I want to set up cloud storage for my files and also set up a remote backup drive and I’m trying to decide which would be the best approach. I’d appreciate any advice/shared experience to help me decide.
My first idea was to have a MyCloud located at my house (I’m on the US west coast), where I store my files and then have this drive backed up to another MyCloud drive at another location - my parents’ house in a different country (the UK). This will tick the box of having my files backed up off-site, in case of theft or fire or whatever at my house. The idea would be to “mirror” the drive to the remote MyCloud on a regular basis (perhaps daily), i.e. a scheduled check to see what (if any) files have changed and make appropriate copy/delete/update changes to the remote drive. Does the software of the MyCloud make it straight forward to setup and schedule this kind of backup? Does it require a computer to be turned on at either location or is this kind of check/trigger possible from the WD dashboard? Ideally it would be completed without a computer needed to be running at either location.
Then my second idea was instead of having two MyCloud drives for my own use, I could instead get two MyCloud Mirror drives, and rather than mirroring files to the second drive in the same device, instead mirror to the second drive in the remote device. This would allow my family back in the UK to use the second drive on the Mirror there for their own cloud storage and that drive could be mirrored to the second drive on the Mirror at my house. This set-up would involve breaking the RAID mirror that is set as default and set-up a regular schedule to check for changes to files and copy/delete as appropriate.
How feasible is it to have either of these two set-ups using MyCloud devices? Does anybody have any experience with a setting up MyCloud for either of these scenarios and any advice as to which option I go with?
I could go with option 1, sort myself out and then in the future get another pair of MyCloud drives if I want to create a similar set-up for my family in the UK to use. This would likely be the most straight forward to setup in the short term but means not giving a backup option to my family in the UK and maybe more expensive in the long-run if I do at some point want to get extra drives for them.
The second approach of using two MyCloud Mirror devices will be more complicated to set-up and I’m not sure if family back in the UK will require as much hard drive space for their files as I would (i.e. if I get an 8TB mirror and I use one of the 4TB drives, I doubt my family would need as much as 4TB for their own files). Although, an 8TB MyCloud Mirror is probably cheaper than getting two 4TB MyCloud drives, so perhaps that makes more sense money-wise. I do like the idea of providing a backup solution for family, as I doubt any of them have a good backup routine. Also, one MyCloud Mirror device would look tidier on a desk rather than two MyCloud drives - only one power plug and cable.
Without having used a MyCloud before, it’s difficult to know if either option is possible (without being a professional IT networking person, but I am technically competent, I’m a software developer) and information on the WD website isn’t particularly helpful in trying to work things out.
I would appreciate any advice from other users as to what’s possible and feasible. Thanks in advance!
