USB on the drive's own board · no SATA port · WD, Seagate, Toshiba
Open most portable drives made since about 2012 and there is no separate bridge board inside: the USB socket is soldered to the hard disk's own circuit board, and the drive has never had a SATA connector. WD's My Passport and Elements, Seagate's Backup Plus Slim and Expansion Portable, Toshiba's Canvio and the Samsung M3 are all built this way. It saves the makers a board and a cable, and it means a snapped socket, a dead regulator or a failed USB chip has to be repaired on the drive's own board, or the board replaced with a matching donor and the original's ROM moved across. On WD's My Passport the same board also holds the encryption key. One native-USB drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–4 days at the bench.
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| What is going on | The usual reason for it | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Socket wobbles, connection drops | Solder joints on the Micro-B or USB-C socket | Socket rebuilt on the board |
| Dead after a phone charger or an unpowered hub | Blown TVS diode or regulator | Board repair; drive usually fine |
| USB device not recognized | USB bridge chip on the board | Board repair, or donor board with ROM transfer |
| Works with one cable and not another | A marginal socket or a marginal cable | Send both; the board is repaired |
| Reads as gibberish on a converted SATA board (WD) | Encryption key left behind on the original board | The original board's key is needed |
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. A drive that clicks or beeps is not powered again; one that spins is read on our own imaging equipment, never in a computer that will retry and time out and retry. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
A native-USB drive's board is the drive's board, so it is inspected under magnification before anything is powered: the socket, the regulators, the USB chip. Where the board is the fault it is repaired in place, or replaced with a matching donor board carrying the original ROM and, on WD My Passport, the original key material.
Stuck or failed heads are replaced with a matched set from a donor, seized spindles freed, and firmware faults corrected in the drive's service area from the terminal. The drive is not repaired to be used again; it is made to read once, in a single careful pass, and that pass is planned before it begins.
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, head by head and weak areas last, with reads timed to what the platters can stand, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the original board's key or the password you supply, and never on the original.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
The lead had been yanked sideways and the socket came away with three of the board's tracks. The tracks were rebuilt under magnification, a new socket fitted, and the drive imaged through its own board. It had never failed as a drive. A student's four years of coursework came back the same week.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseYes. The socket and the tracks under it are rebuilt on the drive's own board, and the drive is imaged through it. It is the commonest native-USB repair on the bench.
Not usefully. The board carries this drive's own ROM and, on WD My Passport, its encryption key. A donor board works only as a carrier for the original's chips, which is bench work.
Different rather than harder. The board has to be repaired or carried rather than bypassed, and on WD My Passport the encryption decides the route. The free look tells you which.
£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing.
3–4 days at the bench after the free look.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive unplugged.