My Book or My Cloud?

What would be the best storage device that I could hook up via my smart wifi router using it’s usb connection so all users on the network can have access to it for back ups, storage, music, pictures and movies to access from our smart tv that is connected to the network. I’m leaning towards a my book or a my cloud but looking for brief suggestions.
Thanks in advance for helping me out…

A moderator will probably move your post because you’re not posting a “suggestion”, which is where this was posted.

Between the My Book and My Cloud: You can’t hook a My Cloud up to your router’s USB port. It’s a NAS; so it’d be connected to your router via Ethernet.
The My Book could be connected to your router’s USB port, but as to what functionality that gives you, that’s entirely up to your router’s capabilities.

Your ‘smart WiFi router’ may provide network file server and media server functions, using any USB HDD connected to it. You need to check the manual for your router.

My not-so-smart Technicolor router will provide these services, although I don’t use them.

These are NAS (Network Attach Storage) which as with most NAS, it comes with their own OS. All NAS connect via ethernet cable. If you still want to use a NAS, a big requirement would depend on the number of concurrent users. As these are low end devices for home usage.

If you just want to use your router’s USB connection, then any external USB drive should be fine. However, on this case, the NAS capabilities will be provided by your router. You would have to check the router’s manufacturer and/or manual for your questions.

Lots of good replies. Here is my short take on an answer. If you have one family PC all use, a drive may be sufficient. But, if you have lots of users (and computers) a My Cloud NAS is better. A NAS is connected to home network, not to any individual PC, so if that PC is off, no access for other PCs. With NAS, there is. access 24/7.

In today’s world, a NAS is a much better way to go. A NAS makes more things possible than an attached drive to a PC; like for streaming media from anywhere in house on any streaming device.

There are still lots of good reasons to attach a drive to a PC, but not the way you apparently want to use for your intended purposes. My Cloud NASs start with the very basic ones to more elaborate ones; you have a lot of choices and price ranges.

Thanks Mike, you seem to have understood the question. I know how to hook what hooks up to the USB and Ethernet on my router and it’s capabilities etc…I just wanted a simple product recommendation for my type of use which you provided well. Thanks again! :slight_smile:

Great. BTW, what is a smart router?

Well, they call it a smart router but it’s just a router that gives me the capability to control everything away from home and see who or what device is using it. It is more advanced than my last router with more capabilities so I guess it is smarter.
LINKSYS EA6900 AC1900 SMART WI-FI DUAL-BAND ROUTER
SIMULTANEOUS DUAL BAND (2.4 + 5 GHZ)

Maybe you can answer my other question…would you happen to know if I can link a My book with a My Cloud for extra backup or to double the backup via the USB port between the two?

See your other thread for answer to that question.

https://community.wd.com/t/can-you-use-the-usb-expansion-slot-on-wd-my-cloud-to-link-to-wd-my-book/156186

Thanks for the explanation of a smart router. I guess, my Asus RT-N66U router of a few years ago is also a smart router, because I can access it remotely (including control panel), stream from the drive attached to it, and even stream from every other drive on my network that is connected to my network, including the My Cloud by using the Asus remote app called AiCloud. This is very handy, because the WD My Cloud app is very lame in many respects (e.g. streaming music is not convenient, and until recently ,it didn’t even work right! Although, it does great with video streaming)

If you ask me, calling every new appliance “smart”.nowadays is a bit of marketing hype overkill and over use of the word. Heck, I have had a WDTV for quite a few years, and before “smart” became fashionable, my WDTV was smart, and still is; even much smarter than most of the Smart TVs.

What seems to make a smart TV appear smart in marketing’s eyes is it can receive streamed DLNA format media, which includes a limited number of media formats that aren’t always correct or convenient (DLNA streams music tracks in alpha order, and NOT track order ). The way to get an album to stream in track order it to stream it from a network shared device, which no smart TVs to my knowledge can do, whereas any device that can detect shared drives (like a WDTV can) have no problem with track order. A network with shared devices takes actually setting up a real Windows network. To stream DLNA format, all one needs to do is hook it up to the home network, and then a built-in media server handles things. No network to build. So, this is why I affectionately call a “smart DLNA network” a “Home Network for Dummies”, because no effort on users part is required, but then, one gets a “lesser” home network if there are no shares.

Sorry for the mini-rant, but as a retired marketing professional, I see again that most Marketing Departments of the world are still up to their same old misleading tricks.

Anyway, I am glad my simple reply to your question met with your satisfaction. Ask any other questions, and the Gang of Geeks here will take a shot at it.

.

Yes, it’s a the word that currently is the marketing tool that sell. Call it smart and it’s the latest and greatest! I’m sure I will have some questions pop up along the way. I’m not stupid and can figure most things out computer related but may have some questions related to settings or things to help performance after I hook everything up. I have the My Book but just ordered the My cloud so this is all going to be a first time hook up for me with the tie into my Ethernet and linking the two as a backup.
I can read so long as they provide simple instructions without all the unnecessary paths.

Thanks but I wasn’t asking how to plug the devices in. I know what device hooks up to what and how it hooks up. The question was…never mind Mike got it and answered it! Uhg!!!

Chris, which My Cloud did you select? If there was ever a user manual to read, the ones for the My Clounds are handy to have. Download the one for your model even before it arrives and get a jump on the setup.

WD 4TB My Cloud Personal Network Attached Storage - NAS - WDBCTL0040HWT-NESN

Sounds good. Note that if this NAS is the only place most/all of the data is stored, and if you do not have a backup of it on another ordinary 4TB hard drive, you will not be a happy camper if the NAS ever fails

What do you recommend to backup the NAS, another MyCloud? Can it be set to power off for a week, then power up and backup the original MyCloud and then shut back down?

First, see the response to your same question in your other thread.

Second, the entry level My Cloud (single bay units) do not officially have the capability to automatically power up after being powered down. To power on the My Cloud generally requires one to physically (or through a power plug timer) apply power to the unit. The units are designed to be left on 24/7. One might be able to configure some sort of script via SSH to turn the unit off after another My CLoud on the local network finishes backing up to it but to repower on the device will require the use of a timer to turn power on (and or off). There are other threads that discuss how to use SSH to issue a shutdown command. I commented in the following post one way to issue a shutdown command via SSH on v4.x firmware My Clouds, there is probably a similar method (but I don’t know it) for v2.x firmware My Clouds.

https://community.wd.com/t/safe-shutdown/147307/3

Well, I would buy an HD the same capacity (or higher) of My Cloud NAS.

In fact, I will be doing that soon. The My Cloud NAS I have is a DL2100; an upper-end My Cloud. It actually came with two, 4TB drives setup as RAID1 configuration. So, in effect I have only 4TB storage space, because one HD inside mirrors the other, and that is a backup of sorts, but not exactly since because of RAID1, I essentially only see one drive even though there are two…

So, I will buy a WD 4TB My Book that will continually backup the My Cloud. Right now, all the data on the My Cloud was copied from my other drives containing media files, so I have a backup already; just not a neat and tidy one all on a single My Book drive.

I suppose you could turn on a backup drive and later disconnect it, and later reconnect it to My Cloud In fact, I may even do that, because data is not added to the My Cloud that often, in my case. Anyway, the complete user manual for a My Cloud explains how to proceed, and each may be different. If you do not have the user manual for your particular device, download it from wdc.com in the site’s Support section.