Bricked drive?

Eden_Row · April 9, 2016, 1:16am

Hey all, I recently acquired a My Cloud device from a friend who had claimed not to use it (or very little at most) but upon plugging it in I got the flashing white light of death. The device just doesn’t show up on my computer (a 2014 MBP) or under thunderbolt, USB, storage tabs in the ‘more info’ section. Since then I’ve tried factory/user reset multiple times, connecting it directly to my MBP via ethernet/thunderbolt and access the dashboard. The dashboard I cannot access… I don’t have the ip address of the device (no box, just the actual device). I also don’t have the username and password. Now lets assume I can’t get in to contact with the previous owner - is there still a way of accessing the dashboard at all?

After one of my reset attempts, I had the drive appear under ‘devices’ but was not able to access it. It was also ‘not found’ when running the WD My Cloud or Disk Utilities apps. As well as in ‘my info’ it stated the drives capacity being only 100mb. A little confused about that…

If any of you could shed some light on to my issue that would be great. I’ve looked high and low in the forums to no avail. Cheers!

Eden.

Bennor · April 9, 2016, 1:36am

There are two methods of “reset” with the My Cloud. One is a 4 second reset, the other is a 40 second system restore.

http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=10432

Generally one connects the My Cloud to their local network router/gateway so the My Cloud can obtain an IP Address.

Sometimes one has to leave the My Cloud alone for several hours or more before it settles down and finishes booting up.

Eden_Row · April 9, 2016, 2:02am

I have done the 40 second reset a few times now. Am I to understand that I disconnect the drive, hold down the reset button and while doing so, plug the drive back in and continue to hold it down for 40 seconds? After that, you’re saying I should leave it plugged in for a few hours?

As I’ve been trying this process for the past few weeks I think its safe to say the drive has been powered for a substantial enough time after reset, but I’ll try once more for good measure.

cpt_paranoia · April 9, 2016, 12:13pm

Have you read the user manual?

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=439&type=25

Bennor · April 9, 2016, 1:02pm

Yes, after connecting the My Cloud to your router/gateway and performing a reset or system restore, leave the My Cloud alone for at least an hour. Because you obtained this My Cloud from a friend its possible they didn’t remove their data from the drive. If there is a lot of data it may take the My Cloud a significant amount of time to scan/catalog that data. Further if the previous user initiated a Full Restore from the My Cloud Dashboard it may take 24 to 48 hours for the My Cloud to completely wipe the hard drive due to its size. Its possible the previous user didn’t let that Full Restore complete before handing you the unit.

Generally when the hard drive goes bad on the My Cloud it will show a red LED on the front. If the My Cloud boots properly it will show a blue LED.

One can search these subforums for “unbrick” procedures. There are several methods for unbricking a My Cloud, often though it will involve removing the My Cloud hard drive and attaching it to a computer running some flavor of Linux.

Eden_Row · April 11, 2016, 3:32am

I’ve performed a reset while connected to the router, and directly to my MBP and still nothing. I’ve not been able to get passed the flashing white LEDs. I’ve only once seen that the HDD connected in some way to the MBP (when I plugged directly) but I was unable to access any information regarding the drive anywhere on the computer, except for the ‘my info’ tab.