MyCloud EX2; USB Backup No Source Folders

[JesusLizardJr]

Just bought an EX2, about to set up a regular back up from USB device (The reason I paid £260 for it…) and there is no option to select a source folder when setting this task up…

Read a few entries on here in regards to it and it’s a common problem, is there a solution? Otherwise this is going straght back to the place i bought it from.

Thanks.

[Ralphael]

hmmm lets see… four hours ago… he would have returned it by now…

The funny thing is that we are all customers here except for the few moderators; thus for some of us customers that puts in their two cents worth, I’m thinking… aaahhhh he must be talking about safepoint, might as well let him take the cloud straight back to the place he bought it from. There is no helping him

So since I logged on and decided to put in my two cents worth, I would suggest that you “DON’T” use safepoint as much and tempting as it says on the box, it is written by WD, I simply use a straight copy from one drive to another.

I know you want something automatic; set and forget.

The problem with backups is just that… it is a backup meaning that you have to restore/extract  back to a drive before you can use your files. 

So lets say, suddenly your Cloud drive crashes beyond access… So now what? Yay, you have a backup on your attached USB drive. So you pull your USB drive out and plug it in and you will find a single safepoint directory with a flattened file directory. You don’t have your Cloud anymore (remember we just broke it in this imaginary scenario) so you cannot restore the backed up safepoint in order to use your files. 

Why did WD create a safepoint if it is so unusable? Well it is actually quite usable if you went out and bought another Cloud and thus restore your files from a USB to the new cloud. See what WD has done?

Ok so now what… Well the most easiest solution is simply copy all your files from the Cloud to your USB drive or vice versa.

I bought,  in January 2014, a 4TB Cloud and a 4TB My Book so that I could backup one drive to another. I would have prefered a mirroring process and there is a method by another User on this forum that will sync the two drives automatically and I’ll link it to his solution later, but for now I’ll just tell you the benefits of having mirror drives whether it is done manually or automatically.

A mirrored USB drive will save you immediately one day when the Cloud fails suddenly. Just pull off your USB drive and plug it into your computer and voila… instant access. No backup restorations, no fiddling.

To have the drives mirrored manually, I use a program called Beyond Compare. You can find the program here 

http://www.scootersoftware.com. On a weekly time period I do a compare between the two drives and update the other drive with the changes.

To have the drives mirrored automatically, check this out and give nicktee55 some kudos.

WD-My-Cloud/Happy-accident-INCLUDES-AN-ALTERNATIVE-TO-SAFEPOINT

So there we go, if you haven’t takened your cloud straight back to the place you bought it from… these are your alternatives.