Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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What's this connector on a WD 2.5" external HDD? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by timrodie@alien.top to c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum

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Is there anything I can do with the 6-pin connector-type-thing to the left of the USB-C?

My 5TB external HDD is no longer recognised by any computer I've tried. It spins up when plugged in via USB-C and I see it registering on my Mac's system report… but nowhere else (disc utility, finder).

Thanks in advance, hivemind!

https://preview.redd.it/x2m8s8bohx1c1.jpg?width=2877&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8df668ea56451cf60de3e766d3022786469a4620

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[–] CorvusRidiculissimus@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

The Mystery Connector! Every drive seems to have one, but there's no standard for what it does - it's manufacturer specific. It's for their own use, mostly - for factory testing. Sometimes it can be used in advanced data recovery, or holds a hidden pin for connecting to a status light. Could be JTAG, I2C or good old async serial. But basically no use to you.

As for the not working part - give us a dmesg output when you connect it. We might be able to make something of that.