Transferring data from the drive on my network to a desktop PC when the transfer hung. I tried to access the folders and received a network error from file explorer. Tried to access MyCloud from two other PCs on the network but had the same error. I power cycled the drive. I was able to ping the drive and access the web page where I saw on the home screen under Cloud Access “Connected (indexing 24%…)” This progressed to 97% but appeared to go no further. Then the browser could no long access the page and pinging the drive failed (although given status below I may have tried the ping before it has fully booted). Another power cycle and again I could ping and access the home page. Indexing first showed 15%, then a little later 25%, but a little later still 17%. It reached 92%, but appeared to hang with a “this page isn’t responding” error. Ping was successful but I could no longer access the drive’s home page. Throughout all of this the drive and folders remained inaccessible from file explorer. I did try accessing again from two different laptops and a desktop (Win 10 / 11). Nothing.
Current status after waiting 30 minutes
Blue power light on, steady
Cannot access home page
Ping successful (<1mS)
File explorer, “Windows cannot access \WDMYCLOUD"
Seems like a dead or dying HDD?
Most of the data should be backed up elsewhere hopefully, but I would really like to get the drive working again so I can verify this.
You may want to just leave it alone for a day or so to see if it finishes indexing. On the single bay/single drive My Cloud the indexing can take a very long time due to the limited hardware of the device. Continually or repeatedly power cycling or rebooting the device doesn’t make the indexing go any faster. If the drive was failing or had failed it usually causes a front red LED. If the front LED is blue that typically indicates the unit is operating.
Also make note that the IP address of the device may change when you reboot or power cycle the My Cloud if it doesn’t have a reserved or static IP address. One may need to use the IP address to access the My Cloud Dashboard or map a network Share.
Many thanks. I will try leaving it although the behaviour is not normal. If the power is cycled when, for example, I need to cut power to the ring main, it will operate normally a short time later. In fairness I have not measured it but maybe an hour or so. We’ll see
It is assigned a fixed IP address from the DHCP server
Thanks again for the guidance, it is much appreciated.
Update and big thank you to Bennor for getting me to be patient. Left the drive powered up over night and this morning all is working normally.
However, I still question whether the symptoms I observed could be a sign of looming failure. To reiterate, in the middle of a file transfer from the drive to a desktop HDD, connected was lost. From the subsequent observations it seemed that in the middle of this transfer it decided to start the indexing and that process is so resource hungry any external I/O gets demoted to non-existence.
I did not note the time when this happened but the closest log entry I can see would be “Type = OTHER [39.280314] restart sysinfod…” followed 23 seconds later by “Type = OTHER [61.930390] scandisk for power failure now”
There was no noticeable brown-out on the electricity supply (other items on the circuit have proven more sensitive on the rare occasions this has happened) so it appears to be a random event.
So any thoughts on this before I go off and invest in a RAID 1 NAS would be appreciated.
Generally the My Cloud Dashboard Diagnostics section will give you some advanced warning if the drive itself is about to die or starts to have problems.
The My Cloud indexing is hardware intensive, which usually means it drags down the single bay/single dry My Cloud up to and including possibly making it inaccessible for a period of time. If you copy a large number of files to the My Cloud it could trigger the indexing which may cause issues seen. WD has some Knowledge Base articles on the Indexing and some ways to deal with it.
At the end of the day the second gen OS5 single bay/single drive My Cloud is what it is and will always be subject to its age, looming end of support by WD, and limited hardware capabilities that can be hampered by the use of OS5 and its often complained about Indexing feature.
One may want to consider moving to a newer NAS device if they are finding the old single bay My Cloud to be problematic or no longer able to provide the features or options one seeks or needs.
Thank you Bennor, your prompt reply has given me valuable insight. I think the move to a newer RAID array is advisable in the near future, provided it is still compatible with the continuous backup feature of SmartWare - need to do some digging there…
There are various software programs available (some free, others paid) that can perform the same function as Smartware (or GoodSync) to backup a computer to a network attached storage (NAS) device. There are some here who dumped Smartware ages ago and use other computer backup software to backup to their WD My Cloud device. Some NAS manufacturers like those from Synology will include their own backup software program to backup computers to the NAS on certain NAS models.
Hi Bennor thanks again. My experience with Synology is that they do not offer the continuous function, at least with the software library available with the drive, but maybe I am wrong and have missed it? By continuous I mean Smartware is configured such that when I save a file to one of key folders on my main PC HDD, that file is immediately and automatically backed up to both the MyCloud HDD and an attached USB drive (attached to the MyCloud), rather than scheduling a daily (or whatever) backup.
This is rather going off topic, so let me repeat my thanks to you for guiding me through my panic
I don’t use either with my Synology but look into Synology Drive Client or Cloud Station features on DSM if you need “real time” syncing or file backup. I use the DSM Active Backup for Business to backup my Windows PC’s to a Synology NAS on a timed schedule.
As my post indicated however there are other software program you can use to to syncing (some cases instantly) between the computer and a NAS. Free File Sync (https://freefilesync.org) is one such program some here use to sync, mirror or backup to a local network My Cloud or other local network NAS. That program has a “real time” sync/backup feature: https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=realtimesync
