Windows 7 Cannot Access WD EX2 Shared folders

I’m running Windows 7 Home Premium SP1.  

I have a new WD EX2 with 2 x 4TB configured:

  •  Raid 1

  •  Static IP address

  •  Set up accounts with userids and passwords identical to my Windows 7

  •  Created both default public shares (Public, TimeMachineBackup, Smartware) and private shares

The problem I’m facing is I have not been able to see any of the shares (public or private) from Windows.  I can see my WD EX2 under Network in Windows Explorer.  However, when I double-click on it, Explorer hangs and eventually becomes unresponsive and restarts.  I have tried mapping a share in windows explorer using both it’s IP address and device name but to no avail.

I know the shares’ permissions have been set up correctly as all the users’ smartphones installed with wd2go are able to see and access their own private shares and the public shares.  I can see and access the shares using the WD My Cloud application installed on my Windows.

The shares are even visible from the WD Quick View application.  When I click on the ‘Map’ button, it says ‘Attempting to connect to \WDCloudEX2\public’ and eventually crashes Windows Explorer causing all my opened Explorer windows to close.

I have reviewed the threads in the community and tried various methods to map the shares over the past week but to no avail.

Any help is much appreciated.

Welcome to the Community.

Do you encounter the same issue while using other computer with different operating system?

Hi,

Unfortunately, I have only 1 laptop.

As an added info, the Twonky media server works fine in that I am able to play media over DLNA connected devices.  When I ran the WD Setup Software, it highlighted the attached problems, which I already knew, of course.

I have just received my new laptop running Windows 8.1 and it’s having the same issue i.e. I can see the WD EX2 device under Network in the Explorer tab but clicking on it results in an eventual timeout and the following Windows general network error message:

"Windows cannot access \WDCLOUDEX2

Check the spelling of the name.  Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose."

In fact, I found that there are others who have experienced the same issue previously but no further updates … JamesLe’s post on 16 June 2014 describes the exact messages I had during setup:

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX2/cannot-access-identify-EX2-from-Windows-8/m-p/750290/highlight/true#M658

Support has been engaged 2 weeks ago but no solution so far.

I’m using win7 pro 64 and also had two or three occasional explorer hangs but in general it works fine.

my suggestion is to check these settings:

  • deactivate firewall on Windows (just for testing, reactivate again after)

  • put both the ex2 and the pc/Laptop in the same workgroup

  • try other smb version setting on ex2 i’m using smb3 and also had no problems with smb1.

  • create the same username with the same pw on the ex2 with rights to see/modify the shares as you use in windows

  • in explorer settings on windows deactivate “simple network sharing”

  • try mapping the shares via the ip-address not the name

Hope sth helps.

Thanks, semgo.

I’ve already tried all the above earlier, including turning off my anti-virus.

Unlike your occasional hangs, mine has never been able to see the shares, let alone map or connect.

As an additional test, I have tried to connect using ES File Explorer from my android devices and the results are consistent with Windows 7 and 8.1 I.e. the shares are not accessible via samba even though I can see that the daemon is running (see attached).

hmm ok I can’t see your attached pictures but I would activate extended logging in settings->utilities on the ex2.

then connect your windows pc/laptop directly with one cable to the ex2 both configured with static ips and try to map manually with Windows Explorer. first use existing correct credentials. if it doesn’t work use existing user but some wrong password.

look in the logfiles there should be a warning entry from samba “…authentication for user xxx failed…”

then we are at least pretty sure samba is running and the two machines communicate and can probably see other messages from samba that help us…

Thanks for your reply, semgo.

After multiple factory restores/formats and 3 weeks of testing, I’ve discovered the ‘problem’ by accident, well, sort of, anyway.

I brought my laptop to another part of my house which was being served by a powerline wifi and it was able to connect to the shares, which is strange as the wifi is using the same SSID/key and connected via powerline to my wireless router, so theoretically they are the same network.  The strange part is I have never had any problems accessing any of my networked devices (printer, router-connected usb drive, internet, media players) from my laptop/mobile phones moving from one part of my house to another.

So it now appears to be a network problem, although I’m still puzzled by how this can possibly be given that only this device cannot be accessed when I near my wireless router when all others work fine and it is accessible when I’m out of router’s range but in powerline wifi’s range …

Anyway, it is no longer a WD problem and I’ll try googling to find the root cause.

Thanks for the suggestions though.  Appreciate it.