Is the WiFi WD My Cloud better or just a normal USB external drive better?

[sagah]

What would be advantages and disadvantages of both?

I guess transfer is faster for a USB one.
For the WiFi one you don't have to connect every time you want to use it.

 

[SirYossi]

What would be advantages and disadvantages of both?

I guess transfer is faster for a USB one.
For the WiFi one you don't have to connect every time you want to use it.

I was considering this myself and after doing alot of reading and reading of reviews I ended up getting a Lacie Firewire 800 2 gig drive off macmall for little over $100.00. it really comes down to what do you plan to do with the drive? if you are looking for photos and general storage USB drive is faster but if you are looking for a network drive for sharing then this would work or you can hook a USB hard drive to Time Capsule or Airport Extreme and turn that drive into a network drive. If you plan to use mycloud for anything other then file storage or file sharing then I would avoid it as it is really slow slower then firewire 400 which is only slightly slower then USB 2.0. The USB port on the back of the MY Cloud is for hooking a USB drive to it not for hooking it to the computer directly. I needed mine for video editing and need faster speeds but not the price of a thunderbolt drive so the MyCloud would not work for me. Take a look at what you plan to do with it and then decide. Due to reviews the fastest that the MyCloud would do on average was only slightly above 65Mb/s with one device hooked to it the more you have sharing the slower the drive is.
Note about myCloud it is on all the time unless you unplug it, there is no on off button. As for reliability it is an unknown as it the product has not been around for to long, wait a year or two to see what the failure rate is.

 

[sagah]

I wasn't looking for sharing. It's just for my use. But I felt that it was really cumbersome plugging and unplugging the USB cord each time I wanted to write to it or read from it. I guess I don't really need to be fast because I can be patient and just wait until the transfer is over.

My laptop use isn't stationary, so I like to use it while on the bed, then move to the table and sit, etc.

I guess if I had a stationary computer station (a treadmill desk or a standing desk) and never felt the need to unplug and plug several times a day I wouldn't need the My Cloud.

Also I guess one disadvantage of MyCloud would be that I'm guessing you wouldn't be able to boot up an OS from it (bootcamp?) But then you can use Parallels with Mac OS.