Several questions on the DL Series

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud DL Series
1

Dear WD Community,

I have four questions on the DL4100 device:

  1. Can I operate it with only 2 HDDs and mount each HDD to an individual Windows-drive, e.g. HDD1 on F:\ and HDD2 on G:, and then run manual backups from F:\ to G:?

  2. Can I temporarily make one HDD unavailable (without removing it from the device) so that users cannot use it?

  3. When copying files from one to another HDD installed in the DL4100, does the DL4100´s controller realize that and copies data between the HDDs directly and not sending all data over Ethernet the the PC and back again (performance issue)?

  4. I am intersted, how the HDDs are encrypted. When long term backups are stored outside the device (e. g. in a bank safe) and someone steals the device from our office, can we buy a new DL4100 and operate the removed/stored HDD with the new device, or is the encryption linked to the old devices hardware? Can we also encrypt the HDD on another PC without getting a new DL4100?

Thanks a lot for your replies.

All the best

Elwood

2

1 yes
2 I would suggest yes, just turn off public sharing
3 All the data will go back and forth over the cat5
4 no clue. I doubt you can just hook the drive to a PC. Not sure if the PC would read it even if it was not encrypted

3

Thanks for your reply. However, can anyone verify that?

Especially I am interested in an answer on question 4 (encryption): How can I use/restore encrypted HDDs that are stored in a secure third place (not in the DL4100) when the DL4100 is either broken or stolen?

4

This is a user forum only. You need to contact WD Support for this.

5

Dear mike27oct, in your opinion, a user forum für WD products cannot answer the question, if a HDD used in one NAS device (DL4100) later can be used in another WD NAS, when the first device is broken? :frowning:

Can anyone profe that you are wrong? :slight_smile:

6

A lot of people think that this user-to-user forum is visited by WD support, but it is not , So if Gramps answer was not sufficient, then you should contact the actual WD support, and that is all I said to you. Apologies that I also tried to help you.

7

I need to go plug mine in and look. Best I remember it does not ask for a password when encrypting, so I have no clue how it works and I do not have two boxes to test it on.

Here in the USA we can get a Thecus w2000 from newegg or ebay for ~250. I actually bought a w5000 for $250 the other week from newegg. It is a Windows Server box so you could use bitlocker to encrypt and do what you want. You could also remote to the server desktop if you did not have a keyboard/mouse/monitor or a KVM switch and copy files from disk 1 to disk 2 easily.

WD dropped out of the Windows Server Market so they do not offer one :frowning:

8

Thanks a lot Gramps, for your reply.

After reading your post and this one (Volume Encryption/Decryption) there is no doubt, that the WD My Cloud DL system cannot fulfill my requirements.

When the device is broken or stolen, long term backups on HDDs cannot be restored, as the encyption is hareware based.

OMG, how useless :-/

9

Well it is simply not a match for your needs. Now if you want to see your wedding pictures on your iPhone (not a windows phone) Get one.

10

Your iPhone / Windows Phone example does not really fit, because I do not care about consumer emotions/design/personal feelings but business needs.

However, you are right, that the WD DL series is not a match for my needs, as both long time data integrity and preventage of data loss are of utmost importance for us and the DL series cannot guarantee it in encrypted mode, after the device is broken/stolen. If so, all HDDs would become unreadable.

We will go for a small rack with windows server and hot plug HDDs instead. Thanks a lot for your support here!