WD Board Swap Question

[LarrySabo]

I believe you put U12 from the clone (SATA) PCB onto the patient (USB) PCB and then recover the decrypted data from the USB patient.

 

[Jared]

You have to be sure the board you are writing to has the correct ROM size (256kb, 512kb) as they do vary. If the donor board has a larger size you can still often use it, but you'll have to enter boot ROM code mode to do it. If the donor is smaller, it won't work.

If its the same size then you should be able to write it while the donor board is on its original HDA.

As for decrypting without DE, you can use a My Book bridge, you just have to match the encryption chip from the USB PCB. If you can read the number we can probably point you in the right direction. Also you have to be sure to image the end of the drive as that's where it stores the encryption key.

 

[Jared]

I believe you put U12 from the clone (SATA) PCB onto the patient (USB) PCB and then recover the decrypted data from the USB patient.

His original PCB didn't have a U12, that's where the difficulty started.

 

[LarrySabo]

I believe you put U12 from the clone (SATA) PCB onto the patient (USB) PCB and then recover the decrypted data from the USB patient.

His original PCB didn't have a U12, that's where the difficulty started.

Ah, okay. So I guess he has to update its ROM (masked on MCU) with the clone's ROM, mount the USB PCB on the clone and extract the data. I don't have a PC3K so am not of any help with doing that. On the DFL-WD it would be easy enough (although I confess to never having done it myself).

 

[EADR]

Polish up your De-soldering / soldering techniques..... saves a whole lot of time.... Unless the ROM is in the MCU that is.

Removing and replacing a ROM chip to a donor PCB <3mins (with practice)...

 

[LarrySabo]

Polish up your De-soldering / soldering techniques..... saves a whole lot of time.... Unless the ROM is in the MCU that is.

Removing and replacing a ROM chip to a donor PCB <3mins (with practice)...

As Jared pointed out, the patient doesn't have a separate ROM chip; it's embeded on the MCU.

 

[ScotchBroth]

Alright Everyone

I wrote the Patient ROM onto the donor board while it was attached to the donor. Turned off the donor, swapped the boards, so now the donor SATA board is on the patient drive.

That drive now detects as a hubble family drive (same as the donor) and it wants to open the utility in kernal mode. I also am getting this error:

HDDs RAM reading error - Device Error Detected: "VSCE PERM OVL NOT LOADED. LDR Upload is recomended"

And when I try to force it into normal mode I get the above error and this error:

SA dir reading (ABA/CHS)................ : Module reading error: ABA 430449 reading error Physical read error C/H/S: -131/1/78 Device Error Detected: "VSCE KEY SECTOR MUST PRECEED DATA XFER REQUEST"

I got a similar error to that second error when I was backing up the resources of the Donor board so I'm starting to suspect that I need a new donor board.


Any thoughts?


I have about a dozen WD USB bridges saved up with initio and symwave chips on them. I'll need to compare to see if I have a match.

And as a side note I'm actually pretty good at soldering, my joints look almost as good as factory ones, just not as shiny.. Took me forever and many practice boards to get good at it.

 

[Jared]

What sounds are coming from the drive? Clicking and spinning down, or sounds normal?

 

[ScotchBroth]

4 to 6 clicks. Then a spin down.

 

[ScotchBroth]

If it helps, this is the error I get when I tried to back up the resources when the donor board was on the donor drive:

Physical read error C/H/S: 98/0/50 Device Error Detected: "VSCE KEY SECTOR MUST PRECEED DATA XFER REQUEST"

Which is why I suspect the donor board is an issue.