Issue with EX-4 after adding a new RAID

[S2005]

Good morning all!

I’ve been running a WD EX-4 for a few years now. Until yesterday, I’d only been using two of the four bays. I finally bought two new 12TB drives to populate the other two bays and setup RAID for backup.

I posted recently asking about mixed RAID config, and I’m happy to say I was able to set up the EX-4 with bay 1 & 2 (the new 12TB drives) RAID 1 and bay 3 & 4 the older JBOD drives.

To make me feel better, I powered down and removed the existing two JBOD drives until I had the new RAID 1 setup in bay 1 & 2 and added the two JBOD drives back in bays 3 & 4. I could see all 4 drives in the WD software, and I could access them as normal. Everything was running fine at this point so I decided to get started setting up the backup. (I’d planned on moving everything to the new 12TB RAID 1 from the old smaller JBOD discs).

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This is where the issues started. When I accessed the WD software to set up “shares” I noticed there were a LOT of new “shares” that I didn’t create. They were named “Public_1, Public_2, Public_100” etc. I began deleting the new public shares I didn’t need (a very slow process). After deleting about 5 of them, the system became unresponsive. I left it for an hour with no changes so I pressed the power button on the EX-4 so it would begin it’s shut-down process. Nothing happened. I googled, and I found a lot of info about EX-4s bricking.

I read that pulling the power is the only way to reboot at this point, and contrary to everything I’ve ever learned about HDDs, I did. The drive activity lights were all solid (not flashing to indicate activity) and there was no drive noise, so I felt safe-ish unplugging. I unplugged and left it for 10 minutes, and tried to boot it back up.

Now it just hangs up on the “Welcome to WD My Cloud” screen, and never fully boots. I can get to the WD splash page via IP, but when I try to log in it says to wait, the system is booting.

I had to unplug it again so this time, I removed all 4 drives from their bays. I plugged it back in, and with no drives, it will boot to a screen “No drives installed”. I tried booting with a single drive installed, and it goes back to hanging on the the “Welcome…” screen again.

I’ve tried booting with bay 1 & 2 populated with the new 12TB RAID, and with only bay 3 (old JBOD 2TB drive) with the same result of being hung at “Welcome…”

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Possible troubleshooting/solutions I am thinking about:

1. I’m not optimistic about this one but it’s the cheapest, easiest thing to try. The external power supply is a 19V 4.74A (similar to a laptop power supply). My assumption is maybe it’s not supplying enough power to spin up a drive, but enough to boot up the EX-4 by itself. I hooked up my multimeter and it is indeed getting 19V, but (and I might be using my multimeter wrong) it only shows 1.4A. I am currently planning to buy a new power supply for it today to test this theory. I would also assume I’d get an error of some sort if the power supply was the problem.

2. If it isn’t the power supply, I’m at a loss on what to try next. If fixing the EX-4 is out, what are my data recovery options? The two new 12TB drives are empty but the two JBOD drives have data that I’d really like back. Note, it is not irreplaceable data, but would be a pain to replace.

3. Can I install the JBOD drives in a regular PC to access the data? OR does Western Digital encrypt/store the data in such a way that I’d need to buy another WD product to interface? OR am I out of luck and the data is gone? I don’t currently have a PC with an 3.5" bays, so I’m considering a USB dock of some sort to get my by until I can afford a new NAS enclosure (or build my own NAS).

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Thanks in advance for your time and advice!

[Saudade]

The EX4 uses the EXT file system so Windows won’t read it directly. You can use some freeware from R-Tools to mount the JBOB drive using the USB dock.

I’ve used R-Linux to read the drives I’ve used in Ubuntu. I have not tried it with any of my EX4 drives as they are Raid5. Make sure you get the Windows version.

Data Recovery and File Undelete freeware for Linux files

I have a single PS on my EX4 and it powers all 4 drives in mine (4x2TB) so I’m not sure that’s the problem.

What bays where the original JBOD drives in?

[S2005]

Thanks so much for the reply!

I had the JBOD drives in bays 3 & 4. I’d always planned on adding two large drives to bays 1 & 2 for RAID backup. I put the JBOD drives back into their same slots (3 & 4) after I configured the RAID with the two 12TB drives.

The JBOD drives are both older Western Digital Reds, a 10TB and a 2TB if that matters; The two new ones are Western Digital Ultrastars (12TB each).

If nothing else, the most important answer to me is:

If I plug one of the drives from the EX-4 into another PC (or external USB enclosure) will I be able to access the data?

In my searching, I’ve read that WD uses Linux architecture. My server is running Ubuntu, so if I plug the EX-4 drive into that machine, I should be able to copy the data from that drive?

I just ordered an external USB 3.0 enclosure for 3.5" drives. It should be here Saturday.

[Saudade]

Hopefully someone smarter, more experienced (and better looking) will chime in soon

At this point I wouldn’t mess with it any further and risk corrupting the files on the drives.

I’ve seen several other posts about multiple Public shares but those threads ended without resolution short of replacement or a full reset (reformat).

Connecting them in a USB dock to your Ubuntu server should work. Bear in mind you need enough storage space to copy over the files.

If it doesn’t, there’s a Linux version of R-Linux you can try.

[S2005]

Thanks again!

I found a few threads mentioning the multiple Public share issue, but like you, I didn’t find any solutions. Most of those are old, and their EX-4 was under warranty and an RMA solved it. I’m pretty sure I’m way outside of warranty, and I bought my EX-4 used on eBay a few years ago anyway.

If I can salvage my data, It won’t hurt as bad when I ultimately have to recycle this piece of eWaste and upgrade to better storage solutions.

[Saudade]

I feel your pain. I’ve had my EX4 since around 2014. Still runs well, despite a few glitches every now and then.

I have an even older Netgear ReadyNAS from around 2011 that now only backs up the EX4. I also have USB drives attached to both. So my ReadyNAS backs up the EX4, then backs up to both USB drives. Really critical files are stored on several cloud systems. That way my data is relatively safe from anything short of an asteroid strike.

Good luck and please report back.

[S2005]

Indeed I shall.

Thank you for your replies. I posted across several places. All I got on reddit was downvotes. Not sure why I still have an account over there…

My EX4 has been rock solid for a couple years. Of course, it does this when I’m trying to back it up. This will be my 3rd WD external HDD device to die on me. I’ve had two single drive MyCloud devices die before this device. I think my next NAS will be self built. I have enough old Dell Optiplex machines I could build a throne out of them. My struggle is that they’re small form factor and Dell motherboards don’t fit in a standard ATX case :\

More research to be done. And money to save!

Thanks again! Have an excellent remainder of your Wednesday kind internet stranger!

[S2005]

Good morning. I hope you had a nice weekend!

I have good news/bad news. The bad news first, I still can’t get the EX4 to do anything else. I’ve tried with no drives, I tried the new power supply, I even tried to boot it with a newly formatted drive previously not part of the equation. I tried every reset proceedure I could find that utilizes the little reset button on the back though I can’t get it to actually DO the 40 second reset. The admin/password has reset, but the name and IP address are the same.

The good news, the USB hard drive enclosure saved the day. I was able to plug in the JBOD drives and Ubuntu recognized them immediately.

My current plan is to mount one of the new 12TB drives internally (I’m waiting on a 3.5" HDD sled to be delivered tomorrow). I’m going to copy over everything to the internal 12TB, and use the external HDD enclosure to make a back up on the other 12TB drive and store it cold for now.

I do eventually plan on building another NAS, but this will have to work for now. Luckily my limitation right now is the computer case. I only have one 3.5" drive bay, and it’s a Dell motherboard, so it probably won’t fit in a standard ATX case. I’ll need to research options. I know I’ll never buy a pre-build NAS again. For the price, I could probably build two that would run circles around the pre-built and after having 3 Western Digital NAS/Cloud products up and die on me, I have trust issues.

TLDR, EX4 is probably headed to the eWaste bin (or getting donated to a buddy at work that likes to tinker with stuff like this). BUT the good news is that I got all my data back via a USB 3.5" HDD dock/enclosure.

Thanks again for your time, and advice! Have an excellent week!

[Saudade]

Outstanding! I love a happy ending …

[S2005]

Haha me too, especially in this case. I’m embarrassed to say the anxiety of potentially losing ~6TB of data certainly affected my mood last week.

I’m sad I have another expensive paper weight, but I’m beyond happy that I still have my data. I’m about to make too many back-ups. I never want to feel like that again.

Those first two WD NAS/Cloud devices that died took the data with them. I should have learned my lesson then. Luckily they were much smaller amounts of data, and I’d already backed up most of the irreplaceable data (old photos). I did lose a lot of media and older software I’d hoarded but I guess it was a good excuse to cull some things anyway.

Thanks again!

[S2005]

Wow, and here I was thinking I was done with this EX4. I had to go into my browser history to get back to this thread…

I took the NAS with me to work to tinker with.

No drives installed, booted it up, same thing. It would boot to the “No Drives Installed” dead-end. I thought about sticking a 3.5" 500GB I had on my desk in, but decided to hold the power button to shut it off. That worked, so I tried the 40 second reset.

It didn’t work like all the times before, except this time I just let it sit there. Once it completely booted up, and got to the “No Drives Installed” dead-end, it started flashing a red light, and said Power Supply 1 Failed, then immediately “System Rebooting” and it went through the factory reset!

I still have the extra power supply I bought (It’s also on my desk, I planned on returning it this afternoon!) So, I tested it out with the new power supply, and the old 500GB drive I have here… and it looks like its working again.

I have to wait until I get home to confirm as I can’t connect to it via LAN and access the webUI here at work.

I don’t think I’ll ever really trust it again, but I may use it for cold storage or something.

–EDIT–
I just wanted to add the exact procedure I went through in-case anyone else is ever stuck at this point too. I was able to power the NAS off using the power button. I do not know if this works the same when the power connector barrel is pulled out/system loses power.

1. No drives installed, NAS completely unplugged from everything
2. Re-insert power connector barrel
3. Insert paper clip to press & hold reset button on rear
4. While holding reset, press the power button on the front, continue to hold reset for 40-seconds while NAS boots up
5. And this is the important part. BE PATIENT. I incorrectly assumed something would immediately happen after I released the 40-second reset hold. I had to let my NAS finish booting to give me the “No Drives Installed” error and THEN it began the reboot to factory reset

I also wanted to add to the “Solution” post that the 3.5" HDD to USB enclosure/dock is a great idea to keep around. My JBOD drives were immediately recognized via USB on my Ubuntu Linux machine and I was able to save all of my data.