I plan on connecting a 10TB WD My Book USB drive to a My Cloud Mirror. I hope to create different shares on it to take advantage of security and configuration for each as opposed to a lot of folders that all share the same configuration of the one share of 10TB. Can anyone tell me if and/or how to accomplish this?
Thank you.
It’s not possible - when you connect a USB drive it can be shared to the network (from the root) but you can’t actually create shares on it (sub-folders).
I have an MCM with 2x 5TB Elements drives on it by USB. Both appear as whole drive shares, but when you try to create a share on the MCM itself you only get the option of Vol1 and Vol2 (mine’s in JBOD mode) which are the two internal drives.
@DarrenHill …tx…I was afraid of that but grasping at straws.
As for the MCM, I currently have an external connected to an MBL Duo with multiple shares across the two internal drives. The manual i’m reading ahead of an MCM being shipped to me also indicates multiple shares possible.
Something sounds wrong with your limitation of share options(assuming we’re on the same page with JBOD as the default mode vs RAID 0).
The default mode of the MCM is RAID1, hence why it’s the MyCloud Mirror. The RAID1 mirrors the two drives. In my case when I set it up I switched it from RAID1 to JBOD (there are 4 options, RAID1 (default), RAID0, spanning and JBOD).
In my case I can create shares specifically on either of the two individual internal drives due to being in JBOD mode, but if you’re in RAID1 mode then you can only create shares on both (as they’ll be mirroring one another).
Multiple shares are possible, but only on the internal drives. External drives will appear as their own individual share (from the root of the drive, sharing everything) but you can’t add additional shares for specific sections of the external drives. It’s all or nothing basically.
When you create the share in the MCM dashboard you can select which of the two internal volumes to use (ie which of the drives) - at least I can in JBOD mode. No option for the external drives are offered.
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Ahhhh… when you said Vol 1 and Vol 2 it sounded like those were your only shares possible… thought there had to be more to it.
It’s been so long, I went back into my Duo. It’s default is spanning and only RAID 1 else.
Span, mirror end even JBOD all provide somewhat better data recovery possibilities, but since I’ll safepoint the entire NAS to an Element 8TB USB external, not an issue. I’ll stripe for performance.
Tx for your time… but I do wonder why you chose JBOD. I didn’t even realize the options on the MCM, sorta why i’m reading the manual before it gets here.
I now currently just use my MCM as a drive for Smartware back-ups, so I don’t need the mirroring capability. Hence rather than “waste” 50% of the available capacity, I switched it to JBOD. I don’t want to use RAID0 or spanning as if one drive dies then I lose everything, but in JBOD I don’t have that restriction.
All of my non-backup data is on the two 5TB Elements drives which are on the USB ports, and those I manually maintain as duplicates (specifically saving everything twice and duplicating). That said I’m looking to buying a new 4 or 6 bay NAS (probably a Synology or QNAP) as those Elements drives are almost full and I think my usage case would be better served with more capacity and a RAID5 (or higher) set-up.
I understand your logic using JBOD. So do they appear as network shares independent of the NAS, and/or while still shares created and administered on each volume by the MCM?
For now an 8TB MCM with 8TB Elemental as safepoint, and 10TB & 2TB My Book, will fill my needs for the near future. I would like to find some third party solution to provide security and access control of individual folders on the external share volume.
If you don’t mind why would you not consider the EX or DL Cloud series for RAID 5+ and expanded storage? I hadn’t looked at QNAP or Synology myself. Would you use WD drives in them? Just curious, tx.
On my network I have HomeNAS (the devices network name), and on that I have various shares including Elements-1 and Elements-2 (the two 5TB Elements drives on the USB ports). So from that viewpoint the USB drive shares just look exactly the same as those on the two internal drives. Their access control etc is all still done via the NAS dashboard, in just the same way as for internal drive shares.
I’m looking towards QNAP and Synology for the new box simply as I want something a little more powerful and professional. They will probably be populated with WD drives yes, but whilst WD make acceptable drives the NAS hardware (or more especially firmware) and support isn’t quite what I’m looking for these days.
My MCM just arrived. It is recertified and to settle a service/warranty issue. What model/type drives did you get in your new in box MCM please?
I’ve never opened it to look.
Normally they contain WD red drives, with sometimes green drives instead if they run out of red stock during manufacturing.
BTW…I’m starting to appreciate your interest in Qnap and Synology. I subscribed to a Youtuber Spandot who discusses their offerings. While I am not about to switch anytime soon i see options including USB 3.1 and NVMe & SSD options to cache NAS drives. It’s an education.
