New MyCloud user, completely confused

Hi - I have just bought a MyCloud EX2 Ultra 16TB drive, and really struggled to set it up as the information available is extremely confusing. My main issue is that I am trying to transfer data from two 4TB drives but it keeps saying there isn’t enough storage space. How much actual storage is on the drive and have I set it up incorrectly? Please can someone explain in non-technical terms?
Thank you

Firstly I think you may have posted this in the wrong section - this is the one for the MyCloud Home not the EX2.

But anyway by default the EX2 is set-up in RAID1 (mirroring) mode. That mean that the same data is written to both of the 2x8TB drives inside the device, so essentially they are carbon copies (mirrors) of one another. It’s designed for redundancy so if one of the drives dies then you don’t lose everything and still have a full data set on the other one.

So you’re trying to copy essentially 2x4TB drives onto an 8TB one (your 16TB drive is actually 2x8TB, and in RAID1 only 8TB will be available for use) so whilst it should in theory fit, there are of course already some of the devices’s system files etc as an overhead on the drives so you won’t have the full 8TB available to use for your own files.

If you’re using a Windows PC, the simplest way to see is to map a share on the EX2 under Windows Explorer (using the map network drive function) and then if you look at that drive under “This PC” (aka the old “My Computer”) you should see it’s size and how much is available for use.

Thanks Darren - I’m on a Mac - if it’s only 8TB storage then I’ll have to return it as that is not enough, I was expecting 16TB.
Thank you!

I think on the EX2 you can also reformat it and use RAID0, which will give you the full 16TB by striping data across both drives (basically turning them both into one large 16TB drive as far as your remote machines are concerned).

The disadvantage of that though is if one of the drives fails, you’ll lose everything, even what’s on the other drive.

Thanks Darren, I think I’m going to try and find another option. Thanks for your help though!