I bought a drive-less My Cloud EX2 Ultra and 2 3TB Seagate Ironwolf drives. Upon setup have learned that this device only accepts WD drives, something that of course, wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the material I read when researching NAS solutions.
My first question is, is there any reason beyond greedy business practices that explain why the EX2 Ultra is incompatible with non-WD drives?
My second question is if it’s possible o format the drives to work in the EX2 Ultra.
According to a couple threads, it seems like people are doing this, but it seems that this whole forum is a bit over my head, because I can’t find any information on how exactly to make a non-WD drive compatible.
I’ve spent over an hour Googling the topic as well, to no avail.
Third, read the My Cloud EX2 User Manual (https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=906) if you haven’t already as it may have further information on what drives are supported.
Lastly, see the dedicated subforum for the EX2. This subforum (My Cloud) is generally for the single bay/single drive My Cloud models. You can use the forum search feature, magnifying glass icon upper right, to find additional discussions about drive support on the EX2 model.
Thanks for the info. I actually have the EX2 Ultra (sorry for the mis-information). It looks like the EX@ Ultra has a much more limited drive compatibility list.
So am I to assume that if my drive is not on the list, there is no solution to make them work in this device?
Even though the single bay My Cloud units (that do not support removable drives) come with a WD red drive they will work with other SATA desktop hard drives as some of us are doing right now. Some of us have had the internal single bay My Cloud hard drive die (for what ever reason) and replaced them with other manufacturer’s hard drives.
Did you ever get this resolved? I just bought the ex2 ultra and it’s still wrapped in the box. If I’m limited to what I can use, I’m just going to return it and go for something else. I’d rather not just cross my fingers and just hope that my drive works.
Thanks for the reply. I ultimately just returned the NAS and went with the qnap 231P. Similar specs and far more depth on the drive compatibility front. Only downside is that it’s not black/charcoal. I don’t have an issue with red drives, I just don’t want a company to tell me that it’s my only option. I get that WD has a dog in the fight since they make NAS systems and drives, but to be that restrictive is bad idea.
Anyway, thanks for making this post, I was about to go drive shopping for my NAS when your post came up on google. Just wanted to reach out and say that this post made my decision to switch a little easier. Thanks.
I have the WD Ex2 Ultra fitted with 2 x 8tb Ironwolf Pro HDDs and I’ve had some problems with a red light on HD1 - it’s an intermittent issue but I’m pretty sure it’s a compatibility issue as I’ve tried 2 different drives in HD1 slot the last one brand new.
As I’m running a mirrored RAID with backups elsewhere I’m just going to run with it. I may change enclosure if it really starts to bug me.
UPDATE OCT 2023 - I RMA’d a Seagate Iron Wolf Pro 8Tb to Segate because of a red light on HD1. The replacement drive from Seagate subsequently also triggered the red light on HD1. I then swapped the drives around and the HDD that hadn’t caused any issues in HD2 then produced a red light on HD1.
That is THREE HDDs all producing a red light on HD1 ONLY - there is something wrong with the NAS and not the drives. I will be swapping for Synology shortly.
I am using Segate Ironwolf 4TB by now since 3 years. Never had any issues. I got it running 24x7 on backup UPS power and always ensured to gracefully shutdown/restart when necessary.
