Western Digital My Cloud Network Storage. Review of WD My Cloud Home Duo - Your own Cloud Mail, but faster and cheaper Software and operation of the device

NAS (Network Attached Storage) servers have always been associated with complex equipment that is very difficult for the average person to use, but WD once again proves that it is not difficult. Anyone can handle the WD My Cloud PR2100, even a blacksmith.

There are now so many types of NAS servers available for use in the market that they can be used normally in every home. The WD My Cloud PR2100 is a network-attached drive that offers a variety of storage options, including home cloud functionality and a variety of multimedia features such as movie streaming directly to your TV.

You can connect to its hard drives from any device you have on your home network. You can use your Android smartphone, iPad with iOS, MacBook with MacOS, Windows PC, Smart TV with Tizen, and others, all gadgets will be able to connect to My Cloud PR2100 and will connect without problems.

The device runs on an Intel Pentium N3710 processor, clocked at 1.6 GHz, and it also has 4 GB of DDR3L RAM. The most important factors here are the two 3.5-inch hard drive pockets. I tested a model with two WD Red 8 TB drives.

Access to the drive bays is located from the front of the case. You'll also find a power button and a USB 3.0 port with a copy button. Thanks to this solution, we will be able to connect to the NAS as an external flash memory and create backup copies of data, without using a computer.

The rear panel has an additional USB 3.0 port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and two power ports. The second is used to connect a backup power source.

The kit includes a power cord, an Ethernet cable to connect the NAS to the router, and an installation guide.

The device is connected to the socket and router (it is advisable to use a Gigabit connection, which will give a real data transfer speed of about 100 MB/s), turn it on, go to the configuration toolbar and in just a few minutes everything will be ready to go.

If you don't know the network options, you can leave the default settings. From the average user's perspective, the most important steps you can take when connecting your My Cloud PR2100 are RAID configurations and shares.

This is the most important step to do after setting up the device

The NAS can operate in JBOD mode, in combination with RAID 0 and RAID 1. If you need maximum capacity, select RAID 0. In my case, the PR2100 gave 16 TB of storage space, which is written alternately to one and the other hard drive.

On the other hand, if you are concerned about security, choose RAID 1, where one drive backs up the data of the other. As a result, the space will be limited to 8 TB, but if one of the drives is damaged, you just need to replace it with a new one, and the motherboard will rebuild without losing any data.

After setting up RAID, it's still worth looking at users and notifications occasionally. The WD My Cloud PR2100 Admin Panel allows you to define shared resources that will be available to individual users or groups. We can freely customize everything, both the list of users and the disk space that will be available to them. Some directories may be visible to all devices on our network, while others may require you to log in to access them.

What can the WD My Cloud PR2100 do?

Probably the most commonly used NAS feature will be data backup. We can backup Windows machines through the WD SmartWare Pro program, as well as through the Time Machine utility built into the system for Mac computers.

We can also create backups from external removable drives, even directly - by inserting the drive directly into the NAS. We have two USB 3.0 ports, and the front port has a button for copying data directly to the NAS, without the need for a computer.

The home cloud can also work outside the home; the WD My Cloud PR2100 can be configured so that some information is available remotely from our home network. This way we can access files from anywhere there is internet. We may share files with other people, friends or clients. Cloud access is fully customizable. Files can be viewed through MyCloud.com or through the My Cloud mobile app.

WD My Cloud also allows you to install applications that extend the functionality of your NAS. On your device, you can even host a website on CMS WordPress or Joomla, a phpBB forum, or connect Dropbox to synchronize data between this service and the NAS. For this we have an app that supports aMule, which is a rather archaic idea and I haven't found any apps that support torrents here.

We will also be able to set up a Plex server to stream media files stored on the drive. I wish the Kodi app was more useful. But there is support for streaming media, the WD My Cloud PR2100 will play stored photos, music and videos on home DLNA devices. One of the biggest advantages of this NAS is the ability to transcode audio and video files. We can also play music on iTunes compatible devices.

You can configure the system yourself in different ways, but by default, DLNA and iTunes-compatible devices look for media stored in any public folder that has media sharing enabled. All you need to do is enable DLNA media server in the NAS settings.

From now on, players will be able to play online, on smart TVs, PlayStation or Xbox consoles or Kodi systems, on any device.

Bottom line

The WD My Cloud PR2100 is a good choice for those looking for an easy-to-use NAS. If I had to list one of the most important features of the My Cloud PR2100, it would be the ease of setup and management.

You won't find many of the options known from QNAP or Synology products on this NAS, although that's not necessarily a drawback. If you don't want to practice network administration and just want a secure device that works right out of the box, this NAS from WD is a great choice.

The biggest drawback of the WD My Cloud PR2100 is the price. The device I tested, equipped with two 8 TB WD Red hard drives, will cost about 61,000 rubles. That's quite a lot. If you pay this price, you might complain about the small configuration options, few useful apps, or the lack of an HDMI port for media playback, for example.

During my testing of the My Cloud PR2100, it worked smoothly and without maintenance, copying data from Windows and Mac computers. On my home network, the data transfer speed is about 90 MB/s using Wi-Fi, whereas for a NAS, data transfer speed is not a key parameter, reliability is more important, and WD is the company that can provide it.

The My Cloud PR2100 is a very good choice if you're looking for a NAS drive and can pay for ease of use.

Over the past 2-3 years, cloud storage has turned from something supernatural and unknown into commonplace. The company also contributed to this Western Digital, which was one of the first to introduce cloud storage for home use My Cloud. The main feature that attracts the average user to these drives is their extreme ease of use and the ability to access their data from anywhere in the world, all you need is an Internet connection. Most drives My Cloud are sold with hard drives already installed, volumes vary from 2 TB to 6 TB, there are also more capacious ones My Cloud Mirror, its own operating system is responsible for its operation My Cloud OS 3 with the most convenient web interface.

Today we have in our hands the younger version of My Cloud with a capacity of 2 TB, but even this volume is quite enough for the average user who has a large archive of photos or favorite films.

Specifications:

Model: Western Digital My Cloud;
Volume: 2 TB (1 disk);
Compatible operating systems: Windows XP (SP 3)/Vista/7/8, Mac OS X;
Connection interface: Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mbit/s);
Additional ports: USB 3.0;
Processor: MindSpeed Comcerto C2200, 650 MHz, 2 cores;
RAM: 256 MB;
Power supply: from external unit;
Additional features: DLNA, AppleTimeMachine, Apple iTunes, remote administration, UPnP, SSH;
Dimensions (WxHxD): 49x170.6x139.9 mm;
Weight: 921 grams;
Price: about 10,000 rubles.

Packaging and equipment

The packaging is a small cardboard cube, made in blue and white colors, which fully characterizes the name of the line of devices (My cloud). The box is replete with a wide variety of information on all sides; there is a description of the device’s features and a description of the purpose of the ports.

The storage itself is carefully packed in hard plastic forms, which allows you not to worry about its safety during transportation. Also, initially a protective film was glued to the surface of My Cloud, since the body material is easily soiled and susceptible to micro-scratches, but more on that later.

Contents of delivery:

WD My Cloud 2 TB network storage;
Power supply (12 V, 1.5 A);
Adapters for European (Type C) and English (Type G) sockets;
LAN cable;
Documents (user manual, warranty card).

Appearance and design features

The design of the device fully lives up to its name. The drive is quite compact and made of snow-white plastic. The material is glossy, which does not have a very good effect on practicality; it is susceptible to dirt and micro-scratches, but since My Cloud is not at all portable, it is unlikely that you will often have to move it from one place to another. At the bottom and on the front side you can see small gray inserts made of matte plastic, which adds completeness to the design. There are no sharp corners at all, all edges are rounded. The build quality of the case is excellent, the elements fit tightly together, the case feels almost monolithic.

The orientation is only vertical, so My Cloud does not take up much space on a shelf or bedside table next to the TV. Most likely, your drive will be in a visible place, so you should take into account that it will not fit into every interior; the white color stands out strongly against the background of dark furniture.

The dimensions of the device are 170.6 by 139.9 mm, and the thickness is only 49 mm. For this type of device, these are very compact sizes, they are comparable to a small book. Weight is less than 1 kg, but this is not very important, since the device is stationary.

The most prominent part on the front side is the gray plastic insert. It contains the manufacturer's logo, the model name and a small slot with an LED inside. This LED serves as the main tool for determining the status of My Cloud; the indication, by the way, can be completely turned off through the settings. The status can be determined by the color in which the LED lights up or blinks.

The following options are possible:

The LED is not lit - the device is turned off, or the indication is disabled in the settings;
The LED lights up blue - the device is in normal operating mode;
The LED blinks blue - the device is in sleep mode;
The LED lights up yellow - the network cable is disconnected or the disk temperature is elevated;
The LED lights up red - important errors have been detected or overheating above 75 degrees is observed.

All ports, traditionally, are located on the back of the case. there are very few of them here. RJ-45 network port, USB 3.0 port and slot for connecting a power supply. There are also mounts for a Kensington security lock. Unfortunately, there are no shutdown buttons on the case; the device can only be turned off using the WEB interface.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the USB 3.0 port, if you thought that you could use the drive as a portable drive, then this is not the case. This port here serves to expand disk space, for example, you can connect a 2 TB removable drive and double the capacity of the network storage.

The drive is devoid of any active cooling; only holes on the edges of the case are used to remove heat from the disk and the rest of the hardware. Yes, the solution for a network drive is not the best, but in a compact case and only one drive inside, this should be enough.

To eliminate unwanted vibration and securely install the device on any surface, four soft rubber feet are provided at the bottom of the case. They cope with their task very well, vibration is not felt at all, although the disk is in working condition most of the time. Also at the bottom you can find a small sticker with the batch number and MAC address of the drive.

Although the average user is unlikely to need this, we will tell you how to disassemble My Cloud without consequences. The body consists of two components, white plastic in the shape of the letter "P" and a frame made of gray plastic. The white casing seems to slide onto the frame; to remove it, you just need to move it forward with a screwdriver or a plastic spatula, using them as a kind of lever. Immediately under the casing there is a hard drive and a board. In our case, we use a “Red” 2 TB disk from WD - WD20EFRX. This disk is designed to work 24/7 and has increased reliability, which allows you to count on a very long service life of the device. The disk is attached to the case frame using large rubber bushings, this eliminates unwanted vibration and can also serve as a lifesaver if the device accidentally falls.

The motherboard is quite small. It is attached to the disk using three screws. All important elements are insulated, a special material is laid between the board and the case, and a layer of foil separates the board from the disk. The device is powered by a processor from MindSpeed, C2200 series processor. It has two Cortex A9 cores, ARMv7 processor architecture. The operating frequency is low, it is only 650 MHz. The RAM is a 256 MB DDR3-1600 chip, and the board also has a chip for offline storage of device settings. The Broadcom BCM54612E gigabit controller from the company of the same name is responsible for transmitting information. Thus, My Cloud is a real computer with all the necessary elements, although it is not particularly productive, but this should be more than enough to serve the needs of the drive.

Software and device operation

The drive runs its own operating system, My Cloud OS; the third version of this system was introduced this fall. With each update, new features are added, and their use becomes even easier. My Cloud OS 3 allows you to quickly share documents, synchronize data from different devices and create backup copies of data with a high level of confidentiality. Also in the new version of the operating system, two important innovations have appeared for work with photos and videos: MyCloud.com and My Cloud Albums app. MyCloud.com gives users global access to their storage through an intuitive web interface, helping them share files, comprehensively manage access, and view photos and videos. The My Cloud Albums app can be downloaded from the iTunes and Google Play stores and allows My Cloud OS 3 users to send links to public albums to friends and family. Another new feature is WD Sync, which allows you to synchronize data across multiple devices, thereby providing quick access to the most important files.

Connecting to My Cloud is extremely fast and easy. We connect the network cable to the router, the power supply to the socket, after a few minutes the drive itself is detected as a network drive and you can already use it. The drive is managed using a WEB interface, which can be accessed using the IP address assigned by the router. Also, access to files is carried out through applications that are available for both desktop Windows and mobile operating systems (Android, iOS).

The WEB interface is simple and understanding it will not be difficult. The main page displays the most important general information about the drive. Here you can find out about the status of the device, find out the total and free memory, see the firmware version and the number of users who have access to data on the disk. The "Diagnostics" pop-up window contains information about the temperature, although there are no specific numbers, only the "OK" mark.

It is worth paying attention to the top line, alerts and settings are displayed here.

In the second section, called "Users", you can add new users and assign them rights to access certain content.

The "Resources" section displays three already created directories; also, if necessary, you can create your own folders and configure access to them.

The "Cloud Access" section allows you to configure access through the WD server. This is necessary in order to be able to connect to My Cloud from anywhere in the world.

"Safepoints" makes an instant backup of a certain area on the cloud, or the entire volume; this is needed for those rare cases when a failure occurs on My Cloud, which can lead to the loss of important data.

One of the most used sections is, of course, the drive settings. Here you can find a variety of changeable parameters, from turning off the drive’s power to settings for SSH and FTP services.

Testing

So, it's time to move on to testing. It will consist of running several test packets in two modes - when connecting to a 100 Mbit/s port and to a 1000 Mbit/s port. Even nowadays, not every home has full-fledged Gigibit routers, so testing on slower routers will be quite relevant.

Test bench configuration:

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500k, 3300 MHz;
. Motherboard: AsRock Pro3 P67;
. RAM: DDR3 Samsung 1600 MHz, 2 x 4 GB;
. Storage: Intel 335 Series 240 GB;
. Power supply: Chiftec BPS-650;
. Operating system: Windows 7 x64.

To test the performance of the network drive, two utilities were selected: CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3x64 and Intel NAS Performance Toolkit 1.7.1. Both of these utilities are freely available, so everyone can check the speed of their drive.

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64

This is one of the most popular benchmarks for testing drives of all types. It offers testing with different amounts of data and different blocks. Testing takes place on a 1 GB disk space, the result is a set of writing and reading speeds for sequential and random data. When using random data, 512 KB and 4 KB blocks are available, in addition, there is a test with 4 KB blocks and a queue depth of 32. During the tests, this utility was run three times.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit 1.7.1

This utility is designed specifically for testing network drives. The main set of tests here is aimed at processing multimedia data, such as photos or videos of varying quality. This is very important for home storage.

Let's start testing by connecting to a 100 Mbit/s port.

The first test shows the drive's performance when working with sequential data, which is the kind of data My Cloud will most often work with in daily use at home. The write speed in this case was more than 11 MB/s, as was the read speed. For a connection via a 100 Mbit/s interface, this speed is very good. Thus, even with an inexpensive router, My Cloud will work stably and fairly quickly.

When working with random data with 512 KB blocks, the write speed dropped very slightly, to 10.5 MB/s, but the read speed dropped noticeably: with a test file of 2 GB, the speed was only 8.6 MB/s.

As expected, random data with 4 KB blocks reduces the speed to almost zero, but this operating scenario is not very typical for such devices.

Setting the queue depth to 32 showed an almost identical picture for the read speed, but the write speed in this scenario increased slightly.

Testing using the Intel NAS Perfomance Toolkit showed that My Cloud works with video content at the maximum speeds for this interface. This is very important, because watching video from a network drive is most often the main task. Files are also copied at high speed both to and from the disk. The lowest speed is observed in the Content Creation test, which simulates the work of a video editor and other similar programs, but you are unlikely to use such programs on cloud storage.

Switching to a gigabit interface showed a fivefold increase in read speed and more than a threefold increase in write speed. But such results are far from the potentially possible speeds on this interface; one could expect speeds at least 2 times higher.

The processing speed of random data with 512 KB blocks is significantly lower. Reading occurs at a maximum speed of 37.5 MB/s, dropping to 19.6 MB/s as the test file increases. And the write speed ranges from 21.3 MB/s to 38.7 MB/s.

Working in small blocks of 4 KB is practically independent of the connection interface; speeds are equally low both at 100 Mbit/s and at 1000 Mbit/s, which is understandable.

But in the Intel NAS Perfomance Toolkit, when connected to a 1000 Mbit/s interface, they are much more pleasant and believable. Data is copied to the drive at the maximum possible speed of 120 MB/s, which is close to ideal. Working with various video files also shows speeds of about 100 MB/s. These results more truly reflect the potential of WD My Cloud.

After testing, we can say that the drive is quite capable of operating at very high speeds, the latest test confirmed this. A lot depends on the router, of course, for comfortable and fast use you need an expensive gigabit router, but if you don’t have one, then you can get by with a cheaper router with a 100 Mbit/s interface, the speed will be noticeably lower, but you can use it, just wait Copying large files will take longer.

Eventually

WD My Cloud is one of the first affordable network storage devices that has truly reached the masses and found its user. The main advantage of the device is its ease of use; in order to work with the basic capabilities of My Cloud, you do not need absolutely any in-depth knowledge of the subject. The WEB interface is as simple and accessible as possible; all settings are reduced to moving the sliders to the “on” or “off” position. At the same time, the device demonstrates good speeds with files typical for home use. We must not forget about the ability to access files on My Cloud from anywhere in the world; for this you can use a convenient proprietary application.

The price of WD My Cloud 2 TB at the moment is about 10,000 rubles, for such a volume it is quite expensive, but such are the current realities. In any case, the device is worth the money; it is a real home cloud storage.

Pros:

Convenience and ease of use;
Compact size and light weight;
Simple settings;
Availability of branded applications;
Access from anywhere in the world;
Fairly high speed of data processing.

Minuses:

The case materials are easily soiled.

WD My Cloud worthy of a high silver award from our editors.

Four years ago we were introduced to a dual-disk network drive. This solution was notable for its original appearance and no less original software component, which made it possible, without any special knowledge of network technologies, to organize a file server at home with access to the data stored on it via the Internet. For a long time, the WD My Cloud device lineup included only two NAS, which differed in the number of installed hard drives (two or one) and, accordingly, the capabilities of organizing disk space. But last year, this family was replenished with two more new network drives.

The WD My Cloud Home and WD My Cloud Home Duo models also differ from each other only in the number of pre-installed drives (one or two, respectively), but there are much more differences from the previous generation products. The new models have more powerful hardware and, according to the manufacturer, improved software. Looking ahead, we note that the manufacturer has generally revised the ideology of using network storage, greatly simplifying not only the process of connecting and configuring the device, but also its use. Moreover, he names new products personal cloud storage, but at the same time never mentions the generally accepted abbreviation NAS, emphasizing their originality. We will study a new approach to the design of network storage devices using the example of the two-disk WD My Cloud Home Duo model, which we will begin to get acquainted with.

⇡ Contents of delivery

The device comes in a very compact cardboard box that easily fits into a plastic bag - taking it from the store to your home is no problem at all. Inside, in addition to the drive itself, you can find accessories:

power adapter with two removable plugs of different standards;
network cable;
A quick printed guide to getting started.

The package included with the device is the same as most other network drives. The software required for operation can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website, and the hard drives are already installed in the appropriate sleds. The WD My Cloud Home Duo model comes with a total disk capacity of 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 or even 20 GB for the user to choose from. Our copy was equipped with two WD Red WD20EFRX drives with a capacity of 2 GB each, adapted for working with a NAS.

⇡ Specifications

WD My Cloud Home Duo
HDD	2 x 3.5" SATA
RAID level	JBOD, RAID 1
Network interfaces	1 × Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
Additional Interfaces	2 × USB Host 3.0
Clients	Windows 7 and later (64-bit only); MacOS/OS X 10.9 and later; iOS 9 and later; Android 4.4 and later
Systemcooling	1 × fan
Dimensions, mm	179 × 160 × 102
Weight, kg	2,3-2,4
Guarantee, months.	24
Price, rub. (for 4/8/12/16* TB)	22 000 / 26 000 / 36 000 / 45 000

* AveragepriceBy"Yandex.Market"onmomentwritingarticles

While all the parameters of previous NAS could be easily found in the public domain, for the WD My Cloud Home Duo, only the most basic characteristics of the new product are provided on the manufacturer’s website and in the user manual. Unfortunately, no detailed information about the hardware platform or network protocols is provided. In the instructions you can only find information on the type of RAID array used. WD My Cloud Home Duo model hard drives are assembled in a mirrored RAID 1 array by default, but you can also use JBOD mode.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to disassemble the new product without damaging the thin locks of the plastic case. We did not break it, and therefore the hardware component of the device remained unknown. The manufacturer does not provide any data. The only thing we can say with confidence is the presence on board of the drive of a gigabit Ethernet network controller and two USB 3.0 interfaces for connecting external storage media.

Appearance


Appearance of WD My Cloud Home Duo

The new product is made in the form of a parallelepiped with sharp edges and right angles without roundings. Its modest dimensions allow you to place the device almost anywhere. For example, this could be a desk, bookshelf or window sill. Visually, the plastic case is divided into two halves - white lacquered and silver, with a characteristic waffle structure. On the front panel of the device there is a narrow transparent strip between them, behind which the LED operation indicator is hidden. There are no interfaces on the front panel of the WD My Cloud Home Duo.

The back panel is more interesting. There are two USB 3.0 ports, an RJ-45 network port, a connector for connecting an external power adapter, and a reset button recessed into the body. Between the parts of the case there is a narrow power control button for the drive, and the entire upper half is given over to ventilation holes. Behind them is a cooling system fan that blows air through another radiator grille, located not at the front (like other models of network drives), but at the bottom.


Hard drive bay

Access to the hard drive bay of the WD My Cloud Home Duo is not from the front, like other network drives, but from the top. There, the device has a removable flat panel. It is held on by four dense rubber bushings and can be removed using a screwdriver, wrench, ruler or any other object that can be used to carefully pick it up by the edge. Under the cover there is a compartment for hard drives, which in this case occupies almost the entire internal space of the drive.

The disks in the compartment are placed in plastic slides of the simplest design. The discs are held in them not by screws, but by small metal axles secured in soft rubber bushings. This solution has a positive effect on ease of installation and on reducing vibration during operation. Well, inside the drive housing the slide is secured with a simple plastic lock. However, there is definitely no need to worry about the discs accidentally falling out during operation or moving the drive from one place to another. When placed vertically, you still need to manage to accidentally pull the slide out of the body.

As we already wrote above, unfortunately, we were unable to disassemble the body of the new product. But if it is impossible to determine the hardware component without opening it, then the principles of the internal structure of the device can be understood without disassembling it. Inside, the WD My Cloud Home Duo case has a metal frame, which can be seen through the ventilation grilles and through the disk compartment. The device's motherboard is mounted vertically along one of the walls of the case. Apparently, she is quite small. In general, the WD My Cloud Home Duo model is not very different in design from a regular NAS - except that the compactness of the new product causes admiration and even surprise. Otherwise, this is a quite nice classic network drive.

⇡ Working with the device

Unlike a regular NAS, which can be configured over a local network, you cannot connect the WD My Cloud Home Duo without access to the Internet. The drive does not have its own web interface, so communication with it is possible either through the Internet service MyCloud.com, or using installed special software, which can be downloaded both for a desktop PC running Windows or MacOS / OS X, and for mobile devices with Android or iOS.

When connecting via the web interface, the device should be detected automatically. If this does not happen, the Internet service will ask the user to enter the device code indicated on the case. Note that when testing with one of the Internet providers, no connection problems arose, but with another the device flatly refused to be detected. Moreover, the network equipment and its configuration were the same in both cases. Unfortunately, we were never able to find out what this is connected with.

The drive is configured completely automatically, without user intervention, who only needs to register on the portal by entering a name and password. In the future, when working with the device, the owner of WD My Cloud Home Duo is also freed from any network settings - the device operates in a fully automatic mode and does not require control. For some, this feature of working with the drive can be a real gift, because not all users like to customize the system to suit their needs. Some people just need to store data in one place and access it via the Internet, without turning their personal cloud storage into a full-fledged server. For everyone else, it’s better to pay attention to other network drives.

Accessing data through the MyCloud.com web service, as well as through installed My Cloud Home applications, does not require too detailed description. These are fairly simple file managers that display the entire file structure of the drive. When installing software for a PC, the drive is detected by the system as a regular, permanently connected network drive.

The mobile version has several differences from the PC version. Thus, this application allows you to automatically backup photos taken from your smartphone camera. Also, only the mobile version of My Cloud Home allows you to copy data to the drive from flash drives connected to its USB port. In addition, both applications allow you to synchronize data, and through the web interface it is possible to synchronize data from some popular cloud storages: Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive.

In general, working with the WD My Cloud Home Duo NAS is extremely simple and does not require instructions. Some confusion is introduced by a slight difference in the capabilities of the web service and installed applications, but you can get used to it. In terms of communication with the user, this model can really be called the simplest NAS, if such an abbreviation is generally applicable to this network drive.

⇡ Testing

If you access the WD My Cloud Home Duo only via the Internet, device performance will be entirely dependent on your ISP and router. If you also use the installed My Cloud Home applications, then in this case you can achieve much higher speeds for reading and writing data, since these operations will be carried out over the local network. It was in this use case that we tested the performance of the new product. In this case, standard WD Red WD20EFRX hard drives were used. The test bench for checking performance had the following configuration:

Intel Core i5-2320 3.0 GHz processor;
motherboard GIGABYTE GA-P67A-D3-B3 Rev. 2.0;
RAM 16 GB DDR3-1333;
video adapter ASUS GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB;
SSD-drive Intel SSD 520 with a capacity of 240 GB;
Gigabit network adapter Realtek PCIe GBE;
OS Windows 7 Ultimate.

The test bench's own read and write speeds were about 200 MB/s, so the bench will not limit the performance results of the network drive. During testing, the device's disks operated in RAID level 1. Testing was carried out using ATTO Disk Benchmark and Intel NAS Performance Toolkit.

Test results indicate that the NAS performance when connecting one client is less than the throughput of a gigabit network, but at the same time it is quite sufficient for comfortable work with the device - that is, for transferring large files over the network. For the main scenario of working with the WD Red WD20EFRX, that is, when exchanging data with it via the Internet, the demonstrated level of performance is even excessive. We also tested the device with direct data transfer. Three video files ranging in size from 2.5 to 3.5 GB were used as test data. The average write speed was 71 MB/s, and the read speed was 96 MB/s, which is fully consistent with the data from previous testing.

As for noise, the new product makes noise only when turned on. Then it quiets down, and the sound of the fan is not heard even during active operation. In general, active testing of the device did not reveal any shortcomings in the operation of the WD My Cloud Home Duo. The device worked stably, without failures.

⇡ conclusions

Without a doubt, of all the network drives that we tested in our test lab, the WD My Cloud Home Duo model can be called the easiest to use. To organize a personal remote data storage, the user of this device will not need any specific knowledge at all. You don’t even need to configure anything: connect, register, and use it! I was a little puzzled and upset by the failure when connecting to one of the providers, but it is possible that in this case we did not take something into account, especially since we did not contact WD technical support with this issue (perhaps this is somehow related to the large number of Amazon IP addresses blocked).

The device cannot be called slow - its speed will certainly be enough for all those who will be satisfied with its capabilities. All this suggests that WD My Cloud Home Duo has a clearly defined target audience - these are those users who do not need to turn remote storage into a full-fledged file server with many capabilities and dozens of different functions. This device is designed for those who need constant remote access to their files from anywhere in the world, as well as a point for backing up data from mobile and other devices. If you don't need anything else, then the WD My Cloud Home Duo is your choice!

Almost the namesake of WD My Cloud's home cloud, Duncan MacLeod, didn't have the luxury of a second head. Because of this, he often had to worry about trifles. Even after walking along the bottom of the sea, sticking your head out was a risky business: after all, they might chop it off, and then that’s it, hello.

WD engineers did not equip My Cloud Home Duo with artificial intelligence with a powerful instinct of self-preservation worthy of Duncan MacLeod, but this is not because they cannot, but because it is not necessary: the “head” of My Cloud is hidden in a reliable self-sufficient case cleaner than Koshchei’s death, and it’s also duplicated to the heap. The data from there will not go anywhere, nothing will be forgotten.

Historical background: My Cloud is descended from a storage facility called My Book. At the time when My Book entered the market, this device looked very strange, like an oversized portable storage device with not very clear functionality. Even today, the public does not very well understand what a NAS is, what a bunch of everyday problems it solves and what kind of money it can save, but in those days the first home or personal storage with specialized software was literally ahead of its time. This is probably why WD employees responsible for communicating with people prefer to call My Cloud devices a home or personal cloud, avoiding the words Network Attached Storage.

Fortunately, our readers know what a NAS is, since devices of this type constantly appear in our reviews and thematic materials. We sincerely believe that today the home cloud is the absolute best way to store data, if, of course, it is organized wisely and without excessive cost reduction, which is unacceptable for a single archive.

NAS WD My Cloud Home Duo front and back. Western Digital Press Office Illustration

Many My Cloud models, reviews of which you can find online, look very attractive due to their incredibly low prices. However, they have one problem: they are single-disk. Storing all the data on a single hard drive is still a risky business. Even taking into account all kinds of additional software and backups on external storage. A level 1 Raid array remains the easiest way to protect your data from being lost along with the drive, and along the way, RAID 1 also speeds up working with files, allowing you to perform all sorts of sorting and downloading data over a gigabit Ethernet or wireless network in a much shorter period of time . In general, please love and favor WD My Cloud Home Duo, a two-disk Network Attached Storage from Western Digital.

My Cloud Home Duo arrived to us in a box made of thin cardboard in white and aquamarine colors (forgive my color blindness, if anything :)). The box is small and easily fits into a regular-sized bag that you take to the grocery store. The weight of the device is noticeable, but not so much as to dry out your hand or tear the plastic handles of the bag, so you don’t need to worry about any special carrying conditions.

The device body is fixed inside the box in “pads” made of shock-absorbing material. In the gap between the pads there is free space, and although there is a decent distance from the wall of the box to the wall of the My Cloud case and the cardboard is durable, some particularly active grandmother could pierce the box with an umbrella on the subway. In short, it is not recommended to treat My Cloud Home Duo carelessly on the road.

In the box along with the device there is a power supply with an adapter for an American-type outlet, a meter-long Ethernet cable of good quality (just enough to attach the NAS to a wireless router), and documentation. The presence of the cable is good - if the user has not thought through this point, there will be no need to go to the store a second time.

The WD My Cloud Home Duo turns on simply like any floor lamp: directly into the outlet, without any switches on the power cord. Therefore, the installation process looks like this: we connect a de-energized NAS to the router, then plug it into a power outlet, and after you have heard the noise of the fans and seen the light between the two halves of the My Cloud Home Duo case, you can go to the browser and connect to the cloud service mycloud.com. register and connect with WD My Cloud Home. The installation process, or rather the initial setup of the device, is so simple that it comes down to melancholy clicking the “Next” button while viewing very obvious help.

After the initial setup and account creation (which takes a couple of minutes), you can start using My Cloud Home Duo. You can connect to your personal cloud in two ways: through the MyCloud cloud service or through a network environment from a PC. If there are shared folders, Windows 10 detects the device on the local network; in this case, only the Public folder will be available. There is little point in a local connection; it will only be needed if there is no access to the Internet.

NAS WD My Cloud Home Duo on top. Western Digital Press Office Illustration

In the usual case, the connection will occur through the cloud service mycloud.com. You can connect using an Android or Windows application, or via a web browser. The last method is the most convenient in my opinion.

The web interface looks the same in a mobile browser and in a regular one. Files on the disk are displayed to users in the form of a tree structure or sorted by type. On the left and right there are two menus. On the right are actions with files, on the left is the choice of how data is displayed, the action log, settings and services. The latter significantly expand the functionality of the device.

The most useful service (app within an app) is the Plex cloud media center. There are also auxiliary services, such as voice control of the audio player, synchronization of multimedia content from social services with a personal cloud, search for music by meta tags, synchronization of files with cloud Internet services such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
In the settings you can find management of user records and rights, selection of the type of raid array (Jbod or Raid 1), rebooting or shutting down the device, as well as the function of destroying all data on the disks.

The Windows application is essentially not much different from Windows Explorer: you can see files and folders on the WD Cloud device’s logical drive, as well as on portable drives connected to the file storage via USB. Interestingly, the Services menu here houses other applications such as Norton antivirus software and Acronis True Image. Since these programs are paid, the benefit of their presence in the application comes down to the fact that Western Digital guarantees their compatibility with My Cloud Home Duo.

The Android application is equipped with additional functions due to the specifics of this OS: the inconvenience of file managers, the tendency of users to lose and break smartphones, etc. Even during installation, the application offers to synchronize the smartphone’s multimedia files with the user’s cloud; in the settings you can also enable the use of the cellular network for backup, use smartphone tools such as a fingerprint scanner for additional protection, and reset the cache. Otherwise, the application is not much different from the mycloud.com web interface.

The described functionality is more than enough for a home NAS: access to various data can be organized and limited for a large number of users and devices. Actually, this is all we need: when we come, for example, to a management company or passport office, send a photocopy of the required document to the secretary by mail, access working documentation anywhere and from any device at any time, securely store a personal collection of media files, and also be able to view any photo or video at any time. Plex provides additional opportunities for organizing a home media library - the cloud media center goes well with cloud home storage.

About speeds. In real conditions, the speed of exchanging files with cloud storage will mainly be determined by the speed of the local network or Internet connection (for externally connected devices). However, if you use MyCloud with the Plex media center or often upload large amounts of data to it, such as rough videos, it is quite possible that the speed of the drive itself will be important. A situation may also arise when several users simultaneously access the drive over the network, copying large files to it. In general, based on these considerations, we decided to measure the speed of the device; they amounted to about 100 MB/s for reading and about 70 MB/s for writing. This corresponds to 800 Mbit/s and 560 Mbit/s; Thus, when reading, the speed will be close to the throughput of Gigabit Ethernet, which means that TVs and media players will not have problems receiving content at high speed. As for recording: perhaps it could be faster, but we must remember that My Cloud Home Duo has Red series hard drives, which are optimized primarily for uninterrupted operation 24/7 and thus ensure high reliability of data storage.

Purchasing a personal network drive may be the simplest and most affordable option for creating a home server for storing and remotely accessing personal data. One of the simple and affordable solutions on the market is WD My Cloud.

This is an entry-level device that includes only one hard drive with a capacity of 2 to 6 TB. Accordingly, it is unlikely to be suitable for organizing a working server, where RAID arrays of several drives are used for greater safety, but it will fit perfectly into a home system thanks to its stylish design, ease of use and support for the USB 3.0 interface. And unlike popular cloud storage services, the new product does not require an ongoing subscription fee, immediately provides an impressive amount of information storage and provides fast backup.

WD My Cloud Drive Specification Table:

Manufacturer and model
Hard drive form factor, inches
Interfaces	1 x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45
Options by volume, TB	6 (WDBCTL0060HWT) 4 (WDBCTL0040HWT) 3 (WDBCTL0030HWT) 2 (WDBCTL0020HWT)
CPU	Mindspeed Comcerto 2000 (2 x ARM Cortex-A9)
Processor frequency, MHz
RAM
Amount of RAM, MB
Operating/storage temperature, °C	5…+35 / -20…+65
Overall dimensions, mm	49 x 140 x 171
Weight, gram
Manufacturer's limited warranty, years
Products webpage

Packaging and equipment

The drive comes in a fairly large square box made of thick cardboard, decorated with blue printing. On the front side there is an image of the device itself, its name and the logo of the manufacturer. In the lower right corner there is a capacity mark (in our case it is 3 TB).

On the side there is a list of key benefits:

automatic backup;
expandable volume via USB 3.0 connector;
fast copying of files;
remote access;
ability to synchronize with Dropbox.

A comparison with another branded product (WD My Book) is also provided separately.

The second side of the box is reserved for an image of the drive’s interface panel, as well as a brief quick setup guide.

On the reverse side there is an additional list of advantages of the WD WDBCTL0030HWT, duplicated in eight different languages, including Russian.

The box with the drive comes with a power supply with two different plugs, a network cable, as well as a warranty card and a quick user guide.

Appearance of the device and its features

The body of the WD My Cloud model (WDBCTL0030HWT) is made entirely of plastic and painted in white and silver. Separately, we note that the drive is designed for vertical installation, as evidenced by four rubber feet at the bottom.

The top, bottom, and back edges are equipped with vents to effectively cool the internal electronics, so be careful not to block access to them.

The interface panel contains a USB 3.0 port, a reset button (recessed into the case), an RJ45 network port, as well as a Kensington lock hole and a power supply connector.

On the front side there is a small silver insert with the company logo and model name, as well as a multi-color status indicator that glows blue when in working order.

Software

W.D.My Cloud

WD WDBCTL0030HWT comes with a fairly rich set of bundled software.

WD My Cloud software makes setting up your drive quick and easy with simple, step-by-step instructions.

After preliminary setup, the entire available set of WD My Cloud functions is available for use.

You can provide access to the storage to different users by first setting up multiple accounts. Depending on your trust, you may be able to restrict access to certain files by setting permissions in your user profile.

A separate tab contains cloud storage settings, which can be accessed both from a PC and from personal devices (smartphones, tablets) using a special mobile application.

The WD My Cloud program also provides data backup, which will allow you to restore all information in the event of partial or complete loss.

W.D.SmartWarePro

Another interesting program is WD SmartWare Pro with a free 30-day trial.

This utility is also designed for backup, but it offers more advanced options, for example, creating a scheduled backup or continuous backup.

It will also allow you to backup not only your files, but your entire system.

W.D.Ddiscovery

WD Discovery software is designed to discover WD devices on a local network and quickly configure them: connect shared network folders, browse their contents, and create desktop shortcuts for quick access.

Testing

The following test bench was used to test the WD My Cloud drive (WDBCTL0030HWT):

motherboards	ASUS P9X79 PRO (Intel X79, Socket LGA2011, DDR3, ATX) ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer (Intel Z97, Socket LGA1150, DDR3, ATX)
Processors	Intel Core i7-3930K (Socket LGA2011, 3.2 GHz, 12 MB L3) Intel Core i7-4770K (Socket LGA1150, 3.5 GHz, 8 MB L3)
CPU cooler
RAM	2 x DDR3-1333 1024 MB Kingston PC3-10600
Video card	AMD Radeon HD 6970 (2 GB GDDR5)
HDD	Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS (500 GB, SATA 3 Gb/s, NCQ)
Optical drive	ASUS DRW-1814BLT SATA
power unit	Seasonic X-660 Gold (SS-660KM Active PF), 650 W, 120 mm Fan
operating system	Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
Flash-card	Silicon Power BLAZE B05 32GB
Router

Considering that this is network storage and not a traditional external drive with a USB 3.0 interface, the results can be considered quite good. In particular, HD video playback speed reached 52.1 MB/s, and recording was carried out at a speed of 19.6 MB/s.

Copying files from the WD WDBCTL0030HWT was performed at a speed of 46 MB/s, and writing in the reverse direction was performed at 16.8 MB/s. These indicators are quite enough for working at home.

Separately, we note that during testing the device remained relatively quiet. The movement of its heads is noticeable in the form of a slight crackling sound, which is only detected during active use.

During testing, we checked the speed of the drive through the bundled software and through a standard explorer. The results were very interesting:

	WD My Cloud software shell	Windows Explorer
Copy speed to drive over network, MB/s
Copy speed from storage device over network, MB/s
Copy speed to USB flash drive over network, MB/s
Copy speed from USB flash drive over network, MB/s
Copy speed from USB flash drive to WD My Cloud locally, MB/s
Copy speed to USB flash drive on WD My Cloud locally, MB/s

As you can see, in some cases the WD My Cloud software significantly reduces the speed of operation, this is especially noticeable when working with files over the network, both with the drive itself and with a device connected via USB 3.0.

conclusions

Based on the results of testing the network storage WD My Cloud (WDBCTL0030HWT), we can conclude that it would be an excellent choice as a home network storage device that can be accessed via the Internet.

The key advantages of the device include a pleasant appearance, high-quality case materials, ease of setup and operation, support for the USB 3.0 interface for connecting additional storage, as well as the availability of various options for the volume of the drive itself.

The presence of several proprietary utilities in the kit allows you to expand the functionality of the WD WDBCTL0030HWT and simplify the implementation of some actions, however, we do not yet recommend using them for permanent data copying, since testing in some cases showed a noticeable drop in performance (compared to Windows Explorer). It is likely that this error will be fixed in subsequent updates.

As a result, WD My Cloud will be an excellent and relatively inexpensive option for storing your media collection, automatic backup, and free access to information from anywhere in the world.

Advantages:

nice design;
support for USB 3.0 interface for connecting an additional drive;
low noise level;
availability of additional software;
good speed.

Peculiarities:

The speed of working with files through the bundled software is in some cases noticeably lower than through Windows Explorer.

We express our gratitude to the company Western Digital for the drive provided for testing.

We express our gratitude to the companies AMD , ASUS , Intel , Kingston , Sea Sonic And ZOTAC for the equipment provided for the test bench.

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