Water-Damaged WD MyBook Studio Edition II Quad Interface 6TB

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Hello, this is my 1st post and the reason why I joined. I have a water-damaged hard drive 6TB that had water on-or-in it for 1 day and then I dried it out. I see no water corrosion damage anywhere on the drive itself or the internal control board in the chassis or housing.

This hard drive would not power up when plugged into a 15″ MacBook Pro but it did when plug into a 27″ iMac using the same stock AC adapter. The power status with the 27″ iMac has the front light blinking but no spinning of the platters.

I read that it could be a problem with the control board in the housing unit and to use a SATA-USB connector straight into the computer which I’ve done to no avail. I’ve tried this 3.3V pin tape-hack explained in Step 14 here –

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Shuck+a+WD+Elements+External+Hard+Drive/137646

…and still nothing on both drives. I don’t know what else I can do which is why I’m asking you. Some extra links to the exact model I have with the online manual and attached photos. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you.

Online Manual – https://www.manua.ls/western-digital/my-book-studio-ii/manual

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/western-digital-my-book-studio-edition-2-review/

https://www.anandtech.com/show/4759/western-digital-my-book-studio-edition-ii-6tb-review

https://www.storagereview.com/review/6tb-western-digital-my-book-studio-edition-ii-review-wdh2q60000

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Not spinning is probably electronics failure due to the water. The mechanical drive should be OK because they are sealed.

If you really need to get the data off you will probably have to pay, otherwise it’s replacement time.

cheers, Paul

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SennaSempre

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could any water get inside the drive through the breather ports? how sealed up are these drives? I’m hoping that the platter is untouched and pristine, but how can I get power back into this thing to turn it on?

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The platter is sealed, as are the motor and heads. If the plater was not sealed there would be a possibility of dust getting in and then it would not be a data storage device anymore.

Powering it up may cause damage to the motor / heads if the electronics have failed catastrophically (short circuit).

I would send it to the professionals if I needed the data.

cheers, Paul

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SennaSempre

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The part number on the PCB in the picture you posted of the actual drive isn’t completely clear, but it “appears” to start with 2060- and end with -004 so…

Here’s a video explaining how to repair your specific WD30EZRX HDD by replacing the PCB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOlQo6Do5uw

And you’ll probably need this $28 replacement PCB from hddzone.com.

WD30EZRX WD PCB 2060-771698-004 REV A / P1 / P2

I’d suggest contacting them to see if you can send them the defective PCB and have them move the BIOS chip to the new PCB for a reasonable price.

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SennaSempre

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okay n0ads, I think you gave me some good information here so many thanks for this… yes the number is 2060-771698-004 and upon closer inspection I see that one of these PCB’s has a darker discoloration on some of the metal mounting points on the PCB. I took side-by-side pics of them here –

So I’m guessing that one of these boards had the water affect it more than the other and maybe has shorted out causing this darker burn-looking discoloration, I don’t know, just speculating.

But since this is RAID 0 then I would have to replace this 1 board and reinstall it back into the original chassis and hope it starts up because I won’t be able to get the to spin individually because of the RAID 0 configuration.

And about replacing the BIOS chip as explained in your video… I don’t know if it is just a clamp or if that chip is soldered because then I would have to bring the old and new PCB to a shop just to do that. Am I correct in any of this perhaps?

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SennaSempre wrote:

So I’m guessing that one of these boards had the water affect it more than the other and maybe has shorted out causing this darker burn-looking discoloration, I don’t know, just speculating.

It definitively looks like that area experienced some overheating but the only way to really tell how much damage was done would be to remove the board and inspect the other side. If you have a set of Torx T6 or T8 drivers for the 4 star-shaped screws, that’s easily done.

SennaSempre wrote:

And about replacing the BIOS chip as explained in your video… I don’t know if it is just a clamp or if that chip is soldered because then I would have to bring the old and new PCB to a shop just to do that. Am I correct in any of this perhaps?

It’s soldiered onto the PCB board so, unless you have good soldering skills and the proper soldering equipment, you’ll have to have someone do it for you.

The hddzone site has a section detailing how to swap the BIOS chip (which “seems” to indicate they have the equipment and expertise to do it) so, as I suggested above, you should contact them (hddzone support) and see if you can send them the old PCB and have them swap the BIOS chip onto a replacement PCB for you?

If they don’t, hdd-parts.com sells the same 2060-771698-004 Rev A PCB board you need for $49.99 that includes a free BIOS swap (you ship them the old PCB, they swap the BIOS onto the replacement PCB, and then ship it to you.)

BTW, it’s critically important to swap the BIOS chip because it contains unique firmware keys (burned into the chip during manufacturing) needed to access the data on the HDD. Without those keys, a replacement board (even an absolutely identical one) won’t be able to access the data on the drive!

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SennaSempre

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The more I read about this problem, the more I’m thinking (and hoping) that it is just the PCB that is the stumbling block here. I think I have the Torx screwdrivers, I’ll send pics if I can take it off to see the other side.

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RAID 0 will probably stymie your efforts because it splits the data across both drives and needs both connected to a MyBook before the data can be recovered.

cheers, Paul

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SennaSempre

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So I have taken the PCB off the drive casing and the other side looks good besides in 1 spot which I have circled. Not sure what those metal contacts are for?, but they are the only area that looks darkened or burnt or corroded besides the screw mounts.

The other dark areas you may see in the pic aren’t actually there its only the shadow from a desk lamp to my top right. When I hit it with my flashlight they aren’t there. Nothing is wet, but I’m thinking of soft cleaning the darkened metal areas with a new toothbrush and 90% isopropyl alcohol if that may do something. Or maybe the whole board as a 2nd attempt if it doesn’t work.

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SennaSempre wrote:

the other side looks good besides in 1 spot which I have circled. Not sure what those metal contacts are for?

Those contacts connect the board to the drive. It looks like bad stuff has happened there so the drive mechanics may not be well.

cheers, Paul

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SennaSempre

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As @Paul T pointed out, when flipped over, those contact points meet the drive control plug like this.

They pass the electrical signals back and forth to the internal drive mechanism that positions the heads on the platters and reads/writes the data.

While it’s a very bad thing that they look burnt, it’s also possible it’s simply contamination from the water.

As you suggested, as long as there’s no damage to the other electronic components on the PCB, cleaning them with 90% isopropyl alcohol “might” restore the drive.

However, rather than using a toothbrush, I’d suggest a lint free cloth or a Q-tip (there’ll be less “splashing around” of the alcohol) and also clean the ends of the contact points at the plug on the actual drive housing.

And, even though they don’t appear to have any residue on them, cleaning the contact points for the drive motor as well wouldn’t hurt.

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SennaSempre

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@SennaSempre
An old trick I’ve succesfully used to revive electronic appliances/ devices with stained PCB contacts is to use an eraser to LIGHTLY rub the surface stained gold plated contacts/ pads until shiny before applying isopropanol alcohol on a lint-free wipe to clean off residues on pads and contact pins.
I usually wrap the lint-free cloth around a cotton bud for ease of cleansing.

NOTE: Make sure the eraser is not the end of pencil type, those are too abrasive and can scratch the gold contacts.
White poly-rubber erasers are the ones to use to achieve a clean contact without scratching.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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SennaSempre

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If I bought a SATA Hot-Swap Docking Station (if they come set up for RAID 0 drives, I don’t know?) would the drives sync up and work or would they not because the RAID configuration may be stored in the PCB of the old housing – the WD MyBook Studio Edition II housing that it came with?

Also if I bought a new-used My Book Studio Edition II only to use the housing and pull out the new drives and replace them with my old drives…

I was told that I don’t want to install them into another My Book Studio Edition II chassis only for the new housing PCB to detect that there was a change of drives and that new housing PCB will “helpfully” wipe the partition information so I can use them as empties, loosing all of my data.

Would either or both of these 2 statements be true? Anyone have any experience with these particular RAID 0 setup WD Green Caviar drives?

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That is the $64000 question.
If the disks are OK (your description suggests they aren’t) and you put them in a new housing, they may work, or they may not.

Good luck!

cheers, Paul

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Never used a RAID setup so can’t answer your questions about it but as @Paul T pointed out, unless both drivers are “known to be good“, putting them into a different RAID housing isn’t going to help.

To check if either of the drives is still functional, use a standalone SATA to USB adapter like this one available from Amazon for $11.

If it’s still good, you’ll feel the drive “spin up” and the PC should recognized an external drive has been attached.

Unfortunately, since they were being used as RAID drives, you won’t be able to actually access the data on them without some special S/W (see Reading contents of a drive pulled from RAID for suggestions.)

BTW, you stated in your initial post:

SennaSempre wrote:

I read that it could be a problem with the control board in the housing unit and to use a SATA-USB connector straight into the computer which I’ve done to no avail.

You didn’t go into detail on exactly what happened when you did this but, if the adapter you used was similar to the one pictured above and one/both of the drives didn’t “spin up”, then one/both are dead and likely need new PCB’s to get them working again before you go any further.

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After reading alot of stuff and watching lots of YouTube videos these past few days, I’m thinking that this is a burnt out voltage diode on the either the PCB attached to the external drive casing or the PCB in the housing enclosure itself or both because this was a water-damaged short somewhere on the logic board. My 2 possible approaches here are…

1) buy another exact sister model; housing, drives the whole package, and swap the BIOS ROM chips from the old PCB’s on the drive casings to the new drives’ PCB’s and mount those new boards onto the old recovery drives. BUT will that work or do I have to do the same swap with the RAID Controller chip on the PCB in the housing enclosure from the old PCB to the new PCB as well?

2) or still do as I explained above but use an aftermarket dual SATA RAID docking station. BUT will that work or do I have to have the WD RAID Controller from the PCB in the housing enclosure for the 2 drives (was set up as RAID 0 by default) to co-mingle with each other to access the data? If it doesn’t work then I am forced to do the 1st scenario just to use the WD housing and it’s PCB.

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Send them to a data recovery specialist (and take out a loan to pay for it). You won’t be charged if they can’t get the data back.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

Send them to a data recovery specialist (and take out a loan to pay for it). You won’t be charged if they can’t get the data back.

cheers, Paul

I don’t have a spare $1 or $2 or $3k large to drop on a professional data recovery shop, I don’t have that kind of money. So if I can troubleshoot it myself and figure it out maybe I can either fix it myself or pars out parts to regular computer shop to do a simple BIOS chip swap and that could possibly fix it. I won’t know that unless I try it.

The last thing that I would want to do is send off both drives to a specialist data shop whereby all they do is the same exact thing as said above, just changing a PCB board yet telling me that they need to do an arm-head replacement and charge me $2 grand for it while they won’t even do that task anyways.

I’m sure there has been many situations like that; a shop lying to its customer saying they need to do all this extra work just to run up the bill like an auto mechanic or carpenter would. It’s a business after all, I can’t be naive about their possible honesty or not.

Therefore I have to expend all possible scenarios myself with the PCB’s and a small local repair shop before even considering to drop the many thou for what I would know at that point would definitely be needed once all the PCB possibilities have been tried and checked off the list.

I hope that makes tremendous sense? Who wants to pay a pro data recovery shop $3,000 to just replace a BIOS chip on a PCB right.

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SennaSempre wrote:

to just replace a BIOS chip on a PCB

And get a new RAID controller, and there is no damage to the data on disk, and hope both drives are OK…

cheers, Paul

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I have been watching YouTube videos comparing the DD Command and DMDE since its a good way to get a visual on their completed steps before I start and come to those steps.

Both approaches seem quite easy to do even for a novice like myself but the DMDE GUI does make things more simplified and explanatory. It’s actually quite a powerful program.

Right now I’m testing out these 2 approaches using smaller, mostly empty other SSD’s before I start my real recovery. I’m using 2 SSD 480 GB for this bench test.

I also have re-purchased the exact same model WD MyBook Studio II but with 4 TB in size (mine is 6 TB) and that is still in RAID 0 by default. (Could be used for PCB swap and BIOS ROM soldering swap if I need to)

Testing SSD source drive holds only an OSX op system at 18 GB and no other personal files. SSD destination drive is empty, and the write speed is 1% per minute so it’s going to take 1 hr and 30 min to complete.

When creating a disk image or cloning it, both DD Command and DMDE wants to use the whole destination disk space. (Side Note: my recovery 6 TB RAID 0 drives have 3 to 4 TB of used data on them)

My question is: the full 3 TB Disk 1 recovery drive will be cloned to the new 4 TB Raid 0 enclosure. Then how will I be able to clone the 2nd 3 TB Disk 2 recovery drive without overwriting the first 3 TB Disk 1 recovery drive as the disk image/clone method wants to use the whole destination disk?

And if I split the new WD MyBook into 2 partitions (to not overwrite the 2nd disk image over the 1st one) then how would I be able to link up those 2 partitions in RAID 0 if it’s no longer 1 drive and now 2 separate drives?

Update: I just completed a test run on the 2 SSD 500 GB’s and it took 2 full hours to copy sectors to the destination drive which shows nothing copied, no change in disk info or in disk utility, how can that be?

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For the record, RAID 0 is bad m’kay. If you lose one disk you lose everything. This is the same as only having one disk in your NAS.
You must make regular backups of the data on a RAID 0 array to protect against data loss from drive failure.
If you need more capacity than one disk provides, you need at least 3 disks in a RAID 5 or similar arrangement.

SennaSempre wrote:

it took 2 full hours to copy sectors to the destination drive which shows nothing copied

Because there is no data to copy?
Because the software you are using doesn’t work for those disks?
Have you tried a straight copy instead of a clone?

cheers, Paul

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I didn’t even know what RAID #’s were until I’m knee deep in it already. WD set up their dual drives in RAID 0 by default for a higher price point saying it’s double the storage. I think its terrible that they do this. I would never use any RAID #’s if I’ve known.

The source drive had 18 GB’s to copy, I was using DMDE software which should work. I can’t straight copy because the damaged disks show zero info, the files are unreadable because its RAID 0 being hooked up individually through a 12v SATA USB.

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Copying a RAID 0 disk will result in no data because the RAID format is not recognised, even though there is data.
Without the matching RAID disk connected to the correct RAID controller you will never be able to see your data.

cheers, Paul

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