Diskless EX2 - list of compatible drives

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX2
1

Hi,

I am thinking of buying the diskless version of EX2 Ultra, i have a couple of Hitachi drives from another NAS that I intend to use, they are 3,5 inch. Is there anywhere where I can find a list of compatible drives? The links from earlier posts on same topic are dead links.

Thank you in advance.

BR
Michael

2

A list of compatible hard drives is not publicly available at the time of this post. I’d recommend contacting WD Support about this; you can do so in the following link:

http://support.wdc.com/support/case.aspx?lang=en

3

Thank you Trancer, I contacted WD support and got positive feedback on using my existing drives, so I will now go ahead buying the diskless EX2.

BR
Michael

1 Like
4

Any one know where the list is for non wd drives

5

Hi Michael,

Here it is:
https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=906&lang=en#WD_compatibility

BR
Michael

6

That’s an awfully restricted list, and appears to be out-of-date? Does that mean my new “Red Pro” 8TB drive (WD8001FFWX) is not supported? I’m screwed - and own a $350 drive that I can’t use when my diskless EX2 Ultra comes in. I was planning on using my existing Barracuda 6TB drive, as well. No go? (that part of the list only goes up to 4TB) Mine is the ST6000DM004 model.

This has GOT to be old / out-of-date: there aren’t any WD 10GB drives in it anywhere.

7

So, nobody willing to touch this topic? I have to assume it’s part of the “holy wars”, I guess.

Am I to assume that the HGST (“Hitachi” a WD brand) high end drives like the UltraStar he10 (10TB “Helium”) drives are not supported either? I am looking around for a couple of good drives at decent prices, and found them for $350 - which is an awesome price for a 7200rpm drive with 256MB cache (and of course 10TB storage).

The odd thing I just noticed is that the “old” EX2 shows a wider variety of supported drives (including a few Hitachi “Deskstar” models and a couple of Toshiba drives) in addition to the WD Red, Red Pro & Purple drives - which even they only show models up to 6TB and one or two 8TB models, knowing that they have to support the newer 10TB drives, but the “EX2 Ultra” compatibility list only shows the WD Red, Red Pro & Purple drives up to 6TB with the 8TB WD Red being the only 8TB drive supported (in the list as it is right now).

If I buy an HGST he10 am I out of luck?

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My Barracuda Pro 6TB works great, and with the latest. firmware, I assume that the HGST UltraStar HE10 10TB will also. All are 7200 rpm with 256M cache.
A seller on eBay has that drive for $325 right now - heck of a bargain for a helium based 10TB drive. (like both the WD Red Pro & Gold 10TB are).

HUH721010ALE60Ă— model is the SATA3 version - Ă— = 0 for Instant Secure Erase, 1 = Self Encrypting, 4 = Secure Erase (5 = FIPS140 is only available for SAS drives).

9

Hi, I have a question regarding running Seagate Ironwolf drives in a My Cloud EX2 Ultra. I purchased a disk-less EX2 Ultra, and because I’m new to NAS and there was no material stating any incompatibilities between the EX2 Ultra and third party drives, I got 2 3TB Seagate Ironwolf disks to run in it.

So, everything arrived, I installed the drives, and it didn’t ■■■■■■■ work–which is when I discovered the incompatibility issue on the support page. Pretty rad. Thanks for the clarity, WD!

Anyhoo, it sounds like some people might be running non-WD drives in the EX2 Ultra, but I can’t find any info on how to format the drives so the EX2 Ultra will recognize them.

Can anyone assist in making this happen?

Or should I go a different route, like returning the WD device and buying something like a QNAP, that doesn’t lock people into one drive manufacturer?

Thanks for any and all help!
-Ryan

10

Has WD updated a compatible list yet, i’m new to NAS, but I have access to a few 4TB and 6TB HDD, or has anyone had personal experience with these drives on the EX2.

Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD 4TB ST4000NM0035
Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD 6TB ST6000NM0115

Thanks

11

You can pretty much use any hard drive with EX2 Ultra. Just make sure you buy ones made for NAS for reliability. I got EX2 Ultra and its working well with Seagate 4TB Ironwolf drives.

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Can you use different disks on 8TB ones? say if you had an 8TB WD Drive that came with it and it gets full and you want to change the drives? is that possible to a segate?

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@Gingerbread, There is no black list which the My Cloud will block the drives on purpose . But WD does not test or qualify 3rd party hard drive so hard to say if it’ll be 100% functional and good for the long term use.

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but i can use Higher WD Drives further on in years? even though it comes as 8tb

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For anyone still wondering about this, I’ve got an 18tb drive in mine right now and it seems to be working fine. It sees all 18tb. It is a WD enterprise drive but I don’t think the brand or intended purpose of the drive matters. I’d still recommend NAS or enterprise drives though because they are designed specifically for this type of use and should last longer. They tend to have longer warranties too.