MyCloud Storage says is full. I look into it and find inside my most important Projekt a Folder with capital letters and a “~” which contains more of these capital letter +~ Folders. I delete it because it is obviously not something that i created and the rest of the project (Some 100s of Gigabytes i have been working for Months to create) seems to be there just fine.
When i look back on the source harddisk, Almost all the project is GONE???
Whatever functionality is creating these “~” Folders - i dont care, but how can you seriously destroy Gigabytes of Data on a Source Disk when a User removes these Deirectories, that do not give a clue that they will cause Armageddon when deleted???
What kind of madness software design is this???
If for whatever reason you cannot handle sync and create some kind of “if you delete my everything will be lost” workaround - don’t you think it would be good to let users know, what consequences it will have when they delete these folders??? I can’t believe you, seriously.
Now i am copying back the still existent files from the backup, but obviously many files are missing. If i loose this project i will spent the rest of my life (and i will have time, because i will be bankrupt) on the internet and telle everybody to KEEP AWAY from your silly product.
You deleted folders you didn’t understand, without finding out what they were, when you’re running some sort of file sync application (what is it?), and you’re blaming WD for the loss of data…?
You are doing daily backups for this important project, aren’t you?
Exactly. I deleted folders that do not belong there and which are not mentioned anywhere in the documents i have been reading about the product which is flawless (if i believe the documents) and which seemed to contain no data.
I guess you will laugh now but i was using the WD to backup. Certainly incredibly stupid of me because it is SYNC and not BACKUP - if i remember right the marketing was very careful to inform me about these important differences with pictures of smiling people, which happily backuped their family fotos.
After we are done with laughing and telling me how stupid i am, maybe somebody would bother to explain, why these folders were created and what their purpose is and why i should know, that deleting cryptic folders inside a fully stored project creates huge holes in exactly that project - which is neither in these folders, nor obviously connected to them, to the end that maybe other users who are just as stupid (hard to imagine, but you never know) as me do not step in the same trap.
Also i am not blaming WD for the loss ( i am sure they are lawyered up to the teeth against that), instead i am asking what kind of software design it is to create this cryptic stuff in the first place to solve problems i wasn’t informed about. Maybe i just haven’t encountered such avantgarde design in the 25 years i have been dealing with computers and software?
The software i was using to sync was WDsync
The reality is that MOST software programs do not fully explain (if they explain it at all) what the various folders that are created by the program do. WD software is no different. Generally one is only informed of the install location of the software and that’s it.
The WD Sync program creates at least one folder if not additional folders (some of which may be hidden) on the My Cloud that contain backed up files (or versions of previously synced files) that allows one to restore a deleted file or to restore a previous version of a file. The previous version and deleted file features and how to use them are explained in the WD Sync Help.
There have been several complains about the WD Sync program filling the My Cloud to capacity either with failed sync files or with the backup files/versioning files. One can find those threads by doing a subforum search using the search feature (magnifying glass icon upper right).
Because of the various issues some have with WD Sync some have resorted to uninstalling WD Sync and using third party sync programs like Free File Sync (http://www.freefilesync.org/). The downside to third party programs is their inability to sync remotely outside of using FTP.
Because of the way most sync programs work. Deleting a file/folder in one of the monitored folders results in the file being deleted in the sync folder at the other end. The workaround is to use a backup program that monitors the computer and back’s up files rather than syncs them, that way the backed up files on the y Cloud are not deleted if they are removed from the computer.
WD Sync stores previous file versions. That’s what the weird folders were for. That’s why your device filled up; all the previous versions.
You tampering with its versioned file store and database is likely to have confused it, which is probably why it deleted files.
This is an example of the growing problem of software that’s ‘too clever’, and tries to hide the complexities of operation from the user, and the user not wanting to bother about understanding the complexities (and because they’re not explained to the user).
You didn’t see a mess in the system yet - It is just some horror…
If you dont need WD “cloud” access - Try my alternative firmware (Clean Debian) and install only necessary software.
Oh I have seen the mess in the system. Including when WD Sync is running when I was testing its usability.
I eventually stopped using WD Sync and uninstalled it. And not surprisingly the uninstaller for WD Sync leaves folders on the PC and the My Cloud which a user will have to remove manually.
thank you for your explanations. I am sorry my post was a bit emotional and I am aware, that i did not act smart.
It seems like i am able to recover most of the project. I was using WDSync to sync a project between 3 computers so i can work on the project no matter what workstation i sit on. In addition i thought this would be a good backup.
I understand now, that this was not the best idea, although it worked ok until the drive was too full and i thought to free some space. I still think WD could do a much better job at explaining the function of the system and inform users what is actually going on, instead of making everything look “easy”.
