So there comes the time when one is given all sorts of notions - gracefully, I have to say so far, as this was spread over the recent couple of years - that the drive within my My Cloud Gen1 (up and continuously running since early 2014) is becoming old and starts failing. I did mention this in the below thread few months ago:
Now every now and then I start hearing some funny (mechanical) noises, as well as Full Test I ran yesterday uncovered another SMART value that increased (#200 - Write Error Rate). So I think it’s high time to get this addressed.
There were numerous threads about it posted here, with plenty to chew on, so I think I know how to proceed.
I do believe the options I have are once I source the drive itself - am thinking about WD Red Pro 14/16/18TB - are:
Build WD My Cloud from the scratch by using one of the images available within the aforementioned threads
Copy (clone) the current drive to the new one.
Second one is preferred one as current drive hosts all documents, it’s daily copies and iTunes / media library, and I would rather avoid the expense of copying it all again from the scratch.
As I will have to faff with Unix (and am not that familiar with it) and regardless of option chosen, will need to expand data (ext4) partition accordingly, is there any particular procedure you’d suggest I should follow?
Perhaps building this drive from the scratch and then copying the data (ext4) between the disk is a better option?
I did go through all available options last year and the consensus was: what I currently have and use suffices, and two aforementioned items would not do the trick for variety of reasons.
So I am looking at preserving (sustaining) the status quo, and replacing HDD only.
If your concern is about fragility of external plastics, or electronics inside, then this is very valid point… Still, for that very reason I bought second, like-for-like lightly-used unit few months ago, so if anything happens, I still have another unit to play with.
Also, I did replace (upgrade, I was merely running out of space) HDD in WD My Book that I got in 2009 (I think) couple of years back, and this unit and does work okay.
First replacing the existing hard drive in a first gen single bay My Cloud. There are various past discussions on how to put a new hard drive into a single bay My Cloud enclosure. From cloning the old drive to the new (larger) drive, to trying to find an “image” file, to using user Fox_Exe’s directions. Replace HDD - English.txt original_v03.04.01-230.tar.gz original_v04.01.02-417.tar.gz
If you are going to spend the money on a WD Red Pro drive then consider doing things the right way and buying a newer NAS. Either a diskless model or one with drives. If you want to put a new drive into the existing single bay enclosure there is no need to go with a WD Red Pro drive (it’s overkill), look to a WD Red Plus drive instead. Red Plus drives are usually a bit cheaper.
There are various other single and multi drive NAS enclosures out there to choose from. Do not buy a My Cloud Home! It is, as many found out afterwards, a step down from the My Cloud line of devices and the My Cloud Home isn’t really a true NAS anyway. If you want to remain with WD then look at the My Cloud EX2 Ultra as entry level. One can populate it with a couple of WD Red Plus drives and have a good basic NAS with remote access. Or one can look into other manufacturers (Synology and QNAP) for their offerings, both single bay and multi bay. Typically one will pay a bit more for Synology or QNAP but one typically gets more features/options for their money.
I will study (again) these threads and provided by Fox_Exe information when the time is ripe and I find some spare time to get on with it…
I think buying large WD Pro drive itself is a smart move in its own right - I can then re-use this disk in the next NAS should that become a necessity.
NB to give you a reference: my OS drives are SAMSUNG PRO SSDs. And the only drive that properly started failing me in the last 25 years - very recently either, in fact less than fortnight ago - was WD Blue that came with my current PC I use (it’s actually the newest spinning drive I own!) and that hosts source installation libraries and (surprise surprise) recovery partition. So go figure.
My Cloud Home is definitely out of the equation - I’ve done the homework last year when started receiving these meagre discount coupons from WD along notification about remote access being removed last Apr.
I was pondering purchase of My Cloud EX2 Ultra last year but discounted it for variety of reasons - some detailed reviews I read were of help in deciding against it.
Synology and QNAP - found them a bit too expensive for what I actually need.
All in all I found that the best option at this stage is to preserve the status quo, it’s just the mechanics of how do I actually achieve it.
I concur that WD Red Pro is a bit of overkill. The difference between Plus and Pro is 5400rpm and 7200rpm disks. You will NOT see a performance difference in a single bay network device.
Avoid the regular WD Red drives. . . . they say the larger Red drives are all CMR; and not SMR. . .but that information is more than 20 minutes old. . .so . . . . considering that there is no consumer level difference in cost. . .go with the WD Red Plus.
I have EX2 Ultra boxes and a 1st gen MyCloud. The EX2 Ultra is DRAMATICALLY faster and more responsive than the MyCloud Gen 1.
I can’t speak to your financial situation. . .but bear in mind that the MyCloud Gen 1 runs WD OS/3 - - ->> This device should NOT be exposed to the internet. I am not a huge fan of OS/5 that is run on the EX2 Ultra either - ->> but from a security perspective; OS/3 is a “problem”.
Ah yes, it’s all getting back to me now (again), forgot this CMR/SMR nonsense as well.
This was one of the deciding factor about going large, and Pro series: do not really care about the drive’s rpm’s that much, but I know that with this drive I’m sorted in that respect.
And you can get a bargain on eBay - am talking 30-50% off the RRP - if you are patient enough and can wait for an occasion (bearing in mind all potential risks, obviously).
Two of My Cloud devices are only connected to my home network and are only used to store OS & similar disk images, as well as copies of documents (via File History, daily), iTunes / media library and such. Definitely nothing too sophisticated, that would require fast speed and response times (NB I am getting up to 1Gb/s throughputs normally unless I deal with thousands of small files - but that’s expected), and truly remote access was never needed in the first place (it looked a nice gimmick initially, but faff associated with it made it fade quite quickly).
So I think I’ll stick with my choice and in the worst case I will have a drive I can repurpose, and will gain some knowledge into Unix installation and disk partitioning & such
I seriously recommend you ditch the old enclosure. Copy all your current files off it, buy a new device (2022/2023 vintage), and copy all the files back to that.
I wouldn’t recommend a WD replacement but, if it meets all your current needs and you like the way it works, you could get a MyCloud EX2 Ultra.
Blockquote
I seriously recommend you ditch the old enclosure.
OK, so in the context of my needs as I stated them above, pray tell me why would I need to do it?
Current device does work (continuously) since early 2014 and meets my requirement. Any reason why do I need to shell £200+ for a replacement if the old one still remains operational?
Firstly, the OS is stored on the drive, not the enclosure, making it a royal PITA if anything goes wrong. You’re at that point now and it’s going to be a tortuous procedure the get the OS onto your new drive.
Secondly, it’s unsupported (although you could argue that WD support is worthless).
Thirdly, it’s a local network drive, only. Might as well use a USB drive.
The list goes on and on. But if you’re happy with it, go ahead. There’s support to be had here when you need to set it all up with the new HDD.
One. This is a challenge indeed, but I’m up for it - decided last year already when started pondering options going forward.
At the end of a day if things go pear-shaped, I might just bin the whole lot and re-assess alternative options.
Two. This is not an issue taking into account wealth of knowledge here on these forums.
Three. Fair point, but NAS just suits me better.
And yes, I am hoping to be able to obtain some support here should I need it later.
WD MyCloud 4TB I owned served me patiently and well another couple of years, and then I started seeing more disk failures - as reported by HD Sentinel I deployed there to keep an eye on things.
As it happened, I also migrated to another PC back in May and started facing a dillema of regular document backups via ‘File History’ in Windows - they were quite hard to complete during the day, and on the failing unit either. So I started reconsidering my options.
So I retrieved (purchased, as above, and virgin, as I’ve not used it at all) this 16TB monster and got myself Synology DS124 in late July. And I have to say after handful of days I was sorted, back and running, and got like-for-like replacement that serves my needs.
But the itching remained as I found it hard to part with the old unit… and for this purpose got another HDD (WD Red Pro 8TB) earlier this week and eventually sat and replaced the failing drive yesterday evening.
These were the guides I used:
(found them not exactly factual due to - for example - ‘sudo’ command needed to make these changes, or issues with mounting the drive as no mont point was specified… not to mention pesky UEFI settings, requirement to have rather low-capacity USB pendrives, and faff with disk devices in command line that at one stage resulted with me incorrectly deploying the image on the pendrive where the image was coming from, rather than on the target drive…! Some learning curve for unanointed, that’s for sure!)
Unit after lengthy restart (red light) and 40-sec factory reset sprung back to life and reports 8TB (well, 7.9TB) of space. Got the firmware up to date either and will think about its use foing forward.
All in all: good fun and some brain exercise, not to mention trying the engineering skills.
