WD My Cloud

[Korky]

Has anyone any knowledge or experience with the WD My Cloud storage thingy?

Amazon are doing the 3TB job for £119 and I'm very tempted. Reviews and opinions seem to vary though.

Korky

[ChrisLumix]

But what is it - a HD or Cloud storage? Where exactly is the 3TB - part on a HD and part in the sky?

[Black Pearl]

I have a 1TB I bought a good few years ago - its still working having very rarely been turned off so reliability is fine but the software is a bit grim. 

[JHFoto]

I too have the 1TB had it for just over a year, no complaints......

[Korky]

Thanks for the info - and thanks, Judy for the reviews, very informative.

On Amazon, the not-so-good reviews seem to be the older ones, it seems the firmware has been upgraded and the now the latest reviews are much more positive. A friend of mine is running a 2TB version on a Windows network and he's very happy with it.

Herr Lumix - it's a 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 TB drive that sits in a home network. It plugs into a router and just simply provides backup storage. Works well with Apple's Time Machine apparently.

Korky

[JamWheel]

I've been looking at these lately too, more specifically the ex2 version. 

Does anyone have any idea how exactly it works when accessing the files remotely? 

I'vread lots of reviews but none focus much on this aspect. 

The WD red drives are supposed to be very good 

[FUJI]

I've just read in my paper, that.....GOOGLE PHOTOS ....is a free photograph hosting and filing app across all tablet and phone operating systems....

im going to have a look at it.

 

FUJI

[ChrisLumix]

Thanks for the info - and thanks, Judy for the reviews, very informative.

On Amazon, the not-so-good reviews seem to be the older ones, it seems the firmware has been upgraded and the now the latest reviews are much more positive. A friend of mine is running a 2TB version on a Windows network and he's very happy with it.

Herr Lumix - it's a 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 TB drive that sits in a home network. It plugs into a router and just simply provides backup storage. Works well with Apple's Time Machine apparently.

Korky

​That sounds cool - but presumably if you're out with your laptop you can't upload stuff like you could to a real Cloud if you used a wifi hotspot? Or does it operate like LogMeIn so you can access your WD storage even when you're out?

[Korky]

I believe you can remotely access files, but this needs to be set up and you need an internet connection.

My friend (yes, I do have one) who has the 2TB version is planning to test his on a trip to Germany next week.

Korky

[JamWheel]

I believe you can remotely access files, but this needs to be set up and you need an internet connection.

My friend (yes, I do have one) who has the 2TB version is planning to test his on a trip to Germany next week.

Korky

​Korky,

I would appreciate an idea of how this remote access works in practice if possible, if your friend has the time to describe how it is implemented that would be wonderful.

[ChrisLumix]

​Korky,

I would appreciate an idea of how this remote access works in practice if possible, if your friend has the time to describe how it is implemented that would be wonderful.

​LogMeIn is an app which - as its name suggests - allows you to access your Mac at home using another device such as laptop or tablet. I'm assuming the WD My Cloud is similar? However, both imply internet access even if it's 'firewalled' and personal. The other option (I guess) is that your device "phones home" and is therefore connected to your router.

[JamWheel]

​LogMeIn is an app which - as its name suggests - allows you to access your Mac at home using another device such as laptop or tablet. I'm assuming the WD My Cloud is similar? However, both imply internet access even if it's 'firewalled' and personal. The other option (I guess) is that your device "phones home" and is therefore connected to your router.

​I believe the intention is that you can connect to the storage remotely via the internet, I think the device itself handles the security rather than the router.

[Korky]

I took the plunge and ordered the 3TB version from Amazon.

It was delivered this afternoon and within 15 minutes of unpacking it was connected to the iMac, I'd registered an account with WD, dowloaded and installed the necessary software and the Mac was happily chugging away on a full Time Machine backup. The MacBook in the living room also recognised the new drive no problem and test files transferred no bother.

First impressions are good. Very good!

Korky

[Korky]

Ya can't take it wiv ya when ya go! I became a SKIer some time ago and it's brilliant!

Korky

[JamWheel]

I took the plunge and ordered the 3TB version from Amazon.

It was delivered this afternoon and within 15 minutes of unpacking it was connected to the iMac, I'd registered an account with WD, dowloaded and installed the necessary software and the Mac was happily chugging away on a full Time Machine backup. The MacBook in the living room also recognised the new drive no problem and test files transferred no bother.

First impressions are good. Very good!

Korky

​Korky,

Can you try to access it from outside your network? I need to understand how this operates.

[Phil]

I'm now intrigued.

Do these things do away with the need for Dropbox, or any other cloud based back-ups out there (I appreciate that if the drive goes belly up you've lost everything)?
Can you share files using the drive?
Oh, I'm guessing they are HDD (moving parts) only, the cost of a 3TB SSD version would make them prohibitive possibly?

Easier to ask here than do a Goggle, far too lazy for that 

[Ryewolf]

Do these things do away with the need for Dropbox, or any other cloud based back-ups out there? The short answer is yes - according to the WDMyCloud website.

Basically the MyCloud is a network attached storage device, it connects directly to the router (which are usually always switched on all the time), either wired or wireless. As it has a cpu and memory its capable of running software. From a quick scan of the user manual, one of the programs would be some sort of dynamic dns  software client that runs on the MyCloud, similiar to DynDNS or NoIP. Access to the MyCloud remotely is done via a web page at WDMyCloud . com, once logined the drive shared and public folders that have been setup should be visible.

There is another version of the MyCloud called the MyCloud Mirror, which are set up as raid arrays that are copies of each other. So the 8tb one would have 2 x 4tb drives total 8tb, however as they are setup by default as Raid 1, you would only see 4tb with the other drive being a mirror copy, so if one drive failed the other would still have all your files.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Ryewolf

[Phil]

Well, I think I've got my head around that
Thank you for taking the time to answer

I'm currently paying £95.88 a year (£7.99 a month) to Dropbox for 1TB. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Korky]

There's also the option to connect a USB 3.0 drive as well. I've expanded the 3TB to 4TB by plugging in my little Samsung drive.

Yes, compared to DropBox, the My Cloud is a very good buy. Looks nice too!

Korky

[JamWheel]

Dropbox will save important files from a house fire though, this will not.

It uses Western Digital Red Drives I believe which are designed specifically for NAS usage. I suspect the NAS keeps them spinning. Google did some work on this and their data centres keep the drives spinning all the time, this reduces failures as the bearings don't have to keep stopping and starting the platter.

I was looking at the WeD Mycloud EX2 which allows two drives, for a chunkier solution the EX4 allows 4 drives so you could use RAID 1 + 0 I suspect and end up with 8TB striped and mirrored.

RAID isn't a backup solution though, rather a resiliency thing. If your house blows up or the thing sets on fire it is still gone. 4TB is an awful lot of data.

I am considering implementing one for a friend but how the external access works will be important and I can't see in any of the reviews online that anyone covers how this bit works.

[JamWheel]

Having said that and reading the above I managed to dig out a copy of the manual. Looks ideal for what my friend needs.

[ChrisLumix]

Dropbox will save important files from a house fire though, this will not.

It uses Western Digital Red Drives I believe which are designed specifically for NAS usage. I suspect the NAS keeps them spinning. Google did some work on this and their data centres keep the drives spinning all the time, this reduces failures as the bearings don't have to keep stopping and starting the platter.

I was looking at the WeD Mycloud EX2 which allows two drives, for a chunkier solution the EX4 allows 4 drives so you could use RAID 1 + 0 I suspect and end up with 8TB striped and mirrored.

RAID isn't a backup solution though, rather a resiliency thing. If your house blows up or the thing sets on fire it is still gone. 4TB is an awful lot of data.

I am considering implementing one for a friend but how the external access works will be important and I can't see in any of the reviews online that anyone covers how this bit works.

​I have multiple strategies to handle failures:

1. the computer's HD is backed up to external HD using Time Machine
2. there's another Time Machine in a different room from the computer
3. all my small but essential files - text, databases, spreadsheets, small images, address book, browser bookmarks, notes - go to Dropbox (free 3GB)
4. my best photos are still on the camera's SD cards, I'm now on my 4th or 5th
5. music is backed up to memory sticks and stored away from the computer

Restoring all that in the event of total disaster would be something of a PITA, but preferable to losing it forever.

[JamWheel]

Point 4 sounds terrifying, sd cards are not very resilient storage. 

[ChrisLumix]

Point 4 sounds terrifying, sd cards are not very resilient storage. 

​It's only "belt & braces" - I have all my pictures on the computer, plus backed up to both Time Machines, plus older ones on a full memory stick, plus many uploaded to Facebook and forums like this one ... if else failed (!) I still have the full SD cards in a drawer.

[ChrisLumix]

Talking of 'belt and braces', has anyone got any experience of Amazon free cloud storage for photos for their Prime subscribers?

 

Can't see the point myself, you have to pay for Amazon Prime where MIcrosoft and Google give you free space on every hotmail account you create.