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Setting up NAS on Mac

cosmichobo

cosmichobo

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 4, 2006
1,022
681
G'day,

I've just purchased a WD 4TB "My Cloud" NAS, which is to be the new home to my AVI/MP4/etc movies, iTunes and iPhoto folders.

It is connected to my 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station, and will be streaming to my iMac, MacBookPro, & HTPC (G4 Mac Mini, or possibly now XBox 360).

My question is... so I have to use the WD software as instructed by WD, or can I just set it up using Apple's Disk Utility?

As I wont be using WD's intended structure (ie to share/store photos) then do I need to use their system at all??

Thanks,

NAS newbie
cosmic
 
cosmichobo said:
G'day,

I've just purchased a WD 4TB "My Cloud" NAS, which is to be the new home to my AVI/MP4/etc movies, iTunes and iPhoto folders.

It is connected to my 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station, and will be streaming to my iMac, MacBookPro, & HTPC (G4 Mac Mini, or possibly now XBox 360).

My question is... so I have to use the WD software as instructed by WD, or can I just set it up using Apple's Disk Utility?

As I wont be using WD's intended structure (ie to share/store photos) then do I need to use their system at all??

Thanks,

NAS newbie
cosmic
Click to expand...

If you want to use it as it was intended, a true NAS, then you would want to mange/configure it with the built in admin software and connect it to the network via Ethernet. But a couple questions to clarify...

How do you intend to connect it to the AE? USB or Ethernet? If by Ethernet I'm pretty sure you need to administer it via the internal control software if you want it to act as a standalone NAS on the network. If your desire is to operate through the USB connection configured using Disk Utility, you probably bought the wrong unit. A cheaper direct connect drive would have been more suitable.
 
No - I wanted it hooked up using ethernet, as I'd heard it would be much faster. Some preliminary tests have proven that to be the case, too (by double the read speed!).

I wasn't sure if Disk Utility could handle setting up NAS these days? Or other Apple apps?
 
You need to use the WD admin stuff to set up NAS stuff. You don't have to use its folder structure, but the admin utility is the only way to get it on the network.

You can use disk utility to set up disk images on the WD, but that's not needed for what you are doing.
 
Thanks ColdCase.

Q re security of the data -

When I access my wifi network, I have to know my Airport Extreme's password. I can then access the public folders on my connected Macs... or if I enter the username/password, I can then access the Mac's full drives.

When I access the wifi network, I can access the MyCloud... and the "public" folder - without needing another password.

Now... if someone hacks my Airport and steals my WiFi, it's annoying but not the end of the world. But if they hack my Airport and can then also access my music, movies, and photos... then I'm not happy!

Do you know how to set up a password for the WD MyCloud?? The only password option I could find was one that controls the use of the MyCloud app itself... not the drive.

Thanks

cosmic
 
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