WD My Cloud 2TB is a 2000GB personal cloud storage with Gigabit Ethernet interface and cloud server software. My Cloud lets you get rid of wires by connecting your cloud storage device to your home network and giving it access to the Internet. This unique device will give you the opportunity to store all your photos, videos, music and other files at home in one place with a large margin of storage capacity without paying for a cloud subscription. And to access the content on the disk both from your home or office local network, and from any place where there is Internet.
Stylish case Western Digital My Cloud will successfully fit into any interior design, becoming, in addition to the file server, also decorate your workplace or room. All you need to do is connect the My Cloud to your home router, and the reliable, centralized storage of your entire family collection of files is ready to go. And with apps for mobile devices and desktop computers, you can not only access and add files stored on the My Cloud, but also back up your OS or files. Available protection of files from unauthorized access with a password and the creation of personal user profiles.
The high-speed Gigabit Ethernet interface and dual-core cloud storage processor let you directly access files stored on the My Cloud, such as processing images in iPhoto or editing videos. A large amount of internal hard drive will expand the built-in memory of a smartphone or tablet and not limit yourself to storing copies of films or music library. All you need to access all this is the Internet. And by connecting WD My Cloud to popular cloud services like Dropbox, you can easily transfer files between your personal cloud and cloud services.
The WD SmartWare Pro Automatic Backup software will reliably back up and store important data, system backups, and other files. It also automatically saves a second copy of the My Cloud content to another device on your home network for complete confidence in your files. The USB 3.0 port on the cloud storage itself will allow you to connect additional external devices and expand the storage capacity or copy files directly, such as photos from your digital camera.
Features:
- Backup of all files and storage in the cloud
- Stylish design and discreet connection
- Access to files from anywhere with the Internet
- Save photos and videos from mobile devices
- Expansion of the built-in memory for smartphones and tablets
- DLNA / UPnP streaming
- Expandable memory via USB 3.0
- Complete backup software
- Access to cloud storage of backups
- Fast network file transfer and direct operation
- One reliable place to store file collections
The name of the new WD My Cloud NAS translates to “my cloud”. Although in reality it is not quite a cloud and not even a fully functional NAS. This is a convenient and compact backup device, a simple media server and storage device with the ability to access via the Internet for more than modest money. When it comes to data transfer speeds, the My Cloud is clearly not the leader here. And with the level of reliability of a single-disk drive, where it is impossible to organize a RAID array, things are not very good. But it is not valuable for this.
How does WD My Cloud compare? For example, with the Apple Time Capsule, especially since "my cloud" has built-in support for Time Machine out of the box. Plus, the My Cloud is roughly one and a half times cheaper than the latest generation tower pod, and if you don't need a router or wireless access point, a WD drive can be a good alternative. And the snow-white body of the My Cloud will fit perfectly into the "apple" family.
A direct competitor to WD My Cloud is the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Home single-drive NAS, which also supports Internet remote access, Time Machine functionality and UPnP server. FreeAgent GoFlex Home also does not set speed records, and it uses slow USB 2.0 to connect external drives, so WD My Cloud clearly wins purely for hardware.
Specifications
Built-in hard drive: 2, 3 or 4 TB with SATA interface
Interfaces: network Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 (up to 5 Gb / s) for external drives
Supported operating systems: Windows XP / Vista / 7/8, OS X 10.6.8 or higher
Protocols: CIFS / SMB, NFS, FTP, AFP, DHCP, SSH, UPnP, DLNA and iTunes servers
Dimensions: 49 x 139.3 x 170.6 mm
Weight: 0.96 kg
Equipment: Category 5e Ethernet cable, AC adapter
Price: about 5200 rubles
Inside and outside
The heart of WD My Cloud is the Mindspeed Comcerto C2200 system-on-a-chip, specially designed for network devices, with two Cortex A9 ARM7-based computing cores running at a clock speed of 1.2 GHz. The device also has a 256 MB DDR 1600 MHz memory chip and a 512 MB flash memory module.
Higher-end NAS's usually do not come with hard drives, leaving the choice at the discretion of the owner. WD My Cloud, on the other hand, comes with a hard drive already installed, which is a 3.5-inch Western Digital WD Red series drive. This series includes hard drives designed for entry-level NAS's, which combine from one to five drives. These SATA 6Gb / s variable spindle hard drives are highly reliable and designed for 24/7 use. Our version of the WD My Cloud uses a 2TB model and offers 3TB and 4TB drive options.
The WD My Cloud case is traditionally designed for external drives of this brand in the form of a book: the "cover" is made of glossy white plastic, and the "block" with numerous ventilation holes is made of silver plastic. The cooling is completely passive, so the NAS is practically silent - you will only hear the quiet crackling of the hard drive. Unfortunately, different words are no longer encoded in Morse code in the casing holes, as it was in previous generations of WD drives, here it is just a pattern.
WD My Cloud does not have any hardware controls - all commands are sent over the network. On the front panel there is a multifunctional LED indicator of operating modes, on the back there is a USB 3.0 port for connecting external drives, a gigabit network port, a power supply connector and a reset button recessed inside the case. On the bottom panel, you can find an information plate with a serial number, MAC address and other service information, as well as four stable legs.
Software base and web interface
The software basis of WD My Cloud, like the vast majority of NAS's, is Linux, in our case we are talking about Debian Wheezy. And this means that it will not be difficult for a person who understands to get into its jungle and expand the functionality of the device without making changes to its hardware. In particular, you can install the Transmission torrent client on WD My Cloud, which we have successfully done. How exactly, a little later. To take advantage of all WD My Cloud features, including Internet access to files stored on it, you need to connect the NAS to a router and set up an account with the WD My Cloud online service. Of course, if necessary, you can connect the device directly to the computer and work with it as with a regular external drive.
All settings and management of WD My Cloud are carried out through the web interface, which can be accessed either through the shortcut that appears after installation, or simply by typing the device's IP address in the browser. If you've created a WD My Cloud account, you'll be able to access this interface on mobile devices as well as using the WD Photos app.
The fully Russified web interface is very laconic, although it contains all the settings necessary for the operation, which are scattered over five pages: "Users", "Resources", "Access to the Cloud", "Safepoints" and "Parameters". At the same time, the main page performs not only purely informational functions - from it you can go directly to the windows for adding devices, users and resources (network folders) by simply clicking on the plus signs. On the "Users" page, you can add new users and configure their access rights, on the "Resources" page, add and configure access to shared folders. The Cloud Access page allows you to add mobile devices that can connect to the device over the Internet. On the Safepoints page, you can make a kind of "backup backup", that is, back up data from WD My Cloud to an external USB drive or other device on the local network.
The Settings page contains all the basic settings for WD My Cloud, from enabling SSH and FTP access and enabling DLNA (TwonkyMedia) and iTunes servers to factory reset and drive firmware update. The overall impression of the web interface is extremely positive: it is logical, understandable, beautiful, finally. And everything would be absolutely wonderful if it were not for some mistakes in Russification. For example, in the menu item for resetting the system settings, instead of Quick Recovery and Full Recovery, for some reason, it says “Quick Check” and “Full Check”, although everything is correct in the WD My Cloud electronic manual.
Festina Lente
WD My Cloud does not show any miracles in performance, and its performance when accessing a local gigabit network is not very impressive: the average read speed of a 300 MB file using HELIOS LanTest 6.6.6b4 was only 45.0 MB / s, and 18 writes. 7 Mb / s is clearly not enough for a gigabit network. But do not forget that the speed of sequential read and write in a single-disk device is especially strongly dependent on the file size: for example, the measured read speed of a 3-gigabyte file has already reached 63.6 MB / s, and a 12-gigabyte file - almost 70 MB /from. And this is already quite a decent indicator. In any case, for a device of this class, designed mainly for regular backups, high data transfer rates are far from the main thing.
Putting up Transmission
There is nothing special to say about the performance of WD My Cloud itself, it performs all the declared functions: backup, streaming, available via the Internet from smartphones and tablets. It's much more interesting to talk about what you can do with this NAS if you get into the Debian Wheezy operating system installed on it. But we immediately warn you that if you manage to "drop" it, then you will have to say goodbye to the guarantee.
First, you need to enable SSH access on the "Settings" page of the web interface (Network → Network Services) and make the necessary settings in the SSH client, for example, in PuTTY for Windows. On the Session tab, fill in the IP address of our WD My Cloud and save the session under a new name. On the "Data" tab, enter the superuser name root and password (by default - welc0me, in the future, of course, it is better to change it). We press the button "Connect" and get into the Debian console.
Let's choose the Russian encoding by editing two files:
# nano .bashrc
Change the export LC_ALL-С line to export LC_ALL \u003d "ru_RU.UTF-8", below we add the line export LANG \u003d "ru_RU.UTF-8".
Save (, Y, Enter) and open the second file:
# nano .profile
Here at the end we add the same two lines:
Export LC_ALL \u003d "ru_RU.UTF-8" export LANG \u003d "ru_RU.UTF-8"
Save, reboot the NAS:
# reboot
Before installing Transmission, you need to create two new folders on WD My Cloud for storing temporary files and full torrents - Temp and Torrents. It is best to place them inside the Public folder or some other folder of the same level, otherwise the data will be written to the system partition and quickly make your NAS unusable.
Now we can register the address of the repository from where we will download Transmission:
# echo "deb http://ftp.ru.debian.org/debian/ sid main" \u003e\u003e / etc / apt / sources.list
Let's make a backup copy of the original list of repositories:
# cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak
Let's update the data about the available packages:
# apt-get update
Finally, install Transmission and the missing packages:
# apt-get install -t sid transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon
After the installation is complete, stop the Transmission daemon to edit the configuration:
# /etc/init.d/transmission-daemon stop
Let's set superuser rights for it:
# sed -i "s / USER \u003d debian-transmission / USER \u003d root / g" /etc/init.d/transmission-daemon
Now you need to edit the Transmission configuration file (by the way, remember that to change the config of an already running Transmission, you need to stop the daemon itself before opening settings.json, and not restart its process after the changes). We open:
# nano /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json
First of all, you need to change the location of the download folders we created earlier. If you created them in the Public folder, then the settings should look like this:
"download-dir": "/ DataVolume / shares / Public / Torrents", "incomplete-dir": "/ DataVolume / shares / Public / Temp", "incomplete-dir-enabled": true,
"rpc-authentication-required": false, "rpc-whitelist-enabled": false,
By default, the port for accessing the torrent client is 9091, if desired, you can change it in this line:
"rpc-port": 9091,
Of course, other settings can be made in the Transmission configuration file. Let's save them and exit nano back to the console (, Y, Enter). Let's restore the original list of repositories:
# mv -f /etc/apt/sources.list.bak /etc/apt/sources.list
That's it, you can run Transmission:
# /etc/init.d/transmission-daemon start
If everything is in order, we will see the message "OK", after which you can open the application through its web interface by entering the WD My Cloud IP address in the browser and, through a colon, the port for accessing Transmission (that is, 9091 or another in settings). Let's check the functionality by trying to download and distribute files.
For ease of use, you can download a special graphical interface for the remotely installed, existing in versions for Windows, OS X and Linux. In it you will need to register your program settings (IP address, port), after which the GUI is ready to work.
Worth your money
What do we have in the bottom line? A neatly assembled network attached storage with a specialized processor and hard drive, but at the same time only 1,000 rubles more than the hard drive itself. In addition to backup functions for Windows and OS X systems, this NAS provides remote access to files stored on it over the Internet, including from smartphones and tablets. The built-in media server is capable of streaming media files to any DLNA and iTunes enabled devices within the local network.
Unfortunately, the functionality of WD My Cloud out of the box is limited to this, but it does not matter: the support for SSH access to the Linux Debian operating system allows enthusiasts to expand it at their discretion. We checked with our own hands the possibility of installation and full performance of, probably, the most useful program for NAS - Transmission, and this is already a very serious plus for such an inexpensive device.
Test results
Creation of 300 files of 20 KB: 15.1 s
Opening / closing 300 files: 2.2 s
Deleting 300 files: 9.3 s
Writing 300 MB to a file: 18.7 Mbps
Writing 3000 MB to a file: 24.2 Mbps
Writing 12,000 MB to a file: 26.2 Mbps
Reading 300 MB from a file: 45 Mbps
Reading 3000 MB from a file: 63.6 Mb / s
Reading 12,000 MB from a file: 70.8 Mbps
Locking / unlocking parts of a file 16,000 times: 20.2 s
Folder reading (640 files): 157.5 ms
Buy in the store:
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NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can to receive a letter of notification when the item is on sale.
NOT The item is temporarily out of stock, but over time it may reappear on sale. You can
We have reviewed WD My Cloud, a personal cloud storage. We will analyze how it works and why it is needed in this review.
WD My Cloud is a 2-8TB external storage device. Form factor bar. Interfaces - Ethernet and USB (for connecting external drives or flash drives). The device has its own operating system, My Cloud OS 3.
The whole point of this gadget is to connect it to a router and access data over the network, Wi-Fi or the Internet (if you are outside of your Wi-Fi network).
Externally, the hard drive looks quite stylish. And the blue LED is not bright enough to be covered with a pillow at night.
Many will ask why the My Cloud doesn't have built-in Wi-Fi. This is due to the problems of wireless communication in terms of security and speed, since Ethernet is more reliable in these characteristics.
Connection
The whole setup takes 5 minutes and consists of three steps.
1 - Connecting the disk to the router
2 - Setting up through http://files.mycloud.com/setup and registration in the service
3 - Downloading additional software, setting up synchronization.
And that's all, you can work.
You can access your data while on your Wi-Fi network and even outside of it.
Note. Such ease is available to everyone, except for those with Apple AirPort Extreme routers, the connected drive is not located during setup and you will have to correspond for a long time with WD support. There was no solution to the problem on the Internet.
Software
WD is great and has made a lot of programs for various platforms. They are all free.
WD My Cloud (iPhone and Android) - allows you to manage files on the disk, as well as back up photos and videos from your smartphone.
In addition to the My Cloud drive, the app can connect to your Dropbox or Google drive and download files from it directly to your hard drive.
On iOS, photos and videos can be sent via photo albums
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Of the minuses - there is no way to delete files from the disk using this application.
WD Photos (iPhone and Android) - for viewing and selecting photos.
WD Sync (PC, Mac) - backs up the specified folders and documents to disk.
In addition to programs, access to the disk and its settings can be obtained through a browser.
My Cloud Features
My Cloud can easily be a shared repository of documents, music and movies. The disk has very flexible access rights. You can configure access to sections for different users.
Mac users can set up Time Machine (I don't use it, it wears out a laptop SSD very much and is not really necessary for me). At startup, it immediately finds the disk and asks where to drop the backup.
A native WD SmartWare utility is available for the PC, in which, among other things, you can set the backup frequency.
I did not take speed measurements as they are very dependent on the Wi-Fi speed. In my case, this is about 50 Mbps.
Built-in DLNA Server allows you to play movies on DLNA TVs. There is also support for various applications, for example, Plex for streaming video, Acronis for backup, and others.
Another possibility is to give access to the file from the hard disk to anyone. I'm not saying that this is a replacement for Yandex.Disk, but this function will not be superfluous.
Judging by the reviews, many My Cloud fans install torrent on it. I haven't tried it myself, but the opportunity is interesting.
findings
At the time of this writing, the cost of WD My Cloud 2 TB is 10,000 rubles. Versions with a capacity of 6 TB - 22,000 rubles.
In my opinion, this is a good device for home and family. You should not make excessive demands on him. For backing up photos and videos from your phone, storing non-critical data and watching movies, it's a good solution.
I write non-critical data, because movies can be downloaded again, but work files and other important data must be duplicated. This is not because of brand distrust, but for maximum data safety.
For professional work, mirroring is not enough here, as there is one physical disk installed. For these purposes, WD has a My Cloud Mirror model, we have an overview of a similar model from the previous generation WD My Book Studio Edition II.
As a working tool, I prefer a mirroring disk with a USB 3.0 interface, or better Thunderbolt.
Thanks to PR agency 2L and WD for providing us with the hard drive for review.
Recent research by analyst firms predicts that by 2016 the average household will have accumulated about 2.2 TB of digital information (Gartner), and the number of concurrently connected devices, which NPD Group analysts say, now account for 5.7 per one household will become even larger. These trends call for new digital storage technologies that allow consumers to take complete control of their data from anywhere.
Personal cloud storage is a new standard for this kind of systems, providing the ability to store media files and documents on a local home storage device with access to them via the Internet from any personal digital device. WD recently introduced such a device, which it calls the WD My Cloud. With the My Cloud, users can share their files, start streaming and securely work with their data from anywhere in the world, without any subscription fees.
We got a WD My Cloud model (WDBCTL0020HWT) with a built-in 2 TB hard drive for testing, let's take a closer look at the device.
The package includes the device itself, a power supply, a cable for connecting the device to a local network, instructions for installing software.
The My Cloud chassis is made of glossy white plastic. On the front panel there is a device activity LED.
The rear panel contains a USB3.0 connector, an Ethernet connector, a power supply connector, a Kensington-lock and a Reset button.
The My Cloud uses a Gigabit Ethernet interface and a dual-core processor to make file transfers extremely fast and dynamically update and keep data up to date.
The top surface of the My Cloud is designed as a grill to better dissipate heat from the hard drive. It should be noted that the device itself practically does not heat up and does not make noise during operation.
The hallmark of the My Cloud is ease of installation. WD software can automatically recognize the connected drive. It only takes a few minutes for the initial setup in the universal web interface. Immediately after installation, the storage becomes available for creating individual user accounts, connecting to all computers and mobile devices in use using free utilities.
All installation and configuration takes place in a few steps.
Go to the WD website and download the software for WD My Cloud
Launches the installation. The program detects the device itself. In our case, the storage is connected via a WiFi router 
Create an administrator account for the repository 
That's it, the installation is complete.
After that, you get access to the device over the local network or through the wd2go.com service from anywhere with an Internet connection.
The streaming feature allows the My Cloud to be used as the central home storage for terabytes of videos and music. Any multimedia device that supports DLNA technology, a media player, a Smart TV or a game console can be connected to the drive.
Users can work with documents, view photos, and receive streaming video from the My Cloud on their smartphones and tablets using special free mobile applications. They also allow you to manage data on your device, send individual files by email, provide a link to your documents, print and open files, move them from your personal cloud to public ones such as Dropbox ™, SkyDrive® and Google Drive ™.
After installing the software, the WD My Cloud dashboard shortcut appears on your desktop.
The control panel home screen displays basic information about the drive. As we can see, after the first launch, an icon is displayed on the control panel indicating that the device's firmware is outdated. If you click on the icon, the program will automatically update the device's firmware to the latest.
In addition to the information displayed on the main screen, you can carry out express diagnostics of the device.
In the Users section, you can customize access to your cloud content by setting up user accounts and access rights.
A few words about cloud software. BY WD SmartWare Automatically continually backs up data files stored on your computer to the WD My Cloud drive. SmartWare first splits the different types of files on the disk where the source files are stored into categories. You can back up all types of files or specify specific files, folders, or categories to back up. Once backed up, the WD SmartWare software protects your files by backing up:
- new files created on the computer or copied to the hard drive
- existing files modified in one way or another
Safepoint makes snapshots of data on disk for disaster recovery of device contents.
The Options screen options allow you to fine-tune your cloud storage to suit your needs.
findings... WD My Cloud is an easy-to-use and inexpensive device for those who process and store large amounts of information. It can be recommended both as a family repository of music and films, and as a reliable photo archive for professional photographers. Not only can you access WD My Cloud from anywhere on Earth where there is Internet access to upload photos from a camera or laptop, the system will also take care of data safety by backing up files and folders from your PC to the cloud, and at the same time will make backups of the cloud itself in case of failure.
