Sorry for the long post but I’m trying to include all of the pertinent details (it is ridiculous how much time I have into trying to resolve this). I have 4 Windows 10 PCs in my home and a Windows XP computer in my shop connected to my LAN by Ethernet. I back up all of my computers to the My Cloud that is in my home, plus I have data on the My Cloud that is nowhere else. Until recently, I was backing the My Cloud (V4) to the Windows XP computer in the shop using Safepoint. That way, if my home burns down I still have a copy of the data in my shop.
The Safepoint backup started failing to complete. I was getting “Error creating your safepoint: Internal server error. Retry your last operation. If the error persists, contact WD Support for assistance. (36175)”. I contacted WD support. They had me reset/reformat my drive. I was still having the same problems. They then told me that the My Cloud wasn’t capable of making a backup to a Windows PC on my LAN even though I have been doing it for years and my owner’s manual states “You can automatically make a second copy, or safepoint, of your personal cloud on another NAS device or a Windows PC on your LAN.” They then told me that only the newer version has that capability (even though the statement is out of the manual that came with my drive) and, even though my drive is out of warranty, they would send me the newer V2 version (why is the newer version a lower version than the older version?).
When I got the newer version I tried making a backup of the My Cloud to a Windows PC using remote backup since there are no Safepoint options (is that the right way?). However, I couldn’t figure out how to do it. It kept asking me for network credentials and no matter what credentials I entered It wouldn’t accept them. I called WD support and they said that the V2 version does not have the capability to backup the My Cloud to a Windows PC on my LAN even though that is why they sent it to me and their V2 owner’s manual on their website states “You can automatically make a second copy, or safepoint, of your personal cloud on another NAS device or a Windows PC on your LAN.” They said that is a mistake in the manual, single bay drives don’t support that, and sent me a link on how to make backups outside of my network to prove it (I want to make a backup on my local LAN, not on an outside network). They also said the V4 version is no longer available. They suggested I buy more hardware or try WD Sync (not supported on a Windows XP computer).
So, before I put a lot more effort into this, I thought I’d ask the forum here. Without buying more hardware (or software), what is the best way to backup the My Cloud to a Windows XP computer? I’m not very skilled at command line stuff so if some freeware is suggested it would need to be pretty easy to use.
Thanks
Here is a link with more information and the more current User Manuals for both generations of the My Cloud.
https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=904&lang=en
I hope this will help.
It doesn’t help because the statement “You can automatically make a second copy, or safepoint, of your personal cloud on another NAS device or a Windows PC on your LAN.” in the user manual is an error for version 2 (according to WD support) and version 4 is no longer available.
You have been given very poor ‘support’ by WD, by someone who obviously doesn’t understand their products, or didn’t listen to you.
My suggestion would be to use freefilesync. It will run on your PC, and can backup and sync in either direction between PC and MyCloud.
It was more than one person from WD that was involved and their story is constantly changing. What I find amazing is they can just say the feature listed in the user manual is wrong (you know, the section that everyone looks at to see if the product meets their needs) and leave it at that. I downloaded Karen’s Replicator in the mean time since I wanted something simple for the XP computer. If that doesn’t work out I’ll give FreeFileSync a try.
Thanks
Where are you reading this in the current manuals?
This comes from the first generation My Cloud User Manual with firmware version 4.x.x. CH.10 P.71
About Safepoints You can create a complete backup or snapshot of your My Cloud device, called a safepoint, and save it to an external location on your home network or an attached USB drive attached to the USB expansion port. Safepoints can be created or run on a schedule you define. They include a record of users, data, and shares on your device; any backups created using WD SmartWare, Apple Time Machine, Windows 7 Backup, or Windows 8 File History, and any associated device configuration details. Creating a safepoint ensures that you can easily recover your data from a specific point in time to a new My Cloud device in the unlikely event that your My Cloud device fails.
This comes from the second generation My Cloud User Manual with firmware version 2.x.x. CH.10 P.71
About Backups You can create a complete backup or snapshot of your My Cloud device and save it to an another server on or outside your home network, to a USB drive attached to the USB expansion port, or to another storage location within your My Cloud system. Backups can be created or run on a schedule you define. They include a record of users, data, and shares on your device; any backups created using WD SmartWare, Apple Time Machine, Windows 7 Backup, or Windows 8 File History, and any associated device configuration details. Creating a backup ensures that you can easily recover your data from a specific point in time to a new My Cloud device in the unlikely event that your My Cloud device fails.
From the first generation verson 4.x.x. Features section on CH.2 P4:
“Add an extra layer of protection for your files – You can automatically make a second copy, or safepoint, of your personal cloud on another NAS device or a Windows PC on your LAN, or on a USB device connected to the My Cloud device. With extra protection for all your media, you get peace of mind.”
From the second generation verson 2.x.x. Features section on CH.2 P4:
“Add an extra layer of protection for your files – You can automatically make a second copy, or safepoint, of your personal cloud on another NAS device or a Windows PC on your LAN, or on a USB device connected to the My Cloud device. With extra protection for all your media, you get peace of mind.”
The features section is what most people would refer to (or at least I did) to determine if a product is suitable for their intended use. If not the features section, where should you look to see if a product meets your needs?
I also find the statement below you quoted interesting:
“About Backups You can create a complete backup or snapshot of your My Cloud device and save it to an another server on or outside your home network, to a USB drive attached to the USB expansion port, or to another storage location within your My Cloud system. Backups can be created or run on a schedule you define. They include a record of users, data, and shares on your device; any backups created using WD SmartWare, Apple Time Machine, Windows 7 Backup, or Windows 8 File History, and any associated device configuration details. Creating a backup ensures that you can easily recover your data from a specific point in time to a new My Cloud device in the unlikely event that your My Cloud device fails.”
They should clarify that WD does not consider a Windows PC to be “another server” or “another storage location within your My Cloud system”. What exactly would fall under that criteria?
Well, Karen’s Replicator couldn’t handle files that were being accessed by other computers at the same time but FreeFileSync seems to work (thanks for the suggestion). However, now I have a different (but related) problem. Initially, I couldn’t access the private shares on the XP computer. No matter what login credentials I entered it wouldn’t accept them. I could access the public shares fine and could access the private shares on the Windows 10 computers (after some rigmarole). The XP computer could access the private shares fine on the old My Cloud. WD tech support had me do a bunch of things and then gave up saying a level 2 would call me the next day (never did). When I called them back the shares started working fine by themselves so I thought everything was OK. Then they stopped working again. Through trial and error I discovered that if I made the share public, access the share, make the share private again, and change the user access back to read/write I can access them again. However, this appears to be a temporary solution. After spending several more hours on the phone with tech support the tech suggested that I need to transfer my files off the computer, delete and recreate the shares, and copy the files back over. I asked him to send me specific instructions since I have my doubts and don’t want to go through all of this for nothing, especially since we made a new test share and it had the same problem. We said he is going to research the problem and arrange for a call back (yea right, I’ve been told 3 times they are going to call me back and it never happens). I have a feeling they are going to tell me that they don’t support XP anymore (it was hinted). Any suggestions?
What is the specific Windows XP error message? Can you post a screen shot of it?
When you have password problems with Windows, you should check the Windows Credentials Manager and delete any entries for the My Cloud. Reboot the computer then test My Cloud access again.
Windows mixed network credentials problem.
Delete all mappings to the NAS. Then re-connect, forcing ‘connect as other user’. Specify the same user credentials for every share, including Public.
Bennor
Sometimes I get this error:
But most of the time I get a login screen:
And this error no matter what credentials I try:
There were no entries in my Windows Credentials Manager. However, I may have this resolved - see below.
Thanks
cpt
I had previously deleted all of my mapped drives because of the problems I was having and was just using My Network Places. But I just deleted/disconnected all of my mapped networks and then added new network places. The first one accepted my My Cloud credentials and I could access the share. The subsequent my network places additions never asked me for credentials but the shares got added and I can access both the public and private shares (for now). I’ll see how long this lasts. Was your intent to have mapped drives instead of network places?
Thanks
Yes. It works, and can be used by any program, like any named disk.
I’ll try mapping them as drives again if I continue to have problems.
Thanks
