Hi All
I currently have an older My Book 2TB. This is now 1.8TB full, so not much more space. It is primarily used as a media storage, music (ITunes), movies (ITunes) and Photos (lots of big sized photos) unit connected to my Router. I now think I need to upgrade this to a newer, bigger model and was thinking about a My Cloud 4TB unit. This should be more than enough for the foreseeable future. My question is around how to move the files from the old to the new and can I then use the old 2TB My book as a back up device connected via USB to the new My Cloud?
If one reads the My Cloud User Manual (http://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=904) they’d see, in Appendix C, that it is recommended that when transferring a large number of files, more than 50GB, to connect the external USB drive to the computer, then (if possible) connect the computer (using Gigabit if possible) to the same router the My Cloud is connected to, then use Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder to copy the files from the external USB hard drive to the My Cloud.
See the WD Support section for more help including answers to common questions.
Thanks Bennor. Might not be that easy as the My Book only has an ethernet port and no usb. Would it work if I plugged both in to the router and so creating 2 NAS drives. Could I then copy from one to the other?
Cheers
Andy
In your initial post you indicated your My Book had a USB port. (“… I then use the old 2TB My book as a back up device connected via USB to the new My Cloud”)
What My Book model do you have? It appears most My Book versions DO have a USB port on the back.
Just checked again. Was wrong, no USB port. Must of been thinking of my old Iomega unit. Anyway, the unit is a My Book live from a couple of years ago. No other model codes but it does have part no. Label on the bottom if you need it.
Because you indicate you have a My Book Live unit you can just copy the data across the network from the My Book Live to the My Cloud either using Windows File Explorer/Mac Finder or using SSH to issue the copy command to the unit(s) itself and bypass using a computer.
If the My Book Live Dashboard has a Safepoint option one might be able to use that feature to backup the My Book Live to the My Cloud. Once the Safepoint backup is finished one could then move their files around on the My Cloud to their proper Shares as needed using Windows File Explorer/Mac Finder.
Thanks Bennor Will purchase the unit tomorrow and give it a go. Could I leave both attached to the network and use similar to a 2 bay unit, replicating the data across both devices or is that not possible?
Just plug them both into the router, map both drives under Windows, and use File Explorer to drag and drop from one to the other. Leave the PC to get on with it.
Can you have both a My Cloud and My Book Live on the same local network. Yes.
Can you replicate the data treating both units as a 2 bay unit that runs RAID? Generally no.
Both drives will be seen as individual network attached storage drives on the local network. Depending on the firmware on each device one could use the My Book Live as a backup location for the My Cloud.
