Thanks for your video. Followed your advice and resurrected my 7 yrs old WD Cloud 3TB drive that I haven't used for 6 years. Saved me £350 in not buying a replacement, totally agree with your comments and the lack of commitment in WD to properly support customers that have trusted them in the past. My project cost me £27 and I have a fully functional external storage unit now. We'll done!
Wow, I've had mine maybe 10 years and it works really well. It's hooking up to mac machines and is connected to the modem router ports and is thus, assigned an IP address for the network. I hooked a WD Hard drive to the USB port, formatted the drive and the device backs up all the files via update. Every thing works really well. Lucky me!
You have saved me so much work with testing the ethernet etc! Thank you for going through what you tried and how it worked etc. Simple, thorough and honest. EXCELLENT video. Thanks.
Sorry to hear your experience and thanks for going thru what you did. Some of us still looking for subscription-less solutions to a Cloud will definitely appreciate this. I just got the drive-less WD EX as a gift and i must say good thing I looked for these videos before I put some money into a piece of possible crap like that.
After a year of using the 4 TB drive as a backup, it's still going strong. After a brief interlude with a troll here, I wanted to revisit what I did here... If you watched this video then you probably have a WD My Cloud that's bricked. When it happened to mine I could buy a new one for $200 (as if I would repeat that mistake) or put the HD in an enclosure for $20. I deleted all partitions using Windows Disk Management, reformatted the entire thing, and then wrote a custom script to backup the important files that I've gathered over my 40 year career. What I would like to do now is get my hands on a broken WD My Cloud and rescue the RAW data to show that it can be done, and that it can be done for free (assuming you have a broken WD My Cloud, and a device to access the drive from a working computer). Time to search eBay!
Thanks for the clarification. If you please advise me. My Cloud I have almost has nothing important to cry for if lost. If I format it, I can directly use it for MacBook, or Windows with no app for Linux?
if you've got a gen2 there are hacks/mods to enable ISCSI. Makes this unit infinitely more useful. My 8TB developed bad sectors after 5 years, replaced with a 4TB following the many tutorials and we are back in business. Really handy little unit if all you need is a NAS to write to from say your raspberry pi as a external block device (iscsi)
Thank-you for this!! I'm laughing out loud about the idea of torturing the thing, it has been a nightmare for years. I'm glad to discover I'm not crazy !! Right now I'm converting mine to external too. Fingers crossed 🤞 😅🎉❤❤❤❤
Thanks to your video as to how to reuse the WD hard drive. I ordered the Hard Drive Enclosure, RSHTECH USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station for 3.5 inch SATA I/II/III HDD SSD Up to 16TB Support UASP (Black) and I will try following your advice as soon as I get it. I am only hoping that I can access all my photos on this MyCloud Drive. Right now it reads Device is Off line and Nothing, all reboot and soft reset efforts, has fixed it it. It’s insane, when I think about it, that I’ve spent hours upon hours uploading my photos to this thing that was promoted as Your Personal Cloud and now I’m Locked Out!. I hope this works and Thanks Again!
I know it's possible to access the files, but I have not. There's a fellow that did it through a Linux system using a free trial of Paragon ExtFS, EFS, or FS (the name seems to change).
You're in completely wrong way. If you want to use an external drive, you can buy an external drive hdd. But if you need a cloud or network attached storage (NAS) drive, you must buy a NAS box like wd my cloud. This product is designed for working on network, this box is not suitable for direct connection to PC.
I was able to connect the MyCloud directly to my laptop through a dedicated Ethernet cable. The Wi-Fi on the same laptop kept me connected to the internet. But, *something* in that setup made the backup process too slow. I don’t know why. Taking the hdd out of the MyCloud and into a simple external case allowed me to repartition and format the 4Tb drive into a giant external drive. I wrote my own script to back up the drive and it continues to work perfectly to this day. It’s not network storage though.
I had the same idea as you, but I was not sure it will work properly. Your video gave me the confidence and I order a US$14 cable that save me hours of work just to make that piece of c*** of networking adapter to work.
Oh dear Lord. This device was a pain. Transferring files from one country to another took forever so I took the same path. Destroy the whole thing. 10 years later cloud storage is now affordable
I have this OS3 WD My Cloud and got the email about loosing tech support and to disconnect it from the internet. If i do, how to i access it from my 2 laptops inside the home if its disconnected from the internet ?? How else do i read the files from it if the usb port is for external hard drives only ?? It now going to be a paper weight if i unplug the ethernet cord from it ...
Great advice, I do have data on mine that I would like to recover. I got a solid red light every time using the MyCloud unit. Anyone have any advice on how to gain access? All it wants me to do is format. I have read using Linux for Windows, but that seems very confusing. Any help, Thanks!
Alas, no. I know that someone else has already done this. It requires Linux and another software program to access the RAW data format. It’s possible, just not straightforward.
after assembly into the external HDD case, can I connect it to a USB of another WD my cloud home, as WD is stopping remote access support to the older my cloud.
I did most of the instructions here, but how did you format your hard drive so you can access it on a computer? Don't you have to partition it so it can be used again?
Yessir. I just used the hardware / drive manager in windows to repartition the drive and then reformat. As I recall, it didn’t work at first so I kept trying until it worked.
Good Bill, I just watched your video, translated into Spanish. This is TERRIBLE, a few years ago I was able to contact a WD employee and he gave me the steps to set up a local network, or something like that, I did NOT understand the steps he gave me. But when I activated the disk, it opened the folders of the MyCloud disk, and I could see them in the NETWORK area of the computer. TODAY I go to look to look for something, AND I DON'T HAVE THEM, THEY HAVE GONE AWAY!!!! I too am disappointed in this system. And I would like to know if you can help me set this up, and then do what you explain in your video. Is this possible? please. Do you have a video explaining what they do?
I agree this thing is a trap if called as Network Drive, but the data transfer speed of its USB port is pretty good when you use the sftp access (though sometimes the line command response is very slow too!). I just found that nobody else can read the dynamic disk data on a USB enclosure but this thing can do it! If you hook a USB hub to it, you can use it moving large data trunks between different drives and it's more reliable than the Windows copy action.
I couldn’t get mine to work that way anymore. I did try to hook my laptop directly to MyCloud with an Ethernet cable. It worked but it so slow. Another comment said that 100Mbps was too slow for me and I know that my transfer rate was way below that.
Can you switch it to a regular USB drive (or internal drive) without reformatting it and losing the data that's already on it? I have an old 3TB model that has a lot of my really old files stored on it. I want to turn it into an internal drive for my desktop, but without losing the data that's on it now.
I suppose it is possible. I do know that these drives can be used internally. To access the data, you will need to use one of the software hacks a few people have found. There is a link to another video elsewhere in the comments where a fellow used a usb docking station to connect the drive and some LINUX software to access the data.
THere's another guy with a video on youtube that was successful in retaining his data. I think it's really hit or miss unfortunately. ruclips.net/video/FmfygEfWuNM/видео.html
I have this since years but this thing is so complicated...I use it just to dump movies and access it on Apple TV using Infuse app and its running great but on my Samsung smart TV it shows up but doesn't show an content...its miserable any help would be great from anyone...Thanx. great idea of moving the HD out from the chassis. all the data is secured if the hd is moved out of did I miss anything.
Not at all. But to access the drive you will have to use Linux to read the RAW format. In my case I deleted everything, repartitioned it, and format a huge 4TB backup.
Thanks for sharing! We should all sue WD for this! I have one as well and now they said they will not provide the service due to security (bullshit), so many ppl have the same issue looks like ugh
Excellent advise. I used it, but was unable to access the files, due to files not beeing stored i FAT format. I use windows 10. I used Disk Internals Linux reader to extract the files.
After following this I got the.hard drive.. my hard drive I am trying to mount to my computer but it is not detected..any tips how to makw windows recognize.it. I have tried to.mount it to two diff pcs not detected on both.
The disk is formatted in a RAW format. Windows cannot detect such a thing. If you have files to retrieve, you’ll have to use Linux. I didn’t need to do this so I just used partition magic to blow away the partitions and create one big 4Tb disk. Formatting for windows was pretty easy after that.
@@MadScientistGuitarLab thanks for taking time to reply. It is a brand new drive. It is not shown on partition magic as well as unassigned or.any other space. I am a bit confused. How to detect and use this 14tb drive I just took out of the standard case.
@@abhijitnilegaonkar5224 14Tb is huge. One problem I had with 4Tb is that I first tried on older external enclosure and it only saw 2Tb. I had to get a different one to support the full 4Tb. Assuming yours does, I wonder if you need to go through disk management first. In Disk Manager you should be able to see the drive, unformatted, and all of the partitions. If that doesn’t work I would think it would be a driver issue or the need for an external power supply to spin that drive.
I have one of those units and have never suffered so much in my life using it. Probably computers from the 80's had better software. And if you need support... you better pray!
Thanks for this. I'm grappling with my WD My Cloud 4T right now as I type. I already switched to Synology DS220j, which I love. It's more than I expected. I have my own "Google" Drive now. I will do what you did and use that as a backup HDD and plug it into the back of my Synology for one more safety measure. Thanks!!!
Thank goodness I skipped out on that heap of turd plastic and got a nas! Deepest condolences to your lost data though. I lost my half a terabyte of movies and shows due to a failing WD green drive.
Hello, I have had the same problem, at the moment I can not access the cloud I do not know if it is a firmware problem or if the HD is damaged. I have a cable that allows me to connect the hard drive to my Mac but I have the surprise that it is in "extFS" format and I can not see my folders as I had or I could see them through the MyCloud application. Maybe it's easy but I do not understand much of these things. If someone could help me I will be greatly appreciated I do not want to lose the information I have on the HD. Happy new year and greetings.
I did the reformat because I could make one giant partition that windows would recognize. Putting that drive in a cheap enclosure was more cost effective for me. The NAS was a good idea, but WD’s implementation left a lot to be desired.
Was able to pull the drive and connect to computer externally but I can’t access the files. As far as I know it is trying to authenticate over the net since it’s a NAS. How were you able to access your files? Would you mind doing a tutorial for that?
I know there’s a way to do it. Since mine was just a back up of stuff I already had, I wiped the drive clean and did a reformat. But if you need the existing information, you have to find a way to read RAW format files. There’s another fellow on RUclips who’s even more cranky than I am, and he found a Linux program to pull the RAW files back out. I will search for a link.
@@MadScientistGuitarLab Thank you for this link! It saved my ass! That software is the way to go if you cant reformat the drive and need to get to your data
3 года назад
@@navi1666 which software did you end up using? I’m in a similar position and can’t reformat the hard drive.
Hey Bill - I found your video really useful and agree with your comments about WD. Please could I ask if you know how to extract the storage from the unit without losing whats on there already? I have at least 1TB worth of files on there that I have now way to access right now as WD have discontinued to support the drive. Would appreciate any advice you can give
What if I want to have some type of either cloud or local backup for my photos and videos? And then something I can access over the cloud? Do you have a solution for that? Thank you for your input
I don’t know. Once I left NAS and went to the external backup brick, I stopped learning about how to make these things work. Still, now you’ve got me curious and I wonder how I could make a NAS work the right way for me.
I have the same problem with that thing. I can't get to my data over the ethernet, even if WD only says the remote control is stoped and you technical can get access to it from your local network. But it doesn't work anymore. In only can open the start page on my browser but I cannot get to the folders. If I rip the HDD out of the case and put it in a new USB case, do I get access to my already saved data on that HDD or are they completly lost? Thanks for help.
I have two of these 2TB WD MyCloud drives stuffed with data. To my horror, I discovered WD had disabled online access through WD Cloud OS 3 - which appears to have been turned off. This is what I did; I was still able to access the dashboard console of each drive on my network by accessing the drive via its IP address in a browser. I set the IP address setting from DHCP to static. I set my subnet mask to my network’s subnet mask. Also set the IP Gateway to the IP address of my Broadband Router. I left the 3 x DNS sections blank! That should prevent external access via the internet, methinks. I also accessed the shares settings via the console, and enabled both FTP and Public settings. Make sure you give yourself overall admin access to all available shares. I saved these changes; both drives started to churn away (probably implementing the new permissions on both drives). Following day, accessed both drives via a Linux Mint Computer on the same network; All the shares ARE available - I accessed some of them and viewed photos or watched videos - I could see documents as well. I haven’t tried with a PC yet. I’ve ordered a new 12TB NAS and once it arrives, I’ll proceed with transferring all my data to the new 12TB NAS - then I’ll decide what to do with the 2TB WD MyCloud Drives. This is one way to recover your data IF you suddenly discovered you’re locked out of your 2TB WD MyCloud drives because WD has now disabled the MyCloud OS 3 network. Good luck!
@@datathunderstorm Thanks for your try to help me. But my english is not good enough to really understand what you did here. Even the settings have different names in my german router settings. So I can't follow what to do here. So my question again to others if I may access the data, when I put the HDD in a new case and connect it via USB to my Computer. I would never buy an WD device anymore, because I see no sense why it isn't possible anymore to get local access to eh device.
I have a 3T Mycloud had it packed while moving just set up plugged in power then Ethernet cable solid light now its blinking always saw blue light either blinking or solid hmmmmm??
That’s how it happened to me, except for the move part. One day it worked fine, then it worked half the time, then five minutes only after reset, then nothing. I tried everything to make it work because that’s my day job and has been for 20+ years. I don’t hack as a first course of action so my options were whittled down to this.
I hate this thing. I had one for a few years and LED burnt out so I can't tell if its reading/writing or just idle. And the fact that WD stopped support on it I cannot redownload the program on my new PC. I will definitely do what you just did
You are right! I really hate that shiiit wd stuff! I have a lot picture i've lost for not updating that wd! Many thanks! I hope i can recover mine too.
I've been using mine for a long time to watch home movies and pictures on my home network. Bought a my cloud home expecting to do the same, now I can't see squat. I'm glad I have NEW storage, but the only way to see it is through the internet. Kinda BS if you ask me. Guess I'll have to tie it to the network via USB
You don’t “have to” but I didn’t need anything from the drive because it had failed so many times. A repartition and format was the solution for me. There are Unix / Linux tools to retrieve you data if you need.
I like this video, I did not even think of disassembling and using the hard drive as an external HD. I agree and disagree with you on this... The WD drive is incredibly difficult to get running properly, and once you do, the performance is meh... Where I do like this drive is using the cloud services. I do a lot of work remotely and this drive has saved me a couple of times. The Major issue with this is the external attacks... I get about 4-8 a day.
I was initially excited about the internet access but the security flaws and the daily attacks made me turn that part of it off. Even just connected to my router at home MyCloud eventually just quit working, or just working for a few minutes and then cutting itself off. I've worked with computers for 40 odd years now and I reached that point of 'Screw it. I'm looking for another way.' I am encouraged that you were able to keep it running, and I'm doubly impressed that you were able to use the actual cloud like features it supports.
Mine crashed after five years of disservice. I've been running data recovery software for over 24 hours now in the hopes that I will be able to recover some of my lost files. Yes, it is a POS that was slower than Christmas and sometimes allowed me to access my files and sometimes did not. A horrible proprietary nightmare.
Western Digital (WD my cloud) is one of the biggest scams in Europe. I lost 2 TB of data because they discontinued a device I bought. I am still trying to figure out how to retrieve my data now. The device is exactly like the one in this video. It is as stupid as its makers; there is no way to access the device unless it is connected and running online. And not they decided that it is no longer accessible remotely, and I have no way to access it.
Yeah that sucks, not being able to access your own data with your comp. You should have gotten a ssd, you did it again, bought a worthless hhd instead of an ssd…
I see that there was a vulnerability in os3 that rather than fix, as they did in os5, they just decided to no longer support os3. I’m beginning to think a good business to go into would be a NAS with the slogan “we’re not WD”
@@MadScientistGuitarLab yeah man i only bought my drive like 6 months ago from a well know big Aussie retail store of 6tb wd nas my cloud hd at discount. Sure discount was good but man WD is just so bad they are even refusing to honour warrenty for something that's Less than 6 month owned. Will never ever even think of west digital ever in life
thanks so much for the solution.I have already purhased the external hdd enclosure with usb type c connection.I have the exact model as you have.never will buy a wd mycloud.
Very good idea to own one, but.. Like a lot of good ideas they really don't work out. If you don't mind sharing your data with the world get one. Also, they die very easily. WD is the cheapest mainstream HD brand but they have bad quality due to their mass producing.
Erst den Menschen die tollen Festplatten verkaufen, dann das kostenose synch Programm einstellen und jetzt den Online zugriff auf die "alten" Geräte sperren. Das ist dann der Grund warum WD nicht mehr in mein Haus kommen wird.
It's a brick..I just ripped out the hd and reformatted as a mac os drive and put it into an external drive case.. don't waste your money.. buy a proper NAS drive like a Synology one
I use mine as a network drive and regularly get 700Meg transfer speed. Its not perfect, as I could not get Windows PC to see it, so I mapped it under file explorer and works fine. I use it with a my Rasbery pi for video with Kodi. Also back up my photos from my phone with WD My cloud app automatically. Can also access the drive when out and about for the odd MP3 or picture, but due to slow internet not much else.
@@dennisjohnston7967 I have now binned the case and put the drive in my computer. As the old WD My Cloud I had were regularly getting hacked, and in the end, Western Digital said the drives were unsupported and should not be used. Sorry bad news!
I know it's possible to access the files, but I have not. There's a fellow that did it through a Linux system using a free trial of Paragon ExtFS, EFS, or FS (the name seems to change). They should have an OSX version too.
I “fixed” mine multiple times but it just kept getting worse. If you know the secret sauce to fix these I know thousands of people will thank you. As for me, I’m happy with a 4TB external backup and a script to copy the important stuff over.
This is one of the most useless videos I have ever seen. Your video has nothing to do with hacking anything with the wd mycloud. The unit is good for what it was designed.. it puts a hard drive on your network. It does everything a nas is supposed too. It simply lacks any upgradability, mostly because all the software is on the hard drive so it has no brains if you stick in a new hard drive. I also attached a usb drive to expand my nas storage..again worked great. Today I am retiring my My Cloud and moving the 2tb drive that was in mine into one of the bays of a qnap nas I purchased.
I agree. It's a waste of a lot of time and effort on my part to find an alternate way of using this harddrive, and I no longer have access to my data via the internet. It's also a waste of the circuit board originally used to control the drive. It had an internet and a USB connection. Potentially, it could become a little micro-computer, but not without a lot of hacking. I'd love to find a hack to make that happen! :)
Dude if you didn't like the performance of a 1 Gigabit Ethernet connection just return it for a full refund. Then buy one of the WD MyBooks or MyPassport drives that connect over USB 3.x. So much faster and does the very same thing as that cheapo external enclosure. USB 3.0 will always be faster than Gigabit Ethernet. Since you think WD sucks so much why did you keep their Red Drive?
At the time that drive broke there was no option to return it for a refund. As for why not get another, I didn’t want to invest in just another product from WD. But, the 4Tb drive was worth experimenting with since I already owned it. I had an external enclosure laying around and was able to access the drive, format, and use it directly. It’s a cheap solution that worked for me.
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Thanks for your video.
Followed your advice and resurrected my 7 yrs old WD Cloud 3TB drive that I haven't used for 6 years. Saved me £350 in not buying a replacement, totally agree with your comments and the lack of commitment in WD to properly support customers that have trusted them in the past. My project cost me £27 and I have a fully functional external storage unit now. We'll done!
I loved the way your inspector did its work! congrats!
Wow, I've had mine maybe 10 years and it works really well. It's hooking up to mac machines and is connected to the modem router ports and is thus, assigned an IP address for the network. I hooked a WD Hard drive to the USB port, formatted the drive and the device backs up all the files via update. Every thing works really well. Lucky me!
You have saved me so much work with testing the ethernet etc! Thank you for going through what you tried and how it worked etc. Simple, thorough and honest. EXCELLENT video. Thanks.
You are welcome!
Thanks so much. Followed your instructions and now have a 4TB drive. Worked like a charm, the enclosure cost $22. Thanks again.
Excellent! Good to hear that worked for you.
Sorry to hear your experience and thanks for going thru what you did. Some of us still looking for subscription-less solutions to a Cloud will definitely appreciate this. I just got the drive-less WD EX as a gift and i must say good thing I looked for these videos before I put some money into a piece of possible crap like that.
After a year of using the 4 TB drive as a backup, it's still going strong. After a brief interlude with a troll here, I wanted to revisit what I did here...
If you watched this video then you probably have a WD My Cloud that's bricked. When it happened to mine I could buy a new one for $200 (as if I would repeat that mistake) or put the HD in an enclosure for $20. I deleted all partitions using Windows Disk Management, reformatted the entire thing, and then wrote a custom script to backup the important files that I've gathered over my 40 year career.
What I would like to do now is get my hands on a broken WD My Cloud and rescue the RAW data to show that it can be done, and that it can be done for free (assuming you have a broken WD My Cloud, and a device to access the drive from a working computer).
Time to search eBay!
I am currently trying to find a way to recover my files. My 4tb disk has all of our family videos on it.
@@jameshale7436 try this ruclips.net/video/DokMZXDa0vk/видео.html
Thanks for the clarification. If you please advise me. My Cloud I have almost has nothing important to cry for if lost. If I format it, I can directly use it for MacBook, or Windows with no app for Linux?
if you've got a gen2 there are hacks/mods to enable ISCSI. Makes this unit infinitely more useful. My 8TB developed bad sectors after 5 years, replaced with a 4TB following the many tutorials and we are back in business. Really handy little unit if all you need is a NAS to write to from say your raspberry pi as a external block device (iscsi)
i had the same wd my cloud and it's a piece of you know what. ripping the hard drive out this weekend thanks for the video!
I’m starting to wonder what else the Wd MyCloud can be hacked into. Enjoy your hacking!
Thank-you for this!! I'm laughing out loud about the idea of torturing the thing, it has been a nightmare for years. I'm glad to discover I'm not crazy !! Right now I'm converting mine to external too. Fingers crossed 🤞 😅🎉❤❤❤❤
Thanks to your video as to how to reuse the WD hard drive. I ordered the Hard Drive Enclosure, RSHTECH USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station for 3.5 inch SATA I/II/III HDD SSD Up to 16TB Support UASP (Black) and I will try following your advice as soon as I get it. I am only hoping that I can access all my photos on this MyCloud Drive. Right now it reads Device is Off line and Nothing, all reboot and soft reset efforts, has fixed it it. It’s insane, when I think about it, that I’ve spent hours upon hours uploading my photos to this thing that was promoted as Your Personal Cloud and now I’m Locked Out!. I hope this works and Thanks Again!
I know it's possible to access the files, but I have not. There's a fellow that did it through a Linux system using a free trial of Paragon ExtFS, EFS, or FS (the name seems to change).
Remember the Rule of Threes and never be only one backup deep.
I agree 100% with your assessment of this boat anchor.
You're in completely wrong way. If you want to use an external drive, you can buy an external drive hdd. But if you need a cloud or network attached storage (NAS) drive, you must buy a NAS box like wd my cloud. This product is designed for working on network, this box is not suitable for direct connection to PC.
I was able to connect the MyCloud directly to my laptop through a dedicated Ethernet cable. The Wi-Fi on the same laptop kept me connected to the internet. But, *something* in that setup made the backup process too slow. I don’t know why. Taking the hdd out of the MyCloud and into a simple external case allowed me to repartition and format the 4Tb drive into a giant external drive. I wrote my own script to back up the drive and it continues to work perfectly to this day. It’s not network storage though.
@@MadScientistGuitarLabit doesn’t connect physically to any pc. Have to connect via cloud or usb for file transfer
I had the same idea as you, but I was not sure it will work properly. Your video gave me the confidence and I order a US$14 cable that save me hours of work just to make that piece of c*** of networking adapter to work.
Oh dear Lord. This device was a pain. Transferring files from one country to another took forever so I took the same path. Destroy the whole thing. 10 years later cloud storage is now affordable
Yep. I dealt with it for a log while. The longer I owned and used it, the less capable it became. Sad.
I have this OS3 WD My Cloud and got the email about loosing tech support and to disconnect it from the internet.
If i do, how to i access it from my 2 laptops inside the home if its disconnected from the internet ??
How else do i read the files from it if the usb port is for external hard drives only ??
It now going to be a paper weight if i unplug the ethernet cord from it ...
Great advice, I do have data on mine that I would like to recover. I got a solid red light every time using the MyCloud unit. Anyone have any advice on how to gain access? All it wants me to do is format. I have read using Linux for Windows, but that seems very confusing. Any help, Thanks!
Alas, no. I know that someone else has already done this. It requires Linux and another software program to access the RAW data format. It’s possible, just not straightforward.
I love you man. That was brilliant! I'm doing just that today!
after assembly into the external HDD case, can I connect it to a USB of another WD my cloud home, as WD is stopping remote access support to the older my cloud.
Whoa that’s such a cool idea I’d like to see what would happen.
I did most of the instructions here, but how did you format your hard drive so you can access it on a computer? Don't you have to partition it so it can be used again?
Yessir. I just used the hardware / drive manager in windows to repartition the drive and then reformat. As I recall, it didn’t work at first so I kept trying until it worked.
Good Bill, I just watched your video, translated into Spanish. This is TERRIBLE, a few years ago I was able to contact a WD employee and he gave me the steps to set up a local network, or something like that, I did NOT understand the steps he gave me. But when I activated the disk, it opened the folders of the MyCloud disk, and I could see them in the NETWORK area of the computer. TODAY I go to look to look for something, AND I DON'T HAVE THEM, THEY HAVE GONE AWAY!!!! I too am disappointed in this system. And I would like to know if you can help me set this up, and then do what you explain in your video. Is this possible? please. Do you have a video explaining what they do?
This was the kind of frustration I had with this system. It would work for a short while and then not at all.
I agree this thing is a trap if called as Network Drive, but the data transfer speed of its USB port is pretty good when you use the sftp access (though sometimes the line command response is very slow too!). I just found that nobody else can read the dynamic disk data on a USB enclosure but this thing can do it!
If you hook a USB hub to it, you can use it moving large data trunks between different drives and it's more reliable than the Windows copy action.
Question can I have external drive on my network thru Ethernet cable ??
I couldn’t get mine to work that way anymore. I did try to hook my laptop directly to MyCloud with an Ethernet cable. It worked but it so slow. Another comment said that 100Mbps was too slow for me and I know that my transfer rate was way below that.
Can you switch it to a regular USB drive (or internal drive) without reformatting it and losing the data that's already on it? I have an old 3TB model that has a lot of my really old files stored on it. I want to turn it into an internal drive for my desktop, but without losing the data that's on it now.
I suppose it is possible. I do know that these drives can be used internally. To access the data, you will need to use one of the software hacks a few people have found. There is a link to another video elsewhere in the comments where a fellow used a usb docking station to connect the drive and some LINUX software to access the data.
THere's another guy with a video on youtube that was successful in retaining his data. I think it's really hit or miss unfortunately. ruclips.net/video/FmfygEfWuNM/видео.html
I have this since years but this thing is so complicated...I use it just to dump movies and access it on Apple TV using Infuse app and its running great but on my Samsung smart TV it shows up but doesn't show an content...its miserable any help would be great from anyone...Thanx.
great idea of moving the HD out from the chassis. all the data is secured if the hd is moved out of did I miss anything.
Thanks for the video! Do you lose any data when you disconnect the hard drive from the motherboard!
Not at all. But to access the drive you will have to use Linux to read the RAW format. In my case I deleted everything, repartitioned it, and format a huge 4TB backup.
@@MadScientistGuitarLab Thanks I'll try that.
Thanks for sharing! We should all sue WD for this! I have one as well and now they said they will not provide the service due to security (bullshit), so many ppl have the same issue looks like ugh
Excellent advise. I used it, but was unable to access the files, due to files not beeing stored i FAT format. I use windows 10. I used Disk Internals Linux reader to extract the files.
same here I follow the instruction but can't read hard drive to back up file do you knew if they have Disk Internals Linux reader or similar for Mac
After following this I got the.hard drive.. my hard drive I am trying to mount to my computer but it is not detected..any tips how to makw windows recognize.it. I have tried to.mount it to two diff pcs not detected on both.
The disk is formatted in a RAW format. Windows cannot detect such a thing. If you have files to retrieve, you’ll have to use Linux. I didn’t need to do this so I just used partition magic to blow away the partitions and create one big 4Tb disk. Formatting for windows was pretty easy after that.
@@MadScientistGuitarLab thanks for taking time to reply. It is a brand new drive. It is not shown on partition magic as well as unassigned or.any other space. I am a bit confused. How to detect and use this 14tb drive I just took out of the standard case.
@@abhijitnilegaonkar5224 14Tb is huge. One problem I had with 4Tb is that I first tried on older external enclosure and it only saw 2Tb. I had to get a different one to support the full 4Tb. Assuming yours does, I wonder if you need to go through disk management first. In Disk Manager you should be able to see the drive, unformatted, and all of the partitions. If that doesn’t work I would think it would be a driver issue or the need for an external power supply to spin that drive.
😂😂 Your cat reminds me so much of mine!! …”🛑Wait!!!! I must see, must smell, must touch… Hmm, okay, you may pay the treat tax & proceed” 😂😂
I have one of those units and have never suffered so much in my life using it. Probably computers from the 80's had better software. And if you need support... you better pray!
Thanks for the video - Ive just done exactly that, bloody WD I have always had problems with the WD software .
Good to hear
Thanks for this. I'm grappling with my WD My Cloud 4T right now as I type. I already switched to Synology DS220j, which I love. It's more than I expected. I have my own "Google" Drive now.
I will do what you did and use that as a backup HDD and plug it into the back of my Synology for one more safety measure. Thanks!!!
These drives just cant handle data one would put on a NAS drive, it works for smaller things but it just struggles so badly.
Yes, I completely agree with you, WD MyCloud NAS is complete crap, but there is a big advantage - the presence of an Ethernet port.
Thank goodness I skipped out on that heap of turd plastic and got a nas! Deepest condolences to your lost data though. I lost my half a terabyte of movies and shows due to a failing WD green drive.
Amen, brother! My project for this weekend.
You got this!
I took out the hard drive out of the WD my cloud case. Do I have to unscrew anything else outside the drive or does it just fit the HDD case?
😡I have this nas. They’re not supporting it anymore. Thanx for the video.
Yea i got about 20 yrs worth of pictures and videos on this device. Its real upsetting 😡 ...
when you removed the HD from WD case, did the drive work like a normal HD when put in the external case? was all your data intact?
No. There is a way to get the data using Linux. I removed all partitions and reformat the whole thing.
Hello, I have had the same problem, at the moment I can not access the cloud I do not know if it is a firmware problem or if the HD is damaged. I have a cable that allows me to connect the hard drive to my Mac but I have the surprise that it is in "extFS" format and I can not see my folders as I had or I could see them through the MyCloud application. Maybe it's easy but I do not understand much of these things. If someone could help me I will be greatly appreciated I do not want to lose the information I have on the HD.
Happy new year and greetings.
There is an English fellow that talks about how he accessed the drive. Here is that video... ruclips.net/video/DokMZXDa0vk/видео.html
I have one too. Why did you reformat it? I just replaced it with a real NAS.
I did the reformat because I could make one giant partition that windows would recognize. Putting that drive in a cheap enclosure was more cost effective for me. The NAS was a good idea, but WD’s implementation left a lot to be desired.
i ordered the case today, i hope it works for me. tx anyway
Did you lose all of your files or were you able to access them putting it in a new shell
At the time I converted it to just an external drive, I had already lost all my backup data anyway. I had nothing to loose by reformatting by force.
tell me how you really feel lol
Can you show me how you unscrewed the sides of the hard drive? The silver part is impossible to remove but you seem to have done so
Was able to pull the drive and connect to computer externally but I can’t access the files. As far as I know it is trying to authenticate over the net since it’s a NAS. How were you able to access your files? Would you mind doing a tutorial for that?
I know there’s a way to do it. Since mine was just a back up of stuff I already had, I wiped the drive clean and did a reformat. But if you need the existing information, you have to find a way to read RAW format files. There’s another fellow on RUclips who’s even more cranky than I am, and he found a Linux program to pull the RAW files back out. I will search for a link.
Here is that video... ruclips.net/video/DokMZXDa0vk/видео.html
@@MadScientistGuitarLab Thank you for this link! It saved my ass! That software is the way to go if you cant reformat the drive and need to get to your data
@@navi1666 which software did you end up using? I’m in a similar position and can’t reformat the hard drive.
Hey Bill - I found your video really useful and agree with your comments about WD. Please could I ask if you know how to extract the storage from the unit without losing whats on there already? I have at least 1TB worth of files on there that I have now way to access right now as WD have discontinued to support the drive. Would appreciate any advice you can give
its just a linux ext4 fiilesystem. no encryption so anything that can read that filesystem will allow access, even a live linuxcd will do the trick
@@AmirKhan-qx2lr thanks Amir
What if I want to have some type of either cloud or local backup for my photos and videos? And then something I can access over the cloud? Do you have a solution for that? Thank you for your input
Have both cloud and local if possible, not either since anything worth backing up should have redundant backup.
would you like to sell the parts you will no longer use?
Sorry, all those parts are long gone by now.
Could you take the hard drive out of the wd my cloud and put it in a synology nas?
I don’t know. Once I left NAS and went to the external backup brick, I stopped learning about how to make these things work. Still, now you’ve got me curious and I wonder how I could make a NAS work the right way for me.
I switched to a synology Nas 423+ and after a bit of faff setting it up, now it just works.
I have the same problem with that thing. I can't get to my data over the ethernet, even if WD only says the remote control is stoped and you technical can get access to it from your local network. But it doesn't work anymore. In only can open the start page on my browser but I cannot get to the folders. If I rip the HDD out of the case and put it in a new USB case, do I get access to my already saved data on that HDD or are they completly lost? Thanks for help.
I have two of these 2TB WD MyCloud drives stuffed with data. To my horror, I discovered WD had disabled online access through WD Cloud OS 3 - which appears to have been turned off.
This is what I did; I was still able to access the dashboard console of each drive on my network by accessing the drive via its IP address in a browser.
I set the IP address setting from DHCP to static.
I set my subnet mask to my network’s subnet mask.
Also set the IP Gateway to the IP address of my Broadband Router.
I left the 3 x DNS sections blank! That should prevent external access via the internet, methinks.
I also accessed the shares settings via the console, and enabled both FTP and Public settings.
Make sure you give yourself overall admin access to all available shares.
I saved these changes; both drives started to churn away (probably implementing the new permissions on both drives).
Following day, accessed both drives via a Linux Mint Computer on the same network;
All the shares ARE available - I accessed some of them and viewed photos or watched videos - I could see documents as well.
I haven’t tried with a PC yet.
I’ve ordered a new 12TB NAS and once it arrives, I’ll proceed with transferring all my data to the new 12TB NAS - then I’ll decide what to do with the 2TB WD MyCloud Drives.
This is one way to recover your data IF you suddenly discovered you’re locked out of your 2TB WD MyCloud drives because WD has now disabled the MyCloud OS 3 network. Good luck!
@@datathunderstorm Thanks for your try to help me. But my english is not good enough to really understand what you did here. Even the settings have different names in my german router settings. So I can't follow what to do here.
So my question again to others if I may access the data, when I put the HDD in a new case and connect it via USB to my Computer.
I would never buy an WD device anymore, because I see no sense why it isn't possible anymore to get local access to eh device.
I have a 3T Mycloud had it packed while moving just set up plugged in power then Ethernet cable solid light now its blinking always saw blue light either blinking or solid hmmmmm??
That’s how it happened to me, except for the move part. One day it worked fine, then it worked half the time, then five minutes only after reset, then nothing. I tried everything to make it work because that’s my day job and has been for 20+ years. I don’t hack as a first course of action so my options were whittled down to this.
@@SexyMexiChili you reply to my message almost year later?
Is there anyway to remove files locally?
I hate this thing. I had one for a few years and LED burnt out so I can't tell if its reading/writing or just idle. And the fact that WD stopped support on it I cannot redownload the program on my new PC. I will definitely do what you just did
You are right! I really hate that shiiit wd stuff!
I have a lot picture i've lost for not updating that wd! Many thanks! I hope i can recover mine too.
I've been using mine for a long time to watch home movies and pictures on my home network.
Bought a my cloud home expecting to do the same, now I can't see squat. I'm glad I have NEW storage, but the only way to see it is through the internet. Kinda BS if you ask me. Guess I'll have to tie it to the network via USB
Wait.... So you have to reformat, so you lose anything you had on the drive?
You don’t “have to” but I didn’t need anything from the drive because it had failed so many times. A repartition and format was the solution for me. There are Unix / Linux tools to retrieve you data if you need.
I like this video, I did not even think of disassembling and using the hard drive as an external HD. I agree and disagree with you on this... The WD drive is incredibly difficult to get running properly, and once you do, the performance is meh... Where I do like this drive is using the cloud services. I do a lot of work remotely and this drive has saved me a couple of times. The Major issue with this is the external attacks... I get about 4-8 a day.
I was initially excited about the internet access but the security flaws and the daily attacks made me turn that part of it off. Even just connected to my router at home MyCloud eventually just quit working, or just working for a few minutes and then cutting itself off. I've worked with computers for 40 odd years now and I reached that point of 'Screw it. I'm looking for another way.' I am encouraged that you were able to keep it running, and I'm doubly impressed that you were able to use the actual cloud like features it supports.
Does this keep your information, as that's all I care about.
Mine crashed after five years of disservice.
I've been running data recovery software for over 24 hours now in the hopes that I will be able to recover some of my lost files.
Yes, it is a POS that was slower than Christmas and sometimes allowed me to access my files and sometimes did not. A horrible proprietary nightmare.
What a cute cat❤😊 instant video like for cat
Western Digital (WD my cloud) is one of the biggest scams in Europe. I lost 2 TB of data because they discontinued a device I bought. I am still trying to figure out how to retrieve my data now. The device is exactly like the one in this video. It is as stupid as its makers; there is no way to access the device unless it is connected and running online. And not they decided that it is no longer accessible remotely, and I have no way to access it.
Yeah that sucks, not being able to access your own data with your comp. You should have gotten a ssd, you did it again, bought a worthless hhd instead of an ssd…
My drive is now an external drive. never buy one of these again. WD hacked and down for a whole week
so my drive at home doesn't work?
nonsense
Puuuuuurfect idea..!! Thx 4 info
I didn't know you could give a HD a "CAT" scan!
Oh, she inspects everything. Quality control, and an ever expanding resume of qualifications. LOL
Now they stopped the support of my cloud os 3
Ditch WD
Never again buying Western digital crap again
I see that there was a vulnerability in os3 that rather than fix, as they did in os5, they just decided to no longer support os3. I’m beginning to think a good business to go into would be a NAS with the slogan “we’re not WD”
@@MadScientistGuitarLab yeah man i only bought my drive like 6 months ago from a well know big Aussie retail store of 6tb wd nas my cloud hd at discount.
Sure discount was good but man WD is just so bad they are even refusing to honour warrenty for something that's Less than 6 month owned.
Will never ever even think of west digital ever in life
Do it please! Let us BOYCOTT THIS PIEACE OF CRAP!
Thank you!
thanks so much for the solution.I have already purhased the external hdd enclosure with usb type c connection.I have the exact model as you have.never will buy a wd mycloud.
Very good idea to own one, but.. Like a lot of good ideas they really don't work out. If you don't mind sharing your data with the world get one. Also, they die very easily. WD is the cheapest mainstream HD brand but they have bad quality due to their mass producing.
"You suck...and that's pretty much all I have to say" DITTO!!!
Lol 😂
My cat is a twin to your cat!.... smile
Acaba de dañarse el My CLoud Home, que ni con el Dashboard pude conectarme. Use un sistema externo y recuperé mis archivos. Es una basura esa marca.
Erst den Menschen die tollen Festplatten verkaufen, dann das kostenose synch Programm einstellen und jetzt den Online zugriff auf die "alten" Geräte sperren. Das ist dann der Grund warum WD nicht mehr in mein Haus kommen wird.
It's a brick..I just ripped out the hd and reformatted as a mac os drive and put it into an external drive case.. don't waste your money.. buy a proper NAS drive like a Synology one
Full on rage...
Yeah, it’s a shame that my most popular video is just me ranting about a hard drive. Ha ha.
I use mine as a network drive and regularly get 700Meg transfer speed. Its not perfect, as I could not get Windows PC to see it, so I mapped it under file explorer and works fine. I use it with a my Rasbery pi for video with Kodi. Also back up my photos from my phone with WD My cloud app automatically. Can also access the drive when out and about for the odd MP3 or picture, but due to slow internet not much else.
how?
@@dennisjohnston7967 I have now binned the case and put the drive in my computer. As the old WD My Cloud I had were regularly getting hacked, and in the end, Western Digital said the drives were unsupported and should not be used. Sorry bad news!
Hear hear! totally agree! never again WD
Very true. They are useless. Thanks for sharing.
i feel the same have been struggling now for days with this piece of crap
All you can do I did the same with my WD network drive..
Can you post what you did for a Mac user? I would like to be able to access my files on the WD drive. Thx.
I know it's possible to access the files, but I have not. There's a fellow that did it through a Linux system using a free trial of Paragon ExtFS, EFS, or FS (the name seems to change). They should have an OSX version too.
Hell has no fury like a woman scorned...
Lol
Your suffering must be hard
I can fix it they are finicky. you can't just unplug them it will brick..
I “fixed” mine multiple times but it just kept getting worse. If you know the secret sauce to fix these I know thousands of people will thank you. As for me, I’m happy with a 4TB external backup and a script to copy the important stuff over.
This is one of the most useless videos I have ever seen. Your video has nothing to do with hacking anything with the wd mycloud. The unit is good for what it was designed.. it puts a hard drive on your network. It does everything a nas is supposed too. It simply lacks any upgradability, mostly because all the software is on the hard drive so it has no brains if you stick in a new hard drive. I also attached a usb drive to expand my nas storage..again worked great. Today I am retiring my My Cloud and moving the 2tb drive that was in mine into one of the bays of a qnap nas I purchased.
such a waste
I agree. It's a waste of a lot of time and effort on my part to find an alternate way of using this harddrive, and I no longer have access to my data via the internet. It's also a waste of the circuit board originally used to control the drive. It had an internet and a USB connection. Potentially, it could become a little micro-computer, but not without a lot of hacking. I'd love to find a hack to make that happen! :)
I’ve got One for this and I can edit 4K footage off the drive without any problems lol it’s about your setup not the WD device 😂😂
what? what? I can hardly HEAR YOU
The audio SUCKS!!!!!
Dude if you didn't like the performance of a 1 Gigabit Ethernet connection just return it for a full refund. Then buy one of the WD MyBooks or MyPassport drives that connect over USB 3.x. So much faster and does the very same thing as that cheapo external enclosure. USB 3.0 will always be faster than Gigabit Ethernet. Since you think WD sucks so much why did you keep their Red Drive?
At the time that drive broke there was no option to return it for a refund. As for why not get another, I didn’t want to invest in just another product from WD. But, the 4Tb drive was worth experimenting with since I already owned it. I had an external enclosure laying around and was able to access the drive, format, and use it directly. It’s a cheap solution that worked for me.
Waste 5 minutes of my life
Yes, WD is shit. Its entire NAS line. But how is this a hack? It is clickbyte.