I have a My Cloud EX4100 16 TB, RAID 5 NAS that I use to back up my home computer files (photographs and graphic design work). I do not access the files from anywhere except my three home computers. I do not use the mobile app. I haven’t even used an auto backup app, I just drag and drop. I would, however, like to use a simple backup app so that my backups are more consistent.
Do I really need to install My Cloud OS 5? A new PC laptop I just bought doesn’t have OS 3 or OS 5 installed, I just mapped to the EX4100 and drag and drop between windows in File Manager. and after visiting several WD Support pages and links, I cannot figure out how to get OS 3 installed so that I can install OS 5.
Is there a simple app I can use that just does a daily or weekly backup? I don’t want a monthly subscription service. Acronis TrueImage seems like overkill for me.
A lot of us that do not need remote access do what you are doing.
i think of OS3 and OS5 as the smartphone Apps but you do need different firmware on your EX4100 to use one or the other. Which firmware do you have now ?
Have you tried any of the latest backup apps in the OS5 ?
You still need to backup the NAS unit.
As to Acronis - the older Version still work well. ( and works well with NAS units)
The Acronis backup forum has a section ( which I need to read again ) for what backup program long time Acronis uses are moving over too as most not happy with the changes. ( subscription service - too many running task - slow backups )
I’ve had the MyCloud EX4100 since 2017 and as far as I remember, I just mapped the NAS to a drive on my laptop and dragged Files or Folders from file manager window to mapped NAS drive. I have never set up a proper daily backup.
I can view the My Cloud Dashboard by using the IP number in my browser. The dashboard auto updated just this week to Firmware Version 2.41.121, which is, according to WD’s support site, enough to do the OS 5 update. I was a bit nervous I would mess up the OS 5 update and no longer be able to view my files, but went ahead and did it. Nothing was lost but now accessing the files on the EX4100 is much slower. I hope it just needs to spend some time indexing the files.
I then installed Acronis and scheduled my first full drive backup. I only backed up my D: HDD which is where all my work and photos are stored. I didn’t bother backing up the C: SSD at this time. By morning, everything still appears to be working and accessible. Unfortunately, adding Acronis filled up my already full 1 TB C: drive. I’ve uninstalled every non-essential thing I could, but I might need to reinstall Windows 10 (it’s not Win 11 compatible) to get trim the fat on the SSD.
