Reformat hdd from wdmcex2 in pc or mac?

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX2
1

is there an easier and faster way to reformat a hdd from a wdmcex2 for use in an other Nas or PC (Mac)? 

writing zero’s takes 20 Hrs for a 4Tb hdd,  and with a ‘normal’ (quick)  format on PC or Mac,  you end up with 1.8Tb

the rest is not writable and i want a clean start.

thanks!

2

Hello, 

As a recommendation, use the WD DLG tool to write zeros to the drive. This will make the drive loose the partition and you will need to initialize the drive again. 

Once you are initializing the drive, instead of formatting the drive as mbr, select a gpt partition.

See if the following link helps

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1211

3

If you mean WD data lifeguard diagnostic tools,  i have used them,  and  still have 1.8Tb instead of 4Tb.

After 20 hrs of writing zero’s i have still no total reformat of hdd. 

I think there are protected partitions on the hdd,  because the wdmcex2 sees the total 4Tb. 

But i can’t format it again for use in other computers. 

help? 

4

You are trying to take a Linux formatted disk (that was used in EX2) to a Mac or PC. You cannot simply do a format. You need to delete ALL exisitng partitions on the disk (currently there are 1 or more ext4 Linux partitions) and create a partition suitable for a Windows PC (NTFS partition).

To do this, one tool would be the free, open-source software GParted Live, a GUI front-end running off of a Live (bootable) Linux CD, to delete all exisitng partitions and then add any new partitions. The iso to burn that CD is available here →   http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-stable/0.21.0-1/

If you need more detailed instructions on how to use GParted, search on YouTube for video tutorials. But the program’s GUI is very intuitive, so you should be able to do it without needing any tutorial.

There’s lots of other linux utils on that disc too that could be useful with other disk management tasks (e.g. ddrescue, etc.)

Please click the star under my username to give me a kudo if this info gets you started on the path to a solution.

1 Like
5

i already tried GParted on a linux cd,  but i couldn’t remove one partion with a locked sign. 

this is a closed raid partion,  although i used jbod 

how to remove this special partition that’s not accessible? 

thanks

6

I stopped trying to reformat my Red WD drives from my wdmycloudex2,  and put the hdd’s in my brand new Synology Nas. 

They were recognized  immediately and formatted to the right size with one click. 

Why can a Nas do,  what no other (linux) application could? Formatting  my hdd’s to the right form, in an easy way? 

I’am back from 1.8b to 4Tb for each hdd! 

I hate it when things don’t work,  but I have no time to learn more about this subject. 

thanks anyway. 

7

I have found myself the solution to remove a heavy protected partition and reformat hole hdd. 

see: 

http://www.winability.com/delete-protected-efi-disk-partition/

It’s an explanation with pictures that removes everything from disk! 

So it is dangerous!