Hi all, a few days ago Virgin Media helpfully decided to ‘improve’ services in my area. During the process my router was switched off twice. After the second reboot my My Cloud 4TB drive stopped showing up in file explorer (win 10) and the light on the front is stuck on orange. The ethernet plug only has one flashing light when connected.
I have tried a 4 second & 40 second reset and nothing happens. Have also swapped router ports/cables and plugged it into a second laptop via ethernet cable. None of this has changed anything. I believe the data on the drive is ok, so considering removing the drive.
I have done some research and discovered that the drive won’t be recognised by windows if I put the drive into a new enclosure and plug it into a laptop via USB. I also saw some references to Linux software that may help, but not sure how to go about this. I bought a MyCloud Home this year after WD pulled support for the older drive - I should have bought a Synology with built-in redundancy.
Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated. I’ve attached a pic of the light and the label on the underside of the drive.
With the My Cloud connected to the local router/gateway, does the router or gatway’s administration page indicate the My Cloud obtaining an IP address? Can you reach the My Cloud Dashboard using the My Cloud IP address?
If you remove the My Cloud’s internal hard drive and use a powered USB to SATA adapter, docking station or spare SATA port on one’s computer, one can access the hard drive contents (assuming it is functioning) on Windows using Linux boot disk/flash drive or using third party Linux drivers. Various past discussions of how to do so can be found using the site’s search feature (top right). One such example:
If you can access the drive you can attempt to reload the My Cloud operating system to the drive or one can try running Linux disk utilities to find and fix any drive/partition errors. Various discussions on how to “unbrick” a My Cloud hard drive can be found using the forum search feature. One can find some of the files and directions used for the user Fox_exe method of unbrick at the following links.
If one can access the My Cloud data partition (EXT4) one can backup their files/data to another location before attempting to “unbrick” the My Cloud hard drive.
Hi Bennor and thanks for answering. I forgot to mention that I can’t access the dashboard using an IP address. It would not respond and all the mapped letters I had for various folders said they couldn’t reconnect.
The drive is spinning, but I don’t have enough knowledge to rule bricking out on that basis. I have a hard drive that I remounted into an enclosure a couple of years ago, so could just try that in the interim to get the data copied across to the MyCloud Home first before trying the fixes you suggest.
Thanks for those links. I didn’t realise you could potentially reload the OS.
How long did you wait to see if the LED would turn blue or turn off? My blue LED hasn’t worked for several years. When I reboot, I get the same color LED as your image shows. Once my LED goes off my WDMYCLOUD is ready for use.
With the power on, using a paperclip or narrow tipped pen, press and hold the reset button for at least 4 seconds. The reset process will cause the device to reboot and may take up to 5 minutes to complete. Please wait until the Power LED is solid blue, indicating the device is ready to use.
To execute the 40 Second Reset:
Power down the device and remove the power cord from the device
Using a paperclip or narrow tipped pen, press and hold the reset button
While continuing to hold the reset button, reconnect the power cord to the device and continue to hold the reset button for at least 40 seconds
After releasing the reset button the device will reboot
Note:* This process may take upwards of 15 minutes. Please wait until the Power LED is solid blue, indicating the device is ready to use.
Hi, as far as I’m aware the IP address was the same. The same address just autofilled whenever I used the dashboard. I don’t think it was reserved. I don’t know how I would find an old range of addresses on the Virgin router.
That is likely the problem: The new router is autofilling a different IP address. You need to get into the router dashboard to figure out what IP address is being assigned to the device.
Does the device show up at all in the file explorer? OS/3 devices notoriously don’t show up under “computer”; but generally do show up under “Storage”. If you click the icon under storage, you should be taken to the dashboard. (The key here. . . .is that if it shows up under storage; that implies the unit is connecting; and you just have to figure out the ip address from the router)
As previously indicated in my prior post, you should access the router’s administration page to see if the My Cloud is obtaining an IP address from the router’s DHCP Server. It’s possible the router/gateway changed it’s DHCP server IP address range has changed and your My Cloud is using a new IP address. Because your browser is auto filling the IP address/name it is possible it is now the wrong IP address/My Cloud name.
One troubleshooting step is to put a network switch (if you have one to spare) between the My Cloud and the router/gateway and see if the issue persists.
I checked the router dashboard after your first post as I thought the same thing. Rebooted the drive and nothing came up. Tested all the unidentified addresses with an ethernet connection and it didn’t show. Nothing in file explorer.
I checked the router dashboard. Rebooted the drive and tried all the unidentified addresses with an ethernet connection in a browser and it didn’t show. Afraid I don’t have a network switch. If it’s still glowing orange by tomorrow I’m going to switch it off, get a sata cable and take it out of the enclosure. Hopefully I can copy the data over and then throw all the other stuff into the bin.
So just an update, I downloaded the Paragon trial software and loaded the drive into a USB enclosure I was using for another HDD. The WD did appear and the data looked ok, but then it would disappear. I tried to test copy a folder across and that took ages and the WD disappeared again. A test to delete a file on the drive when it came back seemed to work. Then I started to hear a clicking sound - which I know is not good - and I couldn’t get back in. Downloaded linux mint and tried connecting again via ethernet straight to the laptop which seemed to indicate that it could see the ethernet connection (and saying it was requesting an address) but I couldn’t see an icon for it on the dashboard. The two green ethernet lights on the WD were flashing. I then tried it on the router with a different cable and about five minutes later the light went solid red. I have bought another enclosure which is supposed to be able to handle bigger drives so I will have another go via usb & linux or paragon. Otherwise it’s looking like a recovery quote.
Hi, the Paragon method worked well for me and I managed to retrieve all my data. I bought a UGreen enclosure to make sure it could handle a 4TB drive. I haven’t decided what to do with the old drive yet.
