Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is a summary page of Frequently Asked Questions from the forum.

Every question shall consist of a question as headline, explanation and how to get it work.

Help! I have bricked my device and don't know what to do.

  1. Consider taking it back to the shop you bought it from or returning it to WD for a replacement. People have reported that this has worked, as the shop is unlikely to check if you have modded the software.
  2. Make sure you note the exact steps that led up to the device being bricked. The create a forum thread with these details. Be clear and concise so that we can help you out.
  3. You may need to open the drive and connect it to a Linux computer to reverse an changes or restore the firmware from the backups.

I can't get my recent recovery of a conf file to be loaded of a program.

You deleted the .conf , fetched a new one, and the program won't load it.

Re-boot your MBWE, and then set the right premissions and ownership.

Mybook accepts the user name as root, but neither accepts the password as root

That's because the root user currently doesn't have a password!
You need to make another user in the web interface, (i.e. JOE), then log in with that user JOE via ssh, then go to root with the command su -, then change the password with the command passwd

I can't compile a program from source. Why?

Firmware versions 2.00.15+ no longer bundles the gcc Compiler. You will need to restore it from the back-up images of earlier Firmware versions.

When I try to install programs using Optware I cannot find command ipkg. How do I install programs?

Try specifying the full path to the ipkg binary. i.e. to install nano use:

/opt/bin/ipkg install nano

I've connected the drive to an Sata-to-usb (or directly) but the HDD don't show up in windows

Windows doesn't support linux file system (ext3) Download Fs-driver and mount the Drive via the program
Fs-Driver.org

I don't know how to use vi. How can I easily edit text files?

vi can be unintuitive for new users. There are many tutorials that explain it's use and you should Google "vi tutorial" for examples.
nano is an alternative program that is more friendly to use and can be installed via an Optware package.

Why is my MBWE so slow? I only get file transfers of XX MB/sec"

One possible cause might be an inefficient copying program. If you're a Windows user, I would recommend to give FastCopy a try [http://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy] whether it improves throughput for you.

The newer MBWE "white light" is built with the oxnas810 System-on-a-Chip, a 380 MHz ARM CPU with dual sata raid and gigabit ethernet and 128 MByte RAM and can easily saturate a fast ethernet link (10.6 MByte/s sustained), e.g. when using FastCopy for Windows. On Gigabit Ethernet, mine achieves ~36 MByte/s sustained read and ~18 MByte/s sustained write (FastCopy) with Samba/CIFS with all Windows XP TCP tuning enabled, including "Jumbo frames (7KByte MTU)" on both, Windows and MBWE.

The older MBWE "blue ring" is consumer grade hardware with very limited resources (32 MByte RAM). Even though it was advertised as 'Gigabit Ethernet' this is not a true representation of the possible real-world speed.
it has been consistently proven that the processor on the MBWE "blue ring" it self is limited to about 40Mb/s, that's why it is not really possible to get faster transfer rates out of it.

The average speeds achieved by the MBWE "blue ring" are:
Smb: 4,3 mb/s (Stable on Debian Linux)
NFS: speed
FTP: speed
SCP: speed

I got a weird share on my MBWE!

And the folder name is somthing like this : ID30444067
This is just a folder for the Mionet crap. You'll need it if you use it.
but since your reading this, you most likely wonder how to get rid of it.
I don't remeber wher the entry should be deleted but in
/var/oxsemi/shares.inc there probably would be an entry.
delete it and restart your samba: # /etc/init.d samba.sh stop # /etc/init.d samba.sh start

What's the normal temp of MBWE?

This data is for MBWE with custom fan or some mods.
Version Temp *c
One-HDD 32
Two-HDD 36
This is data for a stock MBWE.
Version Temp *c
One-HDD 50,5
Two-HDD 54

All data is with different room temperatures.

What are the limitations related to the WD My Book World Edition (Blue Rings) hard drive?

The following list details information regarding general networking, file transfer, software, and hardware related limitations of the WD My Book World Edition hard drive. This information was extracted from the Western Digital Web site - Knowledgebase Answer ID 1522.


Networking Limitations:

  • Under Windows 2000, the Microsoft Network Client network plug-in must be installed and enabled for Mionet/WD Anywhere Access to be able to detect the WD My Book World Edition hard drive.
  • If either the LAN (Local Area Network) or WAN (Wide Area Network) connections are lost to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive, it may take some time (up to 20 minutes) for the device to be visible in WD Anywhere Access. To speed up this re-detection process by WD Anywhere Access, you can power cycle the WD My Book World Edition hard drive by pressing the power button until the drive powers off. You will then need to press the power button until the drive starts powering back on.
  • When accessing the WD My Book World Edition hard drives remotely using Mionet/WD Anywhere Access, please be aware that the transfer rate will be limited by whatever the slowest connection is. For instance, upstream rates for home users is typically no more than 512Kbps, even if the downstream rate is 4Gbps.
  • If there is heavy I/O load put on the network and WD My Book World Edition hard drive, it is recommended that a static IP address be used rather than DHCP.

File Related Limitations:

  • Remote file transfers to and from a WD My Book World Edition hard drive are limited to files under 1 GB through WD Anywhere Access. You will not be able to transfer a file larger than 1 GB to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive from a remote computer using Mionet/WD Anywhere Access.
  • When connecting and accessing a USB hard drive formatted as FAT32 connected to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive, MioNet/WD Anywhere Access will translate all files to a Hidden attribute. To resolve this issue, you can view the properties of the files or folders and un-select the Hidden attribute.
  • External USB hard drives that are formatted as NTFS connected to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive are read only.
  • Hidden or Read Only file attributes are not preserved when transferring files from a computer system to the My Book World Edition drive through Mionet/WD Anywhere Access.
  • Files created or copied to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive through WD Anywhere Access are only visible on the local computer system if WD Anywhere Access is running and the user is signed in.

Software Related Limitations:

  • You cannot create a Shared folder on the drive named "shares" or "internal". This is a limitation of the samba networking protocol that the world drive uses. You can create shared folders named "shared".
  • If a single hard drive in the Dual-drive WD My Book World Edition fails, you will not be able to upgrade the firmware of the device. The failed hard drive must be replaced before you can upgrade the firmware.
  • Firmware upgrades must be performed with no shares logically attached to the computer. Essentially, WD Anywhere Access must be stopped through the Shared Storage Manager utility before a firmware upgrade can occur. If there are any shares mapped to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive on the computer system, they must be disconnected in Windows Explorer or My Computer.
  • During the firmware upgrade process, the WD My Book World Edition hard drive will reboot itself twice. In this process, access to the Shared Storage Manager will be unavailable. If your web-browser indicates a "Page Not Found" error, wait a few minutes and then manually refresh the page to see the status of the firmware upgrade.
  • Mionet/WD Anywhere Access does not refresh itself automatically, therefore file information in shares will not be accurate until a manual refresh of the software is performed.
  • Accessing the WD My Book World Edition hard drive through Windows will display a "Printers and Faxes" option on the root of the drive. This does not indicate that printers or faxes will work when connected to this device. This listing is assigned by the Operating System of the local computer, not the WD My Book World Edition hard drive or the embedded Operating System on the drive.
  • WD Anywhere Access is not compatible with Macintosh computers. However you may use the MioNet Web Mac Beta.

Hardware Related Limitations:

  • External USB hard drives that are connected to the WD My Book World Edition hard drive must be disconnected using the Safely Remove USB drive option in the Shared Storage Manager utility. If this safe removal process does not occur before unplugging the USB hard drive, data loss may occur. Directions for safe removal a USB drive are detailed in Answer ID 1518: A WD My Book World Edition hard drive is shown as Offline in WD Anywhere Access after disconnecting and reconnecting the Ethernet cable.
  • Some Flash USB drives and USB hard drives may not work correctly when connected to a WD My Book World Edition hard drive. For a list of USB Flash Drives and USB hard drives that have been tested, please see Answer ID 1519: What type of USB devices are supported by the WD My Book World Edition hard drive?.
  • The Maximum recommended number of partitions on a USB hard drive or USB Flash drive connected to a WD My Book World Edition hard drive is 5 partitions. More partitions may work, but Mionet/WD Anywhere Access will take considerably longer to access these partitions.
  • The Maximum recommended number of user sessions (connections to the My Book World Edition hard drive) is 5. Any number of sessions over 5 at one time will cause instability of the My Book World Edition hard drive.
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