast du einen Tip. LG Shabaz
Hallo, ich kann natürlich nichts über die Platinen von Ali Express sagen ... Aber normalerweise muss man den Flash/EEPROM Chip von der alten Platine auf die neue verpflanzen, damit das ganze richtig funktioniert. Siehe auch th-cam.com/video/J9VLllXV6vE/w-d-xo.html .
@@robertssmorgasbord hi Robert, wie ich rausgefunden habe, muss ein Firmware Transfer vorgenommen werden. Die Festplatte dreht sich zwar aber der PC erkennt sie erst dann wenn die Firmware transferiert wurde. 😐
@@shabazali9631 Ja, die Firmware ist wahrscheinlich in dem Flash/EEPROM Chip von dem ich gesprochen habe. Vielleicht gibt es ja ein Tool dies per Software über die USB Schnittstelle des Boards zu machen - aber ich kenne keines 😞
@@charleshines1553 You're guessing right. I wrote that to Shabaz Ali in German. It's a delicate operation. While I do some SMD soldering from time to time (hot plate, hot air gun and soldering iron) I wouldn't bet on my ability to transplant that chip.
First of all, what's exactly wrong with your drive? Anyway, for recovering (any) data from a defective drive see the thread below from 4 month ago started by Amaan Ali.
@@darlasolis2456 That doesn't bode well. If the light still turns on, chances are the controller board survived OK but the spindle motor or has been damaged or the spindle itself has been jammed. In that case a professional data recovery service is your last chance (Google for "data recovery service", e.g. www.ontrack.com/ ). They have the right equipment (clean room, spare parts, etc.) to get the platters out of the drive and to put them into a new one. However, these services are not cheap and it's up to you to decide if the videos are worth it. However, there's still a small chance that only the motor driver on the controller board has been damaged. To find out if that might be the case, just take the drive out of the plastic case (it's broken anyway) and inspect the controller board for damage (e.g. hair fractures) using a magnifying glass or something similar (you don't have to remove the controller board for that). If you find some damage on the controller board follow the aforementioned thread started by Amaan Ali. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Good luck to you!
Are you talking about the USB connector? These were the first generation USB 3.0 mini (or micro?) connectors with additional power lines. Looks like two connectors botched together into one, doesn't it?
@@robertssmorgasbord ah yes, I can see those are actually female port of a micro usb 3.0 connectors that all my 2.5" HDD enclosure has. interesting, so instead of using a SATA to USB adapter, they built the board straight to USB 3.0.
@@mpoerot8013 Exactly! That solution needs less space (no additional SATA to USB converter board needed) and is probably cheaper. Of course there are drawbacks for the user (can't reuse the case with another SATA disk or reuse the disk as SATA drive).
@@snapshotphoto5935 I can't remember exactly, because it was over 2 years ago, I was changing tool bits quite a lot and mine are pretty worn out. But I think overall I was using mostly TX (TORX) bits sizes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as well as hex bits sizes 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm and 1.5mm.
Ehm, has anybody tried replacing the usb connector? (21:17) My driver probably has this problem ~si ce I got it, but when it was brought to the shop from which I bought it they ~wanted to replace the whole drive, meaning I'd ~lose the data it had. Instead, I was given a bigger/better cable that ~prevents the driver from disconnecting. Though the years passed, (the warranty may be over), I ~don't have any drive to back up this one and give to the shop for "repair" (swap), if the warranty isn't over yet, so I'm thinking about changing the connector.
@@robertssmorgasbord (haha, that was quick) I think the connector is problematic, because pressing the cable towards a ~certain angle (when connected to the driver) the hdd turns on and ~starts working normally. I recently got a cheap reflow station (air soldering gun) and waiting for some extra parts to arrive to fix a phone of mine. I might try to fix this too. Btw: Merry Christmas and a happy new year!😂😂
@@georgevavouras Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too! It really sounds like some contact within the USB connector is bend. However, another possibility is that a pin of the connector on a PCB pad came loose. Maybe you wanna check that before replacing the connector.
@@robertssmorgasbord thanks, hm, I'll have it in mind if I decide to fix it. After the quick dissasembly/reassembly it worked ~flawlessly (tried it only ~2 times though), so I'm not very willing to fix it. Probably the first thing I'll do is to just heat up the pins with the reflow/air soldering gun, to do some "reflow". If that doesn't work I might order a new connector (if it will be available till then..). Again, thanks for the interest!!! (Btw, I think I had watched that video in the past, about 3 years ago when I got the drive.😂😂)
Yeah, there might be some laptops - more like mobile workstations - out there that have enough height for such a drive, but the majority won't be able to take it.
@@omarabudayyeh2785 Well, you can't. But WD is also selling "naked" HDs which are basically the same as the one I teared down, but with a SATA interface.
For data recovery see the links in the description. I have not tried it myself. That was just a backup disk, so there was no data lost when it went tits-up.
The only way I see that might work is replacing the controller with one from another drive of the same type. But even that might not work (e.g. controller is storing the bad sector list in flash memory).
well hehe, fuck me. I thought I'd buy one n replace it in my laptop hey I'd have a 4tb in my laptop just for 100$ now I'm fucked but I haven't bought one yet thanks to you n your video peace. hey, why is the magnet so powerful in the hard drives?
You're welcome ;-) The magnets are that powerful, because the coil needs to be very small and light (a large coil / weak magnet would produce the same forces as a small coil / strong magnet). And the coil needs not be very small and light because it's part of the head assembly, which needs to move very fast.
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was almost four years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@@robertssmorgasbord thanks, tried T5 torx and worked. the board is fried, so I am screwed, no pun intended 😭 these wd drive so unreliable, bought 3, all dead after 3 years
@@youxxxxx Well, yours lasted at least 3 years. I know a shop where these things last a year or two at most (each drive worked hard once a week for server backup). Miniaturization (smaller drives, higher capacity) simply doesn't lend itself to reliability. I have four 3.5'' 1 TB drives in my NAS and they are running 24/7 for almost 10 years now without any problems.
my 4t wd has hitten by my baby son :) it makes noise (the motor start then stop the start and so on) My windows can read that there is a hard drive but no partition and when I try to initialize from storage give me this message (the request field due to a fatal device hardware error). the data is not important, I just don't want to buy a new one :) thanks in a advance
Well, I'd like to help, but what exactly is your question? How to repair the drive? For replacing the controller board see the thread started by Amaan Ali a year ago. Here are the relevant links: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
@@daizahran If the error is really with the PCB, just exchanging it won't do it. You'll have to transplant one or two chips from the defect board to the new board (see the links I've provided above). Will that solve the problem? I don't know. It's also possible that there's some mechanical damage inside the drive. Maybe you should consider using a professional data recovery service, like OnTrack.
Thank you for making this video. Thanks for opening up the case and giving us a looksie inside. now i have a some clue what is rattling inside. 🙂👍
You're welcome!
Thanks for the teardown, was hoping it'd have a SATA interface inside so I could repurpose it as an internal, but it seems not unfortunately.
You're welcome! Like you many people hoped that there would be a SATA disk inside - see all the comments below. But alas, WD cost optimized that away.
Most retail external drives had USB interface permanently attached to the drive inside. depending on where you live in the world, certain local brands had specific models that, when you remove the enclosure, the drive inside can be then installed in a laptop.
In Taiwan, the model S03 2TB drive from Silicon Power (SP for short) contains a Samsung/Seagate joint-brand SATA hard drive (ST2000LM003 HN-M201RAD) that I'm currently using on my laptop as system drive.
@@user-hn8jm6mr8m Interesting! The last Seagate 2.5'' external HDD where I saw the innards here in Europe also contained a SATA HDD with a small SATA-to-USB converter board attached to it. Seems Seagate takes a different route than WD.
I love your accent its wonderful. This is not a troll comment.
Well, thank you! Once in a while I get comments about my accent (e.g. "scary German accent"), but never before it has been described as "wonderful" :-)
@@robertssmorgasbord Hey, it is clear. Some of my German friends not so much. Pleasant on the ear.
@@dennisricke That's nice to hear :-) And I got nothing with the same rhyme as "Pleasant on the ear." ;-) Anyway, thanks for the praise!
I just remembered that I have one of these, I stopped using it because of this bug and was going to RMA it but never did. Seems like it wouldn't be worth it anyway and I would never trust the replacement. I've moved to only using bare disks with a direct SATA docking bay, not that firmware on SATA disks is guaranteed but it's less likely to go wrong. Thanks for tearing it down, I won't waste my time.
You're welcome. I'm happy I could save you some time. The only issue with using raw SATA disks is that the mobile ones are often sold cheaper. But that added cost might well be worth it.
The connector gets damaged easily. It's not good if there's no sata PCB means you cannot use a simple enclosure to fix it.
Exactly! But I guess it lowers the manufacturing costs for WD a few cents.
Thanks so damn much for making this video! I have been having problems with my drive corrupting after it has been connected to a different system for some time and after it denied me access because of a parameter problem (i found on the internet that this basically means the drive has multiple corrupted sectors and can be fixed by running chkdsk in the command prompt in Windows but atm that hasn’t finished yet) i decided it would possibly be a great idea to put it into my laptop because it’s still a 4tb drive at the end of the day. Thankfully i now know that i can’t put it inside my laptop and make it work without some janky connection.
You're welcome! And that's quite an ordeal you went through :-O
There was another video wherein a drive maker was asked about the various screws and tensions. It seemed it was analogous to the weights used to help balance a car tire. In the case of a mechanical hard drive, even having a screw here or there too loose (or tight) drastically alters its acoustic properties, so they are set rather specifically when they're first manufactured.
Probably killed off a common mod back in the late 90's that I recall seeing where people replaced the tops so you could see the platters and spindle working while accessing the disk.
I guess at 5.400 to 15.000 RPM (90 to 250 rotations per second!) you don't want a loose screw :-) Likewise you don't want your platters even slightly bend by a screw tightened to much ;-) Modern hard disks are a mechanical marvel!However, a friend of mine took an old 4.200 RMP 5 1/4'' drive apart.It was laying around for some time and wouldn't spin up (guess the spindle was seized up). After putting it back together it worked again and he was able to read the data from it. No clean room or special tools were involved!
I think the warranty is 3 years. you are the first to try :)
Teardown version 2019 with usb c.
good info and thank you
The problem with the warranty is that you can't delete the data on the drive before sending it to WD. For some people/businesses that's a no-go.
I will tear down a USB C - as soon as one fails ;-)
And you're welcome :-)
@@robertssmorgasbord your chip info in board very good. some maybe not to detail just teardown only, your video record is great. thank you
@hendry bang Thanks! And You're welcome!
Can someone tell me... WHAT Is the name of the tool to take out those screws at the 4:30 minute mark in the video??? are they available on Amazon or somewhere???
I can't remember exactly, because it was over two years ago, I was changing tool bits quite a lot and mine were pretty worn out. But I think I was mostly using TX (TORX) bits sizes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as well as hex bits sizes 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm and 1.5mm. They all came from my LUX Tools EAN 4007875853959 bit set. It looks something like that: www.doitgarden.ch/de/p/601048200000/lux-praezisions-bit-satz-32-tlg-classic?.ch&
did you figure it out? I am stuck there too... I thought about breaking it and removing the screws with a plier later.
@@ike7539 Hi Ike, already replied on your other comment: It's probably some TORX (TX) from size T4 upward. Another viewer commented it's TORX T6.
@@ike7539 Hi confirmed T6 I am taking one apart right now. Need to firmly press down when removing or it will slip and strip the screws.
Can someone tell me what type of screwdriver that is. Because when i look down. It just looks like a hole. Not a screw
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was five years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@robertssmorgasbord yep thats correct bought one. Still don't know how to get heads parked in correct position. Either it's off the orange Part or to tight in the orange part
@@JJHcars Glad I could help. Regarding the parking position of the heads: Sorry, can't help you with that one. I just tear those things apart, I don't repair them 😅
Great video.Where can I buy exactly the same board,to replace it?🙏
Simple answer: You can't. WD is not in the business of selling spare parts. They rather sell you a new HD.
grateful i saw this video before i took apart my WD passport.
can't use the harddisk for what i want other than an external.
the idea was to bang it in a xbox 360 harddisk housing as they're sata and this thing isn't, what a shame.
didn't know that socket was integrated, never seen that config before.
again, thanks for this video, saved me a tonne of headache.
You're welcome! There is the theory that western digital makes direct USB hard drives, so they can sell the SATA version at a higher price. But then, maybe they really just want to build their external drives as small as possible. Who knows.
@@robertssmorgasbord stands to reason either way.
there's probably an intermediary circuit that converts to sata out there (or will be) not sure what it would be called as searching hasn't turned up anything.
@@amiga12001 I've searched high and low for an adapter/bridge that would connect a USB disk to a SATA port on a mainboard, but I was never able to find one 🙁
You destroyed the heck out of that drive. And that is so satisfying.
I Have purchased the same one only three months ago... and it has just decided to stop working without any prior notice. No clicking, no light blinking, not detected on the disk utility manager, just nothing. What do you think is happening ?
Sounds like the controller board or the USB connector of the drive has given up. However, have you tried using another USB cable and connecting the drive to another USB port on your computer, respectively, connecting it to a different computer? Sometimes it's the small things ...
There is also a thread below, started by Amaan Ali, covering a similar problem in great detail.
Good luck!
I'll never buy another WD drive again. 4TB died after 2 months.
Well, WD is currently not at its best quality wise (external HDDs). But I remember Seagate going through the same several years ago (there external HDDs died like flies back then too).
@@robertssmorgasbord HGST Was high life pan... But WD Kiled...(FUN)
@@robertssmorgasbord Then who makes the best highest quality external drives?
@@voldy3565 Well, the problem is that changed over time and is still changing. My current personal choice would be Toshiba - but I have no data to back that up. But other people have other preferences.
Nice camera, BTW, especially when you zoom in on the chip on the head. What camera and lighting setup do you use?
Would you believe I'm using an iPad Air 2? As lighting I have 2 x 120cm/36W and 6 x 59cm/18W fluorescent tubes on the ceiling - and at times it's still too dark.
Mine was dropped on the floor. Since then it is not readable and has some funny noise. I squeezed it at different angles and managed to recognize it somehow. I was so lucky!
Indeed you were! There are so many threads here in the comment on how to repair one of those. And to the best of my knowledge nobody has succeeded yet.
I dropped mine too and cant get it to work. Opened it and the head was stuck on the disk. I moved it back but still not working 😔
@@ll_spud If there is mechanical damage to drive itself (platters, head assembly) it's usually game over. As I said, Jinbo Fan got lucky.
@@robertssmorgasbord I dropped mine about 30cm from the floor. However it was in the middle of transferring files and the cable got disconnected. I think that's why the head got stuck on the disc. Windows recognises the drive but I get a usb error. Do u think there's still hope in fixing it? Thanks
@@ll_spud I'm sorry, but unless you are going to involve a data recovery company, I don't see it. Again, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
thank you bro, this is very detail video for external hdd
You're very welcome!
Great video man. Would you recommend the 4TB Western Digital Passport for use as an internal hard drive for the slim? Would it even fit?
But they don't have a SATA port, just USB! So how would you connect them as an internal hard drives? I guess you could use an internal USB 3 connector or loop an USB cable inside your case, but that would still be slower than SATA. So no, I cannot recommend them for that us.
Doesn't work that way you need an internal drive for that
That's the big issue with these integrated drives. If the interface fails, you're stuck. On bigger enclosures that had separate USB-SATA boards you could simply take the drive out and hook it up to your desktop PC via the motherboard or another USB enclosure to get your data back assuming the drive is good. WD and Seagate do this for one thing. Data Recovery, they know you're going to be backing up to these drives, so will pay through the nose to get your precious stuff back. Better to buy two and keep two copies of everything than ending up paying $1000+ for recovery.
Well, I myself use a pair (even/odd principle) of external 2.5" disks for backing up the not so important stuff. The important stuff goes daily to a NAS and the NAS itself is backed up nightly to a pair (even/odd again) of external 3.5" disks. And two of those external disks (either the odd or the even) are stored in another building. You can call me paranoid now ;-)
Any yes, I love the external cases with a separate USB controller. You've got a better chance of recovering your data - and - you can drop in a new disk when old one breaks. However, those cases are a wee bit larger.
My 2019 Seagate USB 3.0 drives are not integrated. I have taken many of them apart. They have detachable SATA controllers inside.
@@AMGF815 I member having seen them somewhere in a disassembled state (I assume the original disk died) and being used as SATA to USB converters.
Robert's Smorgasbord right, they are.
This should be the 8th wonder of engineering
Modern hard disks certainly should!
Robert, they put so many screws in the board for contact between the motor terminals, and the head terminals on the drive, all the screws keep the connections tight between board and drive :)
You're right. I've seen something similar with some Seagate Cheetah sever disks I teared down lately - lots of screws. However, they should have added two more screws left and right of the USB connector to take up the mechanical stress there - probably would have save a lot of those disks :-(
Hey, I've got the 2TB variant of this same drive. It doesn't have any problems, but would it be possible to remove that interface board and find a suitable replacement with a SATA interface so that I can use it as an internal drive for my laptop? I've already got an SSD installed currently, and the old hard drive has died out. So I was wondering if I could just repurpose my WD drive as some additional storage for my laptop, instead of having to lug around this drive as an external disk.
Honestly, I don't know - but I doubt it. There are probably differences between the USB and SATA version of the drive preventing that. Anyway, you would have to transfer chips from the USB to the SATA board. See also the thread started by Amaan Ali 6 month ago. Here are the relevant links (for replacing boards on the USB versions): www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
Question: @21:41 - Is it even possible to recycle those ram and flash chips? Could they be applied to other project boards?
Yes, why not? If the chips are still working.
Idk what I was watching too techy but nice!
Thanks!
Hi one of my 2 tb external hard diskshowing that i need to format it for further usage.....but it contains lot of data in it.....and i am scared to loose it.....any suggestions please?
Well, if you format it you'll lose your data for sure. Have you tried the usual (another USB cable, another USB port, another computer)? For software data recovery (if the hardware is still OK) see the see link in the video description (WD My Book Data Recovery | Slow Responding Fix & Encrypted Data). For repairing the controller hardware see the thread started by Amaan Ali 8 month ago (here are the relevant links for replacing board: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html ).
And don't forget to backup your data onto a second drive in the future.
I wish you the best of luck!
Now they make them so you can't open them and access the drive and head, so the head on mine is jammed, but I can't get to it to try to free it up. Piece of junk with valuable files on it that are gone.
Well, with todays data densities opening them outside a cleanroom is a bad idea anyway. I remember the last HDD with some sort of mechanical failure a friend of mine opened up and got running again was a 5.25''. And that was a few decades ago. Nowadays, without specialized equipment, HDDs are just black boxes - if they die they're dead. Though, you can always break the bank and send it to a professional data recovery outfit.
Thank you 👍
You're welcome!
Good thing I watched this as I wanted to buy one and strip it to use in my pc. Now I know I cannot.
You're welcome :-)
You can do it with 3.5in drives, but not 2.5
@@BenDunlop So the HDs in the external WD 3.5'' drives have a SATA connector?
@@robertssmorgasbord yes. Look on TH-cam for how to shuck 3.5 external drives. Would pass on WD as they have lied about their drives recently, go with Seagate instead. The Seagate 8tb external drives is my go to for 'shucking' to put into desktop towers
@@BenDunlop Thanks for the info :-)
Great video . Can you tell me the right size screw driver to open this hard drive please ? thanks in advance
I can't remember exactly, because I was changing tool bits quite a lot and mine are pretty worn out. But I think overall I was using mostly TX (TORX) bits sizes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as well as hex bits sizes 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm and 1.5mm.
I have the same drive but my motherboard is broken ,can I replace it ???
Yes :-) See the thread started by Amaan Ali 7 month ago. And here are the relevant links for replacing board: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
I wouldn't be surprised if Western Digital switched to a built-in USB interface to prevent people from repurposing the internal HDDs to use inside laptops, playstations etc.
You might be on to something here. I looked at two German dealer's websites - they don't have any Western Digital 2.5" SATA drives above 1TB listed at all.
@@robertssmorgasbord I found a 2TB Western Digtial 2.5" SATA drive - the WD Blue WD20SPZX. However, Western Digital stopped using SATA drives in all their portables quite a long time ago.
what screw bit did you use to remove the control board from the HD?
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was two and a half years ago. But judging from the video I used Torx bits, and my set contains the sizes from T4 upwards. According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from about 15 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx.
On one hand, it's quite a shitty move for WD have the USD connecter integrated...making the drive useless after the MicroUSB 3.0 connecter broke... On the other hand, quite impressive compact design.
Exactly 😅 You trade reparability/reusability for a smaller form factor (and probably lower production costs). And maybe WD was just getting tired of people ripping out the disks from their external USB HDDs and putting them into PCs and laptops.
Sir, is it possible to Disable Hardware Encryption of disk drive ?
thats one of the reason why some external harddrive cant be recover and instant fail unlike internal drive.
No hardware encryption was enabled on the drive I teared down. If it has been enabled, it shouldn't be possible to simply disable it to recover the content. That's the whole point of encryption I guess, that without proper key and decryption you cannot access the content. But I suspect that hard disk recovery labs have some tricks up their sleeves in regard to that. It's certainly beyond me.
Hello Robert,
Is it possible to swap the USB board with compatible SATA board for this drive?
Nope, I don't think so. Even if you swap identical (USB) board between identical drives you have to "transplant" the chip containing the drive data (bad sector list etc.). I cannot imagine if that works when transplanting the chip to an SATA controller board, even if (and that's a big if) it uses the same chip type to store that data (might store it in a different format).
@@robertssmorgasbord I've accidentally found this video th-cam.com/video/lSz7RwPwuos/w-d-xo.html, they say it's possible to swap the boards, but in order to make work it will be required to desolder the BIOS ROM chip from the USB board and put it on the SATA board. This is interesting, although it's not the easiest solution. They didn't show the actual replacement, maybe it didn't work out.
@@Alex626_ Yup, that's what I meant with 'you have to "transplant" the chip'. I was never absolute positive about what's stored on that chip. The firmware, the drive geometry, the bad sector list? Anyway, if you replace the controller board (same type of course) on a disk you have to "transplant" that chip.
What is the size of the TORX screw please? (I am guessing TORX 4) can i force and use a flat screw driver? I am not sure if u can use a FLAT screw to force a TORX.... normally some mechanic and electricians use FLAT screws to force PHILIPS , any suggestions if i do not have TORX4 ? I only have smallest TORX 5 ;-0 sadly
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon about a year ago you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I don't think flat or Phillips screwdrivers will work. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx (note that this will ruin the screws).
even with the best Torx bit, you'll need to know if it's metric or not,... either way, they strip out VERY easily and once this happens you'll never get the screws out. It's like WD is "putting the screws" to us.
i tried a torx (but you'll need to know SAE or Metric first), and it will strip the hell out of the screws. I don't know ANYONE that got the screws out. ALSO, there are circle aluminum sticker tabs covering something in about 5 places, shiny mirror stickers, if there are torx under these you are even more screwed because that means nine of those suckers have to come out, that's impossible
WD40NMZW? It does look rather similar with an WD40NPZZ. What's the thickness? 15mm? (9:09) it does seem like a 15mm ones.
Thinking of getting a WD40NPZZ for a desktop internal storage, but I wouldn't trust it if it's actually designed for external drives. No wonder if it's only 50% more expensive than a 2TB WD20SPZX. Guess I'll just go with WD20SPZX then, even if it means I'll need 2x of it.
wait seems that WD20SPZX is an SMR. hmm
Sorry, can't help you with the exact height, because everything has long gone into the trash bin. However, the plastic case is 20.5mm in height, so you're probably not far off with 15mm. Anyway, the WD40NPZZ is definitely 15mm and probably just build with another controller board (SATA instead of USB 3.0).
@@mpoerot8013 You can check it on Hdd Platter Density... you can find everyting on this website like noumber of platters , heads etc ... hope it hepls
rml527.blogspot.com/2010/10/hdd-platter-database-western-digital-25_2393.html
Great video. Thank you very much. This video might save my life. I have the same drive and need to make two out of one. Let's see if it works. I have just ordered the new one.
You're welcome! And good luck! Please keep in mind that you might have to transplant a flash/EEPROM chip from the old to the new controller board, e.g. th-cam.com/video/J9VLllXV6vE/w-d-xo.html .
@@robertssmorgasbord Thanks for that information. I didn't know that. I need to take the locic board of the new drive. Can I destroy anything by trying if it works? This complicates everything a bit ...
By the way, which one is the eprom chip?
@@AConsciousnessAdventure As far as I know (and I don't know for sure!) that EEPROM/Flash contains information about the drive geometry (number of heads, tracks etc.) and bad sectors. So if you exchange boards between drives of the same type (same drive geometry) you probably won't damage anything. And if you're lucky (no bad sectors in the wrong places) you'll be able to extract at least some of the data from your old drive. But after that I would definitely switch the boards back.
@@AConsciousnessAdventure See th-cam.com/video/wP4l_L81NKw/w-d-xo.html in the video. And make sure that the boards are really identical.
Hi - I dropped this same hard drive the other day and now its making a buzzing sound. I am planning to open it up using your video to see if I can repair it. Would you recommend I use a clean room? I heard if any dust falls on the platters, it can ruin the data.
If you want to open the metal case with the platters inside, I definitely would do that in a clean room. However, if the drive has been mechanically damaged, chances are you won't be able to repair it. E.g. bending back a read/write head into the right position is next to impossible. Sorry to be the messenger of bad news 😞
After opening the case, is there a way I can connect it to an Orico dock to retrieve my files? because the USB port is faulty and is not connecting anymore.
Unfortunately not. The HDD in the case does not have a SATA interface. So you can't plug the naked HDD into an Orico dock.
@@robertssmorgasbord oh! Is there any other possible solutions to retrieve my files from it?
@@emmanuelolawuyi5910 In principle yes, but they are tricky and/or costly.
A) Replace the controller board with a working one from an identical HDD. You will have to transfer chips from the defect board to the donor board! See also the thread started by Amaan Ali 1 year ago. Here are the relevant links for replacing boards: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
B) Use a professional data recovery service, e.g. www.ontrack.com/en-us
@@robertssmorgasbord Thanks a lot, I will take a look into it.
Please tell me what screwdriver was used to open the connector here. Many thanks.
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@@robertssmorgasbord Thank you Robert's
@@vietanhha3336 You're welcome!
even with the best Torx bit, you'll need to know if it's metric or not,... either way, they strip out VERY easily and once this happens you'll never get the screws out. It's like WD is "putting the screws" to us.
hello, awesome video. please I'm looking for where I can purchase the green circuit board from, my drive just stopped working, it doesn't show the white light blink anymore and it doesn't show anything on my PC. I'm really confused right now.
Hi, to the best of my knowledge you cant buy the controller board separately. Data recovery companies for example buy new hard disks and then scavenge them for parts, amongst other things the controller board. But that's only the first step. You can't simply swap the controller board. You have to transplant a chip from the old to the new board. See also some lengthy threads about that below. In any case, if the data on your disk is really worth it, I would shell out the few 100 bucks and sent it to a data recovery company. Sorry I don't have better news for you :-(
What tools did u use because I have a problem with my usb storage and need to open it up
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon six month ago you'll need a T6 Torx bit.
I'm curious about how the spindle motor is factory-mounted into the base casting in manufactory? I want to remove the motor without using a hammer, or sawing off the casting.
I'm pretty sure it's pressed into the aluminium body with a special tool. If you wand to remove it - without an hammer ;-) - you'll have to press it out in a vice or - if you have one - a press.
They hide screws under seals as warranty seals, they know you opened the drive itself :)
:-) And I couldn't care less :-D
@@robertssmorgasbord He was answering your wondering why some screws have seals on them and some do not.
@@IntenseGrid Yeah, got it :-)
Hi Robert, Thanks for the video. Very useful. Could you please tell which tools you are using? I need to open mine as I suspect the solder/connections are loose as I have to press the cable in to connect to the drive. I am planning to buy some precision screw drivers but want to make sure, I get the right one. Thanks a lot.
You're welcome. Regarding the tools: Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon six/seven month ago you'll need a T6 Torx bit.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thank you very much and all the best for 2021!
@@gnalibagatnortkelegn7561 Again, you're welcome! Best of luck in 2021 for you too!
Hi, for backup purpose , is it better to buy external like this, or internal HD and use usb hard drive enclosure for may laptop? thanks.
Well, it depends ... Buying an of the shell 2.5'' external hard drive is definitely less hassle and probably cheaper than buying an internal 2.5" drive and a 2.5'' enclosure with SATA to USB converter. Also, large (4 TB or more) 2.5'' internal drives are a bit scarce (my preferred dealer - Alternate - offers only one 4 TB 2.5' drive'). On the other hand you got more flexibility with an internal 2.5'' drive / 2.5'' drive enclosure combo (using the drive internally too, changing the drive in the enclosure etc.). I personally would go for the external 2.5'' drive (price, no hassle). But then I have several external 2.5'' enclosures laying around if the need arises ...
You are amazing sir .
Thanks!
which screwdriver do you need to take the top screws out, on the silver side?
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was one and a half year ago. But judging from the video I used Torx bits, and my set contains the sizes from T4 upwards. According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from 4 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx.
Is there a tool set do you use or do you buy the driver one by one?
I'm using a tool set from Lux (German brand, model number 585395) with 30 different bits. It looks like this: www.obi.ch/werkzeug-sets/lux-praezision-bit-satz-32-teilig-classic/p/2936508
Hi Robert sir,
will this work with Iphone 11 pro max? without connecting to Mac or Pc and just by USB?
Yes: th-cam.com/video/zW-yOzVQXrc/w-d-xo.html
i have this same exact hard drive. it still lights up but it says it cant be recognized and i hears parts moving around inside when i turn it upside down. fixible or able to get data off of it???
There are so many threads here in the comment section on how to repair one of those. And to the best of my knowledge nobody has succeeded yet. Sorry ☹
Great video, but for me, I'll never ever buy again a WD external HD in my life, all failed after a number of years, end of line. I am going for the SSD's rugged ones next time, cost what it costs, I don't care.
Thanks! Well, it's indeed all about the costs, isn't it? The place I got that hard disk from has at any given time 15 of them in use. That's about 1.500 bucks worth of hard disks. A 4GB external SSD is about 600 bucks, so that would be 9.000 bucks for 15. Unfortunately they do care about costs ;-)
I have a 2019 4TB WD Element inside, looks the same as this drive.The USB port stopped working not sure by my damage or faulty. If I plug in the cord and bend a certain way the light will turn on but won't show up on computer. But it seems I cant get it steady enough to turn solid for long enough. Was wondering if I switch board from donor drive will it work or will I need to change BIOS chips and such? Any info would be appreciated. (the drive is less then 6 months old)
Thank in advance
You will have to transfer two chips from the defect board to the donor board. See the thread started by Amaan Ali 4 month ago. Here are the relevant links: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
Hahaha you got the poor SMR one!!
Well, it wasn't mine to begin with ;-) Anyway, do you know by any chance external 2.5'' HDDs that are not SMR?
@@robertssmorgasbord oh I see, good for you!
Nah, I'm looking for just that
@@robertssmorgasbord I'll update when I find anything. So far the 4TB one of Toshiba canvio advance V9, I've not found out to be smr, but the same hdd's 1&2 TB are smr.
@@alexander-jl6cs Thanks for the info! I'm kind of a Toshiba (and Hitachi, but they're part of WD now, so who knows) fanboy when it comes to HDDs ;-)
I just found this, thank you Robert, I guess this WD (4TB) is a 2016 version! Is this a CMR or SMR drive?
I am looking for a good 4TB or 5TB one
You're welcome! To the best of my knowledge it's a CMR drive. At least it's not included in the SMR "blacklists" available on the internet.
No, it's SMR
This is the model number of this drive
: WD40NMZW 11GX6S1 as visible from 2:51.
Search it up, it's an SMR drive.
I came to this video just to find out the model number of the internal hard drive, and now it's out of my bucket list for potential hard drives to buy
You're right and I didn't do my due diligence. Sorry, my bad! HDDScan lists the drive as SMR: hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html
@@robertssmorgasbord Thank you!
I find your video very interesting, I have the same hard drisk and it has not worked for me since yesterday, I thought it could be for something internal and my question is what type of screwdriver and if possible, tell me where you bought it from?
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was one and a half year ago. But judging from the video I used Torx bits, and my set (LUX-TOOLS 30 x CV Basic, bought at a OBI home improvement market in Germany) contains the sizes from T4 upwards. According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from 4 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thx
@@PepeLopez-sb5nr You're welcome!
I just had this issue, and the tool needed is a T6 Torx
Thanks for the info!
Robert's Smorgasbord absolutely! Thanks for the video - saved me 400-900 dollars
@@MeyerMarkersFamilyVlog You're welcome!
But he noted he used two different torxs. I have the same problem. One is a bit smaller on one side than the other. I've tried 6, 5, and four with no luck. Anyone else get the sizes?
Hi Robert, till now I found out that most of Toshiba HDDs are USB-PCB not USB-SATA PCB! Only Seagate and Lacie are USB-SATA PCBs! Any thoughts? What do you think about Seagate and Lacie hdds? Which one is better?
Thank you
Hi Magnificent, I'm sorry but I've got no straight answer for you. BTW LaCie is not a HDD manufacturer. They just buy HDDs and put them into stylish/rugged/expensive cases. So you really never know what HDD you'll find in a LaCie case. Anyway, to form an opinion about HDDs' reliability you have to run at least 10 drives for several years. So all I can say is that several years ago the people I've got that defect WD HDD from, the ones operating 15 external 2.5'' HDDs at once, switched from Seagate to WD, because the Seagate HDDs were dying like flies. However, that was several years ago. As for LaCie cases: I think they are very well made but too expensive for me. See also the video "LaCie External FireWire / USB 2.0 CD (!) Writer Teardown (All the Chips)" th-cam.com/video/QSYjIAEz6pE/w-d-xo.html
@@robertssmorgasbord I found out that samsung sold their HDD branch to Seagate, so, basically these companies WD, Seagate, Lacie etc, sell HDDs to each other, you really don't know if it is a new or old hdd, they renew it and sell it again!! I am switching to Toshiba is a good company! They are reliable, their reputation comes before money!
Thank you for responding!
@@Magnificent1393 Well, I'm kinda Toshiba fanboy anyways :-) And yes, the HDD industry has "consolidated" considerably in the past five to the years. So it basically comes down to Seagate (which now owns Samsung's HDD branch and LaCie), WD (which now owns Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and SanDisk) and Toshiba (which now owns the Fujitsu HDD business).
What kind of screw driver u use at 5:10
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was over two years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@@robertssmorgasbord even with the best Torx bit, you'll need to know if it's metric or not,... either way, they strip out VERY easily and once this happens you'll never get the screws out. It's like WD is "putting the screws" to us.
@@dabneyoffermein595 Uh, I wasn't aware that there are metric and imperial/SAE Torx sizes. I always thought there's only one scale for Torx bits ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx ). Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's not a single hard disk vendor that wants people like us opening their disks 😅
Do you know where I can buy that green thing that you removed after the case ?
Nope, I don't think that's sold as a spare part.
Only by donor drive parts companies; never by the manufacturer. Even then, these Spyglass boards need more than just a new PCB, or even EEPROM migration.
This external HDD works on USB 2.0?
Yes. You might not even notice a significant speed loss compared to USB 3.0 when transferring large data volumes (it's a different story with writing small data volumes that fit into the cache of the WD). USB 2.0 can transfer 60MByte/s, whilst USB 3.0 can transfer a whopping 614MByte/s. However, my internal (!) 6GB 3.5'' 7.200 SATA HDD can continuously transfer just about 100MByte/s, and that external 4TB 2.5'' WD is definitely slower.
What is transfer rate of WD my passport on USB 2.0?
@@syedmoiz7854 Well, I never really measured it, but the other day I was copying a 2GB file from the internal SSD via USB 2.0 to an external 4GB 2.5'' WD and Windows 10 said I was doing about 25MB/s.
Any idea how to get it working if it does not power up ? Thanks
Besides the usual (use another UBS cable and/or port on your computer) not really. There where some discussions further down about repairing that thing, but they all boil down to replacing the board with a new one AND transplanting (soldering) one or two chips from the old board to the new one. If your desperate to get the data from that drive (and I mean sever hundred $ desperate) you can always try a data recovery service.
Is it possible to replace ps4 hdd with this?? Is There any physical size difference between this and 1tb hdd inside ps4 ??
Sorry, can't really help you there. I've no idea what kind of HDD is inside a PS4. My guess is it's not possible, because the HDD inside the PS4 probably uses a SATA interface while the WD is purely USB.
@@robertssmorgasbord Sir, I’m Asking if i tear apart this 4tb hdd then the physical size of 2tb hdd & 4tb hdd will be same or not…i’m asking about their thickness.
@@SidhuLive Well, that teardown was a few years ago and I didn't measure the thickness of the drive back then. The current (naked) 2.5'' 2TB SATA WD drive (WD Blue 2 TB) comes in two versions: one is 7mm and the other 15mm thick. The current (naked) 2.5'' 4TB WD SATA drive (WD Blue 4 TB) is 15mm thick. I have no reason to believe that the drives in WD's external USB cases have another form factor, but I could be wrong.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thank You Very Much Sir.
@@SidhuLive You're welcome!
Do you have a list of the sizes of the screw bits you had to use?
Sorry, it was over a year ago and I don't really remember :-( I think it they were all small size TX (Torx) bits.
Meyer Markers said (see his comment above) it's a T6 Torx you'll need ;-)
3:34 Darn. I was hoping to replace my failing laptop drive with one of my externals. 😂
Nah, WD wants you to pay a premium for the drive being internal ;-)
Thats the reason why I'm avoiding wd external drives
@@hologram94 Yeah, but in my experience external Seagate 2.5'' HDs don't last as long as those of WD. ... between the devil and the deep blue sea :-) What's your experience?
Ok sir
Thanks! - Better late than never ;-)
Hello - Great vid and thanks for your efforts. I dropped a My Passport Essential SE drive with a USB 2.0 port. Drive was off when it hit a hard surface from about 3 feet. It initially worked. I then noted the case was slightly opened by the fall, pressed it closed and VOILA - no more data. The drive powers us, LED illuminates, drive spins and sounds fine. I'd like to at least explore replacing the USB port before trying a professional data recovery service. I assume I want to get a new USB port component verses having someone resolder the old one. Any idea how to order the correct part? Is this likely to be a standard component common to all devices that use USB 2? WD has ntot been particularly helpful with support and I doubt they will sell me one. Thanks in advance.
Before trying any soldering you could just remove the HDD from the plastic case and then experiment with applying a little pressure here and there on the circuit board, or slightly twisting/bending the USB port with the cable in. It's probably just a hair fracture or some soldered pin that came loose. Anyway, I guess to find the right replacement USB connector you'll have to do a visual search on the sites of the big distributors (e.g. www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/usb-dvi-hdmi-connectors/312?s=N4IgjCBcoMwJwCYqgMZQGYEMA2BnApgDQgD2UA2iACxgAcVArBMTfQzCC3Qz59XVQBstPqwZwOXWoIAMAdlF1ZIloNlU4fQXBkwqM0XMF7NAXWIAHAC5QQAZSsAnAJYA7AOYgAvsQC0SaBA0SCcAVyJSChAGEFMvHxAAylDcACMAAhQSV1d8FCsSR1ivIA ). And before replacing the connector you could try to just touch up the solder joints.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thanks Robert. Tried the pressure technique directly on the circuit board and twisting the USB cable without success. I was able to bugy a female USB soldering port so there is that. The existing port looks like it has been connected to some type of support chassis so not sure how difficult it will be to remove and replace it. Possibly, I can get someone to touch up the existing soldering to start. Question - before I go down this road, is it possible for the USB to power the drive correctly and still NOT be able to get data? Or does that point to something else being broken on the drive?
@@JohnAnderson-uh2os You're welcome! Touching up the solder points is probably a good next step. To answer your question: Yes, it's absolutely possible for the drive to power up while not being recognized by the computer. It just means that the USB ground and power pins do have a connection, while there is a problem with the data pins (USB 3 has six of those). I don't want to discourage you, but the problem might not be localized at/around the USB connector. The culprit (hairline fracture or broken solder connection) might be anywhere on the board.
Hi want to know some resistor value near usb port
I'm sorry, I did that teardown over two years ago, so the parts have been long gone into the trash bin. I'll try to think of you and have a look at the resistors near the USB ports should I ever come across another defect 4 TB My Passport.
Good Day Robert!
Great video! Thank you so much for the upload, super informative!. I have the same exact one and I was hoping if you are kind enough to answer a quick question. I dropped it a couple of days ago and now it is not working, the funny thing is that after i dropped it, I immediately plugged it again to see the damage and it worked fine. When I plugged it in a few days later I saw the drive icon in the explorer but without the size bar showing total size and free space. I clicked on it and it said "request failed due to fatal device hardware error". I tried checkdisk but the device is inaccessible and recovery tools but there were too many bad sectors. I saw your video and opened the drive and I tried plugging it in while it was open and it worked for like 2 minutes, enough time for me to confirm that the files were indeed intact but I am getting the same error now. Do you have any advice for me on to how to fix it?
Not really. I'm just taking these things apart, not repairing them. However, from what you describe I would guess that dropping the HDD created a hairline fracture on the controller PCB. So now some traces on that PCB have only intermediate connections. It's a long shot, but you could try to apply a little pressure on the PCB at different points. Maybe this way you can get it operational long enough to get your files off it.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thank you so much Robert. 👍🙌👌
@@MoazzamW You're welcome!
Hi @moazzamW bro I am going through the same situation right now did you find any solution.
@@muhammadraheel4853 I am not sure it will work but this is what I did for me. After a month or two, I installed EaseUS data recovery wizard pro and plugged in the drive. It worked and It was showing in the explorer automatically but i did not explore the drive. I scanned the drive with EaseUS and recovered only the important folders. It worked amazingly well. I hope it works for you too.
Hi! Excellent video. I have a similar disk. I changed the board. And now the disk get detected but I only see a disk called MEDIA with has more de 100 PB (?). macOS says it does not recognize the disk but it can be initiated, windows just fails to get it. Do you think I could recover the data in this drive? Do you know something about this?
Yes, there seems to be a flash/EEPROM chip on the controller board that has to be transplanted from the old to the new board, e.g. th-cam.com/video/J9VLllXV6vE/w-d-xo.html . Anyway, if the data is worth it, I personally would go for a data recovery service. Though, that might set you back a few hundred bucks.
please where did you get your board from?
@@hawwal from a chinese seller on eBay.... the boards are similar, same codes.
@@hawwal There seems to be a wee bit of confusion here. I never got a (new) HDD controller board. I teared down a defective (!) HDD, that of course included a (defective?) controller board. Sorry!
Hi Robert,
I got a broken USB port is there anywhere I can get a replacement PCB or guide me about product description where I can get it from online
I'm sorry, but to the best of my knowledge the controller boards of WD (or any other vendor) disks can't be bought separately anywhere.
@@robertssmorgasbord that's wrong, they CAN be bought at several places, just google the number / string on the board. however, it seems like they are not really compatible as my ordered board (exactly the same) was not working
@@christianhabermann6527 Sorry about the misinformation I gave you there, I really didn't know - my bad. I have to admit I never tried to Google the part numbers, I just searched the sites of my usual distributors. Anyway, I'm even more sorry to hear that the one you've got didn't work 😞
@@christianhabermann6527 He was right, in a way; no hard drive manufacturer would offer the PCBs separately for sale. Those that are sold by data recovery parts companies, come off other hard drives (whether working or dead).
If you have a small enough soldering iron, you might be able to resolder the connector. I would consider that and then copy my files to a different drive. There is no telling how long a fix like that would last. I am usually careful not to bend the USB ports around with any cables plugged into them just because it would lead to having a faulty port.
What kinds of screwdrivers using to remove those board and parts?
According to Meyer Makers (see his comment below from 6 month ago) you'll need T6 Torx (I myself can't really remember - that teardown was one and a half year ago).
@@robertssmorgasbord Tried T6 but unable to remove the PCB board
@@bestenglobal Sorry to hear that, but as I said before, I really can't remember what screwdriver I used :-( But from what I can see in the video it was definitely some Torx.
Thanks for the video. May I know the dimension and shape of the screw driver that you use at 4:36 ?
I'm disassembling my external while watching this video and I'm using 1.3 mm hexagonal screwdriver.
@@redangrybird7564 thanks
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was five years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@@redangrybird7564 Yup! Hex screwdrivers will work, but if you want to go easy on the screws you should use Torx.
@@robertssmorgasbord Thanks
What is the name of green part
Well it goes by PCB (printed circuit board), controller board, circuit board etc.
which one is better, 4TB Seagate Expansion or this 4TB WD External Hard Drive??
Good question! Several years ago I witnessed Seagates dying like flies. Don't know what their quality/lifespan is today. Current WDs last as server backup mediums two to three years. But these things change over time. I myself would go for a Toshiba. But that's only my personal preference.
@@robertssmorgasbord How would you rate a Toshiba 4TB 2.5" MQ04ABB400 internal drive...?
@@elphidieus Well, I guess it's good for storing a lot of data in a very small form factor, but I wouldn't expect any write speed records from it (5.400RPM, shingled recording): toshiba.semicon-storage.com/eu/storage/product/internal-specialty/pc/articles/mq04ab-series.html
Which do you recommend, this wd my passport or the 1tb toshiba canvio basics? TIA🙂
I bought my last external 2.5'' Toshiba HDD in 2012 (it's still working), so I have absolutely no experience with the current models and couldn't possibly give you a well-founded recommendation. But I'm a Toshiba fanboy, so I would go with the Toshiba ;-)
Ruuuuuun from wd my passport it's the worst. Just Google it and see how many people suffer from it "including me". Go to Toshiba.
@@besoart I'm currently also staying away from WD's 2.5'' portable HDDs ;-) But things do change. Several years ago it was the Seagate external 2.5" HDDs that died like flies.
@@robertssmorgasbord I lost my files due to this so I would never trust it again no matter what 🥲
@@besoart I never trust any single HDD. My boot drives are daily backed up to a NAS, and that is backed up nightly to one of two external HDDs. One of those external HDDs is always stored at another location. My bigger data drives are backed up to one of two external HDDs. Again, one always being stored at another location. I'm paranoid like that 😉
Hello sir, I have the same wd external hard drive. If I remove the hard disk (platter), can I still recover the files inside? Badly need your help🙏🏻
I'm afraid once you have removed the platters (or opened the aluminium case) there's no way to recover the data for people like us. You could try to put everything back together and maybe you get lucky (a friend of mine once took a 5 1/4'' drive apart to un-stuck the spindle - and it worked). But normally such procedures are the prerogative of data recovery companies with clean rooms.
@@robertssmorgasbord okay thank you but if the actuator is the problem, is it still repairable?
@@kennethmucho8851 As I said, you can try, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. The smallest spec of dirt or dust within the case can ruin your day. Depending on how important the data is to you, you can also try and sent (the parts) to a data recovery company (you should tell them which platter was at what position in the stack). E.g. www.ontrack.com/en-us
The old WD my passport drives were great - still have mine from 10 years ago. The new My Passports are all rubbish, have the same one as yours in this video, just suddenly failed, all data lost.
Yeah, WD made once great products across the the board (like Seagate). Nowadays you'll have to pay the premium prices for enterprise/server disks if you want real reliability. Unfortunately they don't sell 2.5" USB HDDs to enterprises :-(
What is the thickness of this drive?
Is it 9.5 mm ?
Nah, it was more like 15mm (I don't have the drive anymore, but the plastic enclosure is 21mm and wall thickness plus foam stripes is 3mm each on top and bottom).
Thanks
THANKYOU MAN
You're welcome :-)
its wd blue inside
Indeed it is. And that makes - at least for WD - sense: the blue series is their cheapest offering.
@@robertssmorgasbord Isn't the green series the cheapest? Blue is in the middle before Black
Maybe ... At least here in Germany there are no WD Green HDs available, only WD Green SSDs.
though that model isn't sold as internal drives here www.wd.com/products/internal-storage.html... more like a second rate hdd for occassional backup uses.
I need help with something presided
Sorry, but I don't get it. Presided? Who presided what?
i need bios firmware to saim device
I wasn't even aware that you could flash the firmware of those drives. I thin WD offers firmware for their internal drives only ( support-en.wd.com/app/products/downloads/softwaredownloads ).
Can I install this as an internal drive for my ps4?
It doesn't look like it will fit properly...the pins are different...I have to replace mine as well
Don't know which interface the PS4 uses for its internal drive, but I'm pretty sure it's not USB - so no.
The bios chip broken, and I had to say bye to my easystore, it's a very bad design. It seems no way to repair it without a good bios chip.
Sorry to hear that! And yes, without having a fully equipped HDD recovery lab with lots of spare drives/parts you basically have little to no chance repairing those yourself :-(
this always puts me off WD drives, they don't have an internal sata connector meaning if crap hits the fan chances of hooking it upto a montherboard and getting data back are slim
Indeed! The Seagate drives are just a wee bit larger and they have a tiny SATA to USB adapter board inside. But then, in my experience Seagate 2.5'' USB drives die faster ...
@@robertssmorgasbord what's the name of this connecter? would it be easy to find a sata -> this connector to install this in a desktop PC?
@@alsiniz It's a USB 3.0 connector and I don't know of any adapters to connect a USB 3.0 HDD to SATA port on a mainboard. If your mainboard has internal USB 3.0 ports you might find a combination of cables/adapters for that. But then, you could just plug in the disk into a regular USB 3.0 port at the back of your mainboard and route the cable through some opening/slot into the PC.
very good video tks
You're welcome 🙂
Hallo Robert,
ich nehme an ich habe das selbe Problem wie Akshay Vats. Der USB Anschluss an der Platine ist abgebrochen. Nun habe ich eine neue Platine bestellt (von Ali Express) und sie eingebaut. Der PC kann sie aber nicht erkennen. Man hört das leise Rauschen der Festplatte, also müsste sie ja Strom bekommen. Aber dennoch blinkt/leuchtet sie nicht mehr dauerhaft wie vorher, wenn sie angeschlossen war. Ich bin mega überfordert. Vielleicht hast du einen Tip.
LG
Shabaz
Hallo, ich kann natürlich nichts über die Platinen von Ali Express sagen ... Aber normalerweise muss man den Flash/EEPROM Chip von der alten Platine auf die neue verpflanzen, damit das ganze richtig funktioniert. Siehe auch th-cam.com/video/J9VLllXV6vE/w-d-xo.html .
@@robertssmorgasbord hi Robert,
wie ich rausgefunden habe, muss ein Firmware Transfer vorgenommen werden. Die Festplatte dreht sich zwar aber der PC erkennt sie erst dann wenn die Firmware transferiert wurde. 😐
@@shabazali9631 Ja, die Firmware ist wahrscheinlich in dem Flash/EEPROM Chip von dem ich gesprochen habe. Vielleicht gibt es ja ein Tool dies per Software über die USB Schnittstelle des Boards zu machen - aber ich kenne keines 😞
If I had to guess, you might need the firmware chip from the old board. If you have a hot air gun and tweezers you MIGHT be able to get it off.
@@charleshines1553 You're guessing right. I wrote that to Shabaz Ali in German. It's a delicate operation. While I do some SMD soldering from time to time (hot plate, hot air gun and soldering iron) I wouldn't bet on my ability to transplant that chip.
How can i recover videos on this WD Passport. I have a black one. 4tb
First of all, what's exactly wrong with your drive? Anyway, for recovering (any) data from a defective drive see the thread below from 4 month ago started by Amaan Ali.
@@robertssmorgasbord it fell on concrete floors the light turns on but little motor wont turn on
Im desperate lol
@@darlasolis2456 That doesn't bode well. If the light still turns on, chances are the controller board survived OK but the spindle motor or has been damaged or the spindle itself has been jammed. In that case a professional data recovery service is your last chance (Google for "data recovery service", e.g. www.ontrack.com/ ). They have the right equipment (clean room, spare parts, etc.) to get the platters out of the drive and to put them into a new one. However, these services are not cheap and it's up to you to decide if the videos are worth it.
However, there's still a small chance that only the motor driver on the controller board has been damaged. To find out if that might be the case, just take the drive out of the plastic case (it's broken anyway) and inspect the controller board for damage (e.g. hair fractures) using a magnifying glass or something similar (you don't have to remove the controller board for that). If you find some damage on the controller board follow the aforementioned thread started by Amaan Ali.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Good luck to you!
what kind of mad connector is that??
Are you talking about the USB connector? These were the first generation USB 3.0 mini (or micro?) connectors with additional power lines. Looks like two connectors botched together into one, doesn't it?
@@robertssmorgasbord ah yes, I can see those are actually female port of a micro usb 3.0 connectors that all my 2.5" HDD enclosure has. interesting, so instead of using a SATA to USB adapter, they built the board straight to USB 3.0.
@@mpoerot8013 Exactly! That solution needs less space (no additional SATA to USB converter board needed) and is probably cheaper. Of course there are drawbacks for the user (can't reuse the case with another SATA disk or reuse the disk as SATA drive).
which size screw driver use ...?
T6 Or T8
@@snapshotphoto5935 I can't remember exactly, because it was over 2 years ago, I was changing tool bits quite a lot and mine are pretty worn out. But I think overall I was using mostly TX (TORX) bits sizes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as well as hex bits sizes 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm and 1.5mm.
See my reply below (sorry I can't be more specific).
Ehm, has anybody tried replacing the usb connector? (21:17) My driver probably has this problem ~si ce I got it, but when it was brought to the shop from which I bought it they ~wanted to replace the whole drive, meaning I'd ~lose the data it had. Instead, I was given a bigger/better cable that ~prevents the driver from disconnecting. Though the years passed, (the warranty may be over), I ~don't have any drive to back up this one and give to the shop for "repair" (swap), if the warranty isn't over yet, so I'm thinking about changing the connector.
Hmm, well, this vid encouraged me to open the drive and I pressed the port "slightly" from various directions. It seems to be working better🤔.
A damaged USB connector is always a possibility ... maybe you're lucky and it's really just the connector. It's certainly worth a try!
@@robertssmorgasbord (haha, that was quick) I think the connector is problematic, because pressing the cable towards a ~certain angle (when connected to the driver) the hdd turns on and ~starts working normally. I recently got a cheap reflow station (air soldering gun) and waiting for some extra parts to arrive to fix a phone of mine. I might try to fix this too.
Btw: Merry Christmas and a happy new year!😂😂
@@georgevavouras Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too! It really sounds like some contact within the USB connector is bend. However, another possibility is that a pin of the connector on a PCB pad came loose. Maybe you wanna check that before replacing the connector.
@@robertssmorgasbord thanks, hm, I'll have it in mind if I decide to fix it. After the quick dissasembly/reassembly it worked ~flawlessly (tried it only ~2 times though), so I'm not very willing to fix it. Probably the first thing I'll do is to just heat up the pins with the reflow/air soldering gun, to do some "reflow". If that doesn't work I might order a new connector (if it will be available till then..). Again, thanks for the interest!!!
(Btw, I think I had watched that video in the past, about 3 years ago when I got the drive.😂😂)
Look like it’s way too thick to fit on a laptop as an internal hard drive.
Yeah, there might be some laptops - more like mobile workstations - out there that have enough height for such a drive, but the majority won't be able to take it.
@@robertssmorgasbord How can you use it as internal if it doesn't have SATA connector ?
@@omarabudayyeh2785 Well, you can't. But WD is also selling "naked" HDs which are basically the same as the one I teared down, but with a SATA interface.
Hi, what screwdriver use for pcb? Thanks
Sorry, can't really remember. But I think it was some small size TX (Torx) bit.
Can you recover your information ?
For data recovery see the links in the description. I have not tried it myself. That was just a backup disk, so there was no data lost when it went tits-up.
@@robertssmorgasbord Sorry but what link?
"WD My Book Data Recovery | Slow Responding Fix & Encrypted Data": th-cam.com/video/I7MzgdRT6HQ/w-d-xo.html
Hello .. My light doesn't come on at all anymore ... Is there another way to connect to the hard drive if the USB isn't working anymore?
The only way I see that might work is replacing the controller with one from another drive of the same type. But even that might not work (e.g. controller is storing the bad sector list in flash memory).
Did you find any solution?
well hehe, fuck me. I thought I'd buy one n replace it in my laptop hey I'd have a 4tb in my laptop just for 100$ now I'm fucked but I haven't bought one yet thanks to you n your video peace.
hey, why is the magnet so powerful in the hard drives?
You're welcome ;-)
The magnets are that powerful, because the coil needs to be very small and light (a large coil / weak magnet would produce the same forces as a small coil / strong magnet). And the coil needs not be very small and light because it's part of the head assembly, which needs to move very fast.
what kind of screw heads are those? those are completely round and I have no screw driver right for the job !!!!😮💨
Sorry, but I really can't remember - that teardown was almost four years ago. But according to the comment thread started by michael jhon you'll need a T6 Torx bit. I'd try hex bits if you don't have access to the suitable Torx bits (note that this will ruin the screws).
@@robertssmorgasbord thanks, tried T5 torx and worked.
the board is fried, so I am screwed, no pun intended 😭
these wd drive so unreliable, bought 3, all dead after 3 years
@@youxxxxx Well, yours lasted at least 3 years. I know a shop where these things last a year or two at most (each drive worked hard once a week for server backup). Miniaturization (smaller drives, higher capacity) simply doesn't lend itself to reliability. I have four 3.5'' 1 TB drives in my NAS and they are running 24/7 for almost 10 years now without any problems.
my 4t wd has hitten by my baby son :)
it makes noise (the motor start then stop the start and so on)
My windows can read that there is a hard drive but no partition and when I try to initialize from storage give me this message (the request field due to a fatal device hardware error).
the data is not important, I just don't want to buy a new one :)
thanks in a advance
Well, I'd like to help, but what exactly is your question? How to repair the drive? For replacing the controller board see the thread started by Amaan Ali a year ago. Here are the relevant links: www.hddzone.com/western_digital_pcb_swap_replacement_guide.html , th-cam.com/video/mGwD84flFpU/w-d-xo.html
@@robertssmorgasbord I need to fix it, do you think that he needs only change the PCB or something else
@@daizahran If the error is really with the PCB, just exchanging it won't do it. You'll have to transplant one or two chips from the defect board to the new board (see the links I've provided above). Will that solve the problem? I don't know. It's also possible that there's some mechanical damage inside the drive. Maybe you should consider using a professional data recovery service, like OnTrack.