Problem with WD Marvel Demo

[Severence]

I can't seem to enable PIO mode, as the option is grayed out. i think this is a limitation of the demo version as i am set using IDE mode in bios and not AHCI or other.

I took captures of requested below, but as you said most presented an error. i should note though that i did have some S/A module files which are backed up prior - although i wouldn't be able to tell if theyr'e complete/good etc.

trying to check smart presents "Error working with S.M.A.R.T."

And yeah, the two roms were identical according to winmerge

[Spildit]

Do you have a copy of module 11 and 01 ?
If so go to RAM - Edit DIR in RAM, load DIR from file (module 01) and SAVE to RAM.
Then try again to read S/A modules.
Also try Overlays - load overlay ID 11 from file.

[Spildit]

DISK_ECU_UNSAFE_ERROR Normally means that you have bad sectors / errors preventing module to be read.

Looks like DIR is damaged or you have bad sectors on SA so when WDMarvel attempts to read the DIR module it fails.

[Severence]

How do i know if the module is 11 or 01?

The files just seem to use a date in there name. attached below.

to answer your previous question - When plugging in the drive i can hear it trying to seek, it's no louder than i would expect any other drive to be upon starting, after that i think it spinsdown.

[Peter_M]

Severence read my topics, because you have identical symptoms with SA Faulty(Firmware is corrupt)
1: http://wdmarvel.com/forum/ru/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
2: http://wdmarvel.com/forum/ru/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=787
3: http://wdmarvel.com/forum/ru/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1807
4: http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?t=32608
5: http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33822
My disc is WD2002FAEX-007BA0, and this drive is working fine, with new Firmware.

[Severence]

Thanks Peter,

Unfortunately the first two threads aren't accessible for me, but i'll definitely read through the two on hddguru too see if it's a solution.

Thanks

[Spildit]

Thanks Peter,

Unfortunately the first two threads aren't accessible for me, but i'll definitely read through the two on hddguru too see if it's a solution.

Thanks

Peter threads are about refurb/reuse drives by using ARCO and SS. Those procedures will erase all the data on the drive, if you were alble to run them (and most likely you can't and that is good for you).

If you really need the data out of the drive your best choice now is to consult with a professional data recovery firm. At this point it might be a cheap recovery and you don't want to make it un-recoverable by trying random things with the software.

At any rate if you don't want to pay for professioal services then you will need at least a full working copy of WDMarvel (or any other WD firmware tool) and you need to understand some basic concepts about WD firmware restauration/repair.

Basic procedure would be :

- Detect the drive in PIO (my guess is that you have some problems with DRIVERS on your windows installation. You should be able to select PIO even with WDMarvel DEMO. I think that you should run WDMarvell with full admin priviledges and you MUST make sure that you have 32 bit os or that you allow installation of un-signed drivers).
- Backup ROM.
- Block SA access at boot up by changing regions.
- Power off/on.
- Get compatible donor FW for the same model and FW version.
- Load Loader (mod 11) to RAM.
- Set regions back in RAM.
- Load DIR (mod 01) in RAM.
- Attempt to read S/A.


- You might need to use compatible ROM+Loader to get to original SA and then use module 11 with native ROM.

In any case i don't think that you will be able to do this repair without professional help or at least without playing with WD firmware first and experimenting allot with good drives.

Regards and good luck.

[Severence]

Hello again Spildit.

Although it would be nice to recover the data, which largely consists of my own video encodes which took hours upon... upon hours (over years) to encode i don't think it warrants professional services or the attached cost. it'd be nice to recover them but i wouldn't be completely heart broken if i couldn't.

I'd love to learn or at least attempt recovery though. but your very much correct in that i need to understand some basic concepts first - as it is i'm clueless

I was running windows 7 x64 in test mode with the WDMarvel drivers signed but the PIO option was still grayed out. So i ran the program under live miniXP and i do now have the ability to select PIO IDE mode as you said - i haven't thoroughly checked the ports to see if the drive was present just yet as it was somewhat confusing which drive was which, as i had several usb keys plugged in aswell as my main OS drive.

I am not at all familiar with the terms and phrases which are used in the drive firmware scene, so i expect a lot of this will sound stupid. If you have any resources or links you could provide which explain some of this stuff for new users it would be much appreciated, your forum for example looks like a great resource for information.

Presumably SA stands for safe area?
Modules are saved areas of the SA?
I don't understand the numbering in relation in the mod files?
Which tool/program would you reccomend i use?

*edit so after a bit of reading i see SA stands for service area, and in the service area are numbered modules, is this correct? how do the modules and in turn the module numbers correlate with the backup .mod files that WDMarvel creates?

Again, i really appreciate you taking the time to help me out like this.

Thanks

[Spildit]

Hello again.

It will be very hard to attempt to explain the basics of data recovery at firmware level without spending a huge amount of time trying to explain the basic concepts. It will require lots of study and time.

If you are willing to learn start by reading all the topics here - http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=176

This will cover the basic concepts and you have research and experiments there as well.

By SA i mean Service Area or sectors on the platters that are not accessible by LBA (logic block address) notation and containing firmware code is "module" format. Firmware is stored on ROM chip (just a little bit that contains the ROM code + Rom modules) and on platters there are several tracks containing firmware modules like the DIR module (01) that lists all the other modules with their location on the platters, the config module (02) with configuration parameters and passwords, etc ...

Each module have a ID/Number and a specific function.

As for programs if you only intend to repair your WD Marvel drive then WDMarvel full version should be more then enough assuming you can use it correctly.

If you use WDMarvel on a known good drive start by clearing all of the files on the WDMarvel working folder. Then dump ROM and go to S/A operations and read all modules. They should have a number and should be saved as little binary files.

Regards.

[Severence]

Hi Spildit,

Thanks for your detailed response and the provided link. I'll read through and see if i can make sense of it all. If i'm able to come up with a solution i'll be sure to let you know.

Thanks again for your help.