Chosen Solution
Hello there, I have one problem actually and need help or advise for 2 specific questions. Basically I have a Western Digital Essentials external USB HD with important data on it and a the mini USB connector de-soldered. Not very good to use! I have opened the devise to figure out what can be done to save the data and eventually fix it. I have discovered inside a regular SATA WD Green Caviar hard drive. My first idea was to connect the hard drive directly to my desktop computer through a SATA connector. The HD is well recognized at the boot up but it does not mount in windows. I have tried with Linux distro live CD but it is the save, the data are not recognized. I have made some research on the web about a potential data recovery software but nothing specific. I had a look at the logic board and found a strange chip with the following references “Initio INIC-1607E”. After a few research I have found that this is the USB/SATA bridge controller but with a AES 256 bit encryption ! :D I have also read that the encryption key vary for each device so that even if I found a similar model, it would be useless to swap the logic board. I think I can give up in trying to access the data directly? Any idea guys? Well, so I’m now looking at a repair for the de-soldered USB connector. I’m lucky the logic board is not damaged and nor the connector. Here I have 5*0.32mm pins to solder on the logic board and there is only 0,8 mm step between each of them. I have never done something like that before ! Do you think this can be done manually with a regular iron ? I think I can manage to found a 0,4 mm pan, do you think it can be small enough? If you have any advice or standard practice for me on how to do with this kind of work, you are very welcome? Anyway, I’m gonna have to be sober before to start, I stop drinking now !!! Thank you
Hello, I’m happy to say that I have been able to backup all my data with a temporary repair. It consists in: Disassembly of the HDTemporary repair for the USB connectorBacking up all dataInstalling the HD in a new case All my data are now safe into the same HD but installed into a new standard external USB case. I came across a lot of topics in my research from people in the same situation. It looks like this HD model have an easy to broke USB connector and always unable to access the data directly. I will write a guide with the temporary repair I have used pretty soon. I have made some pictures all the long! I will never buy again such external HD all built-in and I will never recommend WD external models from now. I think the best is really to buy a standard external USB empty case and to put whatever HB inside. Thank you for your help.
There is one other way here: Instead of repairing the USB. You can take the HD out of the case and install it into a new case. A side benefit here is you could get a USB 3.0 case in case you have a newer system that supports the faster connection.
you can take the hard drive out and buy usb adapter and connect to your computer and make copy for your data
Good afternoon, Gaetan. I have a Nexus 5 d821. I had a problem with the battery (does not hold a charge). Read your replacement battery guide. It seems everything is clearly painted, but I feel that I myself can not handle the replacement of the battery. Is there an opportunity to ask you to change the battery on my device?
