Need backup advice - which software

[NunyaBiznas]

I am trying to figure out how to backup my files.  I have an 8TB My Cloud Mirror (MCM) configured as JBOD and a 4TB My Book (MB).

I want to use the MCM as my primary drive and the MB as a backup destination.  The Smartware that came with the MB can’t see the MCM as a source drive, all it sees is the hard drives on the computer.

Is there a way using either the MCM dashboard or Smartware to have the MCM backed up on the MB?

I have the MCM configured as JBOD so when I exceed 4TB I can just start using drive2 as a primary data drive.

[DarrenHill]

Smartware won’t be able to do it, as it can only source from local drives (or Dropbox) if I remember correctly, with the MCM more normally being the destination than the source.

For the MCM dashboard, it will depend if the MB is plugged into the MCM or if it’s somewhere else (plugged into your router for example). If it’s directly connected to the USB port on the MCM, then a USB back-up on the dashboard is what you need (although there have been some reports of problems with that in the current firmware, but doing that has worked for me in the past on older firmware to populate a MyPassport plugged into my MCM, and also going the other way). I’m also not sure if you can schedule those, or if the current set-up is just for one-off’s (I know you can schedule internal back-ups, but the MCM can’t do those to USB connected drives).

If the MB is elsewhere on your network, then you’ll need a backup solution running on a PC on your network, which would of course be slower as it’s the man-in-the-middle (ie you have two network hops, one from MCM to PC and one from PC to MB). That would be a third-party piece of software, not a WD product.

[NunyaBiznas]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Maybe you can answer the questions below.  I also posted them in the MCM forum but that forum doesn’t seem to get much traffic.

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-Mirror/USB-backup-how-does-it-work/m-p/857954

The manual is lacking in its explanation of how the USB backup works.

1.  Can you schedule the USB backup to run everyday at a specific time?

2.   Will the backup just add new files with subsequent runs or is it a full backup every time?

3.  If I delete a file on the MCM and run a subsequent backup will the job delete the file from the USB drive?

[DarrenHill]

1. I’m not sure, as I said above - I know the internal backup can be scheduled, but I think the USB one doesn’t have that feature (which is maybe understandable as you may end up scheduling a back-up to a device that’s no longer connected).

2. If I remember correctly it will add new files and freshen updated ones, but won’t try and copy again ones that already exist. At least that’s what it seemed like it was doing when I last tried it.

3. No, it won’t delete anything on the target drive - it’s back-up not synch functionality.