Clean disk image for WD MyCloud

Hi,

I am planning to replace the 2TB disk in my WD MyCloud with a 4TB one. Could someone please tell me where I can download a clean disk image for the device?

Thanks.

There are a number of methods to “unbrick” a new drive so it will work in a single bay/single drive My Cloud. Some of those methods do not require a “clean” disk image.

For example user Fox_Exe has a set of directions that more than a few have used to successfully setup a new drive to work in the single bay/single drive enclosure.

Because there are two different single bay My Cloud versions the unbrick method is different for each. You cannot restore a first gen v3.x/v4.x My Cloud to use the newer second gen v2.x firmware. Check the P/N number on the bottom of the single bay/single drive My Cloud enclosure. P/N that ends with “-10” is a second gen v2.x firmware single bay My Cloud. A P/N that ends with “-00” is a first gen v3.x/v4.x firmware single bay My Cloud.

The main Fox_exe repositories for multiple My Cloud models can be found here:
https://fox-exe.ru/WDMyCloud/

First gen directions:
English: https://fox-exe.ru/WDMyCloud/WDMyCloud-Gen1/Replace%20HDD%20-%20English.txt
Russian: https://fox-exe.ru/WDMyCloud/WDMyCloud-Gen1/Replace%20HDD.txt
The img files needed for the first gen Fox directions can be found in the WDMyCloud-Gen1/Backups folder in the main Fox_exe respoitory link above.

Second gen directions:
English: https://fox-exe.ru/WDMyCloud/WDMyCloud-Gen2/_Unbricking_en.txt
Russian: https://fox-exe.ru/WDMyCloud/WDMyCloud-Gen2/_Unbricking_ru.txt
Various files used in the second gen Fox_exe unbrick directions can be found in the WDMyCloud/WDMyCloud-Gen2 repository.

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Thanks, it’s a lot more complicated than I thought it would be but I will have a go!

If the original drive in the My Cloud isn’t damaged, and is still functional in the My Cloud enclosure then one could attempt to clone the old drive to the new drive.

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Hello, new to the group but I have had my WDCLOUD orignal for about 5 years, I think. I just bought a new WDCLOUD EX2 Ultra and love it. However, I want to keep my original WDCLOUD around if I can get it to work again. So the drive in the WDCLOUD has errors and luckily I had backups of my data on USB drives. I had to partition the WDCLOUD drive and now the drive boots but gets stuck on the solid really LED. I just want to understand if the firmware is actually stored on the HardDrive… I would think that is unusual, but then maybe they were keeping costs down.

On the single bay My Cloud units the firmware is stored on several partitions on the hard drive. There are a number of unbrick methods one can use to restore the operating system to a new hard drive or existing My Cloud hard drive. One can use the forum search feature, magnifying glass icon upper right, to find many past discussions on unbricking.

It should be noted that when unbricking to a new or existing drive for use in a single bay My Cloud enclosure, one may get a red front LED upon initial boot. If so one should attempt to access the My Cloud Dashboard and perform a System Only Factory Restore via the Dashboard > Settings > Utilities page.

Thank you for your response… that makes me feel better about going through the unbricking process.

I am now trying to do the same, except replacing my 4TB HDD with a 128GB SSD.

I have removed all the data on 4TB drive and resized the data partition to 60 GB.

I have done exactly the same as before but when I plug in the cloned SSD, the red LED on the device continually flashes.

Any idea why?

I’ve commented on attempting to use an SSD (two different SSD drives) within the My Cloud enclosure in another thread. Never could get it to work on a first gen single bay My Cloud. Seems there is something blocking the ability to use SSD drives internally. One suggestion at the time was to use a RS232 to pull boot information from the My Cloud to see what error it’s throwing at boot preventing the use of a SSD drive. I just reverted to using an old 2.5 inch mechanical laptop hard drive instead within the My Cloud enclosure.

[Guide] How to use a 2.5 inch hard drive in a single bay My Cloud
https://community.wd.com/t/guide-how-to-use-a-2-5-inch-hard-drive-in-a-single-bay-my-cloud/256912

Note on SSD Drives: I tried using two different spare SSD drives (a 64GB and 120GB drive) and was not able to get either one to properly boot. Both got stuck with a Red front LED and no Dashboard access. Multiple attempts at cloning and manually running the unbrick process failed. Not sure if its an issue with the drive small size or with an incompatibility between the firmware/hardware of the My Cloud and using an SSD drive as the main drive. YMMV Others may have better luck with their SSD drives (or not).