Apparently there was a firmware update on 9/20/22. I hadn’t been in my server room in a few days and when I came waltzing into my server room tonight, I heard a rather loud fan running. I looked over and found my WD PR4100 with a message of “System rebooting” and the fan was blasting.
Before I touched it, I quickly checked online and read that it should be OK to go ahead and power it off. I tapped the power button and it immediately shut off. I waited a few seconds, turned it back on.
Now I’m sitting here and the power light is blinking blue, the drive lights are all solid (not flashing) blue and I cannot access the NAS. I have nearly 32TB of data on this NAS.
Thank you for this. I was told by support to wait as they “believe” it’s running through a disk check. They told me 5-6 days
So I’ll let it go I guess until that. If that doesn’t work, I will attempt to reset.
Unless the reset is recommended? I just don’t want to lose my data. I will DEFINITELY be turning off auto update if/when I’m able to get access back. I should have known better.
The issue is I can’t even get to the dashboard. It does not pull an IP address. It’s sitting with “Welcome to WD My Cloud PR4100” on the LCD and the fan is blowing loud.
None of the drive lights are blinking, they’re solid blue.
I tried to 4 second reset the other day as I’m tired of waiting for access and it would not reset. I tried multiple times and it would not restart. I tried unplugging for 10 mins, plugging it back in. Same thing. I’m at a loss on what to do here at this point.
I did not try the 40 second reset yet because I was afraid it would wipe something. Is there no way to use USB stick or something to boot this thing up in safe mode or something to see what it’s issue is?
So I finally caved and attempted the 40s reset. It did not work. The unit does not shut off once I release the reset button. It just continues to display “Welcome to WD My Cloud PR4100” with the fan blasting.
It’s been over a week now since the firmware update. Am I seriously the only person experiencing this? I’d really like to get access to my data back. Any other suggestion are definitely welcome!
Have you opened a support case? For more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting: https://support-en.wd.com/app/ask
I’ve done so now, thanks. I hadn’t because the person I spoke to at support told me not to bother until the device had been given 5-6 days to it’s “disk check”. Which I’m pretty sure is not what it’s doing. The drive lights aren’t flashing or flickering at all.
I appreciate the link. This seems like a last resort type of option. I can’t imagine there’s no other way to fix a firmware screw up. At least, I should hope there is. Is there no software option to force a firmware update through USB?
Would I be able to purchase a new PR4100 and move my drives over to it and have it read the drives?
I had intended to add another PR4100 to my mix at some point anyway. I would also feel way more comfortable if I had access to the files before I started doing anything such as the above procedure.
Well. . . .DSWV42 (as is his habit) has deleted his posts before hardly anyone reads them. . . .so I don’t know what he has recommended.
Theoretically, you should be able to drop the disks into a new PR4100 and “import the volume”.
When you do this. . .MAKE SURE TO LABEL AND NOT MIXUP the disks.
I presume the data is stripped, and not in simple Raid 1 configuration? If the disks are simply mirrored; or JBOD configuration, I would get a disk caddy and directly read the disks from a PC.
I am not sure if something like a DS920+ would work to read the disks. . . . .perhaps others can comment.
While I do want another PR4100, I’d rather not spend the $600 at this particular moment in time. I’m so frustrated. My PR4100 has always been stock. I’ve never tried running things on it that weren’t part of the devices options, so there really isn’t any reason the firmware update should have failed. Even more so, there’s no reason a reset shouldn’t be working either.
Ugh.
Also for the record, I think it’s in RAID 5 but I can’t remember. Is there any way I can toss them into another computer and read them?
I know of easy ways to read Raid 1 (mirrored) or JBOD - - → It just takes a Linux EXT4 software reader on your PC and placing each volume into and external drive bay.
HOWEVER - - - Raid 5 would be a normal configuration for 4 bay NAS, where 3 drives worth of data is striped across four drives. (that’s why you buy a 4 bay NAS). I think you can find software to read the data; but that also requires a 4 bay disk caddy. That would take more research (which I have never done).
I hear you on spending the $479 (amazon) on a new shell to place the 4100 drives into. Most annoying.
But - - have you exhausted all the choices for the existing 4100? You did the 4 and 40 second resets? and you STILL can’t access the drives? (Aside from disk check; it’s not inconceivable that it was indexing your drives. . . .if you have 30TB on data on them. . .that could take. . . . .a week or two.). Note that after a 40 second reset; the device name will be set to default (mycloud?) and if you have a forced IP address for the unit set in the unit – - - that IP will be wiped and will have been assigned a random value via DHCP from your router.
Have you thought about SSH into the unit to try some trouble shooting? (I do not recall if SSH is enabled by default in these units). If you are not familiar; SSH basically opens a Linux command prompt on your drive from a PC. (This assumes that the device is booted far enough to grab an IP address)
If you can SSH into the device, then you likely can pull off the data using a program like WINSCP.
I mean, it COULD be indexing. But the drive lights aren’t flickering at all. Just the power light is blue and blinking. Neither reset has worked. The 40 second reset doesn’t seem to work at all. It’s supposed to force the NAS to reboot to initiate and it doesn’t. I held the reset button for more than a minute after plugging in the power.
It does have a lot of data on it. I’ve had the thing for 5 years and it holds my entire collection of media. If it is reindexing, I’m not sure why it isn’t something that should be displayed on the LCD to stop people from panicking and resetting or doing whatever else in a scramble to save their data. The LCD just says “Welcome to WD My Cloud PR4100”. Which is what it normally says until it initializes and comes online. It just never comes online and continues to say that. Even a disk check should be advertised on the LCD. Such poor design if that’s indeed what it’s doing.
I guess I’ll stop trying to reset it and leave it for weeks? That seems absurd to me, but what other options do I have at this point? Aside from @dswv42’s option to rip it open and attach something to the motherboard. Which is also insane considering.
I’m so angry at myself for leaving auto-update on. I do have a support ticket opened. Just waiting to hear back at the moment. I’m not sure what good that will do at this point, but hopefully whoever deals with me has thick skin because I am not at all happy about the botched firmware update and then severe lack of user friendly tools to resolve possible issues.
Settle down there. I was not complaining about you or your advice. I am complaining about the fact that, should this actually be the solution, it’s insane. It’s not user friendly and it’s staggering that this is my only option due to something WD caused my device. I’m not sure why you’re taking it personal.
I appreciate all possible solutions and advice given here, I’ve been clear about that.
I’m usually one of the first to appreciate the “it is what it is” mentality however, I’m just not in the mood for it right now.
It’s unfortunate that you had to deal with it 6 years ago and it’s impressive that you’ve become “somewhat of an expert”. That does not however, excuse the shift in attitude over something I said which you clearly took personal.
The mantra of back in my day, I had to walk to and from school shoeless in 6 feet of snow isn’t really a comforting attitude to throw around when people are dealing with these issues. Companies such as WD lay very heavily on being user friendly with their devices, and to expect them to be such isn’t a sin.
Anyway, this is digressing. Thank you for your link. If there’s history between you and NAS_user, it shows and sadly it appears I was dragged into it unwillingly.
A mere apology for taking what I said personally after I clarified it wasn’t how it was intended, would have sufficed.
I am entitled. These devices are not cheap and it’s issue was not of my doing. The fact you don’t respect that is indicative of your attitude. I’m just not letting you get away with it.
Thanks again, although I’m beginning to regret responding to you initially. Even if your solution bares fruit, your attitude is atrocious.
You chose to respond to me initially. Either you do this to stroke your own ego, or you actually want to help. If you want to help, you’ve done so. I’m not sure what more you’re looking for here? Feel free to point out where I personally attacked you (previous the last few responses due to your incessant need to feel superior for some unknown reason), or where I said your solution doesn’t work?
Your attitude has not been indifferent. It’s been arrogant ever since NAS_user came into this thread. So once again, you’ve unwillingly (or perhaps willingly, I don’t know and I don’t care) dragged me into some personal issue you seem to have with another user here.
I promise you I don’t require a lesson in humility, least of all from the likes of you. I suppose this fits perfectly within the bounds of your current ego and attitude though.
I’m beginning to understand why your profile is set to private.
I’m not conflating anything. You outed yourself when you responded to NAS_user basically telling him to mind his own business and adding a personal jab to the end of that. That was you who wrote that. In case your ego has grown so large that it’s starting to squeeze on your ocular nerves, I’ve quoted you.
That was directed at NAS_user. That was not a conflation on my part. I guess when you’re too busy being arrogant, you tend to forget things.
My entitlement and frustration with my situation is not lost on me. It’s hardly overwhelming though. I have an expensive piece of equipment that was broken or made inoperable by someone else. I don’t care what you do with your stuff. I said earlier I’m happy to get my hands dirty and that isn’t a lie. I just don’t believe it’s the only solution and if it is, that annoys me and I have every right to complain about it.
What was that about strawman arguments? Careful…I have a full box of matches.
