Again in October 2015, after I was evaluating alternate options to Microsoft’s Window Media Heart for receiving, recording, and streaming cable tv service round my home, I picked up a factory-refurbished Western Digital My Cloud 2 TByte (single-HDD) network-attached storage (NAS) (later rebranded because the My Cloud Dwelling) for $99:
Launched in late October 2013 (right here’s an preliminary evaluate from just a few months later), the two TByte variant initially bought for $150. Roughly two years later got here a notably feature-enhanced proprietary O/S replace to My Cloud OS 3, together with further single- and multi-HDD {hardware} fashions. I’d purchased mine as a result of it was one of many stored-recordings choices then supported by SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun PVR software program; I used to be already utilizing the corporate’s HDHomeRun PRIME CableCard-supportive three-tuner networked receiver. I deliberate to run HDHomeRun PVR’s server software program on a networked PC, with per-TV playback supported through Google Nexus Gamers, every paired to a micro-USB-to-Ethernet adapter and operating the corporate’s Android consumer app.
Sadly, shortly thereafter got here a number of successive WD Cloud OS distant machine hijacks with a typical assault vector—the NAS’s connectivity to WD’s “cloud” file sync and backup service—together with a typical unlucky firm response—prolonged delay, in sloth-like response to each personal alerts despatched to the corporate by safety vulnerability corporations and public disclosures. One such patch suite belatedly arrived in March 2017; learn it and weep.
In December 2021, WD “threw within the towel” on My Cloud OS 3, telling prospects to improve relevant units to My Cloud OS 5, as help for My Cloud OS 3 can be ending just a few months later. Alas, my specific machine wasn’t My Cloud OS 5-compatible; to WD’s credit score, “units that had auto-update enabled acquired a remaining firmware replace that disabled distant entry and outbound site visitors to cloud providers”, successfully remodeling them into local-only NAS units from that time ahead. And the corporate additionally despatched of us like me a 20%-off coupon for hardware-upgrade functions; mine arrived on January 17, 2022.
Simply in time, it seems…two days later got here the information of patches for one more set of My Cloud OS 3 vulnerabilities. And, because it additionally seems, My Cloud OS 5 customers’ troubles alas weren’t over, both. In March of final yr, WD’s cloud providers have been circumvented by a community breach that “locked them out of their knowledge for greater than 24 hours and has put company-handled data into the arms of at the moment unknown hackers.” I’m admittedly glad I didn’t take WD up on its discounted {hardware} improve provide, not that QNAP’s been notably higher…
Reality be instructed, I by no means acquired round to actualizing my HDHomeRun PVR aspiration; I’m nonetheless operating Home windows Media Heart on an out-of-support Home windows 7-based networked pc together with a number of equally geriatric per-TV-located Xbox 360s (though the expiration clock on this specific setup is rising louder by the passing day, for causes I’ll clarify in higher element in one other upcoming deliberate put up). I’ve nonetheless acquired my machine, which I’ll by no means donate to charity as a result of its now-neutered performance which’d solely bewilder a recipient. Worst case, I’ve acquired a 2 TByte WD Crimson HDD that I can repurpose in another system. And, to fulfill my very own curiosity, amongst different causes, I’ve additionally determined to crack open the NAS and see what’s inside.
Right here’s an preliminary suite of overview pictures, after I’d first eliminated the reflection- and glare-enhancing protecting clear plastic sheet from the entrance and sides, and as regular accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for dimension comparability functions (the WD My Cloud Dwelling 2 TByte has dimensions of seven.5 in x 1.9 in x 6.7 in/193.3 mm x 49 mm x 170.6 mm and weighs 2.12 lb./0.92 kg):
Proper and left sides:
Prime: no built-in fan on this NAS, however loads of heat-dissipating passive airflow vents:
Extra on the raised backside, this time presumably for air influx (warmth rises, don’cha know):
Right here’s a closeup of the bottom-end label:
And eventually, the way more fascinating bottom, as soon as once more vent-abundant:
Right here’s a closeup of its sticker:
And one other up-close perspective, this time with extra intriguing components for us techie of us:
The wired Ethernet connectivity is Gbit-capable, thereby rationalizing why I’ve held onto the NAS for this lengthy despite its dearth of RAID 1 multi-HDD mirroring redundancy. Conversely, the USB connector is beneficial solely for increasing the inner capability through a tethered DAS; the WD My Cloud Dwelling can not itself be used as a DAS to a USB-connected pc, alas.
Earlier than diving in, right here’s a have a look at the included equipment—a size of Ethernet cable and the exterior energy provide—together with a closeup of the latter’s specs:
Preliminary path-inside suspicion centered on the bottom label, however removing was unfruitful; no screw heads have been behind it:
Focusing as a substitute on the seams between the perimeters and the interior body was extra productive, with due to the writer of this specific YouTube video for his calm-demeanor steerage:
Solely a little bit of collateral injury:
Right here’s the first-time uncovered interior body frontside:
Together with the additionally now-exposed right- and left-side “guts”:
The HDD and its paired PCB meeting surprisingly (no less than to me) “floats” on one finish:
The opposite finish’s two mounting factors are extra sturdily safe, however solely considerably (left facet views first, then proper):
Releasing one finish of every clip:
affords liftoff of the insides:
Right here’s the aforementioned meeting from a number of views:
Three screws maintain the PCB in place:
And I wager you realize what comes subsequent:
Slide off the SATA energy and knowledge connectors:
and, together with three spacers falling away, the separation between the PCB and HDD is full:
together with the now revealed, and a lot extra fascinating, PCB inside:
Extra closeups of the latter expose, I believe, why this specific mannequin by no means acquired the My Cloud OS 5 replace:
The system SoC, additionally present in different WD My E book fashions, is Mindspeed Applied sciences’ (now NXP Semiconductor’s) M86261G-12 Comcerto 2000 communication processor, based mostly on a dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 operating at 650 MHz. Go to NXP’s product web page and also you’ll see that this specific chip is end-of-life (and certain has been for a while); alongside the IC’s demise, additional software program growth help doubtless additionally ceased. For posterity, a photograph of this actual SoC is even coincidentally showcased on Wikipedia’s firm web page:
To the system processor’s proper is a Samsung K4B2G1646E 2-Gbit DDR3 SDRAM. To its left is Broadcom’s BCM54612E GbE transceiver, with an related Delta Ethernet transformer past it. And within the M86261G-12’s decrease proper nook is a Winbond W25X40CL 4-Gbit serial flash reminiscence, presumably housing the aforementioned OS.
In closing, listed below are some views of the HDD, which as beforehand talked about is a standard WD “Crimson” (the firm’s Crimson collection is NAS usage-tailored from entry profile optimization, energy consumption and different features) 2 TByte mannequin.
The shielding between the HDD and the PCB lifts away simply:
And with that, I’ll shut and hand the keyboard over to you to your ideas within the feedback!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line e-newsletter.
 Associated Content material
- Farewell, Home windows Media Heart
- Teardown: Disposable 1-Tbyte NAS drives: How’d that occur?
- Peeking inside an HDD
- NAS successors add notable options
- NAS failure launches an information restoration mission
- Beating the warmth: A NAS’s CPU requires a important mass of software program with the intention to compete
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