How to transfer files from USB drive to My Cloud EX2 Ultra?

Hello,

  • I have My Cloud WD EX2 Ultra (2x3To).
  • My computer is running on Windows 10.
  • Files transfer using Windows Explorer + Wifi is (too) slow (5Mo/sec).
  • Therefore, I have thought to plug in (USB 3) a usb drive or an external hard drive to the back of the NAS to speed up transfers. However, I can’t figure out how to do this.

My question is: How to transfer (copy/paste):
> data from USB drive plugged in the back of the NAS
> to the NAS (or vice versa) ?

Nas is connected to router with ethernet cable. Here is my setup.

Could you please help me or provide me with external explanation links?

Thank you.

Manbboy

Thank dswv42 for your reply.

I could manage to map a network drive linked to my USB drive (connected at the rear of the NAS).

“Connect a USB hard drive to the USB port on the rear of your My Cloud EX2 Ultra device for additional storage and backup capabilities. The USB drive appears as a share on the
My Cloud EX2 Ultra dashboard.”

“When you attach a USB drive to the My Cloud EX2 Ultra device, you turn it into a network drive.”

I have made few tests with a file of 160Mo:

  1. Copy/paste from USB drive (network drive Z) to the NAS (network drive X) takes 120sec.
  2. Copy/paste from USB drive (network drive Z) to my computer (C drive) takes 50sec.
  3. Copy/paste from my computer (C drive) to the NAS (network drive X) takes 50sec.

How can the transfer be slower when when USB is plugged direcly in the NAS ?
I was expecting a higer speed transfer !

How can my transfer be faster please?! :astonished:
The fastest speed transfer I currently have is ~3,5Mo/sec (from my computer C drive to the NAS, using Windows Explorer + Wifi).

I am really desperate. So far, i do not enjoy my purchase…

Any ideas please?

Thanks in advance.

Hey :wave:

I did follow the steps you mentionned here above (pages 45 to 47).
This is how i came up with my last setup (see the scheme picture) and the different speed tests.

Did you try following the steps in the manual?

Are you reffering to something else specifically ?

Hello,

Thanks. It indeed speeds transfers up !!! Copying my file of 160Mo takes now only 10sec.
I would have never thaught to use “USB Backup” procedure to transfer into/from the NAS.
The mention “Backup” seems to me a bit confusing for doing this, but as long as it works, I am satisfied.

I have one more question please:

  1. I currently transfer my data from my Computer to my External Hard Drive.
  2. Then I connect the external Hard Drive at the rear of the NAS and use the “Backup USB” procedure to transfer into the NAS.
  3. Is there no way to connect directly my computer to the NAS and have the same speed transfer (or faster) rather than using a intermediate USB external drive ?

Thanks for your help so far dswv42.
I really appreciate.

I would like to elaborate on “upgrade your network”.

Without doubt, getting a router that has a higher speed capability would be a good thing to do. But for LARGE transfers (several GB); it will always be painfully slow.

What you really want is to have a HARDWIRED network connection to your router.
Preferably, you want to have a 1GB card on your PC, and a 1GB router for optimal speeds.

If you only have a laptop without an Ethernet jack; I would suggest getting a USB network jack dongle. Should be cheap. Personally, I use a USB 3.1 docking station with my laptop; and that docking station includes a 1GB network connection.

As a side note: Having all your data on a USB drive in addition to the NAS is NOT a bad thing. The NAS itself is a single point of failure; and if the data is important it probably should be on a separate device (like the USB drive) anyway.

Wow, profound thanks for this USB backup tip; Just got a 3TB Ultra today, and I was looking at transfers of a megabyte a second (with 1.25TB to go), but this goes hundreds of times faster. Awesome.

Your very good health,
Rob

1 Like

First of all, thank you ALL for your help and your precious tips ! :+1: :+1: :+1:
Here is a summary of my investigations. Files transfer to NAS:

  1. from Computer using [Wifi] + [Windows Explorer]
    ==> very slow 5MB/sec

  2. from USB Hard Disk (plugged in the rear of the NAS) using [Wifi] + [Backup process]:
    ==> faster 30MB/sec

  3. from Computer using [Gibabit Ethernet cable (Cat6) linked to my router] + [Windows Explorer] + [Wifi switched-off on my computer]:
    ==> way faster 100MB/sec

I hope this will help other people :slight_smile: