Western Digital's new MyCloud NAS

[Giuly]

Why didn't I get a memo on this?

Anyways, Western Digital announced a new single-bay NAS, the MyCloud. At $40 more than a regular MyBook with USB 3.0, it's certainly less expensive than even the most basic Synology.

The interesting bits from the press release:

Streamlined Setup and Backup
Customers can get their personal cloud up and running in minutes with WD’s rich web-based user interface for seamless web-guided setup. WD's software auto-detects the drive to make setup simple for novice users. Once the My Cloud drive is setup, customers can easily connect their computers and mobile devices with WD's free desktop and mobile apps. With a Gigabit Ethernet connection and Dual-Core processor, transferring files is blazing fast, allowing customers to quickly centralize all of the digital content scattered across various devices onto My Cloud. With direct file uploads from mobile devices, important files and videos can be safely moved to My Cloud, freeing up valuable space on users’ tablets and smartphones.

Customers can also use their My Cloud to back up their computers and digital files. For PC users, WD SmartWare™ Pro software offers options for how, when and where to back up files. Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple® Time Machine® backup software to protect their data.

Complete Control
My Cloud users can store and organize their families’ photos, videos, music and important documents in one secure place on the home network. With the new My Cloud desktop app, navigating, controlling and sharing these files from anywhere in the world is simple and intuitive. My Cloud is available in 2 TB, 3 TB, and 4 TB capacities, providing bountiful storage capacity with no monthly payment required. Customers can also attach a compatible USB 3.0 hard drive directly to the USB expansion port on the My Cloud drive and instantly expand their storage capacity.

Additionally, My Cloud serves as a home’s digital entertainment hub, storing terabytes of movies and music that can then be streamed to any DLNA™-certified multimedia device such as a WD TV® Live™ media player, as well as smart TVs and gaming consoles.

Accessing the Personal Cloud
Available for iOS® and Android™ devices, the new WD My Cloud mobile app allows users to view photos, stream video and access their files from anywhere on their smartphones or tablets. The mobile app also makes file sharing and collaborating simple and secure, allowing customers to easily email files, share files as a link, and print and open files with third party apps.

Additionally, the My Cloud mobile app integrates major public cloud services so that customers can easily transfer files between their Dropbox™, SkyDrive® and Google Drive™ public cloud accounts3.

Too long, didn't read? Frankly, me neither.
It stores you audio/video/media library on an internet connected hard drive and allows you to access them on a Mac, PC or iOS device - .

From what I understand it's a MyBook Live with a faster CPU, the ability to add a second USB 3.0 hard drive (or maybe even more with a hub) and with DLNA to work with your Playstation 4 or Xbox One.

Hang on, but what's this?

The MyCloud EX4, a $349 4-bay NAS. And with a 2GHz dual-core CPU is not only a little less expensive but also faster than a Synology DS413j, too.

Ultimate Data Protection
My Cloud EX4 arms users with multiple options to secure digital data from a potential loss by providing RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 or allowing users to select from spanning and JBOD modes for even more options to manage data. Customers can also use their My Cloud EX4 to back up all of their computers and devices with WD SmartWare™ Pro software for PC users. Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple® Time Machine® backup software to protect their data. The My Cloud EX4 can also backup itself, either to another My Cloud EX4 in a different location, or to cloud services such as Amazon S3 and ElephantDrive. To ensure 24/7 data protection and reliability the My Cloud EX4 includes redundant power supplies and Ethernet ports.

Advanced Streaming and Serving
My Cloud EX4 serves as a home’s digital entertainment hub, configurable for up to 16 TB of movies and music that can then be streamed to any DLNA®/UPnP® certified multimedia device such as gaming consoles, smart TVs and WD TV® Live™ media players. The Twonky 7.2, DLNA-certified 1.5 media server and iTunes® server make for simple streaming of large movie and music libraries.

Additionally, the integrated file server, FTP server, backup server and P2P download server provide advanced data serving options for My Cloud EX4 users.

Customers can also customize their NAS, monitor system health, manage users and energy saving features with the My Cloud EX4 dashboard, as well as use a suite of third party apps, including aMule, Icecast, Joomla!®, phpBB®, phpMyAdmin and SqueezeCenter.

Anywhere Access to My Cloud EX4
Available for iOS® and Android™ devices, the WD My Cloud mobile app allows users to view photos, stream video and share, save and manage files from anywhere on their smartphones or tablets. The mobile app makes file sharing and collaborating simple, allowing customers to easily email files, share files as a link, and print and open files with third party apps. The My Cloud mobile app integrates major public cloud services so that customers can easily transfer files from their Dropbox™, SkyDrive® and Google Drive™ public cloud accounts2.

Price and Availability
My Cloud EX4 is currently available at select U.S. retailers and online at the wdstore.com. MSRP is $379.99 USD for the drive-less My Cloud EX4, $799.99 USD for 8 TB, $949.99 USD for 12 TB and $1,149.99 USD for 16 TB. The My Cloud mobile app currently is available for download from the App StoreSM and Google PlayTM. My Cloud EX4 comes with a two year limited warranty.

Compatibility
My Cloud EX4 is compatible with Windows® 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista®, Windows XP, OS X Mavericks™, Mountain Lion™, Lion®, Snow Leopard®, as well as DLNA®/UPnP® enabled devices.

Look at that, it supports aMule.

But if you're looking for a single-bay NAS as a companion to your Xbox One with non-replaceable hard drive, the MyCloud might be worth a look.

 

[dissdnt]

I picked one up and it's great.

The problem is Time Machine back up is brutally slow. For awhile I thought maybe it was the wifi. But yesterday I bought a Thunderbolt to Ethernet and plugged it in directly to my Retina Macbook and after 10 hours it only backed up 9 gigs. At that rate i'll have a full back up in 2 weeks.

So I have no clue what's up with that.

Anyone experience this?

 

[ijha]

Definitely I'm curious but the Amazon reviews say that it is sort of difficult to set up for newbies. Is it true?

 

[Hrothgar]

I've been looking at this for a while. Right now I'm using a 1tb WD external drive. I've partitioned 650 gb for backing up my MBP and 350 gb to store excess media and other files. I'm trying to decide whether I need the additional space right now and whether the "cloud" option is something I'll use.

Is there a comparably priced product out there? The Time Capsule seems to significantly more expensive.

 

[TimothyB]

I tried out the 3TB MyCloud a few weeks ago and was enjoying it until after 16 days. TimeMachine reported it needed to start a new backup after trying to verify. I don't know if it was a one time incident, or going to happen all the time. Either way, restarting the backup defeats the purpose of Time Machine and takes forever through a network drive, tying down my MacBook.

Speed:
After setting it up, connected to my router, I started backing up an external USB 3.0 drive on my Early 2013 rMBP with Mountain Lion connected via WiFi. That initial backup was about 370-400gigs and took about 24 hours to complete. Later I backed up an additional 300 gigs.

Corrupt Backup
From what I researched, the "Start New Backup" issue has been around since the release of Lion, and seems to happen with WiFi backups. Users that started the new back up had to do again and again. I can't really report all the conditions, since I can't read all 25 pages about this problem in Apple's support forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3684176?start=0&tstart=0

It's probably not the WD MyCloud's fault, but if OSX is causing it, I can't rely on a Network drive. So instead, I went and bought a WD 3TB Mac addition MyBook at Best Buy for about $130. Already formated for Mac and comes with 3 year warranty instead of 2 found on standard PC editions.

Using USB 3.0 through a hub while my rMBP is docked, it only took about an hour and a half to backup 700gigs, primarily stored on another USB 3.0 drive. If the Time Machine backup goes corrupt again, at least I know it won't take long to start over. Plus, entering Time Machine is more responsive and the short interval backups don't hang as much as they did over the network.

 

[priitv8]

It's probably not the WD MyCloud's fault, but if OSX is causing it, I can't rely on a Network drive.

As I've written several times in this forum, the wireless backup works without a hitch against:
1) Mac Mini OS X Server
2) TimeCapsule
2.5) After flawless 2 months I'm also tempted to say it works on 4th Gen Express. But I'm not confident yet.

 

[jasnw]

Warning: If you are considering a NAS to host your bloated iPhoto library, or libraries, forget it. After purchasing one of these MyCloud NAS systems in order to put my family's large iPhoto library set out where everyone has easy access, I then find that Apple has tied iPhoto so closely to the OS and its filesystem that putting the iPhoto library out on a non-Apple OS is impossible or very nearly so. I am now trying to find an iPhoto alternative that's not quite so AR about the filesystem.

 

[drsox]

Warning: If you are considering a NAS to host your bloated iPhoto library, or libraries, forget it. After purchasing one of these MyCloud NAS systems in order to put my family's large iPhoto library set out where everyone has easy access, I then find that Apple has tied iPhoto so closely to the OS and its filesystem that putting the iPhoto library out on a non-Apple OS is impossible or very nearly so. I am now trying to find an iPhoto alternative that's not quite so AR about the filesystem.

Try Lyn. http://www.lynapp.com
iPhoto is a dead loss if you want to anything other than follow Apple's strictures 100%. I only use it to receive stuff via Photostream. Everything is then copied elsewhere.

 

[maflynn]

I then find that Apple has tied iPhoto so closely to the OS and its filesystem that putting the iPhoto library out on a non-Apple OS is impossible or very nearly so. I am now trying to find an iPhoto alternative that's not quite so AR about the filesystem.

Actually, I think its the NAS you picked. i have a Qnap NAS and it works seamlessly for my Time Machine, Aperture and iTunes streaming. I also know that Synology works well with these tasks as well.

I tried a Seagate NAS before I purchased the Qnap and found it lacking in compatibility, I assume the same thing is going with WD - so in a sense its not Apple's fault but rather WD's

 

[jasnw]

I'll give it a try, but I've seen several posts on various sites that say emphatically that the problem is iPhoto's reliance on how HFS+ works. The issue is specifically with iPhoto and not the other apps like iTunes.

 

[Jnesbitt82]

Has anyone used the EX4 as a media server? I was considering buying one in January once I start back college.

 

[aggiesrwe03]

Registered user access

anyone know how to access the drive locally as a "registered user" (via finder>network) I can access it as a guest, but its doesn't let me get to the USB HD I have connected to the MyCloud, no combination of username/password I can think of is working. thanks!

 

[farleyb2]

Using the USB?

Has anyone tried to plug a OSX Extended Journal formatted HD into the USB port on the MyCloud? Could you use the functionality of the MyCloud service, while still being able to access any iPhoto library by storing it on the attached HD? Just a thought...

 

[priitv8]

Has anyone tried to plug a OSX Extended Journal formatted HD into the USB port on the MyCloud? Could you use the functionality of the MyCloud service, while still being able to access any iPhoto library by storing it on the attached HD? Just a thought...

Looks like HFS+ Journaled is a supported disk format:

The WD My Cloud supports the following file systems

 

[simonboucher57]

Time Machine only backing a few files onto WD MyCloud

Can you help me find why Time Machine is only backing-up a few files to my 3TB WD MyCloud?:

For my Mac Mini only these 5 files are created:
com.apple.TimeMachineID.bckup 0.4 KB 14-02-021 09:34
com.apple.TimeMachineID.plist 0.4 KB 14-020-21 09:34
info.bckup 0.5 KB 13-11-30 18:32
info.plist 0.5 KB 13-11-30 18:32
token 0.1 KB 13-11-30 18:32

For our MacBook Pro same 5 files are created with different dates:
com.apple.TimeMachineID.bckup 0.4 KB
com.apple.TimeMachineID.plist 0.4 KB
info.bckup 0.5 KB
info.plist 0.5 KB
token 0.1 KB

But for my Lenovo Laptop, using Smartware (software recommended)
I can see different volumes for my C and D drives and the folder and files structure underneath them with file size and date backed…
So I know it's working.

All 3 machine are set-up to be backed to MyCloud. Only the PC is being backed-up???

I have made sure I was set-up as a referenced user with MyCloud ID and PW not as guest.

WD Claims MyCloud is able to back-up both PC and Mac on the same disk but now… I really have a doubt…

Anyone knows the answer or the Fix to this situation?

Best Regards,

Simon

 

[Jmanmx]

Warning: If you are considering a NAS to host your bloated iPhoto library, or libraries, forget it. After purchasing one of these MyCloud NAS systems in order to put my family's large iPhoto library set out where everyone has easy access, I then find that Apple has tied iPhoto so closely to the OS and its filesystem that putting the iPhoto library out on a non-Apple OS is impossible or very nearly so. I am now trying to find an iPhoto alternative that's not quite so AR about the filesystem.

Any idea what makes this so difficult to accomplish? Would creating a Symbolic link on each computer in the appropriate folder be possible to fix this?