wd smr hdd data recovery Archives

Special Warning on WD SMR HDD Data Recovery Cases

To all Dolphin DFL users:

Recently we have received many WD SMR hdd data recovery cases by remote support system from Dolphin users worldwide and Dolphin engineers have found many issues and wrong operations from users’ side:

01: Some users get one patient WD SMR HDD and go to extract lost data directly without doing any firmware backup or further diagnosis;
02: Some users backup firmware modules directly without disable 411, this adds to the risk of damaging original module 190;
03: Some users use the same firmware repair concept for old WD drives to repair WD SMR drives without firmware backup;
04: Some users receive failed WD SMR HDD cases from other data recovery companies without any original firmware backup. The user needs to remind the hdd owner to ask for the first copy of firmware modules, specially the original module 190, otherwise, it can be not possible to recover the lost data;
05: Some users extract the files directly instead of imaging the patient unstable HDD. This adds to the risk of further damage to heads or surfaces.

Correct Steps to Recover Lost Data from WD SMR HDDs:

01: Unlock firmware area by writing unlock rom to original pcb or change one sata firmware unlock pcb;
02: Disable 411 and backup 190 and T2data;
03: Backup other important firmware modules;
04: Test firmware modules and find which ones are corrupted;
05: Repair damaged firmware modules;
06: Repair WD SMR HDD slow issue, please note not the common slow fix, use the special WD SMR hdd slow repair solutions;
07: Load T2data to RAM if necessary after entering DFL-DDP data recovery software;
08: Set up head map for patient HDD and image good heads first;
09: Image patient HDD.

Any question is welcome to sales[at]dolphindatalab.com and this is also the teams ID for live support.

June 11, 2025/2 Comments/by Stanley Morgan

Western Digital SMR Charger 800067 HDD Spin Up and Down Data Recovery Tips

DFL Case Studies & FAQs, News Releases

This is one very successful Western Digital SMR Charger hard drive firmware repair and data recovery case. This patient charger hard drive spun up and down repeatedly and seemed like head failure but actually not.

The user tried to swap heads of the patient hard drive but the failure symptoms remained the same.

With the help of Dolphin remote support engineer, the user changed the original heads back to patient hdd.

To recover lost data from this failed charger drive, the user converted the USB interface to SATA by G3 800067 USB to SATA data recovery adapter, backup the original ROM, generate unlock rom by DFL-WD firmware repair tool, disable 411 and write unlock rom.

Next the engineer made a backup of the important firmware modules, specially the module 190, both copy 0 and copy 1. After testing the module 190, the copy 0 190 was corrupted but copy 1 was still good. So the engineer wrote copy 1 190 to copy 0. It was very lucky after the good copy of 190 was written, the engineer enabled 411, power off and on and the patient hdd was repaired successfully.

In many cases, both copies of 190 were corrupted and users need to use DFL-DDP data recovery tool to repair the 190 and finally users need to load the 190 or T2Data to the RAM automatically to fix the all 0000 issue.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

February 14, 2024/0 Comments/by Stanley Morgan

Super Version of WD SMR 800067 USB-SATA HDD Data Recovery Adapter

DFL Case Studies & FAQs, News Releases

G3(Generation 3) WD SMR HDD 800067 USB-SATA Data Recovery Adapter Pro. is created to make WD SMR USB HDD data recovery easier and more successful. After using this 800067 G3 adapter, users can easily work on the 800067 USB hdd by SATA interface without the SED headache.

G3 WD SMR HDD 800067 USB-SATA Data Recovery Adapter Pro. contains the following items:

01: 800067 USB to SATA connector;
02: USB Type-C Cable;
03: Software to read/write 800067 USB HDD rom and adjust SATA data signals.

Wow Features of G3 WD SMR HDD 800067 USB-SATA Data Recovery Adapter Pro.

01: Super easy to install this G3 SATA adapter to the 800067 USB PCB;
02: Independent simple software to read rom, write rom directly without using flash programmer;
03: Buffer chip used and users can use the given simple software to adjust the SATA data signals to make firmware operations, disk image and file extraction faster and make data transfer more stable, this makes it possible to bypass the capacitors removal;
04: Power stabilizator is used;
05: ESD protection is adopted.

Steps to use G3 WD SMR HDD 800067 USB-SATA Data Recovery Adapter Pro.

01: Install 800067 G3 SATA adapter;
02: Read original 800067 ROM with G3 adapter software;
03: Generate unlock rom by DFL-WD firmware repair tool;
04: Write unlock rom with G3 adapter software;
05: Disable 411 and backup firmware modules, specially module 190;
06: Test firmware modules and repair corrupted firmware modules;
07: Image patient drive or extract lost data directly.

Users can order this Super Version of WD SMR 800067 USB-SATA HDD Data Recovery Adapter here.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

October 14, 2023/0 Comments/by Stanley Morgan

Unique Data Recovery Solution for WD HDD Weak Heads

DFL Case Studies & FAQs, News Releases

Dolphin Data Lab has created one unique firmware repair and data recovery solution for Western Digital slow hard drives including the WD SMR hard drives. This new function is called ‘Adjust Adaptive Parameters’.

Western Digital HDD Slow Issue types:

01: Firmware slow-users can fix the corrupted firmware modules to fix the slow issue. DFL-WD HDD Repair Tool offers one-click slow fix solutions: Common>Common Repair>Slow Fix for traditional WD hard drives and DFL-DDP data recovery tool offers easy-to-use slow fix for WD SMR hard drives: DDP>Western Digital>Change Disk Configuration>Set the sector r/w response time.

02: Physical slow-users need to use the new data recovery solution to enhance the head r/w capabilities and make the drives read/write quickly. Menu path within DFL-WD hdd repair tool: Common>Adjust Adaptive Parameters

Please note: Some WD hard drives are full of bad sectors due to head corruption and users need to swap heads to fix and get lost data back.

Users can watch the video instruction here on how to use ‘Adjust Adaptive Parameters’ for data recovery without head swap.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

July 19, 2023/0 Comments/by Stanley Morgan

Western Digital SMR Palmer PCB800069 HDD Repair and Data Recovery Steps

DFL Case Studies & FAQs, News Releases

This is one successful case study of Western Digital Palmer HDD with PCB number 800069 for one DFL user in Italy.

Patient HDD ID:
WD10SMZW-11Y0TS0
PCB: 800069

Patient HDD Failure Symptoms:
Undetected
Data area was not accessed

WD SMR Palmer HDD Repair and Data Recovery Steps:

01: The user has swapped with one firmware unlock PCB of 800066 and the patient HDD was connected to DFL-SRP data recovery hardware;
02: Enter Kernel mode, backup rom, disable 411;
03: Firmware restart and re-enter program;
04: Backup firmware module 190;
05: Test firmware modules and found module 03 was damaged, checksum error;
06: Repaired module 190 and fixed the 03 corruption issue;
07: Enable 411 and firmware restart;
08: Install original 800069 USB PCB back and connected the external HDD to DFL-URE;
08: Load module 190/T2data to RAM within the data recovery software.

HDD Repair Tools and Data Recovery Tools used in this case study:

DFL-WD hdd repair tool
DFL-URE data recovery software

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

July 9, 2023/0 Comments/by Stanley Morgan

WD SMR HDD Module 190 Auto Repair Solution

DFL Case Studies & FAQs, News Releases

Dolphin Data Lab has released the latest WD SMR HDD Module 190 Auto Repair Solution within the DFL-DDP data recovery tool.

According to the feedback of Dolphin users and data recovery engineers worldwide, Western Digital hard drive data recovery cases are mostly associated with the dynamic secondary translator-module 190.

Module 190 corruption can be caused by unstable faulty hard drive status: many bad sectors, weak heads, wrong operations by users, etc.

Whenever users get one WD SMR HDD data recovery case, users need to diagnose the patient hdd correctly to find out if it is firmware issue or physical issue, if physical issue, users need to swap heads first or take other measures to fix the physical issue and then users need to manage to remove the MCU lock.

After removing the MCU lock, users need to follow Dolphin special WD SMR hdd recovery instructions to backup the module 190 (even if the module 190 has many read errors, users need to be patient with module reading) and sometimes, users can select to read valid data only from the module 190 and this can avoid many read errors but this may cause some data loss sometimes.

After the module 190 backup, users need to diagnose the module 190 and try to repair the module 190 corruption. Dolphin Data Lab has released one auto repair solution for the corrupted module 190. Users can check the video demo here to find out how the module 190 auto repair works:

Above new WD SMR hdd firmware repair solution helps users a lot to enhance the efficiency and success rate. Users can download it from the Dolphin user-only forum.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

June 19, 2023/0 Comments/by Stanley Morgan

New Data Recovery Solution for WD SMR Hard Drives

News Releases

Dolphin Data Lab has upgraded DFL-DDP data recovery software again and added one new data recovery solution for WD SMR hard drives-Read by Tech. Mode.

Remember, the most important thing for WD SMR hard drive data recovery is to backup the module 190 securely, Dolphin engineers have mentioned this tip many times for users in forum and manuals, users can find the WD SMR hdd data recovery case studies here to get more tips.

For WD SMR hard drives, there’re four data image modes:

Image by LBA(Standard mode and this is fast)
Image by PBA or CHS, not used often,usually for cases with all 0000 and the module 190 is damaged and cannot be repaired, success rate is low and can recover some small-sized files;
Image by Tech. Mode(new)：this mode is specially for WD unstable faulty SMR hard drives with bad sectors, weak heads or head swap. This mode is to image according to the WD HDD factory/tech. commands and the data area will be imaged more smoothly.

Here is one video to show the WD SMR hard drive data recovery tips including the latest data recovery solution: