Last Updated: April 9, 2023 | Reading Time: 2 minutes
I’ve been using WD My Cloud for backup and storing data files for almost 8 years. Today, suddenly the device stopped working, It can’t boot, after times resetting the device and still not working, so I decided to disassembly the device to take out the HDD with an expectation the disk drive is still working.
Disassemble the device
I googled to search the most effective and efficient way to took out the HDD without damaging the case. And I think this video is the most easiest way to open the case. But instead of one, I used 2 cards on left and right side.
Mounting the Disk
WD My Cloud uses EXT4 as file formats, so it’s not natively recognized by Windows environment. There is some paid software that offers to read Linux file system under Windows, but in my opinion DiskGenius is the easiest and most practical. There are also lots of features offered including data recovery and partition management. I only use this software to check if the HDD is OK. The free version of DiskGenius is only able to copy/move small files, you must buy the pro version to copy/move larger files from EXT4 disk.
And the savior is Ext2Fsd, with this app copy and move files from EXT4 file system withour restriction. You can download the application here for free, although it seems an old app and not being updated for a while, but the app is still working even on Windows 11.
After the Ext2Fsd installed, the Ext4 file system will work like native file system such NTFS or EXFAT, you can use Windows Explorer to manage files inside the EXT4 disk.
Hope that helps!