Usb cable

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud Mirror
1

Hey!

Maybe I misunderstood this product but I bought it thinking I could use it as a normal drive and use the special functions later in case I felt like I needed to. Was this a mistake?

Isn’t there supposed to be a sub 3.0 cable included? Aren’t you supposed to connect it to the computer that way?

Thanks a lot.

Eric

2

Can you confirm the product that you actually bought? (I know you posted this in the MyCloud Mirror section, but it is far from unknown to get posts about other products in here).

But presuming you are talking about an MCM, no the “normal” way to connect this device is via an ethernet cable, usually to your router or switch. It is a network attached storage (NAS) device, and designed to be viewed and connected with over the network and to act as a centralised file share (amongst other things). The device does have 2 USB ports, but those are for connecting additional drives to which can then be used via the MCM as additional storage.

It is not designed to be connected to a computer via USB, but it is possible to connect it directly to a computer using an ethernet cable (CAT5 or CAT6). It will happily serve files to the computer that way, although of course your computer then cannot use its ethernet port for general network access (that could have to be via wifi or perhaps a second ethernet card). Hence why there is no USB cable included with the MCM.

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3

Hello there!

Sorry, it is the My Cloud Mirror 8 TB I have purchased.

Thank you so much for answering!

Ok, I understand now and I clearly assumed things that I shouldn’t have assumed. I thought all modern drives could be connected with usb 3.0.

I can’t use it with the ethernet cable cause none of my computers have ethernet ports. Does that mean that I need to have internet connection to be able to access the drive?

Sorry for questions that would probably answer themselves if I could set it up, which I don’t think I can do until I know if I can keep it…

Thank you

Eric

4

Not an internet connection, but a local network connection. For example you could connect your computer via wifi to your router and connect the MCM to the router by ethernet cable. Then your computer can connect to the MCM via the local network (via the router). As long as both the computer and the MCM are on the same network they should be able to see and connect to each other (if the router is set up to allow different devices on it to see and connect to each other that is).

Later it is possible to make the MCM available via the wider web to your computer, but the MCM needs to be on a network somewhere alongside your computer first to set it up.

If you’re looking for a USB-connected drive, you may be better looking at either a MyBook or a MyPassport (although if you’re on a Mac make sure you get the correct one as they have specific products designed for Mac)

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Ah, I see, I see.

I’m still dependent on the network to work to be able to use the drive? Since I don’t have an ethernet port on my computer…

Yeah, I know, I’ve had mybooks for many years, I just thought I should buy a drive that has new functions as well to try them out, I assumed it had the simple function of USB access as well. I still don’t understand why it doesn’t.

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Yes, you need network if you don’t have an ethernet port.

The MCM (and all the MyCloud range) are designed that way, as network attached storage (NAS) drives rather than USB drives. There has been some request in the past to include a USB interface too, but it doesn’t have one at the moment. That’s why WD have both the MyCloud and the MyBook (and MyPassport for the portables) ranges, each to fulfil the specific need and target audience.

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Yeah, I see. I just don’t understand why you can’t have a product with both connections for those who’d like both.

Thanks anyway

8

Hey again

So now I’m trying it out and a few questions appeared quickly:

  • Is it supposed to be extremely slow compared to USB. 3 GB is taking me around 30 minutes.

  • Is it possible to view the files on the drive in Finder as I normally do with my external drives? I find it very annoying to navigate the files in the WD software.

Thanks a lot

9

I’m not on a Mac, so my input (and experience) here is somewhat limited. But on my Windows PC the drive appears as a normal PC on my network, and I can map drives on my PC to it so they appear like normal network shared drives. I would guess you can do something similar on a Mac as well, but it’s not something I’ve ever done personally so I can’t advise in detail. Perhaps someone else can fill that gap.

In terms of speed, it will depend on the speed of your network. The connection from the MCM itself to the router would be gigabit ethernet (at least from the MCM side), but it will depend on the speed of the port on the router itself, and also perhaps on the quality of the cable. But beyond that you could be limited by the connection between your router and your Mac. Your speed quoted does sound a little low to me, but if your router is only 802.11n then perhaps that can limit things.

Sorry I can’t be more specific there, but I’m a 'doze PC slave rather than a Mac user…

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