For years I've had the motto that you can never have enough storage. However, that can get out of hand. When I got my first desktop external hard drive, the max size available was 500gb. Now this is still quite a bit of space, but when you are using it to back up several computers, store kid's movies, and store photos from dozens of photography jobs that space fills up fast. Because of this, I now have several external hard drives in my office. It can make it a bit hard to keep up with stuff.
Now, I am still OK with using different units for different purposes, but I needed more space. And I needed to organize my files more efficiently. With spring here photography season will be ramping up, that means I'll have even more files to store.
Western Digital My Cloud Expert Series
Western Digital (WD) has been a leading name in the computer storage business for a long time. I have owned several products. I have purchased many internal hard drives in my computer building days. I have reviewed a few WD products. In my opinion they are always high quality. The WD My Cloud Expert Series EX2100 NAS is one such product. This drive is going to allow me to have a place to backup and organize all of the photos and videos from my photography business while knowing that they are securely backed up.
I have the 4TB version of the EX2100. It is available in with empty bays so that you can add your own drive.
What is a NAS?
NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. This basically means that your hard drive is connected to your home network. And once it is connected it can be accessed from any computer, and even mobile devices in your home. This means that you can share files, photos, videos, and music all over your house. And more importantly you can backup multiple computers in your home to your My Cloud to keep your data safe.
Networked attached hard drives are a lot more useful and convenient for homes with multiple computers than USB connected hard drives. Instead of having to move your drive from computer to computer when you want to copy files or backup, you can just access your drive over your local network.
Setting Up Your My Cloud
Installing my My Cloud EX2100 was fairly easy. I have a network switch under the desk in my office. I freed up an Ethernet port (by removing on of my old drives), plugged in the new My Cloud, and attached the power. Once that was done I visited the listed website in my browser and followed the prompts to setup the devices.
From there I was able to setup my username, password, and network shares. This allowed the drive to show up on my home network where I was then able to map network drives to my desktop computer.
The Benefit of RAID
Even though your MyCloud includes 4TB of space, it spans over 2 drives. By default you will have access to 2TB of space. This is because the drive is setup to use RAID. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. In short this is a grouping of smaller disks that work together to create a larger amount of storage. The great thing about RAID is that by default your data is mirrored on both drives. This reduces the chance that you will lose data. If something happens to one drive, the other one is still there and still has all of your data on it.
The great thing about the My Cloud Expert Series is that if you do find that you need more storage, you have very easy access to the drives. Just pull one out and replace it with a larger drive. Then follow the instructions to set it up.
While the sound of the product may be a little intimidating for some, rest assured that it is easy to use. And it is worth it.
The Giveaway
WD understands that not everyone is quite ready for the expert series drive. However, to get you going with more storage Western Digital is giving one of my readers their very own WD My Cloud EX2! This drive has a retail value of $350!
Like the EX2100 this My Cloud storage device also includes 4TB of storage and endless options for backing up your data and even upgrading your storage if you need to. And since it also a My Cloud device you can access your data while on the go!
Enter to win below!
So… how would you use all of this storage?? 🙂
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thank you great post
Great review – I’d love to have one of these… or 10 of these.
I have a small external drive but rarely use it for some reason.
I try to be good about backing up all of my files and pictures and use a Seagate External hard drive to do so.
Nathansmommy619(At)aol(dot)com
I am actually really bad at backing up my files. I save things here and there to a flash drive or make data CDs but nothing like this.
I back up my files often and use an external hard drive to back up everything
I like very fast data transfer and easy access anywhere
I use an external hard drive to back up my stuff. I do it every now and then.
I’m pretty bad at backing up – I use a large external drive (when I remember).
We use a cloud provider and I have our photos, videos and music backed up locally using a WD NAS.
I don’t really backup my files.
I use external eSATA drives as my work drives and have assorted external USB drives that I use to back up my files, but
they are sadly disorganized, and my computer has USB 2.0 ports so transfer speed is slow. It would be great to be able to back
everything up into one place quickly and efficiently. Thank you for the chance to win.
I am no good at backing up files. This seems like an easy way to keep everything organized.
nope not good because i have nothing to back it up onto, and can’t afford anything either
No I am horrible about it! I have a few things on disc….but I was just talking to a friend about what sort of storage I should get.
I am not sure when I last backed anything up
I’m terrible at backing up my computer. I usually email important files to myself, but otherwise I rarely backup anything.
I was backing up to the cloud, but my provider went out of business. Since then, I have been trying to keep backups on an external hard drive
I should be a lot better at backing up files. All I have now is a usb.
My husband backs up our files and I am not sure what he uses.
I am horrible at backing up files. I have lost so many files its unreal
I am really terrible about backing up and I should really know better as I’ve lost everything twice. I hate using dropbox but I need to find a good method and stay consistent.
I’m using a Western Digital 1tb hard drive
Yes. I backup with optical drive,external hard drive, and flash drive.
I’m not good about backing up my files.
I am horrible about backing up files. My phone has alerted me that I have gone 8 weeks without backing it up. Urg. Thank you
I am not good at backing up my files!! I haven’t done it in forever, but I used to use dropbox
I’m TERRIBLE at backing up my stuff! Really regretted it when my son Febreezed my laptop 🙁 With all my family’s devices, we really really need a solution like this!
No, I don’t back up anything. My husband handles that stuff.
I currently use Dropbox and Norton’s back-up services but could be doing a much better job.
geoff k
gkaufmanss at yahoo dot com
I am horrible at it, I never back up.
I use carbonite
I currently backup my data on an external USB Hard Drive.