Hi! I’m looking for an external hard drive that can be used for both mac and pc and files can be accessed anytime from my phone. I have huge files that I wanna transfer and my internet connection at home is very weak and I was wondering if there’s a way to transfer files through a usb rather than wirelessly. I heard that there are ways to achieve that but it entails warranty being voided. Does the EX2 have that feature? Also, what’s the difference between MyCloud Mirror and EX2? Which one should I get? Thanks!!!
The EX2 and the MCM are almost the same device - there are a few differences but the vast majority of what is applicable to one is also to the other.
In both cases you cannot plug the device directly to a PC via USB and do file transfer, but you can plug a suitable USB drive (a key drive or a portable drive like a MyPassport) into the PC, transfer the files to it and then unplug it, plug that drive into the MCM/EX2 and USB transfer them off directly.
The other way to do it though is to plug the MCM/EX2 directly into the target PC via Ethernet cable (presuming the PC isn’t a Mac and actually has an Ethernet port) and do a direct transfer that way. That is the quickest and simplest method, although of course during such period the MCM/EX2 (and the PC if you don’t use wifi at the same time) will be off your main network and will just form a mini ad-hoc network between themselves.
The “warranty being voided” method is partially the first one above, as the USB>NAS copying via the dashboard is known to be somewhat unreliable and can time-out or otherwise fail for large volumes of data. The more reliable way is to SSH into the MCM/EX2 and use the relevant Linux commands (rsync or cp) directly to do the transfer. Doing this is fairly safe, but as you’ll be warned when you enable SSH , doing so can potentially void your warranty as because you are working at the lower levels there are commands available which can absolutely brick your device if done wrongly (apt-get being one of the main risks for example).
