Dear All,
I want ask you how do you manage the backup of your mycloudex2ultra.
I mean: do you perform incremental backup or differential?
Then, i would liket to connect the external disk at usb port of mycloudex2. And then the best sholud be an internal app that perform the backup. In case of another softwar which one do you use?
Wd system is closed and I don’t understand how I ca do that.
Do you have any idea?
How do you manage this task.
Thanks a lot for your suggestion.
If one is trying to backup the contents of their My Cloud device there are several “apps” that one can install via the App tab in the My Cloud Dashboard to accomplish the backup.
If one wants to backup a computer to their My Cloud then one can use Apple Time Machine if using a Macintosh. Or if using Windows one can use Acronis True Image for Western Digital which is available in the Download section for their My Cloud device inthe WD Support section. Or one can use any number of free or paid third party backup programs including the following:
EaseUS Todo Backup Free: http://www.easeus.com/
Macrium Reflect Free: Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free Trial
Paragon Backup and Recovery Free: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html
It will depend on your individual backup needs or desires and the capabilities of the backup program/app one is using. Certain backup methods may consume more hard drive capacity/space than another. One can use their favorite search engine to learn about what each type of backup does (Full, Differential, Incremental) and how each is different. Some posts below explaining what each backup method is and how they may differ.
Many thanks Bennor. Before I was using Synchtoy but I just bought a MycloudEx2 and thinking it was more appropriate I used the backup utility inside Windows 10 to backup 1Tb (the disk of my laptop) but till now I was not successful. It copied about 600Gb in a folder named Public which was already inside the NAS and then stopped. I will try to use Acronis which I read is free for 5 years if unloaded within 90 days from the purchasing. In addition I see the win utility transform everything in ZIP archives with all the same name thus I want be able (I believe) to retrieve a specific file or folder. Lorenzo
Most “backup” software will compress the backed up files in one or more files in the backup location. If you want to “mirror” the hard drive contents so you can quickly go and retrieve files from that mirror backup on the NAS without having to use the backup program to extract the backup files, then look for “sync” or “mirroring” programs that will mirror one hard drive (or folders/files) to a NAS.
For example some use Free File Sync (https://freefilesync.org/) to mirror or sync files from their PC to a NAS like the My Cloud. Mirroring and or syncing software serves a different function and process than backup software. If you need to restore or recover just a few files then mirroring or syncing programs may be the solution. If you need to restore files from a crashed hard drive to a new hard drive then a backup program that can restore to a new drive may be the solution.
I suggest to use Linux terminal as a most universal approach.
If you don’t have linux on your notebook, you can use putty or virtual box (you will need to install linux using VB).
Here I will give a brief description of actions for manual backup (also possible to create a cron script, that is going to do actions on certain schedule).
From web interface of admin panel. Go to settings → network settings and enable ssh. Create password for ssh remember it!!!
Connect via ssh. Default user is sshd for login, but you will become a root, when session is going to start:
$ ssh sshd@your_NAS_ip
your_NAS_ip is visible from settings.
Enter password which you created when you were switching on ssh (it isn’t visible while you’re typing).
Find in terminal on which hard drive your data is located:
$ cd /shares
$ ls -la
$ cd /mnt
$ls -la
(/shares - directory with links on real data). Real directory may look like this “/mnt/HD/HD_a2/Public” and so one, explore from /mnt. Use:
3.1. “cd …” to go up.
3.2 “cd ” – to enter directory.
3.3 “ls -la” – list all files in long format with hidden files.
3.4 “pwd” – show current directory.
Plug in usb in your NAS (it is going to be mounted automatically). So, go to that directory like:
$ cd /mnt/USB/<your_usb_dev> (don’t really remember certain path)
Copy data via cp command with verbose (-v) mode recursively (-r). From NAS to your backup USB (SSD/HDD/anything what you will plug):
#$ cp -rv /mnt/HD/* /mnt/USB/<your_usb_dev>
My source directory is: /mnt/HD/HD_a2 and flash drive is /mnt/USB/USB1_c1, so this command for me looks like this: cp -rv /mnt/HD/HD_a2/* /mnt/USB/USB1_c1
If you are curious in which directory your data is you can use “du -sh .” from directory to check that directory size.
Well, everything is done!!! If backup usb is going to be used on windows (filesystem type: FAT32, NTFS) warning is going to pop up, agree to fix problems, it should not harm your data.
I’m also a “happy” user of “My Cloud EX2 Ultra” OS3…
PS:
I decided to SWITCH from WD to SYNOLOGY, due to their better software and NAS system.
How did I come to that solution. I could not back up data via gui from admin panel, because backup option via usb was removed from admin panel, I could not create a task like it is written in instruction (2016). Also, Synology provides administration via linux and its apps, what is more convenient. I was very disappointed that I could not backup data via usual interface, it is very sad that WD does not care about their older versions of NAS, very pity, hope that none will use WDs NASes.
The “Brand S” software also allows for transfers to/from the WD NAS units across the network. For major operations, I use the “Brand S” software for all transfers.
I have also used WINSCP interface in the pass for file transfers on the WD devices using the SSH protocol - - - not as “Slick” as “Brand S”, but gets the job done.
