I purchased a 3 TB My Cloud and a 4 TB My Book Studio to serve as a single point of backup for my household. In these 15 days I’ve had the oportunity to open 4 cases, 3 of which via the web. I’ve discovered that web support at WD is very similar to what we in an olden time of teletypes refered to as a ‘bit bucket’ :smileyvery-happy: (for those of you too young to understand; this is where the paper was collected as a result of punching holes in a teletype paper tape)
The first case I totally solved by myself, but found no method to update the case on line.
The second case I waited about a day or so and finally gave up and called telephone support. When I asked for the usual time for response the reply was 24 - 48 hours … well I suppose 24 hrs is acceptable to a web generated case because the system isn’t totally down or you’d make a call … but 48 hrs is a bit lengthy!
The third web support (opened 3/10) case I actually did hear back from a tech that asked for additional info which I supplied on 3/12 …I haven’t heard a peep since.
The fourth case I opened (3/16) via telephone because I was having serious issues with safepoints. The case went from level 1 to level 2 in 5 minutes, and then after a 30 min conversation escallated to engineering. My system is functioning but extremely crippled at this time (at least from my useage intentions).
I’ve also discovered that telephone support is separate from web support:cry:. I’m really hoping that engineering and I can resolve the issues with safepoints. I think this product has some great potential and I’d like to fully utilize it.
PJPfeiffer wrote:> The fourth case I opened (3/16) via telephone because I was having serious issues with safepoints. The case went from level 1 to level 2 in 5 minutes, and then after a 30 min conversation escallated to engineering. My system is functioning but extremely crippled at this time (at least from my useage intentions).
I’ve also discovered that telephone support is separate from web support:cry:. I’m really hoping that engineering and I can resolve the issues with safepoints. I think this product has some great potential and I’d like to fully utilize it.
Sorry to hear the issues, we all are suffering, and I also think the product has great potential if WD can “get it togegther”. Every My Cloud has security attack issues, functionality issues, and performance issues. I hope they solve your problems
I received a call from WD support asking me to try a few things regarding event codes relating to safepoint errors on my setup. Apparently the event codes presented to me were not indicative to my situation. Since I’m new to My Cloud and I’m retired I decided to aid them in troubleshooting. I’ll keep them current with my progress by using the support portal. It’s taken a bit longer than I would have liked, but at least I’m getting some help!
Please keep us advised. Hopefully they will come through and fix your Safepoint issue.
I was informed that engineering is working on a FW update that might address the issue.
The safepoint issue migrated into a Smartware issue and a time delta issue. I continued to trouble shoot on my own and have devised a workaround for the Smartware / safepoint issue. Bottom line is Smartware or My Cloud cannot correctly recognize a Windows 7 machine when the hard drive on which Win 7 is installed is NOT the boot hard drive. Details of my “work around” below in case others might have similar situations.
adjusting bios to disable the linux boot drive
used a linux utility to repair MBR on the "c:" drive
adjusted bios to choose c drive as primary boot
booted directly to windows
created an system image using wind 7 backup
backup to a firewire drive
use smartware to backup to My Book
This is only a troubleshooting solution as I primarily use Linux. I am able to backup my Linux installation to My Book daily by using the built into Linux utility for backup. Since I use Win 7 for tax prep, iPhone, and Photoshop, I’ll have to perform manual steps for my HP Windows 7 backup. This is somewhat disappointing since I wanted a single point, hands off backup solution for all the devices in my home! Maybe a future FW update to My Cloud or release of Smartware will address the bios issue outlined. Perhaps these findings can be forwarded to WD software development fo future enhancements.
Sometimes one has to rethink exactly how to best use the tools at hand. I was focused on using my 1 TB ESATA drive formatted NTFS so I could access all the data from both Windows and Linux. Now I’m using the MC for a data repository that can be accessed my Linux, Windows, and Mac. So now Smartware is able to successfully back up Windows 7. I have reworked how I’m using the tools at hand.
WD has offered to RMS exchange my 3 TB MC for a 6 TB Mirror. I’ve decided NOT to accept this RMA and stick with the known!
I applaud WD support in their efforts to keep a customer happy!
>>>WD has offered to RMS exchange my 3 TB MC for a 6 TB Mirror. I’ve decided NOT to accept this RMA and stick with the known!
My response to their offer included a request for extending the warranty for the refurbished 3 TB My Cloud to the ‘normal’ 1 year for new products. Yesterday I received confirmation that my warranty has been extended as requested!:smileyvery-happy:
