How to use dd to backup "WD My Passport" on Ubuntu

Question

My "WD My Passport" has problem when connecting to Windows 10, it may have hardware error.

I have set a password for the "WD My Passport" with WD Security long time ago.

Windows now shows "Application not found" when clicking on the "CD Driver". And I can't access to the data from Windows.

So, I connected it to the Ubuntu on a VMWare guest VM.

I want to copy the disk by using the "dd" command, but I don't know how to do to save the data.

Here is the command output when connected the "WD My Passport" in Ubuntu:

root@test:~# dmesg | grep scsi

[  266.788510] scsi host33: usb-storage 4-1:1.0
[  267.933695] scsi 33:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 0740 1025 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[  267.936791] scsi 33:0:0:1: CD-ROM            WD       Virtual CD 0740  1025 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[  267.944150] scsi 33:0:0:2: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1025 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[  267.947433] sd 33:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

root@test:~# dmesg | grep sd

[  267.947433] sd 33:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[  267.955826] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] Unit Not Ready
[  267.955830] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] 
[  267.955831] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: Internal target failure
[  467.968335] sd 33:0:0:0: tag#0 timing out command, waited 180s
[  666.116670]  scsi_sysfs_add_sdev+0x94/0x2a0
[  667.974105] sd 33:0:0:0: tag#0 timing out command, waited 180s
[  867.981689] sd 33:0:0:0: tag#0 timing out command, waited 180s
[  867.981788] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  867.981794] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] 
[  867.981801] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81 
[  867.981809] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
[  867.981812] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] 0-byte physical blocks
[ 1067.982934] sd 33:0:0:0: tag#0 timing out command, waited 180s
[ 1067.982972] sd 33:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
root@test:~# 

root@test:~# ls -alith /dev | grep sdb
  786 brw-rw----   1 root   disk      8,  16 Sep 17 19:25 sdb
  
root@test:~# ls -alith /dev | grep sg2
  782 crw-rw----   1 root   disk     21,   2 Sep 17 19:10 sg2
  
root@test:~# ls -alith /dev | grep sr1
  787 brw-rw----+  1 root   cdrom    11,   1 Sep 17 19:25 sr1

From the above output, there are two disks "sdb" and "sg2" and one cdrom "sr1" related to the "WD My Passport".

What should I do with dd for backing up the whole usb disk? Please help.

Linux cannot detect the drive's capacity. Honestly, it's not looking good. You may have to rely on professional rescue services. Any encryption further complicates things. — Daniel B, Sep 17 '22 at 16:45
I don't understand what are the sdb and sg2 in the above output. I want to try copy but I don't know which to copy. — stackbiz, Sep 17 '22 at 16:56
Point is: there is nothing to copy. The drive is dead, at least over USB. — Daniel B, Sep 17 '22 at 18:08
The df can't list the mentioned sdb device. Only list other non WD devices. — stackbiz, Sep 18 '22 at 09:18

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 17 '22 at 17:29

If it's a 3.5" drive, you can disassemble the enclosure and find a regular(-ish) SATA drive inside. "-ish", because some won't power on without putting some tape over pin 3 of the SATA power plug.

With 2.5" drives it won't work. WD have been using native USB drives for a couple years now - there's no SATA connector inside. You could reverse engineer the circuitry and solder to SATA pins on the board, but it's way too advanced for most users.

The really hard part is getting something useful from the image. You would need a tool that can decrypt or mount these. Hopefully your password is the whole secret, because if the controller has an additional individual key inside, neither imaging nor even a circuitry transplant will help much.

Thank you. It's 2.5" usb drive. I have a question, when reading this line: `Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK`, it says both the `hostbyte` and `driverbyte` are OK, does it mean this situation is not so bad? — stackbiz, Sep 18 '22 at 09:17

How to use dd to backup "WD My Passport" on Ubuntu

1 Answers1

Linked