Introduction: Restore the Software on a MyBook World Edition Hard Drive
Few things are more upsetting than having a piece of hardware that doesn't work. Whether the hard drive died or you hacked it and made a mistake or you just want to restore the drive, this guide should turn your expensive paperweight back into a functional network hard drive.
Caution: This voids the warranty.
Time Requirement: Roughly an hour. There is a large download (700MB) that may take a while if you have a slow internet connection, so plan accordingly.
Technical Expertise: Low, but troubleshooting any errors encountered will likely require a higher level of knowledge and experience, particularly Linux.
Requirements:
Caution: This voids the warranty.
Time Requirement: Roughly an hour. There is a large download (700MB) that may take a while if you have a slow internet connection, so plan accordingly.
Technical Expertise: Low, but troubleshooting any errors encountered will likely require a higher level of knowledge and experience, particularly Linux.
Requirements:
-
MyBook World Edition
Note: I used the 500GB version with the blue circular light on the front. Following this tutorial with a different version may have different results. A different size, single-disk version with the circular light should work though. - Small Phillips screwdriver
- Table knife
- Desktop computer (PC) with a CD burner, SATA port, and internet connection
- Network connections for both the MBW and PC
- Blank CD for burning a copy of Ubuntu
- Anti-static wristband
Step 1: Remove the MyBook Hard Drive
Caution: Before you try to open the case, make sure the MyBook is unplugged.
Caution: Be aware of the risk of static electricity. A small shock can fry electronic components. An anti-static arm band prevents this and can be found at small electronic retailers.
1. Remove the plastic strip that seals the two major pieces of plastic together. Use a screwdriver to pry it out if you're having troubles. (I lost this strip years ago, so it doesn't show up in any photos.)
2. Separate the two major pieces of plastic by depressing the tabs on the top and bottom of the drive near the front curve. Pull forward on the curved piece of plastic fairly strongly for it to come apart.
3. Four screws hold the hard drive in the case. Two of these are easy to access, the other two are right behind the plastic. If you remove some of the screws holding the metal frame into the plastic, I think you will be able to lift the frame up high enough to reach the other two screws.
4. Unplug the cable from the end of the hard drive and lift the hard drive out of the case.
Caution: Be aware of the risk of static electricity. A small shock can fry electronic components. An anti-static arm band prevents this and can be found at small electronic retailers.
1. Remove the plastic strip that seals the two major pieces of plastic together. Use a screwdriver to pry it out if you're having troubles. (I lost this strip years ago, so it doesn't show up in any photos.)
2. Separate the two major pieces of plastic by depressing the tabs on the top and bottom of the drive near the front curve. Pull forward on the curved piece of plastic fairly strongly for it to come apart.
3. Four screws hold the hard drive in the case. Two of these are easy to access, the other two are right behind the plastic. If you remove some of the screws holding the metal frame into the plastic, I think you will be able to lift the frame up high enough to reach the other two screws.
4. Unplug the cable from the end of the hard drive and lift the hard drive out of the case.
Step 2: Prepare Your Computer
To restore the hard drive, we need access to the disk formatting tools offered in Linux. I used an Ubuntu 9.04 CD for this guide, but I expect that a newer version could be used without much trouble.
1. Download a copy of Ubuntu. Go to http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.04/ and click the "PC (Intel x86) desktop CD" link. This will download a 700MB disk image (ISO file).
Note: On a decent internet connection, expect this download to take about an hour to complete, but it could take much longer on slower connections.
2. Burn the CD. Windows 7 includes software to burn an ISO, simply double-click the file to automatically launch the burning program. On earlier versions of Windows you'll need to download a program to burn this; DeepBurner Free worked well for me in the past.
3. Leave the CD in the drive and shut down your computer.
4. Unplug the hard drives in your computer (so you can't accidentally overwrite them) and plug in the drive from the MyBook.
5. Turn on your computer. It should boot from the newly burned Ubuntu CD.
6. Select the "Try Ubuntu" option. The operating system will take a few minutes to load.
1. Download a copy of Ubuntu. Go to http://releases.ubuntu.com/9.04/ and click the "PC (Intel x86) desktop CD" link. This will download a 700MB disk image (ISO file).
Note: On a decent internet connection, expect this download to take about an hour to complete, but it could take much longer on slower connections.
2. Burn the CD. Windows 7 includes software to burn an ISO, simply double-click the file to automatically launch the burning program. On earlier versions of Windows you'll need to download a program to burn this; DeepBurner Free worked well for me in the past.
3. Leave the CD in the drive and shut down your computer.
4. Unplug the hard drives in your computer (so you can't accidentally overwrite them) and plug in the drive from the MyBook.
5. Turn on your computer. It should boot from the newly burned Ubuntu CD.
6. Select the "Try Ubuntu" option. The operating system will take a few minutes to load.
Step 3: Restore the Hard Drive
Now that you are booted in Ubuntu, it's time to do the hard stuff.
1. Download the rescue images mentioned in step 2 of this rescue guide. Extract the zip to a folder called rescue on the desktop, and move the other file into the newly-created rescue folder.
2. On the menu at the top of the screen, select "System", then "Administration", then "Partition Editor".
3. In the Partition Editor, right-click the every entry and select "Delete" except for the one marked labeled "unallocated". (Image 1)
4. Click "Apply". When the program is done running, close it.
5. On the menu at the top of the screen, select "Applications", then "Accessories", then "Terminal".
6. Enter the following commands one at a time:
Note: It's important to follow these commands exactly. A simple misspelling could mess up the guide. Luckily, if you mess up, just hop back to step 2 and continue from there.
sudo su
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=3000
cd /home/ubuntu/Desktop/rescue
dd if=rescue.img of=/dev/sda
sfdisk /dev/sda < SDA_PTAB
cfdisk /dev/sda
a. Navigate to the area marked "Free Space" at the end of the list and press "Enter". (Image 2)
b. Select "New".
c. Set "Part Type" to "Primary".
d. Set "FS Type" to "FD".
e. Select "Write".
f. Select "Quit".
mkfs.ext3 -m /dev/sda4
bunzip2 < SDA1_IMA.BZ2 > /dev/sda1
bunzip2 < SDA2_IMA.BZ2 > /dev/sda2
bunzip2 < SDA3_IMA.BZ2 > /dev/sda3
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda1
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda3
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda4
mkdir sda1
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 sda1
gedit sda1/etc/fstab
a. Change line 10 to say "/dev/md4 " to "/dev/sda4"
b. Ctrl+S to save. Close the window.
umount sda1
Credits: These commands were heavily borrowed from the directions at http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/rescue-procedure, with a few modifications where I changed the commands to be easier to follow or specific to Ubuntu.
7. Shut down the computer (upper right-hand corner of the screen) and remove the Ubuntu disk.
8. Disconnect the MyBook hard drive and reconnect the original drives.
9. Turn your computer back on.
10. Place the MyBook hard drive back inside its case. I wouldn't recommend putting the case entirely back together just yet in case you discover something went wrong and you need to try the steps again.
1. Download the rescue images mentioned in step 2 of this rescue guide. Extract the zip to a folder called rescue on the desktop, and move the other file into the newly-created rescue folder.
2. On the menu at the top of the screen, select "System", then "Administration", then "Partition Editor".
3. In the Partition Editor, right-click the every entry and select "Delete" except for the one marked labeled "unallocated". (Image 1)
4. Click "Apply". When the program is done running, close it.
5. On the menu at the top of the screen, select "Applications", then "Accessories", then "Terminal".
6. Enter the following commands one at a time:
Note: It's important to follow these commands exactly. A simple misspelling could mess up the guide. Luckily, if you mess up, just hop back to step 2 and continue from there.
sudo su
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=3000
cd /home/ubuntu/Desktop/rescue
dd if=rescue.img of=/dev/sda
sfdisk /dev/sda < SDA_PTAB
cfdisk /dev/sda
a. Navigate to the area marked "Free Space" at the end of the list and press "Enter". (Image 2)
b. Select "New".
c. Set "Part Type" to "Primary".
d. Set "FS Type" to "FD".
e. Select "Write".
f. Select "Quit".
mkfs.ext3 -m /dev/sda4
bunzip2 < SDA1_IMA.BZ2 > /dev/sda1
bunzip2 < SDA2_IMA.BZ2 > /dev/sda2
bunzip2 < SDA3_IMA.BZ2 > /dev/sda3
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda1
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda3
tune2fs -c -1 -i 0 /dev/sda4
mkdir sda1
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 sda1
gedit sda1/etc/fstab
a. Change line 10 to say "/dev/md4 " to "/dev/sda4"
b. Ctrl+S to save. Close the window.
umount sda1
Credits: These commands were heavily borrowed from the directions at http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/rescue-procedure, with a few modifications where I changed the commands to be easier to follow or specific to Ubuntu.
7. Shut down the computer (upper right-hand corner of the screen) and remove the Ubuntu disk.
8. Disconnect the MyBook hard drive and reconnect the original drives.
9. Turn your computer back on.
10. Place the MyBook hard drive back inside its case. I wouldn't recommend putting the case entirely back together just yet in case you discover something went wrong and you need to try the steps again.
Step 4: Setup MyBook World
1. In your browser, go to http://mybookworld/. Note that there is no "www" or ".com"
2. Make a mental note of the IP Address in the lower right on the screen that comes up. Mine was 192.168.1.117, but yours will likely be different. (Image 1)
3. Click "Next".
4. The browser will ask for a username and password. These are "admin" and "123456", respectively.
5. Click "I Accept" to accept the terms of the EULA.
6. Set a new username and password.
7. Set the time.
2. Make a mental note of the IP Address in the lower right on the screen that comes up. Mine was 192.168.1.117, but yours will likely be different. (Image 1)
3. Click "Next".
4. The browser will ask for a username and password. These are "admin" and "123456", respectively.
5. Click "I Accept" to accept the terms of the EULA.
6. Set a new username and password.
7. Set the time.
Step 5: Enable SSH Access
If you enable SSH, it allows for the installation of some simple software on the hard drive.
1. Copy and paste the following URL into the browser, changing IP Address to the address you noticed earlier. (Image 1)
http://CHANGEME/auth/firmware_upgrade.pl?fwserver=highlevelbits.free.fr/download/MBWE/MBWE-SSH-ENABLE
Example: my IP address was 192.168.1.117, so my link started with "http://192.168.1.117/auth/fir..."
2. Click the button that says "Click to download and install".
3. Unplug the power for the MyBook and plug it back in. The drive should be accessible in a minute or two.
SSH access is now available and accessible via a program such as PuTTY. (Image 2) To connect, the default username and password are both root.
1. Copy and paste the following URL into the browser, changing IP Address to the address you noticed earlier. (Image 1)
http://CHANGEME/auth/firmware_upgrade.pl?fwserver=highlevelbits.free.fr/download/MBWE/MBWE-SSH-ENABLE
Example: my IP address was 192.168.1.117, so my link started with "http://192.168.1.117/auth/fir..."
2. Click the button that says "Click to download and install".
3. Unplug the power for the MyBook and plug it back in. The drive should be accessible in a minute or two.
SSH access is now available and accessible via a program such as PuTTY. (Image 2) To connect, the default username and password are both root.
Step 6: Conclusion
You're done! Just close up your computer case and the MyBook and get hacking! Lots of guides are available for installing a variety of different programs.
I would recommend restarting the MyBook after every install or you might end up with program conflicts. (I accidentally messed stuff up while I was installing programs and ended up with a MyBook that wouldn't start up. If that happens, just restart this guide!) Considering the limited power of the MyBook, you probably also don't want to install too many programs that are always running or performance may degrade.
If you encountered any issues, leave a comment and I'll update this guide. Thanks for plugging along and good luck!
I would recommend restarting the MyBook after every install or you might end up with program conflicts. (I accidentally messed stuff up while I was installing programs and ended up with a MyBook that wouldn't start up. If that happens, just restart this guide!) Considering the limited power of the MyBook, you probably also don't want to install too many programs that are always running or performance may degrade.
If you encountered any issues, leave a comment and I'll update this guide. Thanks for plugging along and good luck!