BackUp for WD MyCloud

Hi there everyone.

After having recently lost a whole lot of data I bought the WD MyCloud becuase I naievely thought the Cloud bit meant that  all my new data would be stored in WD’s own cloud as well as the hard drive. I’m guessing that’s not the case and the Cloud bit of the name is a misnomer. Is the only way to truly be safe is to buy another WD MyCloud to back up my exisiting one, or register with another Cloud provider for a monthly prescription.

Many thanks for any help in advance.

Best,

Chris

chrisj72 wrote:

 

… I naievely thought the Cloud bit meant that  all my new data would be stored in WD’s own cloud as well as the hard drive. I’m guessing that’s not the case and the Cloud bit of the name is a misnomer. 

Out of couriosity what made you think that the WD My Cloud network attached storage device would backup to a third party online storage service? The WD My Cloud is marketed and sold as a stand alone network attached hard drive that attaches to one’s local network and which can be access both via the local network and via remote, offsite, means through the internet. It is a “cloud” drive in the sense that you can access it from a offsite/remote location.

If you use the WD Smartware Pro backup software it apparently does give you the option to backup to the online Dropbox service, rather than the WD My Cloud on one’s local network. 

The WD My Cloud is capable of backing itself up (called “Safepoint”) to either another location on your local network, or to  a USB external hard drive connected to the USB port on the back of the WD My Cloud device. For more information on how to use Safepoints see the WD My Cloud User Manual, in particular Chapter 11 “Managing Safepoints”.

It’s a Personal Cloud.  The whole point is that it’s a Cloud you have control of, not some commerical third party who you have to trust to do a proper job with security, and who may decide to shut down their service without warning (has happened), or be an obvious central point of attack for hackers.

So, no, there’s no storage of your data other than that performed in the MyCloud.  There are no copies of your data held anywhere else unless you set them up. That’s why the MyCloud comes with facilities to back itself up to a local USB disk, or another network drive (SafePoint).

One downside of the WD MyCloud solution is that true Cloud access to your device (i.e. remote to your home network) relies on security protocols that may have unresolved security exploits; it took WD quite a long time to close the door on the POODLE problem, months after it had been sorted in the open source library they use. There are other security exploits reported here that do not appear to have been addressed.

The other downside is that there are a number of reports here that Safepoint may not be that safe, and the backups it generates can disappear:

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/Safepoint-missing-after-reboot/td-p/886353

No system is perfect. If you have data you do not want to lose, back it up, and check that the backups can be restored. Back it up multiple times, and, ideally, keep the backups in different physical locations; your house may burn down, or get burgled, etc.

The backup measures you take will depend on how precious the data is to you. The security measures you take will depend on how much you do not want the data to fall into the public domain. These are personal choices.

Thanks both. I understand. I guess in my mind the word Cloud was some massive data warehouse somewhere that backed up my data again.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Safepoint has a habit of disappearing when you need it most, it is also very slow and places a heavy load on system resources. Even with USB3 attached HDD data backs up via safepoint at a rate of around 0.7TB per day, so an initial Safepoint can take several days.

If you’re feeling confident, have a look at my alternative, faster backup solution here:

/WD-My-Cloud/Happy-accident-INCLUDES-AN-ALTERNATIVE-TO-SAFEPOINT

Good luck with your new My Cloud, it’s rather good once you get to know your way around it.

Nick