Newbie - Should I buy? Backing Up seems an issue

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud Mirror
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Hi All,
Thought I’d best join the Community after spending a week just viewing.
Seems to be a lot of questions on backing up the Mirror Drives which concerns me… so apologies for the below, but wanted to show what I need, and if you think this is right for me.

A brief scenario of what I want to do:
1 PC, 1 Laptop, 4 Phones and 2 Tablets
I want to centralise all our files into one place (currently different files on laptop and PC) so we can all see them, access them, amend them, and save them.
Also want to be able to create new files on all products and save to one place.

So far a NAS Drive sounds perfect hey!!
I then want to back those centralised files up… so now the Mirror sounds perfect for my needs.

Accessing it from ANYWHERE is a bonus, although OH is sceptical about it’s security.

Trouble is, I’m paranoid - I want a 3rd back up!! Going back a bit we lost over 5 years of my kids early years pics and will never get that back.
I already have three drives with everything on, but its so damned time consuming which is why I’m finally looking at the Mirror System.

Now I’m not over technical (don’t do any of this Java, Linux, writing and amending things I have rad about) so I want it (fairly) simple.
The Cloud Mirror (at first) seemed pretty simple - granted I’ll need to read the manual, but in short I was hoping to get my current files from both laptop & PC on to it (the easiest way), plug it in to the router, set up the users, and away we go!!

BUT
I then want to be able to back up the darn thing onto a 3rd external drive but reading through it seems this hasn’t been achieved easily by anyone…

Am I on the right track with an all in one Mirror Drive?
Is there a simple way to get a 3rd Back Up?
Cloud Mirror or Cloud Mirror EX2 (which appears better spec for not much more money!)

Thanks for reading

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The MCM and the EX2 are very similar products - the MCM is designed more for home use whereas the EX2 is more the low-end of small business type use. But in practice both are fine, although the MCM recently had a revision to its hardware (the version 2) so the processor/memory there was improved (not sure how it now compares to the EX2, whether it brought it to par or ahead of it).

On both you can connect one or two USB drives to the NAS box, and you can copy files from the drives in the NAS to the USB and vice-versa. There is a built-in file manager in the NAS dashboard for doing that, but you can also use backup functionality in the dashboard to do it (although that has been somewhat broken in the last couple of firmware versions, as you noted). In the worst case though it is perfectly possible to also do it manually via SSH access into the NAS box and using simple Linux commands.

One other point is that you can’t connect either the MCM or the EX2 to a computer via USB. You can link to it over the network (with the NAS connected to the router via Ethernet) or connect directly to the computer via Ethernet to the computer’s LAN port (if it has one). The latter is the fastest way to transfer data initially onto the NAS (as it’s a direct link), but it’s not so convenient as it ties up the computer’s Ethernet port (and so desktop machines without wifi are off the network/internet).

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Thanks for replying Darren…
In comparison, I was only looking at the EX2 as it seemed to use the RED Drives which I have read are better, and it appears to have a few more features like 512mb RAM, and the App seems better.
I used this comparison page as a guide.

So it seems that my fears over an additional back up appear to be resolved - if it’s a case of connecting a USB drive to the back of it, and using the built in File Manager to copy/paste (drag/drop) everything onto the third drive then I’m happy.
Guessing its the “Backup Functionality” in the Dashboard is what I’ve been reading about, but at least the above seems to be a work around for now.
Not sure I want to start tinkering with the SSH command thingy just yet - a bit more reading required I think.
I’ll stick with the simple option for now.

Transferring initial data - thanks for explaining that.
I guess my best option would be to connect it directly to the PC fire Ethernet and grab the data that way, and then plug it into the laptop and do the same.
Both have wireless built in, but I’d be happy for them not to be active while the transfer of data takes place anyway.

Thinking on, could I not just take the external hard drive backup that I already have (from both PC & Laptop) and plug this into the back of the Cloud box and drag that all onto the first drive?? Just a thought.

Thanks again for responding, and more importantly, giving me the reassurance I’m on the right track with the WD Products.

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The current (Gen 2) MCM also has 512MB RAM, and a 1.33GHz processor. So it and the EX2 are more closely matched than ever. There are a few small extras on the EX2 as listed in your comparison, but the difference is trivial so I’d say judge whether there’s anything you need there or just save the small cash difference. Personally I’d probably get the EX2, but as it wasn’t on offer when I got mine I got a MCM and it’s doing fine (if now rather full, as I only got the 4TB one).

For data transfer, any USB drive attached to the MCM (and presumably EX2) appears as a share, so one other way is to just use Windows or Mac or whatever to drag/drop the files using Explorer. It’s not a fast way (as the routing will go via the PC or Mac) but you can do it that way too. The web file viewer in the dashboard is ok, but you can only do one folder (plus sub-folders in it) at a time so depending on how your data is laid out you may need to either temporarily rearrange it for moving or do it in a few bites.

The external hard drive option is valid too - when I got my MCM I initially populated it from my existing MyPassport drive, and then later (when the MyPassport died and had to be replaced under RMA) I repopulated the new one in the same way but the other way round.

One other thing to note is that for any RAID1 set-up, the advertised capacity is actually twice what you’ll see in practice (as in RAID1 the data is written twice, once to each drive). So a 4TB MCM or EX2 will only appear to have a 2TB capacity (or indeed slightly less due to block sizes). You can reconfigure the mode to either RAID0 or JBOD to get the full capacity, but then you lose the data mirroring protection for individual drive failures. Just something to consider to make sure you’re future-proof and have enough capacity (although you can of course replace/upgrade the disks in both the MCM and the EX2 anyway later with new larger ones).

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Hmmm, tough call now then.
I have been leaning towards the EX2 (4TB), and now with it currently £20 cheaper than the MCM (4TB) on the WD site (but currently out of stock) it seems a no brainer. .

I was also just going to go for the 4TB version as I’m sure it’ll be enough, but thinking on, the extra £60 for the 6TB MCM seems pretty good.
Not sure I’d say the £110 between the 4TB & 6TB EX2 is such a steal!!

I’ll certainly be using RAID1 as that’ll give me a first copy of the drive, and with backing up onto an external drive too, it means I’ll always retain 3 copies of everything - which is always my plan.

So the initial populating of the data and then the backing up both seem reasonably straightforward now, and I just need to work out the best way, or the easiest way to do it.

My Folder Structure isn’t too bad, I reckon the worst would be my photography. It’ll have something like: D/:MyPictures/2015/January/EventName&Date
So each year is separate, each month within the year is separate, and then there could be more than one folder within the month…
Looks like it could be a long process using the Web File Viewer then… maybe the good old Windows Drag & drop could be the answer, and leave it running overnight to complete no doubt!!

Thanks again for stepping in with answers, very much appreciated. And you’re definitely helping me with my decisions. :+1: