Went this morning to pick up my WD external drive from the tech, asked a few questions and didn't receive much in the way of satisfactory answers or encouragement. To me, that's sort of a signal right there that I need to move on to another plan.
All in all the charge was merely $15 so not too bad I guess.
I was able to glean that it contained an IDE HDD vs SATA which is still greek to me but I thought since I've learned more here since starting this thread than anywhere else I'd pass it on.
I have read the links posted above and watched quite a few youtube vids and while the bad logic board appears to be a fairly common problem with these units there has apparently been successful repairs and/or subs to recover the data from the drive.
If anyone here has more recommendations or suggestions please feel free to pile em on here because I appreciate everyone's interest in helping.
My outboard USB to hard drive adapters, will connect up to either SATA, or 3.5 IDE full size, or the smaller 2.5 Hard drives..
IDE, is the older, and slower hard drive technology, whereas SATA is more recent.
You should be able to find, and purchase USB to hard drive adaptors on Amazon, Tiger Direct, etc. , just make sure it can do both, or, at least IDE.
And if your hard drive is still spinning when hooked to a adaptor, I would think you should be able to externally play, or transfer your music files..
Heck, you, or someone you know with a little computer knowledge, could even put that drive in an older, but functioning Desk top computer connected to a secondary IDE drive port on the mother board, and access the files that way, a IDE connection cable is all that`s needed.
I easily transferred the music from 2 of those failed WD MyBooks external drives to two different owner`s main computer`s, after removing the hard drive from it`s enclosure and hooking/connecting it up.
The USB to IDE adaptor, in my housekeeper`s case, to her lap top, and installed the other MyBook drive in another friend`s older desk top that she used for recording her band..
If you lived near me, and wanted to let me do it, I`d be more then happy to do the transfer/recovery, NC, while you waited, or to just drop it off.
Good luck, and I wish you success, whatever route you take.
Kind regards, Billy Ferris