I had to pause the video just to let you know how incredibly useful this is! I'm s confused about the whole NAS and mirror features of the hard drive and this video cleared everything up! Thank you!
With all the stylized content out there, Its refreshing to come across the grown up way of doing RUclips. Simplistic, but intentional. Whilst being expressively extensive. Well done buddy! Keep up the good work!
I wanted to leave a comment that impressed because I was so impressed with this man's video. Well I'm glad I didn't put much effort into my comment because it would have been in vain = your comment was so perfect that I had to give you credit = every attribute that was appropriate for commenting on this video was not only there but used in a perfect way, just the right amount in the right place and you have what I call classy. I love smart people. Celebrate diversity = Peace
My experience wasn't unique = So I echo what others have said.... This guy is exceptional at explaining tech. - I haven't seen anyone better at making a potentially complicated subject seem so simple.
I see in retrospect that I used the word comment too many times in my comment = I guess Im learning since I recognize it. OMG - I hate to imagine how gaudy some of my comments have been. That's why you should stay in school I guess.
Lon Seidman's NAS 101 is a great place to start. He presents the basics and introduces options to remain simple, middle ground or potentially advanced.
Was getting into Open Media Vault and saw this is in recommendation, following you for a while but not that long, coming back to this... The content quality is still solid!
The WRT54g 2:05 series is like the "international/universal symbol" for WiFi router like the old rotary western electric bells phones representing telephone.
Wow. This is some next level stuff! Really really amazing video. I love that you were able to provide a thorough, interesting introduction to this technology, without wasting time, and made it accessible for people with different skill levels. Great video.
Bro keep up the brilliant work! Your informational videos always cover the basics and the best part is that non-techies can easily related to them. Well done !
I'm debating on building a NAS box in a Fractal Design Node 804 case, but I do like the hot swap drive bays up front on the Silverstone DS380 for the purpose of replacing a failed drive ... but I also like the numerous possibilities for cooling fans and filtered intakes on the Node 804. I'm wrestling with the idea of: 1.) Using the Node 804 case to build a NAS or 2.) Picking up a DS380 case to build a NAS and use the Node 804 to build a Media PC (to attach to a TV for gaming, etc.) I'd like to be able to start a NAS build with like 3 WD Red drives (i.e. 3 x 4 TB WD Reds) in a RAID format where I'll get the storage of 2 of the 3 drives and be able to lose 1 drive before losing data. I'd also like to be able to add additional drives to it (when $$ allows me to get additional drives) and be able to expand the available storage space, without having to move everything off, add the drive and then move everything back. Not only will I be able to buy drives when I have the extra $$, but it'll also spread out the drives life (i.e.: 3 drives running for 6 months, 1 drive running for 2 months) to lessen the possibility of multiple drives failing due to age.But can I plug in additional drives and expand the volume without having to remove the data or losing the data by expanding the volume?? Options I'd like to use with the NAS are: 1.) Be able to expand the volume size (as stated above) 2.) Be able to use between 8 and 12 drives total (with at least one being able to fail and be able to restore on a new drive once replaced) 3.) Be a central file storage that's accessible within my network on both computers and an iPad 4.) Be able to access files when outside of my home network (similar to the way WD My Cloud does) via a computer or an iPad 5.) Use for video streaming of movie files and my DVD collection (1,500+ DVD's) as well as my music collection (1,500+ CD's) to devices like Boxee Box (no conversion needed at this point) 6.) iTunes server running to have my iTunes library shared to devices like an iPad (through home sharing) so a computer doesn't have to be left on 7.) Be able to stream video and audio to devices like an iPad without having to download it prior to playing 8.) Serve as one point in a backup solution, where it does a complete system backup (programs and files) weekly, keeping about a month to a month and a half of backups before a new one deletes the oldest one. Where I can do a restore on a new drive to exactly the way it was before the drive failed (without having to reactivate programs, like Microsoft Office, etc.). As well as a rolling backup, where if a file is accidentally deleted, I can retrieve a copy of it (i.E.: Snapshots in FreeNAS) 9.) Be able to share files with others outside of my network. IE: be able to give people a URL (like mycloud.com) where they can log in using a username and password to be able to access the files that are shared with them (similar to what Pogoplug did with their cloud storage for those familiar with Pogoplug). These are some of the options I'd like to have. So what software/OS should I use: FreeNAS, OpenMediaVault, OpenFiler, FlexRAID, UnRAID, etc. should I use?? What hardware do I need for the software/OS (I currently have a Fractal Node 804 case, ASRock QC5000-ITX mobo, and a 500 W power supply) that's won't break the bank??
Wow what a good intro to the world of NAS. Loved it. Want to continue to use NAS for playing my home music library of c. 1Tb - a labour of love. Now have a MyCloud, which I am finding quite hard, after a Seagate, which was great (until it failed :-( ). Unfortunately my Seagate back up is a couple of years out of date and I could only recover files, not the directory structure from the failed Seagate, so am ruing my choices. Looking forward to more advice!
I have a question (I think it wasn't mentioned), what about LDAP access? I have a Fujitsu server running Windows Server 2019 and I'm thinking on getting a NAS to save daily server backups (I allready have a 3TB external WD HD for the backups but it's always connected and I would like to have a redudant backup system) and also for sharing files between two or more people, I configured a VM in Windows server's Hyper-V that's running Owncloud over Ubuntu 18.04 and the LDAP is quite helpfull because I don't need to keep creating accounts for access, it gets all the login info from the AD...is that possible in these NAS? (by the way, great video, you have a talent to explain "techy stuff", lol, greetings from Portugal!)
Great video and info. I already knew some of the things you’re going through but I’m excited to know that there is a channel out there that gives info like this and explains it in a simple manner. Thanks!
I have a few questions 1. Can I select the hard drive among the 4 in which I want to store my files? 2. Will the device work if I have inserted only 3 hard drives instead of 4?
Lon, Please compare WD "My Cloud" and "My Cloud HOME"! I was about to buy a "My Cloud 8TB" and called WD re attaching my WD 8 TB "My Book". WD support indicated there is a "NEW IMPROVED" My Cloud Home that has more/better features. Should I buy the new "Home" version?
Lon, although I agree NAS is better than USB for a number of reasons but it's not true that USB can't be accessed away from home. I do it frequently via Teamviewer. Works great. Also, I'm using a 4 drive Promise NAS setup as Raid 5. Why didn't you also recommend a 4 drive setup?
Lon - great stuff as usual!! Thank you for taking the time and I know from experience that you spend the time to make it excellent. Glad you are here!! looking forward to future vids. J
I am not computer savvy so this may not make any sense. In the event your internet service provider is down as in ATT U-verse, but your router is still up can you access these NAS devices. What I want is to be able to connect all the families devices through WIFI but not while away from home.
Thanks for the 101. I'm still a bit confused about the SmartTV compatibility, i.e., how do I know which NAS will or will not work with my TV. Also, I get using two of these, one at home, and one offsite is "safer" for fires, floods, etc. Could my home be in WA State and my offsite be in FL, or anywhere in the world provided it's hooked up to an ethernet router? Finally, You said some routers work better than others. I use an Apple Time Machine. Are there any know problems with this as the router that the NAS is hooked up to? Really appreciate the intro course. RG
Hi Lon, Great Work , Really with very helpful experiences definitely, can i ask you something needy please, is it possible to connect 4 or 5 NAS Storage Devices to see each other , and share data between them as well over the Cloud ???
Another question: Can these be used for households that have both Windows and Mac computers? In other words, Can I save files to the server from either type of computer then access them from either type? thank you
Thank you for this video. Great basis for someone like me looking into using a NAS for our home. My question is regarding the use of the 2 ethernet ports of our router. I was looking at attaching the NAS to one of the ethernet ports. The computers in our house, except for one, will be connected to this ethernet port as well. For whatever reason, a computer will be connected to the 2nd ethernet port of the router. Will that computer be able to access the NAS?
Great video. Thanks. For the first backup, does it have to be continuous or can I do it over a few days intermitently?. I have nearly 500GB to back up and worry that it will take a long time. If continuous, I will not have access to my laptop during this time (at work for example)
Hi Lon, I am a brand new subscriber to your channel, and have just finished watching a few of your videos on NAS and backup. I am currently in the process of investigating a first time backup and/or NAS (probably WD). I would like to implement my new equipment and strategy slowly, partially due to budget reasons. Currently I have a desktop computer with 2 internal HD (1 and 2 TB), a Samsung tablet and a Samsung S5 phone. I have just installed a home network with a NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 router. Would it be reasonable to install a WD My Cloud mirror with only 1 HD installed for now to backup my existing data. I could then later add an additional mirror drive to that NAS to use as a media center, and add a USB drive for backups? I hope this makes sense to you, thank you for your videos and any advice.
Hello Lon, We just had an incident of Ransomware (Locky) that encrypted files on one of our laptops. In trying to recover data, I read that Locky will seek out additional drives to encrypt. This would be particularly divesting to businesses. Will any of these drives be susceptible to this type of virus? With the User Profiles feature, would that help mitigate damage from these types of threats?
I have Asus RTAC87p. What do you think would be faster? NAS using ethernet or using a USB 3 drive through the usb port on the router? Do you recommend Buffalo, WD or ? Thank you for the video.
Hi Lon, I have one question I have small studio we have huge data transfer regularly with different client where we have to share data only client and parallely accessible to our guy also same folder ( I mean client folder shared to two people)... Which drive you will suggest
Cool review....I was thinking that I wanted a NAS to have a movie video server to connect to my tv. Buuuuuut after watching your overview....I might be better off just uploading to the cloud and connecting that way. Maybe I will eventually still get one and it can serve as backup to my primary computer. Still have some decisions to make in terms of what inam really trying to accomplish, but your video helped alot in terms of what a NAS can and can not do.... Cool vid....
Hi Lon. I came across your channel while learning about NAS. Nice work! I also appreciate your ethics. I have two quick questions - If I purchase a 4 bay NAS, do I have to use all four bays initially, or, can I start with two and add two later? The second question is, do all the drives have to be the same size, or, for example, can I have two 2GB drives and two 3GB drives? Thanks in advance.
With the WD, if you attach one or two more hard drives to the USB, do you have remote access to those additional hard drives? Say, if I have a 2TB My Cloud drive, with a 6TB My Book hard drive plugged into the USB, will I be able to access the content on the 6TB drive remotely from anywhere with an internet connection? Thanks.
when there is a break in, a thief takes your nas and put it under his arm and leave , you lose all your data including backup stored in that nas. if the same thief walk in the house a take the hdd enclosure but doesn't come across your backup enclosure as this was safely kept at another location, you only lose the data in the enclosure taken away but you still have a backup. personally i prefer external enclosures with a backup stored at separate location than the idea of owning a nas.
I would like to use a NAS, basically to store photos & documents, to be accessed from anywhere using different devices. Considering I have a lot of these and going for a space of atleast 2GB (4 GB with mirroring). A bit confused between Synology DS215j and WD my cloud mirror. Need also a very intuitive app as well as easy handling via browser. What do you sugest?
hi, you might have answered this before but here it goes. I have 10TB of information housed on a WD my book. if I buy this system, how will I transfer 10tb of information into the PR2100, if it is over the internet it would take forever, no? Can I connect through USB the 14TB drive into the NAS?
Hi Lon, I saw that you recommend two drives but you also suggest backing up with an external usb drive, so why not buying one drive and backing up with the USB external drive? thanks
+Lon Seidman Hi, thanks for the response, did you hear about asustor as5002t ? if so, do you recommend it or the other 3 you have reviewed . thanks for your help
I have a My Cloud Ex2 Ultra. It hang and freezes after a few days and can’t be accessed remotely. I need to log in locally to restart the unit through the login dashboard to clear this hang and freeze, some times the dashboard is frozen too and the only way to reset is to unplug the unit. Have you experienced this issue with any of the units you have been running and testing?
I bought a WD my cloud about a month ago after watching many of your videos about it, and so far love about 99 percent of it. But, I have yet to find away to access it from a Google chrome book. This was/is a major let down to me. I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong. All the research I do all comes back to a chrome book simply can not access the drive.
Hello Lon, I have just started researching about NAS. First of all, awesome work and pretty easy explanation for beginners like me. I have a question regarding how we can connect to the NAS. As you have mentioned in your video, for the offline access, NAS connects to the WD server and then connect to our router and provides the data. Can we setup NAS in a way that we can avoid relying on WD server? Thanks in advance. @LonSeidman
ive been watching a few of your videos and im still undecided which nas i want. im leaning towards synology but not sure which one so was wondering if you can help. Im quite tech savy and video playback is very important but not to the extent of playing blu ray. which one would you recomend
Thank you for a great video. Are time machine backups restricted to the onboard drive or can time machine use the external hard drive attached to the My Cloud usb port for backups?
Lon, love your videos and I would like your advise. Currently I’m running a Plex Server from my 2.8 i5 Mac mini. My movies are housed on a 2tb G drive and it’s almost full (1300+ movies). My question is, what should I replace that drive with, a Nas system or a Raid set up? I have a budget of $500, any recommendation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
2 questions: Why would you connect a backup drive to a wd mycloud mirror if you use the 2nd internal drive as backup? Is it better? Is it possible to connect a usb hub to the wd my cloud to get some extra usb drives running in your network? Thanks for your answer
That interface looks a lot easier than Samba .... but not supporting gas many configurations sadly also it seems only RAID 0 and RAID 1 wondering if there are 4 dirve versons though for a actual NAS instead of a personal / private cloud
Hi Lon, great vids, very informative. I have purchased the Seagate Personal Cloud and want to use it as just that, "a personal Cloud". However, its not very personal as I have 2 accounts set up on the device and when I use the Seagate Media App it only allows me to see public folders not my personal storage space (is this correct?) It has uploaded all my mobile devices files to the public folder meaning everything is accessible to anyone with an account on the device. Am I missing something? Thanks,
Great introduction. Thanks. I'm using Lightroom and looking for a better way to store pics. I'm concerned about read write speed. Which is faster WD or Synology?
Both are about the same now - the bottleneck is really the speed of the gigabit ethernet connection. Both the mid to high range models from both get about the same throughput.
Hi Lon, I have a question regarding NAS devices. In the video, you said that you could backup the NAS drive by plugging in a USB hard drive. I'm planning on getting a WD MyCloud, and I'm going to go for a single-drive 6TB unit with a same-size USB hard drive plugged in to serve as a RAID 1 backup unit. I'm doing this because it's cheaper than getting a MyCloud Mirror (and will save me a lot of confusion on what size to get!) and only requires a little more setup. Do you know if there's a simultaneous backup setting?
What settings do you have on your WD NAS to get my WD NAS to stop disconnecting and becoming inaccessible remotely? Mine disconnects and is not accessible remotely, yet will still be working fine inside my home.
Thanks for clearing up the NAS usage and abilities. Was a bit new to me at home, but knew about it for networks! However, I don't trust the cloud. They OWN your info....and once you can't afford to pay...say bye bye! Great video though!
I enjoyed your video. Can you help me with these two questions please? the voice quality is really good, do you edit it with Audacity or such a software? what is the mic you use in this video? It's been over a year I am trying to get direct and informative answer and I hope you can help thank you
hi. you mentioned that you only get half the storage because half it is mirrored backup - makes sense. but what about a 3 drive or 4 drive system. how does that work for failing drive? if i need 12tb of storage do i need to buy 24tb of drives or what? im looking at the wd ex4100 system. but dunno how many drives and what sizes i need to give me my 12tb storage... ??
I have a single drive My Cloud. My phone is backing up to a folder on the Public drive. I tried to move the folder from Public to a private folder on the device using my Windows 10 PC. But it requires a username and pw to do this. I tried my (My Cloud) Admin login/password but it didn’t work. Do you know which username it’s asking for? I have two other users set up but I only use my Admin login. Any advice would be appreciated!
looking to get my 1st NAS; full-text search is a major requirement; hope you can consider a comparison of Qsirch [under QNAP] and QuikFynd [available for Asustor & WD], thanks
Hello Lon I used my 4tb My cloud in Germany for the first time and worked flawlesly..Then I moved to another country and plug it into my router and have the blue solid light and I still cant access the drive as it doesnt display the dashboard and it is not visible in the network,its not visible in the fing..What am I supposed to do?There is 1 tb data in it which I dont want to lose..Can you please make a video for possible solutions..Thank you
Lon.. question i have a WD My Cloud Home system, but i am having a problem accessing the public folder when i am away from my home network, like when on vacation. I had to create a public shared folder for me and my wife but it isn't working like i was hoping it would. my wife can copy or move files to the shared public folder like i can can cause she is sharing the folder with me meaning she is sharing a folder i created but she can read and only write to not copy or move files to. would a regular NAS or hooking a hhd drive to my router be easier to do? any help would be appreciated
thanks. i have a 6 tb mycloud . i am ultra unhappy with the whole experience. i purchased it for a pretty penny and i have had a poor experience with it. the slow connection to the server and the slow application. its slow to upload and they now dont support mac with smartware. i always feel like there is a better way exploring a 2 bay 4-6 tb nas now.
I have a Seagate Central 3TB NAS for more than 2 years and it is almost full now. I am planning to migrate to another NAS that is more flexible to upgrade the storage capacity i the future. Could you please you give me an advice, whether to build my own NAS with FreeNAS software or buy a Synology DS415+. I mostly use my NAS as a file server and let my family that lives abroad to access my files. Thanks in advance!
I'm looking for a Mirror NAS that I can have everyone in the family have their own folder to save file and backup of PC. But also be able to connect to NAS from anywhere. Then also I have a WD Live TV that I would like to use NAS a media storage so I can play movies from WD Live TV from movies on NAS. I see that you have review couple of NAS which one do you think I should look at now? I been looking at the WD My Cloud Mirror.
Great explanation. Thanks. I'm using a WD My Cloud EX4 in RAID5. Question. I need to delete a large folder of files, and each time I try, I am told that the files are in use. My understanding is that this is due to the RAID function. How do I delete a large (1TB) folder of data off my NAS? I'm running it through a new iMac. Thanks.
I had to pause the video just to let you know how incredibly useful this is! I'm s confused about the whole NAS and mirror features of the hard drive and this video cleared everything up! Thank you!
This guy so far is the best at explaining I seen over 20 videos and I didn’t understand until I got to this guy
With all the stylized content out there, Its refreshing to come across the grown up way of doing RUclips. Simplistic, but intentional. Whilst being expressively extensive. Well done buddy! Keep up the good work!
I wanted to leave a comment that impressed because I was so impressed with this man's video. Well I'm glad I didn't put much effort into my comment because it would have been in vain = your comment was so perfect that I had to give you credit = every attribute that was appropriate for commenting on this video was not only there but used in a perfect way, just the right amount in the right place and you have what I call classy. I love smart people. Celebrate diversity = Peace
My experience wasn't unique = So I echo what others have said.... This guy is exceptional at explaining tech. - I haven't seen anyone better at making a potentially complicated subject seem so simple.
I see in retrospect that I used the word comment too many times in my comment = I guess Im learning since I recognize it. OMG - I hate to imagine how gaudy some of my comments have been. That's why you should stay in school I guess.
damn this guy is good at explaining complicated IT stuff first video i look into NAS and this guy nailed!! subscribed and like!!
Lon Seidman's NAS 101 is a great place to start. He presents the basics and introduces options to remain simple, middle ground or potentially advanced.
Was getting into Open Media Vault and saw this is in recommendation, following you for a while but not that long, coming back to this... The content quality is still solid!
Finally, someone I can understand and goes over the features. Excellant video!
You have a smooth, clear, and simple approach to teaching tech! Great job.
The WRT54g 2:05 series is like the "international/universal symbol" for WiFi router like the old rotary western electric bells phones representing telephone.
Thank you for being so articulate and well-versed in your videos! This was the first one I watched and now I kind of feel like an expert in NAS :)
Wow. This is some next level stuff! Really really amazing video. I love that you were able to provide a thorough, interesting introduction to this technology, without wasting time, and made it accessible for people with different skill levels. Great video.
Bro keep up the brilliant work! Your informational videos always cover the basics and the best part is that non-techies can easily related to them. Well done !
I'm debating on building a NAS box in a Fractal Design Node 804 case, but I do like the hot swap drive bays up front on the Silverstone DS380 for the purpose of replacing a failed drive ... but I also like the numerous possibilities for cooling fans and filtered intakes on the Node 804.
I'm wrestling with the idea of:
1.) Using the Node 804 case to build a NAS
or
2.) Picking up a DS380 case to build a NAS and use the Node 804 to build a Media PC (to attach to a TV for gaming, etc.)
I'd like to be able to start a NAS build with like 3 WD Red drives (i.e. 3 x 4 TB WD Reds) in a RAID format where I'll get the storage of 2 of the 3 drives and be able to lose 1 drive before losing data. I'd also like to be able to add additional drives to it (when $$ allows me to get additional drives) and be able to expand the available storage space, without having to move everything off, add the drive and then move everything back. Not only will I be able to buy drives when I have the extra $$, but it'll also spread out the drives life (i.e.: 3 drives running for 6 months, 1 drive running for 2 months) to lessen the possibility of multiple drives failing due to age.But can I plug in additional drives and expand the volume without having to remove the data or losing the data by expanding the volume??
Options I'd like to use with the NAS are:
1.) Be able to expand the volume size (as stated above)
2.) Be able to use between 8 and 12 drives total (with at least one being able to fail and be able to restore on a new drive once replaced)
3.) Be a central file storage that's accessible within my network on both computers and an iPad
4.) Be able to access files when outside of my home network (similar to the way WD My Cloud does) via a computer or an iPad
5.) Use for video streaming of movie files and my DVD collection (1,500+ DVD's) as well as my music collection (1,500+ CD's) to devices like Boxee Box (no conversion needed at this point)
6.) iTunes server running to have my iTunes library shared to devices like an iPad (through home sharing) so a computer doesn't have to be left on
7.) Be able to stream video and audio to devices like an iPad without having to download it prior to playing
8.) Serve as one point in a backup solution, where it does a complete system backup (programs and files) weekly, keeping about a month to a month and a half of backups before a new one deletes the oldest one. Where I can do a restore on a new drive to exactly the way it was before the drive failed (without having to reactivate programs, like Microsoft Office, etc.). As well as a rolling backup, where if a file is accidentally deleted, I can retrieve a copy of it (i.E.: Snapshots in FreeNAS)
9.) Be able to share files with others outside of my network. IE: be able to give people a URL (like mycloud.com) where they can log in using a username and password to be able to access the files that are shared with them (similar to what Pogoplug did with their cloud storage for those familiar with Pogoplug).
These are some of the options I'd like to have. So what software/OS should I use: FreeNAS, OpenMediaVault, OpenFiler, FlexRAID, UnRAID, etc. should I use?? What hardware do I need for the software/OS (I currently have a Fractal Node 804 case, ASRock QC5000-ITX mobo, and a 500 W power supply) that's won't break the bank??
I wish I had seen this prior to purchasing a QNAP. It took me two weeks to discover how to set it up. I'm thinking about Synology 6 bay next.
Seems like back in 2015 QNAP wasn't that popular...
Excellent. It’s so easy to rapidly understand Lon.
Hi Lon. Great overview. I've just started learning about NAS drives, googled "how to setup a nas server at home" and found your video. Thank you.
This is the best explanation I saw on a RUclips, thank you so much! 😎
Wow what a good intro to the world of NAS. Loved it. Want to continue to use NAS for playing my home music library of c. 1Tb - a labour of love. Now have a MyCloud, which I am finding quite hard, after a Seagate, which was great (until it failed :-( ). Unfortunately my Seagate back up is a couple of years out of date and I could only recover files, not the directory structure from the failed Seagate, so am ruing my choices. Looking forward to more advice!
lon deserve a raise
A review of security settings for these NAS would be interesting. Also NAS to NAS backup for the WD.
Lon talks fast, but exceptional presentation.
Great video. I’ve looked at about 7 videos comparing these same devices, and this is the only one with useful information. Thank you
I was surprised you did not explain about the hard drives themselves as for normal NAS they should use red series drives for surveillance purple . . .
This was a kickass explanation. Clear, concise and complete. Good stuff, thanks.
I have a question (I think it wasn't mentioned), what about LDAP access? I have a Fujitsu server running Windows Server 2019 and I'm thinking on getting a NAS to save daily server backups (I allready have a 3TB external WD HD for the backups but it's always connected and I would like to have a redudant backup system) and also for sharing files between two or more people, I configured a VM in Windows server's Hyper-V that's running Owncloud over Ubuntu 18.04 and the LDAP is quite helpfull because I don't need to keep creating accounts for access, it gets all the login info from the AD...is that possible in these NAS? (by the way, great video, you have a talent to explain "techy stuff", lol, greetings from Portugal!)
Great video and info. I already knew some of the things you’re going through but I’m excited to know that there is a channel out there that gives info like this and explains it in a simple manner. Thanks!
Very interesting the way you explain what you know about thee product you talk, easy to understand and fast.. Thanks
I have a few questions
1. Can I select the hard drive among the 4 in which I want to store my files?
2. Will the device work if I have inserted only 3 hard drives instead of 4?
Just found you on RUclips since we've started researching nas systems. Super videos, very informative, thank you.
Lon,
Please compare WD "My Cloud" and "My Cloud HOME"! I was about to buy a "My Cloud 8TB" and called WD re attaching my WD 8 TB "My Book". WD support indicated there is a "NEW IMPROVED" My Cloud Home that has more/better features.
Should I buy the new "Home" version?
I am getting in both of the new NAS's from them very soon. Stay tuned!
Love your videos, thanks for clearing up what NAS is all about!
Fantastic lesson. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Lon, although I agree NAS is better than USB for a number of reasons but it's not true that USB can't be accessed away from home. I do it frequently via Teamviewer. Works great. Also, I'm using a 4 drive Promise NAS setup as Raid 5. Why didn't you also recommend a 4 drive setup?
Wow, This pretty much explained everything, Well Done Lon!!!
Lon - great stuff as usual!! Thank you for taking the time and I know from experience that you spend the time to make it excellent. Glad you are here!! looking forward to future vids.
J
Wow great insite to NAS I have only realised that this existed yesterday now it’s time to step into the 21st century
I am not computer savvy so this may not make any sense. In the event your internet service provider is down as in ATT U-verse, but your router is still up can you access these NAS devices. What I want is to be able to connect all the families devices through WIFI but not while away from home.
Thanks for the 101. I'm still a bit confused about the SmartTV compatibility, i.e., how do I know which NAS will or will not work with my TV. Also, I get using two of these, one at home, and one offsite is "safer" for fires, floods, etc. Could my home be in WA State and my offsite be in FL, or anywhere in the world provided it's hooked up to an ethernet router? Finally, You said some routers work better than others. I use an Apple Time Machine. Are there any know problems with this as the router that the NAS is hooked up to?
Really appreciate the intro course.
RG
Hi Lon, Great Work , Really with very helpful experiences definitely, can i ask you something needy please, is it possible to connect 4 or 5 NAS Storage Devices to see each other , and share data between them as well over the Cloud ???
You may also be able to make the port visible externally, at a risk.
Another question: Can these be used for households that have both Windows and Mac computers? In other words, Can I save files to the server from either type of computer then access them from either type?
thank you
Thank you for this video. Great basis for someone like me looking into using a NAS for our home.
My question is regarding the use of the 2 ethernet ports of our router. I was looking at attaching the NAS to one of the ethernet ports. The computers in our house, except for one, will be connected to this ethernet port as well.
For whatever reason, a computer will be connected to the 2nd ethernet port of the router. Will that computer be able to access the NAS?
The first reasonable tech guy i've seen that runs MAC
Great video. Thanks. For the first backup, does it have to be continuous or can I do it over a few days intermitently?. I have nearly 500GB to back up and worry that it will take a long time. If continuous, I will not have access to my laptop during this time (at work for example)
Hi Lon, I am a brand new subscriber to your channel, and have just finished watching a few of your videos on NAS and backup. I am currently in the process of investigating a first time backup and/or NAS (probably WD). I would like to implement my new equipment and strategy slowly, partially due to budget reasons. Currently I have a desktop computer with 2 internal HD (1 and 2 TB), a Samsung tablet and a Samsung S5 phone. I have just installed a home network with a NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 router. Would it be reasonable to install a WD My Cloud mirror with only 1 HD installed for now to backup my existing data. I could then later add an additional mirror drive to that NAS to use as a media center, and add a USB drive for backups?
I hope this makes sense to you, thank you for your videos and any advice.
Nicely done as usual Lon. Just the right amount of depth-of-knowledge for what and how you presented.
unbelievable useful video. Thanks for the time
Hello Lon,
We just had an incident of Ransomware (Locky) that encrypted files on one of our laptops. In trying to recover data, I read that Locky will seek out additional drives to encrypt. This would be particularly divesting to businesses. Will any of these drives be susceptible to this type of virus? With the User Profiles feature, would that help mitigate damage from these types of threats?
I have Asus RTAC87p. What do you think would be faster? NAS using ethernet or using a USB 3 drive through the usb port on the router? Do you recommend Buffalo, WD or ? Thank you for the video.
Hi Lon,
I have one question
I have small studio we have huge data transfer regularly with different client where we have to share data only client and parallely accessible to our guy also same folder ( I mean client folder shared to two people)... Which drive you will suggest
Cool review....I was thinking that I wanted a NAS to have a movie video server to connect to my tv. Buuuuuut after watching your overview....I might be better off just uploading to the cloud and connecting that way. Maybe I will eventually still get one and it can serve as backup to my primary computer. Still have some decisions to make in terms of what inam really trying to accomplish, but your video helped alot in terms of what a NAS can and can not do.... Cool vid....
Lon, great video and series. Thanks for simplifying NAS. Love the reviews of the WD.
Hi Lon. I came across your channel while learning about NAS. Nice work! I also appreciate your ethics. I have two quick questions - If I purchase a 4 bay NAS, do I have to use all four bays initially, or, can I start with two and add two later? The second question is, do all the drives have to be the same size, or, for example, can I have two 2GB drives and two 3GB drives? Thanks in advance.
Hey Lon, thank you for making these series of videos!
Superb explanation
With the WD, if you attach one or two more hard drives to the USB, do you have remote access to those additional hard drives? Say, if I have a 2TB My Cloud drive, with a 6TB My Book hard drive plugged into the USB, will I be able to access the content on the 6TB drive remotely from anywhere with an internet connection? Thanks.
Excellent explanation on NAS. Now I know this is not what I need
when there is a break in, a thief takes your nas and put it under his arm and leave , you lose all your data including backup stored in that nas. if the same thief walk in the house a take the hdd enclosure but doesn't come across your backup enclosure as this was safely kept at another location, you only lose the data in the enclosure taken away but you still have a backup. personally i prefer external enclosures with a backup stored at separate location than the idea of owning a nas.
What are you thoughts on the QNAP TS-231 vs the Synology DS214se those are the two that I am having a hard time choosing between.
I would like to use a NAS, basically to store photos & documents, to be accessed from anywhere using different devices. Considering I have a lot of these and going for a space of atleast 2GB (4 GB with mirroring). A bit confused between Synology DS215j and WD my cloud mirror. Need also a very intuitive app as well as easy handling via browser. What do you sugest?
hi, you might have answered this before but here it goes. I have 10TB of information housed on a WD my book. if I buy this system, how will I transfer 10tb of information into the PR2100, if it is over the internet it would take forever, no? Can I connect through USB the 14TB drive into the NAS?
hey lon, do you really trust those usb hdds too much i had really bad xps with them...thnx for nice description..
Hi Lon, I saw that you recommend two drives but you also suggest backing up with an external usb drive, so why not buying one drive and backing up with the USB external drive?
thanks
+Lon Seidman Hi, thanks for the response, did you hear about asustor as5002t ? if so, do you recommend it or the other 3 you have reviewed .
thanks for your help
I have a My Cloud Ex2 Ultra. It hang and freezes after a few days and can’t be accessed remotely. I need to log in locally to restart the unit through the login dashboard to clear this hang and freeze, some times the dashboard is frozen too and the only way to reset is to unplug the unit. Have you experienced this issue with any of the units you have been running and testing?
I bought a WD my cloud about a month ago after watching many of your videos about it, and so far love about 99 percent of it.
But, I have yet to find away to access it from a Google chrome book.
This was/is a major let down to me.
I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong. All the research I do all comes back to a chrome book simply can not access the drive.
Hello Lon, I have just started researching about NAS.
First of all, awesome work and pretty easy explanation for beginners like me.
I have a question regarding how we can connect to the NAS.
As you have mentioned in your video, for the offline access, NAS connects to the WD server and then connect to our router and provides the data. Can we setup NAS in a way that we can avoid relying on WD server?
Thanks in advance.
@LonSeidman
ive been watching a few of your videos and im still undecided which nas i want. im leaning towards synology but not sure which one so was wondering if you can help.
Im quite tech savy and video playback is very important but not to the extent of playing blu ray. which one would you recomend
Thank you for a great video. Are time machine backups restricted to the onboard drive or can time machine use the external hard drive attached to the My Cloud usb port for backups?
Lon, love your videos and I would like your advise. Currently I’m running a Plex Server from my 2.8 i5 Mac mini. My movies are housed on a 2tb G drive and it’s almost full (1300+ movies). My question is, what should I replace that drive with, a Nas system or a Raid set up? I have a budget of $500, any recommendation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
2 questions:
Why would you connect a backup drive to a wd mycloud mirror if you use the 2nd internal drive as backup? Is it better?
Is it possible to connect a usb hub to the wd my cloud to get some extra usb drives running in your network?
Thanks for your answer
That interface looks a lot easier than Samba .... but not supporting gas many configurations sadly also it seems only RAID 0 and RAID 1 wondering if there are 4 dirve versons though for a actual NAS instead of a personal / private cloud
Awesome video! So glad to have come across your channel. Keep up the great work.
Hi Lon, great vids, very informative. I have purchased the Seagate Personal Cloud and want to use it as just that, "a personal Cloud". However, its not very personal as I have 2 accounts set up on the device and when I use the Seagate Media App it only allows me to see public folders not my personal storage space (is this correct?) It has uploaded all my mobile devices files to the public folder meaning everything is accessible to anyone with an account on the device. Am I missing something? Thanks,
Great introduction. Thanks. I'm using Lightroom and looking for a better way to store pics. I'm concerned about read write speed. Which is faster WD or Synology?
Both are about the same now - the bottleneck is really the speed of the gigabit ethernet connection. Both the mid to high range models from both get about the same throughput.
Hi Lon, I have a question regarding NAS devices.
In the video, you said that you could backup the NAS drive by plugging in a USB hard drive. I'm planning on getting a WD MyCloud, and I'm going to go for a single-drive 6TB unit with a same-size USB hard drive plugged in to serve as a RAID 1 backup unit. I'm doing this because it's cheaper than getting a MyCloud Mirror (and will save me a lot of confusion on what size to get!) and only requires a little more setup. Do you know if there's a simultaneous backup setting?
***** So I'd have to schedule it huh? What scheduling times would you recommend? Every few hours or so?
What settings do you have on your WD NAS to get my WD NAS to stop disconnecting and becoming inaccessible remotely? Mine disconnects and is not accessible remotely, yet will still be working fine inside my home.
Thanks for clearing up the NAS usage and abilities. Was a bit new to me at home, but knew about it for networks! However, I don't trust the cloud. They OWN your info....and once you can't afford to pay...say bye bye! Great video though!
I enjoyed your video. Can you help me with these two questions please?
the voice quality is really good, do you edit it with Audacity or such a software?
what is the mic you use in this video?
It's been over a year I am trying to get direct and informative answer and I hope you can help
thank you
hi. you mentioned that you only get half the storage because half it is mirrored backup - makes sense. but what about a 3 drive or 4 drive system. how does that work for failing drive? if i need 12tb of storage do i need to buy 24tb of drives or what? im looking at the wd ex4100 system. but dunno how many drives and what sizes i need to give me my 12tb storage... ??
would you do a video on how to access personal cloud from internet?
I have a single drive My Cloud. My phone is backing up to a folder on the Public drive. I tried to move the folder from Public to a private folder on the device using my Windows 10 PC. But it requires a username and pw to do this. I tried my (My Cloud) Admin login/password but it didn’t work. Do you know which username it’s asking for? I have two other users set up but I only use my Admin login. Any advice would be appreciated!
Very good overview thank you!
I have NAS 110 and WD Myclould both and i was not able to map to NAS 110 Seagate after setting up WD MyCloud Drive to the router. Any suggestions
Extremely helpful thank you!
looking to get my 1st NAS; full-text search is a major requirement; hope you can consider a comparison of Qsirch [under QNAP] and QuikFynd [available for Asustor & WD], thanks
Hello Lon
I used my 4tb My cloud in Germany for the first time and worked flawlesly..Then I moved to another country and plug it into my router and have the blue solid light and I still cant access the drive as it doesnt display the dashboard and it is not visible in the network,its not visible in the fing..What am I supposed to do?There is 1 tb data in it which I dont want to lose..Can you please make a video for possible solutions..Thank you
Lon.. question i have a WD My Cloud Home system, but i am having a problem accessing the public folder when i am away from my home network, like when on vacation. I had to create a public shared folder for me and my wife but it isn't working like i was hoping it would. my wife can copy or move files to the shared public folder like i can can cause she is sharing the folder with me meaning she is sharing a folder i created but she can read and only write to not copy or move files to. would a regular NAS or hooking a hhd drive to my router be easier to do? any help would be appreciated
Nice tutorial. Well explained . Is there a way to have dual users for a WD MY Cloud drive ?
awesome and informative as always
Working on a Mac, which type of NAS with two drives using with lightning would you recommend? It has to be USB conexión direct.
thanks. i have a 6 tb mycloud . i am ultra unhappy with the whole experience. i purchased it for a pretty penny and i have had a poor experience with it. the slow connection to the server and the slow application. its slow to upload and they now dont support mac with smartware. i always feel like there is a better way
exploring a 2 bay 4-6 tb nas now.
Clear explanation and great presentation, thanks!
I have a Seagate Central 3TB NAS for more than 2 years and it is almost full now. I am planning to migrate to another NAS that is more flexible to upgrade the storage capacity i the future. Could you please you give me an advice, whether to build my own NAS with FreeNAS software or buy a Synology DS415+. I mostly use my NAS as a file server and let my family that lives abroad to access my files. Thanks in advance!
Thanks! What RAID should I use that will be most beneficial to a file server?
I'm looking for a Mirror NAS that I can have everyone in the family have their own folder to save file and backup of PC. But also be able to connect to NAS from anywhere. Then also I have a WD Live TV that I would like to use NAS a media storage so I can play movies from WD Live TV from movies on NAS. I see that you have review couple of NAS which one do you think I should look at now? I been looking at the WD My Cloud Mirror.
How about 10GB network, will it still be slower than, for example, USB 2.0 drive :p
Great explanation. Thanks. I'm using a WD My Cloud EX4 in RAID5. Question. I need to delete a large folder of files, and each time I try, I am told that the files are in use. My understanding is that this is due to the RAID function. How do I delete a large (1TB) folder of data off my NAS? I'm running it through a new iMac. Thanks.
Worked like a charm. Thanks.
Thank you. That was a good explanation for newbies like me.
Have you tried a Mediasonic ProBox 4 Bay 3.5 Inch SATA HDD Enclosure
What are some of the apps you can use with an iPad to access music on your NAS.