Retrieve data from the hard disk

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

Hi, I’ve seen some tutorials on dissasembling the WD My Cloud and connecting the hard drive to a computer, so you can format it and leave the device as if it were brand new.

My question is, can you dissasemble de WD My Cloud, connect the hard drive to a PC and retrieve the data from it? Is there a way to do that?

I’ll appreciate your answers, Thanks a lot

Sandy

2

Please note that opening a WD drive, will void the warranty on the unit.

As a recommendation, contact WD Support to see if there’s anything that can be done with the unit.

WD contact info:

http://support.wdc.com/contact/contact.asp?lang=en&ct=personalcloud

3

I haven’t done this with My Cloud… It is still too new!

But I have done this with a My Book. The spot where the USB plugs into the back of the harddrive broke, and I needed to get my information off of it. When I called in to support, I was told that I could remove the harddrive and attempt to recover my info without breaking the warranty (Probably wrong… I didn’t think the lady knew what she was talking about - she also told me that my warranty was up at the end of November, when it was actually up at the end of October, so I missed getting it replaced…).

The only issue that I had with connecting the My Book to my computer was that it wouldn’t read it!!! Seriously. I purchased a couple of housing units for harddrives, and attempted to plug in the harddrive. Nothing would read it. Couldn’t even tell that it was connected. I returned all these units, and ended up going to a data recovery company. After $4,000, I was able to bring hom a brand new harddrive with all my old files recovered. The broken My Book was just a brick… since I missed the warranty date by a week.

I have opened other My Books and tried to swap out the harddrives, and for some reason, if they do not have the specific connection that it came with, it will not read. I did this with 3 different harddrives. I am not sure why, some sort of specific software on that connection? I am not sure…

4

It’s easy to say to call WD support, but in my experience, (and if you look at the entry that came directly after your entry), at least one other person has proven you wrong. I have come to the conclusion that Western Digital is just like every other current large American company that cares more about profits than their customer base. After all, you lose a few but you gain a lot more so who cares about the few customers you lose, right?

My WD Mycloud started getting a solid red light, (surprisingly right after I used it to back up a computer I needed to reinstall windows on.) Needless to say, that backup was supposed to allow me to put my data back on the laptop but now I can’t access the data. My theory is that the proprietary board WD attaches to the Red drive stopped working and because it has some type of unique Linux distro offshoot as the firmware, it is almost impossible to recover the data by normal means such as connecting the drive directly to a SATA port on a computer.

Here’s a novel idea; why doesn’t WD instead of just suggesting that customers who lost valuable information and/or irreplaceable memorabilia, take their now defective drive to a data retrieval company that is going to cost them at least $1000, that WD instead either give customers the option of buying another control board, and/or supply detailed instructions on how to retrieve the data by connecting the drive directly to a computer’s motherboard, even if it means voiding the warranty. I know there is a way to get the data off the device without spending at least $1000. I just wish that Western Digital actually gave a **bleep** about their customers and cough up that information. Instead I get the option of getting a replacement power cord, (I was sent two that were the exact same make and model as the one I had before), or spending a ton of money I don’t have to spend.

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