This is my first post here, so I hope I’m in the right place as I have found WD’s naming convention a bit confusing.
I’m looking for a simple cloud solution to back up my photo’s etc and to also use the drive as a PVR with my SiliconDust HDHomeRun DVR tuner.
I’ve seen quite a few negative reviews for WD’s latest My Cloud Home range and will steer clear of it, but I came across this on their UK shop site: https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/recertified/cloud-storage/wd-my-cloud-recertified#RWDBCTL0040HWT-EESN
So my basic question is will will it do what I want, Movies etc, will be recorded to my pc then moved across to the Drive. Can this be done via USB? Can the drive be Mapped (If WD stop supporting the device will I still be able to access all of my stuff) ?
I then want to be able to access all of my media via other pc’s and Android devices.
I’ve seen on here that as long as people thoroughly read the manual most issues can be overcome.
So should I be fine buying into an older product?
Many thanks
No. The single bay My Cloud units are basic Network Attached Storage devices (NAS). You connect the My Cloud to the local network router using an Ethernet cable. Once connected other devices on the local network can access the My Cloud.
The USB port on the My Cloud is for connecting external USB hard drives so one can either expand the storage and or backup the My Cloud to that external USB hard drive. That USB port cannot be used to connect to a computer’s USB port and access the My Cloud like a regular external USB hard drive.
The My Cloud has a very basic, very limited “cloud” access feature for remote access. One is generally limited (with the single bay My Cloud) to using either the MyCloud.com web portal, the WD My Cloud app for iOS or Android, or the insecure FTP protocol. Otherwise one has to roll their own form of remote access using something like a VPN server.
Yes one can map a My Cloud Share because the My Cloud is a basic NAS. This mapping is done locally on the local network. Currently using WD’s methods of remote access (MyCloud.com, WD My Cloud mobile apps) one cannot map a remote Share. One might be able to remotely map a Share using FTP but FTP is an insecure protocol.
At this point, I would consider this to be a “dead” product with no further support from WD.
The security around web access is a bit obsolete. . . and the hand writing is on the wall that the WD servers that support the phone apps and web access won’t be around forever.
Assuming that you don’t expose the unit to the internet (or better yet block access at the router level), this unit will work reasonably well as a simple NAS (Network attached storage) device. The key word is “Network”.
As noted above, the ONLY access to the unit is via a hard wire connection to your router. The unit then will be visible to every computer on your network. You use it for file storage, or you can stream content to other devices.
I use this device in two contexts
Centralized electronic file storage for all the computers in house.
Home for media that I can stream to other devices (i.e. video to a tablet; music files to a PC)
The first gen single bay My Cloud IS end of life and won’t be receiving future updates.
The second gen single bay My Cloud is currently in Limited Support mode.
But yeah unless one is getting a very, very good deal on a single bay My Cloud, one may want to look elsewhere (just not the My Cloud Home). Otherwise the single bay My Cloud units are what they are. They’ll still work as network attached storage devices just don’t expect any fixes to the various issues or security vulnerabilities they have.
I can always count on you for fact filled posts which are technically (and all around) excellent.
I will freely admit that my words about “dead product” are more focused on what I am seeing in terms of actual support, rather than what is in product document. While technically the 2nd Gens are to get updates. . . .(heck. . .didn’t they just roll out something for the Gen 2’s a week ago?) they are not getting any meaningful updates that address any number of issues. Rather, I see much focus on the shiny/new OS5. . . .which I strongly doubt will make it to the single bay myclouds.
I did look at the link you sent. . . I find it curious that the Mirror 2nd Gen is in limited support - and is getting an OS/5 update; yet the 2nd Gen MyCloud is not. This is why I disparage the future of the Single Bay Myclouds.
Also, as another example; The MyPassportWireless pro is a current model; still being produced. I have one, hence my interest. The last firmware update for that unit was January 2018. The firmware is THAT good that no update is needed?
I think on the whole this will work for me, from the way you have both explained it, this is really all I need as basic network attached storage.
As you guys seem to know your stuff can you shed some light on the following?
Some 10 years ago I got hold of a Freecom drive that had built in ethernet to create a basic NAS, that was clunky to use, but it worked.
Nowadays I can’t seem to find any harddrive built into an enclosure with ethernet. Any idea as to why?
And why does it seem that proper Large NAS boxes with or without drives are the only available options? Is it just not secure or simply no demand?
Not sure I understand the question being asked. There are a number of single drive NAS units out there from other manufacturers like Synology and Qnap.
There is a move to multi bay NAS units for a number of reasons. One is RAID. By using certain RAID settings one can mirror the multi bay NAS hard drives to provide redundancy if one drive fails. Another reason is expandability. With multi bay units one can easily increase the amount of storage. They can use two smaller drives to create a single large volume spanned across both drives. Third is hardware and features. Typically multi bay NAS boxes have better hardware (faster processor, more RAM) and more features than the cheaper single drive NAS units.
One can even roll their own NAS using SoC (system on chip) devices like Raspberry Pi’s. One can use one or more external hard drives (or internal drives connected to USB to SATA adapters) with a Raspberry Pi that has been configured as an NAS either manually using Samba or using a OS/modules like OpenMediaVault. Plenty of how-to guides for building your own NAS out there that range from low cost/easy to expensive and complex.
I think users who are sophisticated enough to be looking for a network based hard drive are also tend to seek (a) processing power to run a media server like Plex, and (b) the redundancy offered by multidrive RAID setup.
(I am in that category; after a bit of experience with the MyCloud, I upgraded and also have a 2 bay NAS unit in the house)
Yep, my question is a bit badly written, this link to the Freecom drive might help: FREECOM NETWORK DRIVE XS
So it looks like a standard external network hard drive but with a Gigabit LAN connection, that is all I was looking for initially, The WD should do fine as the Cloud option is useful while it remains live.
I have considered going down the DIY route with a spare drive and an original Raspberry Pi that’s currently gathering dust.
I’ll probably do both!
There are similar devices to that Freecom drive sold in the United States. Usually they’re light on features/options and configuration.
The main downside to using Raspberry Pi devices earlier than the Pi 4 is the earlier units using a single lane of USB 2.0. It limits the through put to USB .20 speeds and if there is a Ethernet plug onboard it too shares that single USB 2.0 lane. But it comes down to one’s needs. For some the slower USB 2.0 speeds and slower network transfer rate to a hard drive hanging on an Pi are acceptable others will want to go with the Pi 4 that is generally overall much faster since it uses USB 3.0.
The earlier Pi’s are not bad as NAS devices, just USB 2.0 limited. Get roughly 30 MB/s read and 26 MB/s write on a Pi 3 B+ that has a old USB 2.0 drive hanging off it configured for Samba network access. Previously used that Pi as a Plex server and it worked fine for my needs for close to two years before moving to a dedicated (non WD) NAS capable of running Plex. If one doesn’t need fast read/write an older Pi works fine as a basic very cheap NAS using old unused external hard drives.
Don’t really participate on other technical forums unless I have a specific issue with a computer/electronic device. Only do so here because like quite a few others, I came here with a number of single bay My Cloud issues and stuck around to help others. Still keep the single bay My Cloud running as a backup and as something to mess around with, like using a 2.5 inch hard drive in it. Or putting other old unused drives in it when previous drives in it die.
You are not going against the grain here. I think everyone replying to the OP’s questions has indicated that going with single bay My Cloud is probably not the best idea. Primarily due to it being no longer supported (first gen), or limited support (second gen) that is likely to go end of support sometime next year.
Just a quick thank you to everyone for the advice, I’ll rethink my plans.
I’m going to give my old pi a go for starters and if that is no good, I haven’t wasted money as it will just be using existing hardware.
