Anyone know how long it takes to do a “QUICK factory restore” on a WD my cloud 4TB ?
The drive I have has always been used for storing my videos, when I go to the dashboard it shows “Videos xxTB”, “Music XX TB”, “Whatever else XX TB”
There is no music or anything else on it, purely videos !
I have a replica of the drive on a 4TB WD my book plugged directly into my imac which shows as having 2.3TB of videos on it, yet the My cloud shows 3.7TB almost full !
So I have decided to wipe it and start again from the copy on the my book.
Watched a WD youtube (WD My Cloud, Restoring the System's Factory Settings - Quick Factory Restore - YouTube) which clearly states it will take around 5 - 10 minutes.
I reached 100% after about an hour, but it is still going now 20hours later ! With the message “Factory restore in progress” and underneath that a status bar saying 100%. The blue LED on the front is fading from off to full brightness and back to off again continuously, What do I do now ? wait even longer or pull the plug ? or maybe even stick a paperclick in the hole to reset it ?
Slight difference from WD knowledge base telling me 5 to 10 minutes & 20 hours.
All it is doing is a low level format of the drive ! I could understand this amount of time for a Full restore, whereby it writes zero’s to every sector, but even a full restore shouldn’t take 20 hours, in theory…
Any ideas before I pull the plug ?
24 Hours and still running !
Had enough ! Put a paperclip in the reset hole until the blue light flashed (approx 40 seconds) waited until it loaded up.
Went on internet and typed My Cloud, searched for my cloud, logged in. It’s showing the drive is clean, correct amount 4TB - the WD software installed.
However whilst waiting I you tubed NAS options & based on the strength that Synology showed I have ordered one ! I know the my cloud is a little old now, but even so it shouldn’t be so SLOW to do everything… It takes an age to load the dashboard, then another age to go to a different tab ! It takes for ever to load either from the Finder sidebar or connect to server.
Not even going to bother doing a re load of all the files whilst waiting for the Synology, just going to bin the dinosaur… and start afresh with far superior technology,
Thnx but no thnx !
The single bay/single drive My Cloud is what it is. It has limited hardware, as such it was limited in what it could do in spite of the many attempts to mod the often problematic firmware for it. And above all the single bay/single drive My Cloud was typically half the cost of comparable Synology or Qnap units.
Factory restore taking many hours has been a common complaint with no real workaround other than rebooting the units, resetting the unit or going so far as to unbrick the unit.
Slow loading Dashboard has long been an issue for some. Typically it takes a few seconds to completely load for me using a first gen v4.x firmware My Cloud. It is possible certain anti virus security software, ad or script blocking browser extensions/add-on’s could slow down or inhibit the correct loading of the My Cloud Dashboard. Any time one modifies the firmware (using SSH) to add or fix issues one runs the risk of introducing new issues.
Having said all that. Having moved to using a Synology DiskStation recently that was on sale during Black Friday the Synology is light years better, both in firmware and hardware, than the first gen single bay My Cloud that I was previously using. However that improvement comes at a significant cost increase versus the intial cost of the single bay My Cloud. I have relegated the many years old My Cloud, which still functions fine for what it is capable of, to backup use as it is still functioning (using a unbricked 1TB drive).
Fair comment.
However the My cloud EX2 diskless is for sale on amazon for £149.99, the Synology DS218 diskless is for sale on Amazon for £148.19. OK it’s on £1.80p cheaper, but from what I have gleaned today it is far superior, or as you state “Light years better”
I have purchased a DS218 & two WD 6TB Red drives. Yes I am far outstretching the capabilities of the my cloud in storage, I also have several (3 actually) WD my book HDD’s, so 2 will be used direct to imac (thro’ hub) backed up to Synology drives 1 & 2, and possibly keep the old WD my cloud as back up for the other WD my book, which really is full of junk I could probably do without…
As a photographer I seem to be quite good at filling hard drives, and the larger the megapixels on the camera become the faster the drives fill up, so hoping this will future proof me for a while. If this works out will either look at a 4 bay Synology, or just larger drives in the 2 bay, or maybe another 2 bay with similar / larger drives,
Thnx Normski
OK long post time. LOL The two bay My Cloud units are a different animal with different set of features compared to the single bay/single drive My Cloud units, the general subject of this subforum. At the time the single bay My Cloud units were being widely sold here in the United States, they were not sold diskless. At the time they were $30 to $40 more than the cost of the WD Red drive if purchased by itself. If one purchased a Synology DS118 then added in the cost of a WD Red drive the price was often $100 or more than it would have cost for a compatible single bay My Cloud drive.
Here in the United States if one were to look currently at Amazon they’d find a diskless WD EX2 Ultra for $148.99 (link) and the diskless Synology DS218 for $248.99 (link). That’s a significant price difference ($100) for an entry level two bay unit.
Generally if opts to pay for Synology or Qnap they are opting for paying more for the better, more mature, firmware and often better hardware that is more capable. For those shopping on price alone they were jumping at the entry level single bay My Clouds because they were adequate for their initial design, a basic entry level NAS, with basic media server, that offered basic remote access. No additional features like third party modules or additional user enabled modules were supported unlike the Synology and Qnap firmware.
Now days there are plenty of options available beyond just WD, Synology or Qnap. most of those other NAS manufacturers though do not support their firmware as much as Synology or Qnap appears to do. Look at the various comments on the TOS firmware used on the Terramaster line. Hardware specs look similar to Synology at a slightly cheaper price but user reviews often complain about the unpolished aspect of the TOS firmware (showing Chinese instead of English or other language).
At the end of the day, choose that which you are satisfied with. The WD single bay My Cloud line looked like a good value vs features on paper at the time they were being sold at retail. In real life use they are functionable but with their own issues and limitations. Flaky firmware issues being the major complaint.
Point taken !
Yes if I went for a single drive, as this one is, then complete with 4TB disk it’s showing here on amazon UK at £122.99 for the new my cloud design, is that my cloud home…
On the other hand looking at the EX2, that’s £144.99. Maybe just maybe the cheaper price of the EX2 will be the tipping point for most people to go that route, however with my experience of the “my cloud” it has turned me away from WD !
I think amazon had priced the DS218 incorrectly at the time of purchase, they had the 2 bay DS218, one down from the top level DS218+ for £204, then of course I had to buy the discs, but the model below that (DS218 play) was £200, and the one above (DS218+) was £300.
In actual fact the DS218 jumped to £244.99 the day after I purchased it…
Yes it’s cheap, the DS118 is showing as £157.49, then you have to buy a disk, or for a 4TB DS118 £384 for WD drive or £317.09 for Seagate Iron Wolf drives. That’s a massive difference from £123 to £317, maybe the WD is a good buy if that is all you need, a single 1 bay nas !
Shame the functionality of it is Garbage at best, & the clunkiness of the firmware a real disappointment ! Make a few changes to that, maybe even increase the price, or make two models, my cloud basic & my cloud +, the basic model being entry level and the plus with more functionality, it could work…
However I have been scarred over the years with this terrible my cloud & thus leaving for adventures new with Synology… Bye Bye WD my clunky old friend, or should that read enemy ?
Thanks Bennor, please do me one last favour, have yourself a really good Xmas & let’s look forward to the New Year ahead,
Normski
