Question: Hello friends,

I’m crying, because a overvoltage (9V instead of 5V) usbhub killed both of my Drives:

WD Elements 5TB 3,5″ USB Drive (WDBWLG0050HBK)
WD Elements Portable 3GB 2,5″ USB Drive (WDBU6Y0030BBK)

I managed to remove the 3,5″ Drive from the case and connect it to a controller, but I don’t see the data. Maybe the case uses hardware encryption? Is there any way to recover the data? (it was a mac os formated)

I understand, that for the 2,5″ is more difficult, because the controller is on the drive.

I’m beat, because I lost my data AND my backup.. silly me. Cant afford a data recovery conpany

Answer:Elements models are not encrypted, AFAIK.

Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? I suspect that the 5TB model may be configured for a sector size of 4KB rather than 512 bytes. If you can see your partition, r-click it and expand the $Root. Do you now see your file/folder structure?

Can you show us a detailed photo of each side of the Portable PCB? There may be a fuse and protection diode. If the PCB is not salvageable, a replacement PCB and firmware transfer should cost no more than US$50 from suppliers such as hdd-parts.com.