Back in October 2015, when I was evaluating alternatives to Microsoft’s Window Media Center for receiving, recording, and streaming cable television service around my house, I picked up a factory-refurbished Western Digital My Cloud 2 TByte (single-HDD) network-attached storage (NAS) (later rebranded as the My Cloud Home) for $99:
Introduced in late October 2013 (here’s an initial review from a few months later), the 2 TByte variant originally sold for $150. Roughly two years later came a notably feature-enhanced proprietary O/S update to My Cloud OS 3, along with additional single- and multi-HDD hardware models. I’d bought mine because it was one of the stored-recordings options then supported by SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun PVR software; I was already using the company’s HDHomeRun PRIME CableCard-supportive three-tuner networked receiver. I planned to run HDHomeRun PVR’s server software on a networked PC, with per-TV playback supported via Google Nexus Players, each paired to a micro-USB-to-Ethernet adapter and running the company’s Android client app.
Unfortunately, shortly thereafter came several successive WD Cloud OS remote device hijacks with a common attack vector—the NAS’s connectivity to WD’s “cloud” file sync and backup service—along with a common unfortunate company response—extended delay, in sloth-like reaction to both private alerts sent to the company by security vulnerability firms and public disclosures. One such patch suite belatedly arrived in March 2017; read it and weep.
In December 2021, WD “threw in the towel” on My Cloud OS 3, telling customers to upgrade applicable devices to My Cloud OS 5, as support for My Cloud OS 3 would be ending a few months later. Alas, my particular device wasn’t My Cloud OS 5-compatible; to WD’s credit, “devices that had auto-update enabled received a final firmware update that disabled remote access and outbound traffic to cloud services”, effectively transforming them into local-only NAS devices from that point forward. And the company also sent folks like me a 20%-off coupon for hardware-upgrade purposes; mine arrived on January 17, 2022.
Just in time, it turns out…two days later came the news of patches for yet another set of My Cloud OS 3 vulnerabilities. And, as it also turns out, My Cloud OS 5 users’ troubles alas weren’t over, either. In March of last year, WD’s cloud services were circumvented by a network breach that “locked them out of their data for more than 24 hours and has put company-handled information into the hands of currently unknown hackers.” I’m admittedly glad I didn’t take WD up on its discounted hardware upgrade offer, not that QNAP’s been notably better…
Truth be told, I never got around to actualizing my HDHomeRun PVR aspiration; I’m still running Windows Media Center on an out-of-support Windows 7-based networked computer along with several equally geriatric per-TV-located Xbox 360s (although the expiration clock on this particular setup is growing louder by the passing day, for reasons I’ll explain in greater detail in another upcoming planned post). I’ve still got my device, which I’ll never donate to charity due to its now-neutered functionality which’d only bewilder a recipient. Worst case, I’ve got a 2 TByte WD Red HDD that I can repurpose in some other system. And, to satisfy my own curiosity, among other reasons, I’ve also decided to crack open the NAS and see what’s inside.
Here’s an initial suite of overview shots, after I’d first removed the reflection- and glare-enhancing protective clear plastic sheet from the front and sides, and as usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes (the WD My Cloud Home 2 TByte has dimensions of 7.5 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):
Right and left sides:
Top: no integrated fan on this NAS, but plenty of heat-dissipating passive airflow vents:
More on the raised bottom, this time presumably for air inflow (heat rises, don’cha know):
Here’s a closeup of the bottom-end label:
And finally, the much more interesting backside, once again vent-abundant:
Here’s a closeup of its sticker:
And another up-close perspective, this time with more intriguing elements for us techie folks:
The wired Ethernet connectivity is Gbit-capable, thereby rationalizing why I’ve held onto the NAS for this long in spite of its dearth of RAID 1 multi-HDD mirroring redundancy. Conversely, the USB connector is useful solely for expanding the internal capacity via a tethered DAS; the WD My Cloud Home cannot itself be used as a DAS to a USB-connected computer, alas.
Before diving in, here’s a look at the included accessories—a length of Ethernet cable and the external power supply—along with a closeup of the latter’s specs:
Initial path-inside suspicion focused on the backside label, but removal was unfruitful; no screw heads were behind it:
Focusing instead on the seams between the sides and the inner frame was more productive, with thanks to the publisher of this particular YouTube video for his calm-demeanor guidance:
Only a bit of collateral damage:
Here’s the first-time exposed inner frame frontside:
Along with the also now-exposed right- and left-side “guts”:
The HDD and its paired PCB assembly surprisingly (at least to me) “floats” on one end:
The other end’s two mounting points are more sturdily secure, but only somewhat (left side views first, then right):
Releasing one end of each clip:
affords liftoff of the insides:
Here’s the aforementioned assembly from multiple perspectives:
Three screws hold the PCB in place:
And I bet you know what comes next:
Slide off the SATA power and data connectors:
and, along with three spacers falling away, the separation between the PCB and HDD is complete:
including the now revealed, and much more interesting, PCB inside:
Additional closeups of the latter expose, I suspect, why this particular model never got the My Cloud OS 5 update:
The system SoC, also found in other WD My Book models, is Mindspeed Technologies’ (now NXP Semiconductor’s) M86261G-12 Comcerto 2000 communication processor, based on a dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 running at 650 MHz. Visit NXP’s product page and you’ll see that this particular chip is end-of-life (and likely has been for some time); alongside the IC’s demise, further software development support likely also ceased. For posterity, a photo of this exact SoC is even coincidentally showcased on Wikipedia’s company page:
To the system processor’s right is a Samsung K4B2G1646E 2-Gbit DDR3 SDRAM. To its left is Broadcom’s BCM54612E GbE transceiver, with an associated Delta Ethernet transformer beyond it. And in the M86261G-12’s lower right corner is a Winbond W25X40CL 4-Gbit serial flash memory, presumably housing the aforementioned OS.
In closing, here are some views of the HDD, which as previously mentioned is a conventional WD “Red” (the company’s Red series is NAS usage-tailored from access profile optimization, power consumption and other aspects) 2 TByte model.
The shielding between the HDD and the PCB lifts away easily:
And with that, I’ll close and hand the keyboard over to you for your thoughts in the comments!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.
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