How many years can I expect a 2TB My Cloud drive to last?

I bought the 2TB My Cloud only because it was $79 at Walmart a couple of weeks ago. (clearance price) Wasn’t even planning to get one to begin with… I was actually looking for case for my iPad and the hard drives were in the same aisle. I noticed the yellow clearance sticker and I couldn’t pass it up at $79.

How many years can I expect a 2TB My Cloud drive to last? I’m realistic… I know hard drives can go bad in months… or in years… just wondering…

Thanks!

I have 2 3TB My Clouds. 1 is 2.5 years old and the other is 1.5 years old and both are doing fine. If you have registered your My Cloud, I think they are warranted for 3 years. The WD Reds typically are for at least 5 years according to WD’s website. The drives are made to run 24/7. Both of mine are the GEN 1 versions. The newer one are GEN 2 so I’m not sure of the warranty offered.

It all depends upon how much and how hard you use it. It will last for years, like most things do. Is this the first non-PC device with a hard drive you have purchased? Anyway, you only spent $70, so don’t worry, but get another drive to back it up, because hard drives can go bad like anything mechanical can do. WD will take care of you while the warranty is in effect,

It all varies, but the expected life should be 3-5.

Hi All,

When you say 5 years, does that mean after that potetionally i might lose all my data?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Always have multiple copies of data.

  • you might make a big mistake and wipe out something important

  • Ransomware.

  • Lightning or other natural disaster

  • Drive gets old. . .and is no longer accessible

  • Rogue firmware update bricks the device (aka OS5 upgrade)

You could potentially loose your data an hour from now. Or you could loose it five years from now. Bottom line is this: backup all important data to a second and or third hard drive. Some go so far as to keep rotational backups off site as a disaster recovery step.

The reality is hard drives will fail. No one knows exactly when. The My Cloud includes a backup option called Safepoint (v4.x firmware) or Backup (v2.x firmware) that can be configured using the My Cloud Dashboard. These backup options can backup a My Cloud to a USB hard drive attached to the My Cloud’s USB port. Some go a few steps farther to backup their hard drives to multiple places beyond just a My Cloud (or backup a My Cloud to more than one location).

The good thing about the My Cloud and most other NAS boxes, if the hard drive fails one can replace that drive, restore the operating system if needed, restore backed up data and march forward.

In this case, I think paying for a cloud will be easier and cheaper on the longer run. At least, you guaranteeing not losing your data.

Thanks for that tip, will give it a try and check. Does that backup option compress your data? I am talking here about over 500 GB of photos and videos!

The guarantees of “cloud backup” are as good as the paper they are written upon.

And what exactly do they guarantee?
And does the company reserve the right to alter the service -or even terminate the service- at any time whatsoever?

500gb is not a tremendously large collection to backup. . .there are number of ways to do it. Cloud services CAN be a valuable part of a robust strategy; but should not be considered as a fail-safe.

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No, the data isn’t compressed. The My Cloud Dashboard Safepoint/Backup feature copies the files over uncompress. One can remove that USB drive and attach it to their computer and access those files in an emergency. The down side to no compression is one will need a large enough USB hard drive to cover all of the data stored on the My Cloud.

Cheers, thanks mate

I bought two devices they both failed within 3 months with minimal use. The support services is appalling and you have to pay postage in a specified package to get a repair.
I have lost Terbytes of data and hours and hours of time. As the other says ALWAYS keep a copy of any files you put on them and dont trust them