Special Warning on WD SMR HDD Data Recovery Cases

[Dolphin999]

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.