Data Recovery Blog

WD Drive Data Recovery
If the drive is spinning and shows up in Disk Management (Windows), or Disk Utilities (Mac), but you can’t access it, then the drive’s partition table may be damaged or corrupted. It may be possible to still extract the data utilizing data recovery software. Western Digital does not provide data recovery software, however, there are several kinds on the Market. If you do a web search for Data Recovery it will yield plenty of data recovery software options.

If the drive does not show up in Disk Management (Windows), or Disk Utilities (Mac), and you have tried all the troubleshooting options relevant to your drive, then your drive has most likely failed and you will need to contact a data recovery company to retrieve your data.

Western Digital does not provide data recovery services. However, They have a list of recommended preferred data recovery partners that you can use for data recovery services.

WD Drive Circuit Board
Western Digital does not sell or replace circuit boards for our hard drives nor are we aware of any other companies that sell them. Replacing the circuit board on a hard drive is not a recommended method for recovering data or drive functions as this will void the warranty on the hard drive. For every hard drive model that Western Digital manufacturers, there are many firmware changes that would make it very difficult to find a circuit board with the same firmware of the defective drive. If you attempt to install a circuit board with a different firmware than the original, this may damage the hard drive further. HDDZone.com is a recommended shop which can helps to find a matching western digital pcb for your dead drive.

WD Drive Repair
Western Digital does not repair or recommend repair services for our drives. Any repair services performed on a WD drive will void the warranty. If your drive is under warranty, please see How can I replace a product under warranty?

Computer FAQs

Windows 7 – Why do I get “General Failure” when pinging host name on a Win 7 node on the network?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM4 years ago02 mins

This is a very peculiar problem with a station on our network. The client pc is running Windows 7 Pro. What makes this problem interesting is that this client is the only node on the network that seems to be experiencing this proglem. When I try to ping a specific Win 08 server by host…

Data Recovery Cases

SQLserver database files are completely deleted

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM3 years ago01 mins

Case:User financial management software database was deleted and new data was covered Solution:The customer sent 3 hard disks equipped with a financial system. The previous database had been deleted, and then the new data was written. According to the engineer’s judgment on the bottom, according to the characteristic code comparison provided by the customer, the…

Hard Disk PCB Boards

WD 2060-800055-002 PCB FAQs and Solutions

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM4 years ago4 years ago02 mins

We first look at the following two pictures. Picture 1 is the “BIOS CHIP” of the circuit board. When we replace the PCB, we need to swap the “BIOS CHIP” with your original PCB. Picture 2 shows the “Board Number” of the board, and the “Board Number” must be the same! FAQs of 2060-800055-002 PCB…

Data Storage

RAID Array & Server Glossary of Computer Terms (Letter J)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM17 years ago13 years ago01 mins

JBOD
Just A Bunch of Disks (Drives), a number of disk drives, usually in an enclosure. JBOD implies that the disks do not use RAID technology and function independently. All Mylex RAID controllers support JBOD mode.

Data Recovery Cases

Maxtor hard drive massive bad sector data recovery case

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM3 years ago02 mins

Case:Today, the customer took a Maotuo hard disk for data recovery. It reflected that the machine was crashing suddenly in the picture, and the system could not enter. Solution:So on the PC3000 in 2000 D system, open the second item in the first item, and connect this hard disk to the system through the card….

Data Recovery

Fujitsu hard drive open data recovery successful MHZ2320BH

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM3 years ago3 years ago01 mins

Case:Customers described the Lenovo laptop by accidentally being touched during the use of the computer, and the computer was black immediately.Customers immediately forced shutdown.Try to boot again.The laptop has a “bump”” abnormal noise. Solution:After the engineer tested the damage to the hard disk magnetic head

Data Storage

Recommended Western Digital External Hard Drives

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago2 years ago13 mins

The main purposes we need an external hard drive:

Expand your computer’s storage capacity;
Backup your data and share data between computers;
Easy to use. Most of the time, you just need to plug it into the computer and use it as an internal hard drive.

Desktop external hard drives are based on the 3.5-inch internal hard drives and laptop (or portable) external hard drives that are based on the 2.5-inch internal hard drives. Generally, external hard drives are connected to a computer using collectively these types of connections: USB 3.0, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA.

Here’s the list of our current favorites.

Western Digital WD Elements 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
Original Price: $99.99
Price: $59.99 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBAAR3200ABK

Western Digital WD Elements 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
Original Price: $129.99
Price: $74.99 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBAAR5000ABK

Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Original Price: $129.99
Price: $74.99 on Amazon.com
Free Standard Shipping
Model: WDBAAU0010HBK

Western Digital WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Original Price: $169.99
Price: $106.49 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBAAU0015HBK

Western Digital WD Elements 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Original Price: $229.99
Price: $129.99 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBAAU0020HBK

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
Original Price: $199.99
Price: $139.99 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBABM0010BBK

Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive
Original Price: $127.60
Price: $119.00 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBABT0010HBK

Western Digital My DVR Expander 1 TB eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive
Original Price: $159.99
Price: $119.00 on Amazon.com
Model: WDG1S10000VN

Western Digital Elements SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
Original Price: $149.99
Price: $119.99 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBABV0010BBK

Western Digital My Book for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Original Price: $129.99
Price: $99.00 on Amazon.com
Model: WDBAAG0010HCH

See my another post: USB 2.0, USB 3.0, or FireWire – What is the recommended solution for data storage.

Data Recovery Cases

Western Digital mobile hard disk opening data recovery is successful

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM2 years ago01 mins

Case:The customer’s Western Digital Mobile hard disk has been used for more than two years. After a few months, it was not used. Today, I could n’t identify it with the computer that the computer was found to be able to reconcile. The photos needed to restore the photos. Solution:The hard disk is the original…

Data Recovery

Data Loss

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago13 years ago03 mins

Data loss is one of Information Technology industry’s most misunderstood concepts. Very little information has been made public about data loss, and the information that does exist is inconsistent. Due to the mixed messages they receive, users find it difficult to properly evaluate their data loss situations and make educated decisions to recover from them.

Most lost data is not lost at all; it has simply become inaccessible to the user. Hundreds of thousands of gigabytes (GB) of data have been lost simply because users were not aware of their options and gave up hope of recovery.

How does a hard disk drive store data?

Hard disk drives store data on one or more metal oxide platters. These platters, which spin at a rate of 3600-10,000 revolutions per minute, hold magnetic charges. A read-write head attached to an actuator arm actually floats on a cushion of air, 1-2 micro-inches (one millionth of an inch) above the surface of the platters. Data flows to and from these heads via electrical connections. Any force that alters this process may cause data loss to occur.

More data is being stored in smaller spaces. Ten years ago hard drives stored 40 Megabytes (MB) of data. Today’s hard drives store up to 80 gigabytes (GB) on a smaller surface than the drives of a decade ago. Increasing storage capacities amplify the impact of data loss. As more and more data is stored in smaller and denser areas, mechanical precision becomes crucial.

As a part of this advancing technology, the drive tolerance (distance between the read-write head and the platter where data is stored) is steadily decreasing. A slight nudge, a power surge or a contaminant introduced into the drive may cause the head to touch the platter, resulting in a head crash. In some situations, the data residing in the area touched by the head may be permanently destroyed.

The current tolerance drives is 1-2 micro-inches (millionths of an inch). Comparatively, a speck of dust is 4-8 micro-inches and human hair 10 micro-inches. Contaminants of this size can cause serious data damage.