Accessing files

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

Hi everyone - I’m hoping you can answer a question for me?

I’ve not yet bought the WD Personal Cloud because I want to ensure that it does what I want before I lay out the money. So could any please advise if the following is possible?

I want to store my photos on a remote drive accessible by wifi that will allow Photoshop Elements to access the relevant folder (ie via path File>Open>Drive>Folder) which I suppose is the Windows Explorer approach.

I didn’t think that would be difficult to achieve but I’ve got a Lacie Fuel external drive and it simply won’t do this and forces you to use the Lacie/Seagate app for file managements. So it won’t work with Elements.

There is not enough internal HDD storage on my laptop and the whole point of a laptop is that I don’t want to have to connect via USB but this seems disproportionately difficult to achieve!

So, is this possible with the WD Personal Cloud? Or has anyone else got any suggestions of how to do this? Any advice gratefully received!

2

Make VERY certain that you are getting the right product.

the MyCloud Home™ product will NOT do what you want. It does not work like a normal NAS.

The MyCloud (Gens 1 and 2) can do what you want if you plug it into a wifi enabled gigabit router, using a windows file share. (windows will mount the MyCloud’s share as a drive, and then you can point photoshop there.)

The MyCloud Mirror™ will also work, like above, as will the EX2 and EX2-Ultra.

The Mirror and EX2 also support iSCSI, which a windows host can mount using iscsi initiator (a windows component), which acts as if you plugged in a disk drive, even though it is over your network. (it is a SAN protocol.) Only one computer should attach to an iSCSI LUN at a time though, unless you like filesystem corruption. (Any number of computers can access the windows file shares though.)

Depending on what you want out of the product, that should dictate your purchase decision.

The single bay units are great for a home environment that gets light use. Situations include:

Use with a (single) smart TV that can handle DLNA
A single point to store frequently exchanged data files
light use in a shared data situation (say, a lan party, for distributing spawn copies.)

The dual drive units (Mirror, EX2, EX2 ultra), in order-- provide increasing degrees of fault tolerance, and performance up to moderate use. Things like having multiple smart tvs playing DLNA content at the same time, etc. (they have faster processors and more ram the further up the foodchain you go.)

Leaving the consumer market, and entering small business class, you get the EX4 and pals.
These are really geared for incorporation into active directory and managed by a small to medium size enterprise. None of the WD NAS solutions are really appropriate for large enterprises. There are much better solutions for that sector. (See for instance, the offerings from NetApp) I only mention this top tier for completeness.

The single bay units are currently slated to be discontinued though. WD is trying hard to push people toward the Home™, but keep in mind that this is NOT going to service your needs.

Now is a good time to get a single or dual bay unit. Ralphael recently posted to an ebay seller that is offering them at half normal retail.

1 Like
3

Many thanks for the comprehensive reply - almost too much for my feeble brain to assimilate!!

Just for clarity, I am using this at home and would be able to attach the Personal Cloud to my router by cable.

And there would be limited use for streaming and such. Literally all I want to achieve is for PSE to be able to access photos for editing without the need to attach a drive physically to my laptop.

So do you think this would, in fact, be up to the job? Your comment “The MyCloud (Gens 1 and 2) can do what you want if you plug it into a wifi enabled gigabit router, using a windows file share. (windows will mount the MyCloud’s share as a drive, and then you can point photoshop there.)” seems to imply that it would?

Thanks in advance

4

Yes. A single bay MyCloud will do what you want.

Be sure it is NOT a MyCloud Home™, because that is a totally different product, and it will not do what you want.

You want this product.

NOT THIS PRODUCT.

1 Like
5

Fantastic advice - I’m very grateful for your help
:+1::ok_hand::+1::ok_hand::+1::ok_hand:

6

Wierd_w - could I ask a further question? Could you tell me (in simple terms as I’m not totally up on this stuff…!) exactly why the MyCloud Home doesn’t do what I want?

I can see that the MyCloud devices are no longer produced so I’m just a bit concerned about what might happen if it breaks down in terms of replacement at some point in the future.

7

The Home is more of a media server, and less a NAS. It does not do windows file shares. What you want is something that does windows file shares. That means the Home does not do what you want.

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8

Many thanks - are you aware of a product (obviously it wouldn’t be anything from WD) that would do the same as the MyCloud and is currently in production from another manufacturer?

9

Absolutely. There are several offerings from synology, buffalo and pals.

Synology:

Buffalo:

Seagate:

You should ALWAYS do your own research when choosing a product though.

1 Like
10

You, sir, are a gent: :+1::tophat:

I will certainly look at the other options but needed a starting point for which I’m most grateful!