Can WD Support please explain to me the logic behind the 4TB Mycloud Gen 2 not having a Shutdown or Hibernate option within the Dashboard or WD Access software?
As pointed out here: http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=16782
… the Single-bay My Cloud only has Restart and Log Out options within the web interface but it does not explain what to do if I want to move my hard drive. How do shut it down safely? I understand devices like this are intended to be powered 24/7, but to assume it should never be unplugged for its entire lifetime is absurd.
There is a thread here:
… which asks the same question for software version 2.10.310, so when 2.30.165 became available for my device, I assumed this option would have been included, but unfortunately this was not the case.
In the above thread, using SSH is one possible avenue to explore, but enabling SSH voids the warranty. End-users should not have to void their warranty in order to safely unmount and shut down their drive.
So, how do we safely unmount and shut down our devices, and what is the logic behind a shutdown option not being available?
I’m sure the simple act of turning on SSH via the web interface would not void the warranty.
WD say,
“The use of SSH to modify or attempt to modify the device outside of the normal operation of the product voids your WD warranty.”
There is no mention of voiding the warranty only if you damage the device while logged in, and as a consequence of using SSH.
So, enabling SSH and issuing commands to the device to make it do things which WD haven’t made available in the default firmware, one might argue, is outside its normal operation. But semantics and how we interpret what ‘normal operation’ is, isn’t my point.
If this devices’ OS and hardware is capable of unmounting and shutting down correctly, then why has such a fundamental option been omitted from the firmware? Has it simply been overlooked? I doubt that very much - I imagine there is a good reason for it.
You don’t have to connect to the UART to unbrick the device. There are several ways to unbrick
the device even one that does not require opening the My Cloud.
Please note there are NUMEROUS past discussion on this issue. WD generally will not give one an answer when this question is asked (over and over). See the many past discussions (use the search feature - magnifying glass icon upper right) on how to use either SSH to shut down the single bay second gen My Cloud devices or you can use the WD Quick Access to shut down the gen 2 single bay My Cloud. Feel free to join the rest in voicing your opinions in the long running Cloud Ideas thread requesting a Shutdown option in the My Cloud gen 2 Dashboard.
A “halt -p” command from ssh will shutdown the device cleanly.
You can also just pull the plug. Make sure that there is no disk access from some client. It won’t harm and actually I had a few power cuts and it was never a problem when the device rebooted. You must be very unlucky if the ext4 filesystem is trashed.
As you can see, I have already used the search feature, having previously quoted someone else and also an official WD Support post.
For your information, the shutdown option IS NOT currently available in the WD Quick Access software for this device, as of:
Software: 1.4.5949.29996
Firmware: 2.30.165
I also noticed the light on the front eventually turns a pink/purple colour for a fraction of a second when doing a Reboot. I guessed this was the point at which the system had shut down and was about to restart. I unplugged at the pink/purple light and moved my unit. The system subsequently booted up fine without any disk checks.
Try the WD Access program instead. I may have confused WD Quick View with WD Access when it comes to shutting down the second gen v2.x single bay My Cloud.
The various other threads where this lack of a shutdown button is discussed cover how to use SSH, or modifying the HTML/CSS code of the Dashboard page, or issuing a Javascript command to trigger a shutdown on the second gen v2.x firmware My Cloud units.
The fact that shutdown is missing from the GUI at the current time is beyond comprehension. But its a 2 min job to install the WD quickview utility to remediate.
Or alternatively enable ssh, login as root user using putty (or similar free ssh client) and type “shutdown.sh” if you want to feel like you’re a Unix sysadmin.
