Question mycloud wont work plugged into laptop

[luckydriver]

i gave my friend my old mycloud 2tb to use for a backup. just trying to get it setup on one machine and even when plugged with ethernet into the laptop, it wont even recognize the device. ive rebooted each device many times. turned on network discovery and i'm out of ideas. the manual says you can plug it into the ethernet and it will only work with that device and for now i'm good with that.

 

[Alabalcho]

It depends how your NAS was configured:

• if it was configured for DHCP, it won't work directly connected to the laptop since nobody will provide IP address to it - it must be plugged into a network with DHCP server (most home routers act as one);
• if it was configured with static IP address, the laptop' ethernet port must be configured static as well, with IP address from same network block as the NAS.

Did you try the setup app downloaded from WD?
https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=904&lang=en#WD_downloads

 

[luckydriver]

i havent used it at my house in over a year so i dont know how it was configured. if ii had to guess id say dhcp. however at friends house nothing i tried enabled me to see the drive on the laptop. i tried the program u linked to and a few others like the discovery . just tried a bunch to see if something kicked in. i see now in a help screen there is a reset button with paperclip on the mycloud. perhaps that would work to get it recognized and start from scratch?

2ndary question: her router is in the basement on a high up shelf with little room for this device. i was hoping i could use a network switch upstairs to do a final hookup for this. the ethernet runs from the basement to the office and id plug that into the switch. then run ethernet both to laptop and to mycloud. would this work for a final configuration? the switch i have is only 100 and not gigabit but she can buy another one if she wants. its all i have laying around.