# Re this ad for a Western Digitial "cloud based hard drive" what exactly is inside this "drive"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726 "2014-07-09T20:54:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/1 "2014-07-09T20:54:53Z")
Re this ad and the attached spec sheet I’m not clear on what the guts of this thing are. What exactly is inside the box on this device? [WD - My Cloud 2TB Personal Cloud Storage External Hard Drive (NAS) - White](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-my-cloud-2tb-personal-cloud-storage-external-hard-drive-nas-white/1766059.p?id=1219063237222&skuId=1766059&cmp=RMX&ky=2b44p0DlBylfhrwZ3uIFhJ6JtKv2FGwEE&ref=&loc=) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/2 "2014-07-09T21:01:08Z")
It’s a network attached storage drive - there’s a hard drive inside. ‘My Cloud’ is a product brand name. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/3 "2014-07-09T21:07:11Z")
That is to say, there’s a hard drive, plus a single-board computer that is essentially a rudimentary file server. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/4 "2014-07-09T21:19:04Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > That is to say, there’s a hard drive, plus a single-board computer that is essentially a rudimentary file server. So it does have an actual hard drive? This where I got confused. When I asked the sales clerk at Best Buy he said there was no hard drive in the device it was just a direct connection port to 2 gigs of cloud space. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/5 "2014-07-09T21:29:53Z")
> [@astro](#): > > So it does have an actual hard drive? This where I got confused. When I asked the sales clerk at Best Buy he said there was no hard drive in the device it was just a direct connection port to 2 gigs of cloud space. And that is why you don’t ask Best Buy clerks for technical information. It’s also not 2 GB, but rather 2 TB. [Here](http://www.maximumpc.com/dropbox_vs_western_digital_my_cloud_2014)is a review that compares it to Dropbox. Key quote: “My Cloud consists of a single hard disk inside the device” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/6 "2014-07-09T21:49:47Z")
Wow. Just wow. You mean, like, we can store files _inside our own computers?_ That’s just so fuckin’ rad I want to buy the inventor a beer. I’d also like to thank the WD marketing department for finally making “cloud” mean something. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/7 "2014-07-09T21:59:46Z")
you would suspect but hope that it didn’t contain moisture. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/8 "2014-07-09T22:14:55Z")
I found a review of it on PC Magazine’s website. The actual hard drive is in your house, attached to your router. But you can access files on the drive from outside the house, via the Internet. That’s why they call it “My Cloud.” ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/9 "2014-07-09T22:19:35Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I found a review of it on PC Magazine’s website. The actual hard drive is in your house, attached to your router. But you can access files on the drive from outside the house, via the Internet. That’s why they call it “My Cloud.” Ok. That is probably a nice kind of solution to file storage. I could actually go for that. I would feel in control of my own data, not have complex syncing systems (which often overlap causing confusion) and I would have all the benefits of cloud storage. It might not be a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/10 "2014-07-09T22:29:26Z")
Sounds good. I wouldn’t put sensitive data on it. Just in case it got hacked. But it would be fine for most files. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/11 "2014-07-09T22:52:26Z")
> [@j\_sum1](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I found a review of it on PC Magazine’s website. The actual hard drive is in your house, attached to your router. But you can access files on the drive from outside the house, via the Internet. That’s why they call it “My Cloud.” > > Ok. That is probably a nice kind of solution to file storage. I could actually go for that. I would feel in control of my own data, not have complex syncing systems (which often overlap causing confusion) and I would have all the benefits of cloud storage. It might not be a bad idea. But you lose some of the advantages of cloud-based storage; getting the files offsite, redundancy (so that your data is on multiple Google/Mozy/Carbonite servers), and accessibility even when the power is out at your house (since these companies presumably have rock-solid UPS and generator power at the data centers). ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/12 "2014-07-09T23:25:46Z")
**"My Cloud ™" is exactly like "The Cloud"** Except if your local internet provider to your house has an outage or your house burns down or a burglar snatches your router or the internal guts of the thing dies ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/13 "2014-07-09T23:44:02Z")
I have something similar I have a synology NAS box at my house. I run dscloud on my nas box and there is a dropbox like app for my phone and PCs. I setup an account with sinology that the remote devices a way to locate the box at my house behind my ever changing IP address and the NAT router. This cloud service is sort of a minor selling point of NAS storage devices in my opinion. The main selling point is having a large amount of storage for backing up you various computers. I asume that the mycloud will do similar things allowing you to map network drives and connect the computers in your house to. The box also is store my music for playing on squeezebox connected to the stereo and playing movies to the chromcast connected to my TV. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/14 "2014-07-09T23:48:28Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The actual hard drive is in your house, attached to your router. But you can access files on the drive from outside the house, via the Internet. Home-grade NAS has been around a long, long time. > [@](#): > > That’s why they call it “My Cloud.” No, the marketing department calls it that because **CLOUD** is a huge tag cloud word these days. Doubt they even know what it means. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/15 "2014-07-09T23:51:53Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > But you lose some of the advantages of cloud-based storage; getting the files offsite, redundancy (so that your data is on multiple Google/Mozy/Carbonite servers), and accessibility even when the power is out at your house (since these companies presumably have rock-solid UPS and generator power at the data centers). If that’s the case I have completely misunderstood this device. I was under the impression that your purchase of the device somehow gave you access to 2 TB of “cloud” data space WD was setting aside for you that came with your purchase of the drive, and you could backup and access your PC data from off site cloud space if the drive was not local to the user. Per your note this is simply an all in one stand alone file server with ports allowing multiple users to access the data across the internet. If the drive dies your “cloud” dies. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/16 "2014-07-09T23:59:55Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > No, the marketing department calls it that because **CLOUD** is a huge tag cloud word these days. Doubt they even know what it means. From the trailer for the new comedy _Sex Tape_, about a married couple who accidentally send a tape of themselves having sex to their friends and family: Jason Segal’s character: It went up! It went up to the cloud! Cameron Diaz’s character: And you can’t get it down from the cloud? Jason Segal’s character: No one understands the cloud! It’s a fucking mystery! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/17 "2014-07-10T00:02:24Z")
> [@astro](#): > > If that’s the case I have completely misunderstood this device. I was under the impression that your purchase of the device somehow gave you access to 2 TB of “cloud” data space WD was setting aside for you that came with your purchase of the drive, and you could backup and access your PC data from off site cloud space if the drive was not local to the user. Per your note this is simply an all in one stand alone file server with ports allowing multiple users to access the data across the internet. If the drive dies your “cloud” dies. From the [PC Magazine review](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2424967,00.asp) I mentioned: “The device lets users not only share and stream files in a home network, but the private cloud capabilities lets a user access data stored on the device from anywhere at any time.” If the device actually gave you two terabytes of real cloud storage, I would be very interested. Two terabytes is a _lot_ of storage. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/18 "2014-07-10T00:29:16Z")
hmm, so security comes from WD’s cloud server? Thats better than just hanging a file server off your network and trying to secure it yourself. I notice the reviewer mentions several times that Seagate Central’s disk has more features.[4 Tb for $199.](http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7839350&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=paid_search_google_pla&scid=scplp701108&gclid=COX1weG-ub8CFU1qMgodiTkAXw) I’m very interested. I’ve found Seagate drives reliable. I buy them for pc’s at my job. just my IMHO > [@](#): > > However with Seagate Central, I was able to upload and download files; create new folders; manage user settings; and even view my images in a slideshow-- all from Central’s cloud interface. > [@](#): > > The cloud in “My Cloud” is the remote access feature. The good thing about My Cloud is that data remains on the device in your possession and you are simply using Western Digital’s cloud service to connect. Your data is not stored on its servers. > > You actually set up access to the cloud service when you first set up My Cloud. You are asked for an email address to which an activation link is sent. Once activated, you are given the link to log into the WD service. From this link, you can access the My Cloud from any browser no matter where you are located. There are mobile apps that allow you to do the same from Android and iOS which we will cover in a separate review. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/19 "2014-07-10T04:43:45Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > If the device actually gave you two terabytes of real cloud storage, I would be very interested. Two terabytes is a _lot_ of storage. I’ve got one. It’s easy to administer and works pretty flawlessly. Way easier than my old Windows server. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726/20 "2014-07-10T05:41:55Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > If the device actually gave you two terabytes of real cloud storage, I would be very interested. Two terabytes is a _lot_ of storage. It does not. It gives you consumer-grade NAS with a web app and portal to let you access your data from the internet (assuming the drive has power and a functional ISP). It is not all that similar to true cloud storage, particular from a reliability point of view. If the HDD fails and you don’t have some other backup you are SOL as far as I can tell. That’s not to say it’s not a great device for what it does. It seems to provide very good performance at a solid price for what it is. But attaching “CLOUD” to it is misleading at best, IMO. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-this-ad-for-a-western-digitial-cloud-based-hard-drive-what-exactly-is-inside-this-drive/692726.md?page=2)