My drives are driving me nuts!!!

[videovillageidiot]

In the spring, my old desktop's "C" drive crashed. I bought a new drive and had the system restored...some data lost (my fault; lesson learned). I have purchased a new desktop since then and swap my old external drives between the 2 machines.

More recently, a 1TB Seagate Expansion external drive has begun "clicking" and not always showing the files when i look at it in Explorer. I copied all important stuff onto a new 2TB WD portable drive. Yesterday, it clicked when not connected to a computer, so I have unplugged it, and now I call it a paperweight...

Even more recently, a second Seagate (a very old 500 GB FreeAgent) external drive has begun to act strangely. It, too, shows folders in Explorer, but the actual files are missing when the folder is opened. Sometimes the drive disappears from Explorer completely. I think I have everything copied from this drive now, as well.

Like the title says...my drives are driving me nuts!!!

A few things, and I would LOVE to hear any comments...
I purchased a WD 4TB My Cloud to access data between my desktops and laptop on my home network. I haven't begun to use it yet...should I keep it just local or open it up to access from the outside? Apparently, to access it over the internet, you need to go thru a login at WDMyCloud.com - is my data passing thru their website? I thought it would just involve doing some IP address thing to access my data directly, using some security procedure (which I assumed would be handled at the drive end - yeah, i clearly know nothing about this stuff!). I certainly don't want my data accessible theoretically by Western Digital!

Has anyone else got one of these drives, and how do you use it?

Thanks! I thought my 2TB drive was just a backup of files from my externals and now it seems like it's the only usable storage location for the Seagate stuff. I really want to use the MyCloud drive if it handles things the way i want!

THANKS ALL!!!

[momoffduty]

Sorry your HD died. I purchased three 2TB Buffalo externals some months back. Trying to figure out a backup plan was the hardest. With video from SD cards things are filling up fast. Please post back how you like the Cloud setup.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

1. Backup

For backup I can strongly recommend Macrium Reflect. Not expensive, plenty of "how to" guides on their website and their support is exemplary.

In my setup I carry out all video/photo work on a local PC. Attached to the gigabit network is the Synology unit (model DS412+) with 4 x 2TB HDDs. Attached by eSata to the DS412+ is a 4TB HDD.

My regime is PCs backed up daily to the DS412+ so the most that I can lose is one days work. The DS412+ backed up weekly to the 4TB external HDD. If an HDD in the Synology box begins to "play up" the DS412+ sends me an email to let me know that there is a problem so that I can take action promptly. The HDDs in the DS412+ are configured in RAID 10 so I can lose one drive and still have all of my data intact.

2)WD Mycloud

As for the WD Mycloud, I can't comment on that specifically but I can tell you of my experience with Synology remote access.

As for the WD arrangement, it is necessary to have 'routing information' held on a Synology website. What that means is that I can use a "descriptive name" for my DS412+ and the Synology website takes care of the identification and IP addressing of where my Synology box is located. But as far as I know that is it. All remote log-in credentials and access security to my DS412+ for any and all remote users are handled locally by my Synology box and so are fully under my control. I doubt that my data passes through the Synology website but I may be wrong on this point!

Even if my data does route through the Synology website none of it is "personal and at risk" because it is only photo/video stuff, not banking etc. and ditto Mrs twosheds - her data is web development and other work related stuff, nothing personal, nothing financial so nothing of any great risk. And keep in mind that I control all remote access and security so, if I feel that things are compromised, changing the security is under my direct control. (In a former life Mrs twosheds was a computer security consultant...nuff said?)

I also have my DS412+ set up to email me whenever there is any significant event - e.g. an external connection is attempted; external connection is successful; HDD fails; backup fails, etc.

Mrs twosheds spends a lot of time in the UK but, when she is here in Sicily, she uses a laptop but needs access to the data on her UK based PC. So I set things up such that she has access to the DS412+ from the UK and her working files are automatically synched to the DS412+. To do this I use what is basically the Synology equivalent of WD Mycloud. Seems to work very well.

[sidd finch]

it clicked when not connected to a computer, so I have unplugged it,

I noticed that on my external drives (buffalo & Seagate) that they sounded like they were running even when not plugged into my computer. To remedy this I connected my external drives to a power strip that I turn off when my computer is powered down.

Sidd

[Peru]

When not connected to the computer and turned on, I noticed that my WD external drives seem to sound like they are winding up, but then after a few seconds sound like they are shutting down. When connected to the computer and turned on, they wind up and sound normal.