Recovering Original FW - Tested
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started by: PCnityPCnity
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Hello This is based on http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/backup-images-of-mybook, but tested and fully functional.
Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1192990737|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hello

I recently screwed my friend's MyBook World Edition (750 GiB) so I had to recover it completely. I didn't know that there should be some system partition, so i formated the whole drive with ext3 and copied many Gigs of stuff on that partition (no undelete was possible).

THERE IS NO OFFICIAL RESCUE PROCEDURE AVAILABLE FROM WESTERN DIGITAL! THIS IS A REAL BIG SHAME!!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT!
Gigabit NAS??? FORGET IT!!! It can not use the bandwidth of 100 mbps network… The Gigabit port is just for fun.

After googling the net i found this site and tried this manual: http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/backup-images-of-mybook But it didn't work at all… I also found this how to http://www.ismprofessional.net/pascucci/documenti/mybook/mybook-hacking-en.html, but its about getting a GNU/Debian Lenny on the MyBook… Not the original system. (The friend of mine is NOT Linux compatible :)

From the Debian Lenny how to i realized that the backup images would probably work, but there is also some special boot loader… Or 2 :) and they weren't within the download of original rescue…

I've got this damn thing working by asking another friend to do me a favor… "dd if=/dev/sda of=/somewhere/rescue.img bs=512 count=48194" :) So i had a copy of the space between the start of disk to the start of the first partition.

The steps of recovery

100% Functional for ALL DISK SIZES.

1. Remove the HDD from MyBook World Edition and connect it to your PC. In this manual i refer to the disk as /dev/sda1

cd ~
su root [enter root passwd]

2. Download the rescue files [57 MiB]

wget http://szabados.sk/mybook_we_rescue.zip
unzip mybook_we_rescue.zip
cd rescue

3. Zero fill the first 3 GiB of space on disk

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=3000

4. Create the first 3 system partitions

sfdisk /dev/sda < SDA_PTAB

5. Create the last partition at the end of the disk

cfdisk /dev/sda

At the end of the disk there is much free space, create there a PRIMARY partition, set it to be TYPE=fd
This is because this manual is usable for all kind of disks big enough… So you can do this also with a 500G, 750G, 1000G or bigger disk. So the partition at the end is variable size dependent on the disk.

Some Linux distributions do automounting new partitions… So umount them if possible.

umount /dev/sda1
umount /dev/sda3
umount /dev/sda4

6. Format 4th partition with no space reserved for UID 0

mkfs.ext3 -m 0 /dev/sda4

You need about 4 GiB of free space for this rescue procedure, if you do not have enough follow the steps bellow.

You do not have to do this if you have enough free space…

mkdir /mnt/sda4
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/sda4 -t ext3
cd ..
mv rescue /mnt/sda4
cd /mnt/sda4/rescue

7. Copy the contents of rescue.img to the disk

dd if=rescue.img of=/dev/sda

8. Unpack and copy the contents of the 1. system partition

You'll need cca 3 GiB of free space.

bunzip2 SDA1_IMA.BZ2
dd if=SDA1_IMA.BZ2.out of=/dev/sda1

If you see a message like this: "I/0 or other error, bailing out. Possible reson follows. No space left on device" Follow the "Low Space rescue" described at step 6 and then continue from where you stooped

9. Unpack and copy the contents of the swap [2nd] partition

You'll need cca 100 MiB of free space.

bunzip2 SDA2_IMA.BZ2
dd if=SDA2_IMA.BZ2.out of=/dev/sda2

If you see a message like this: "I/0 or other error, bailing out. Possible reson follows. No space left on device" Follow the "Low Space rescue" described at step 6 and then continue from where you stooped

10. Unpack and copy the contents of 3rd system partition

You'll need cca 1 GiB of free space.

bunzip2 SDA3_IMA.BZ2
dd if=SDA3_IMA.BZ2.out  of=/dev/sda3

If you see a message like this: "I/0 or other error, bailing out. Possible reson follows. No space left on device" Follow the "Low Space rescue" described at step 6 and then continue from where you stooped

11. Turn off fsck for all [NON SWAP] system partitions

tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda1
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda3
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda4

12. Edit /etc/fstab

mkdir sda1
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 sda1
nano sda1/etc/fstab

/dev/md4 MUST BE REPLACED BY /dev/sda4!

Save it by pressing CTRL + X, Y, ENTER.
Or use any other editor you like… [Nano is quite simple]

umount sda1

DO NOT FORGET THIS!

13. poweroff the computer

Plug the drive back to MyBook and be happy its running again ;)

PLEASE READ

KNOWN PROBLEMS

  1. The lights go on, but MyBook do not listen on any network address
  2. The DATA partition does not mount automaticly

1) This problem is because of some coruption in the 3rd partition… Also MyBook shows to be connected only to 100 mbps on gigabit network.

HOW TO FIX —> FOLLOW STEP 10 of the manual above

2) This is because the 4th partition isn't recognized as md4 but as sda4…

HOW TO FIX —> FOLLOW STEP 12 of the manual above
DO NOT FORGET TO UMOUNT THE PARTITION CORRECTLY!

If you have another problem, start from scratch… This manual at its actual state is 100% OK

last edited on 1195090269|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by PCnity + show more
unfold Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1192990737|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
florisfloris 1192992604|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Whoops at step 5:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda3
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda4
I hope readers will catch that one before acting.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by florisfloris, 1192992604|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1192994538|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Fixed.

last edited on 1194393677|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by PCnity + show more
unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1192994538|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
ZiumZium 1192994614|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You could also add the link to this post on the main page of howto's

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by ZiumZium, 1192994614|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
ionoffionoff 1193036503|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Good Job,
I'll make the wiki change when I can find the time to document your success and steps.

I am going to also automate a restore for single drive world editions using only the file images, I just need the time to do it.

last edited on 1193327926|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by ionoff + show more
unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by ionoffionoff, 1193036503|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
FreshmanFreshman 1193341619|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Why 'hda' not 'sda' are here? Could you clarify?

mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda3
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda4

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by FreshmanFreshman, 1193341619|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
florisfloris 1193351322|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The problem was the text had some /dev/hda strings. After I posted that whoops message PCnity replied he edited the text.

last edited on 1193351386|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by floris + show more
unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by florisfloris, 1193351322|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1193716643|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Yes… It was just a typo…

Follow the manual at its actual state. I went step by step after zero filling the drive… IT WORKS! :)

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1193716643|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
FreshmanFreshman 1194301354|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi,

I have problem on step 11):

11) Edit /etc/fstab
mkdir sda1
mount /dev/sda1 sda1
nano sda1/etc/fstab

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 sda1
mount: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'

Any suggestions?

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by FreshmanFreshman, 1194301354|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1194391440|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Soory… Yes… :)

mount /dev/sda1 sda1 -t ext3

or

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 sda1 -t ext3

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1194391440|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
FreshmanFreshman 1194469134|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Great!!! It works again
I have managed to connect to the web-interface (DHCP adrressing):

Device Name:      MyBookWorld
Firmware:     01.01.18
Drive Status:     OK

Before I crash it again what are the safest ways to?

  1. Get SSH working (with mionet disabling)
  2. Get smart-spindown working (if present)

Thanks a lot for the forum's fellowship!

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by FreshmanFreshman, 1194469134|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
FreshmanFreshman 1194466924|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hello PCnity,

following your new nice how-to. Just small addition (or it only under my dedicated Ubuntu computer?):

after step
5. Create the last partition at the end of the disk
and before step
6. Format 4th partition with no space reserved for UID 0
I use to unmount sda4 because formatting did not work:

$ sudo mkfs.ext3 -m 0 /dev/sda4
mke2fs 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
/dev/sda4 is mounted; will not make a filesystem here!

Going forward…

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by FreshmanFreshman, 1194466924|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1194484491|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

/dev/sda4 shouldn't be mounted this time… So umount is ok.
It is possible that you system did mount all possible disk partitions automaticlay…

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1194484491|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
piotruspiotrus 1195755525|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Exellent howto ! Works like a charm. Thnx !

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by piotruspiotrus, 1195755525|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
kknappkknapp 1193340741|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This link is gone http://szabados.sk/mybook_we_rescue.zip

is there any chance we can get a working one?

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by kknappkknapp, 1193340741|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
ZiumZium 1193341769|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I've the file here, where can i post it ?

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by ZiumZium, 1193341769|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
kknappkknapp 1193357930|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You could just drop it on rapidshare or one of the others then post a link here, it would help a bunch.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by kknappkknapp, 1193357930|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
ionoffionoff 1193377910|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

http://rapidshare.com/files/65242458/mybook_we_rescue.zip

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by ionoffionoff, 1193377910|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
kknappkknapp 1193408570|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Thanks, I just tested the rescue.img and I get the LED's to light up but still no activity on the NIC and no files seem to have been modified.

If you extract the files for sda1 and look in 'usr/www/nbin/dm_formatInternal.sh' line 70 is "dd if=$OLD of=$DEV bs=512 count=48194" which copies the first 16MB from the original drive to a new drive. I believe this is what is needed to get these images to work.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by kknappkknapp, 1193408570|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1193658370|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hello
The link i posted is already working… I had a problems with servers.

I used to recover the drive a bigger image [5 GiB] from another WD MyBook WE. I'll try to make new images from my setup.

"dd if=$OLD of=$DEV bs=512 count=48194" This is done in the 6th step. There is no problem. The MyBook must be booting if the lights went up. A problem will be somewhere at /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda3.

It would be very helpull if could someone post their images here. I havent got the mybook at home, but i'll try also.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1193658370|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1193661360|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hello

I crashed that MyBook again for testing purpouses… And found out that the gz archive of files from /dev/sda3 wast ok. Now follow the steps one more time, or just recover the 3. partition.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1193661360|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1194484861|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The link on RapidShare is out of date! DO NOT USE IT.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1194484861|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
lukaszlukasz 1193753650|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hello I have tried Your procedure and files on the WB 500 - unfortunately sda3 partition does not mount automatically when the Mybookworld 500 WE is booting. Maybe it is conncected to the geometry of the drive as I have said I have the problem with the 500 not 750 version.

Anybody has the clean or unclen but complete image for the WE 500 version?

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by lukaszlukasz, 1193753650|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1194391564|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This is not a problem of the disk size!

a) You have an error and didn't mean /dev/sda3 but /dev/sda4… —> FOLLOW STEP 12.
b) Try following step 10

last edited on 1194393818|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by PCnity + show more
unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1194391564|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
AndersHHAndersHH 1194293253|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

How can you set the IP address, subnet mask to manual before you reboot the mybook??..

I can see light in the outer circle, the switch has light, to network connection but can't find it by DHCP..

Can someone please help???
Eventually via mail, or MSN..

-AndersHH

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by AndersHHAndersHH, 1194293253|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1194391771|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You have to erase the whole 3. partition and copy it from the image. It will work… I promise. ;)

I wrote the first manual after rescuing the MyBook… Then i zerofilled the disk again and found out that there was a problem… The lights went on, but it didnt boot corectly… Normaly mybook has a gigabit connection, in this case it shows only 100mbps AND HAS NO IP! So you CANT ACCESS IT AT ALL!

The whole error was the 3. partiotion… You have to copy it from the image in the http://szabados.sk/mybook_we_rescue.zip! It will work.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1194391771|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
fybyfybyfybyfyby 1207597796|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi I have problems with connecting to mbwe. I copied rescue.img, sda1, sda2 and sda3, but still no connection.

Is it possible to erase whole sda3 partition without touching sda4? Maybe this is the problem. I cannot erase whole disk, because sda4 is full of data.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks ;-)

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by fybyfybyfybyfyby, 1207597796|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
fybyfybyfybyfyby 1207636647|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi, I got it working. Again I copied bit by bit partitions sda1, sda2 and sda3 (now without editing etc/fstab) and mybook is communicating again!

Thanks mister! ;-)

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by fybyfybyfybyfyby, 1207636647|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
feinbeinfeinbein 1194730557|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi
I am new to this forum and just wondered why you are going through such a complicated way of restoring your device. Would it not be much easier to get someone to use g4u to make a clone of the original disk and find a way to get it to you? You could use g4u to play it back to your disk provided you have exactly the same model.
That would also be a very easy and comfortable way of installing Debian to mybook, wouldn't it?
Please tell me if I am getting something completely wrong here…
So, who can provide the images?

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by feinbeinfeinbein, 1194730557|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
PCnityPCnity 1194919086|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think that providing a 4+ GiB image is worse than making a few simple steps… But if i get the MyBook one more time to my hands, i put the image on the net.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by PCnityPCnity, 1194919086|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
feinbeinfeinbein 1195299527|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think if one uses the hints about shrinking the image it shoud be possible to reduce the image size of a virgin MYBOOK 500GB to less than 500MB for the entire disk.
That would be a well acceptable size. Dont know about the debian image though.

unfold Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested by feinbeinfeinbein, 1195299527|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
Re: Recovering Original FW - Tested
shadowrazorshadowrazor 1194814240|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

when i try step 4:

sfdisk /dev/sda < SDA_PTAB