Storage


Storage At Home, Storage On the Cloud—WD’s New My Cloud Home Does it All

September 26, 2017

By Theano Nikitas

Call me a skeptic—and maybe overcautious—but I’m not a big fan of storing images in a cloud that’s out of my control. Sure, the little bits and pieces of storage offered by various online services are free, but they just don’t have the capacity to store everything in one location. And, frankly, I’m not willing to pay for virtual storage when I could apply that money to hard drives that I have access to at home. Of course, that puts me at a disadvantage when traveling, and it’s sometimes a hassle to load everything I need onto a portable hard drive and take it with me.

Fortunately, Western Digital’s My Cloud Home helps solve both issues. The drive plugs into your Wi-Fi router at home and can be accessed from anywhere you have an Internet connection via a mobile app, desktop app or online.

Automatic backup is available for your mobile devices as well as computers. There’s also a way to sync files across computers and My Cloud Home. You can download files from Dropbox, Google Drive and other remote accounts, and you can stream videos from the drive too.

The single drive My Cloud Home is available in capacities from 2TB to 6TB. Switch to the My Cloud Home Duo (which has two drives for a total of 4TB to 20TB capacities) and you’re set up in Mirror Mode to have all your files backed up.

The single drive measures 6.91 x 2.09 x 5.51 inches and has a USB port, while the Duo measures 7.05 x 6.30 x 4.02 inches and is equipped with two USB ports. Both are compact enough to easily fit on or under your desk, and they come with a single Gigabit Ethernet port, an Ethernet cable, power supply and a quick-install guide.

The drives are PC- and Mac-compatible, and the free apps are available for iOS and Android. Prices range from $160 for a 2TB drive to $900 for a 20TB dual-drive device.

I tested the 4TB single drive and found it to be extremely convenient; it certainly delivered as promised. Visit the site for more information and technical specifications.

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