My Book Duo vs My Cloud Mirror

I have 2 Macs - a Mini & a MacBook Pro. I want to do a clean install of Yosemite. I also want to use Time Machine. I’m a bit confused between the My Book Duo & the My Cloud Mirror.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that I know the difference. Both can be set up as RAID mirror. The My Book Duo is not a Network Attached Storage drive, but the My Cloud mirror is. The My Book Duo can only back up the computer to which it is physically attached, but the My Cloud Mirror can back up the physically attached computer as well as a wirelessly attached laptop. That’s probably why the Duo costs less than the Mirror.

OK, I have some questions. Both have USB ports for adding additional external hard drives. If I got 2 of the Mirrors or 2 of the Duos, could I set up the first one as a RAID stripe & the external one as a RAID mirror to back up the RAID stripe? If I got 2 of the Mirrors, could I do the same? If I got 2 of the Mirrors, could I set 1 up in my apartment as a physically connected RAID stripe & the other at my parents’ house as a wireless RAID mirror to back up the RAID stripe? Could I hook up 2 external My Books or 2 external My Passports & configure them as RAID?

I suppose that they are formatted for Windows. Would i gain or lose any capacity if the drives are reformatted for the Mac?

   Hi and welcome to the WD community.

If You connect a My Book Duo to another MyBook Duo, you can use one as a mirror and the other one a s a stripe, although there is no software that would back up one drive to the other if you of a 3rd party software that could help you with this you can use it. Now if you connect a MyCloud Mirror to another Mycloud mirror you have the remote backup feature that lets you backup one to another via network. Another setup you can have is  one MyCloud mirror with a MyBook Duo connected in mirror and you can do a NAS to USB backup or USB to NAS which would be a better setup so that way you can backup each MyCloud Mirror with a MyBook  Duo. 

Regarding Raid with an external drive that id connected to the unit wont be possible.

After I sent the post, I researched RAID stripe. I don’t want to fool with that. It would be too complicated to rebuild a striped array. I also researched the other RAID options. I don’t want to fool with parity. I want to keep it simple. So, RAID mirror, I would say, is my only option. My Book Duo doesn’t have network capability, right? Can I connect 2 My Passports to a My Book Duo or My Cloud Mirror & set up the My Passports as a RAID mirror so I can mirror the mirror?

I’m wondering what my options are. First, I have to decide between My Book Duo or My Cloud Mirror. I have a Mac mini desktop & a MacBook Pro. The mini is my primary computer. I want to be able to use Time Machine & back up both of them. I think that I can use Time Machine to back up both of them. One option is to have 1 backup at my parents’ house that would back up the backup at my apartment. I suppose that the backup at my parents’ house would have to be the My Cloud Mirror, right?

Please clarify the following from ArMak’s post: "Another setup you can have is  one MyCloud mirror with a MyBook Duo connected in mirror and you can do a NAS to USB backup or USB to NAS which would be a better setup so that way you can backup each MyCloud Mirror with a MyBook  Duo. " I know that NAS stands for Network Atached Storage, but I don’t understand NAS to USB or USB to NAS.

Please explain the following from ArMak’s post: " Regarding Raid with an external drive that is connected to the unit won’t be possible." Both the My Book Duo & the My Cloud Mirror ARE external drives.

If I have 2 My Book Duos in my apartment & I want one to back up the other, then both have to be physically connected, right?

Another thing that I want to do is access my mini’s files remotely from my laptop. I’m on call for dad-sitting. When I go over to my parents’ house to dad-sit, I bring my laptop. If I want to access a file on my mini, I’d have to use the My Cloud Mirror, right? I can’t access files remotely using the My Book Duo, right?