How do I check the backup on My Cloud Mirror. The whole point of system is to provide automatic backup. So how do I make sure the back up is happening and useable.
How did you make your backup? The unit runs several different types of backups with different purposes, and they are configured individually and independently.
Please send link to operation manual.
Jim Fisk
Can you explain the different types of backups and how to set them up!
Here you go.
Generation 1:
Generation 2:
http://products.wdc.com/library/UM/ENG/4779-705145.pdf[quote=“azonie, post:4, topic:196549, full:true”]
Can you explain the different types of backups and how to set them up!
[/quote]
Local backups (Using WD SmartWare)
USB Backups
Remote Backups
Internal Backups
Cloud Backups
They all operate and are set-up differently. For more information please refer to the Backups section of your unit’s user manual.
I am not seeing any link to user manual attached. What am I missing.
Jim Fisk
It seems there was an issue with the previous links. Can you access them now?
Generation 1:
http://products.wdc.com/library/UM/ENG/4779-705122.pdf#page=76
Generation 2:
http://products.wdc.com/library/UM/ENG/4779-705145.pdf#page=50
Wow
Still it sure I have set up correctly. In reading manual I see it states if you have set up as RAID 1 it is suppose to do automatic backup. But I don’t see it anywhere. Since the purpose of the back up is for peace of mind I want to to be able to see and verify the backup.
So I went in and created a weekly back up. Now I can see back and even view images.
But is the RAID 1 setting doing this already. And if so how do l view it.
Don’t want to waste space by creating more than one back up, but want to make sure I have back up that can be viewed.
Fisk
RAID1 means mirroring of drives. Basically your MCM has 2 drives in it, and if set up as RAID1 then everything you write to it gets saved automatically on both drives (they are identical copies of one another).
The advantage of that is if one drive fails you still have the data safely on the other one, but of course you lose half of your available disk capacity.
Plus if the entire unit fails or is damaged/destroyed/stolen then you can lose everything anyway, so it’s not cast iron safe.
Ok. But surely there is a way to view the backup. I do t want to wait for a drive failure and find out the backup is either no good or didn’t happen.
There must be a way to see both drives separately just like they were two individual drives???
Jim Fisk
Arguably it’s not a backup, it’s the same file written twice, once to both disks. If the write fails then you’ll get an error reported by the MCM as it will be a raid failure.
You can’t view the disks individually, at least without removing one of them, viewing the remaining one and then swapping. You’re viewing them via the raid controller and that’s what is doing the duplication.
But fundamentally if the MCM isn’t reporting any issues then the save is happening.
Ok thanks.
Than I guess the weekly back up I have set up is not needed.
Jim Fisk
It depends. If it’s mission critical data then a backup to a second device (ideally in a different location of otherwise protected) can be useful. There are scenarios (fire, theft, total device failure or destruction, power supplies spikes and issues for examples) which could take out the whole MCM and both drives.
RAID mirroring just protects against “normal” drive mechanical failure, and isn’t a total guarantee.
Personally I have irreplaceable data (family photos and documents etc) across multiple devices and locations, all duplicated safely.
Thanks more additional info on the RAID 1 backup. But concern is since it’s a backup would like to be able to view photos to make sure they are backed up and secured.
Not being able to do that makes the My Cloud Mirror a useless device. Who wants to wait until a failure occurs to find out if backup worked or not.
If I had know this was the case I would have purchased two My cloud’s and backed one up to the other. So I could view on both drives.
Totally UNHAPPY CUSTOMER.
Jim Fisk
I think you might be better switching your MCM to JBOD mode. That will make the two drives entirely independent and you can access them individually.
There will be NO automatic backup at all, but if you’re happy to manually save everything twice (or set up some sort of automatic duplication) then that could work for you. It’s kinda like having two my clouds in one box.
Note that if you change modes the content of both drives will be deleted as they need to be reconfigured and reformatted to work in the new mode.
But I’d disagree is a useless device. It works in exactly the same way as any raid array device will work. It’s absolutely standard how these nas drives work.
My point is that anyone that buys this as a “safe backup” device will be unhappy. As they want that sense of security of having the back up and being able to view it. What good is a back up if you can’t verify the back up is there and in good shape. After all the purpose of a back up is “that good feeling” that if anything happens to first drive you have a backup. If you can’t see backup you have no “good feeling”.
Wish I had the option to return it.
Jim Fisk
Look at JBOD mode as I said.
Other than that you’d be similarly unhappy with any raid device from any vendor, as that’s how they all work. At some point you have to trust that devices are doing their jobs if they’re not reporting errors.
There are millions of such raid array boxes out there in daily use without issues.
