WD Goes For Two (Bays) With New My Cloud NAS

[LinAdmin]

I have found out too late:

• 
  WD MyBook firmware still has major bugs several years after launch, it's production has stopped and most probably it will remain as is...

• 
  WD MyCloud firmware, more than 5 months after launch, is very unstable. I have analyzed part of it and found pieces of shell scripts which look as written by monkeys.

• 
  Since the new 2bays version has the same CPU I'm pretty sure that it's firmware is very close to 1 drive MyCloud.

The 1-drive MyCloud even has a Raid-1 on the same platter. But WD says this is not a bug but a feature.

If anybody has tested the new gadget, please report it here.

 

[thiggins]

Can you provide specifics about the bugs?

 

[stevech]

I have found out too late:

• 
  WD MyBook firmware still has major bugs several years after launch, it's production has stopped and most probably it will remain as is...

• 
  WD MyCloud firmware, more than 5 months after launch, is very unstable. I have analyzed part of it and found pieces of shell scripts which look as written by monkeys.

• 
  Since the new 2bays version has the same CPU I'm pretty sure that it's firmware is very close to 1 drive MyCloud.

The 1-drive MyCloud even has a Raid-1 on the same platter. But WD says this is not a bug but a feature.

If anybody has tested the new gadget, please report it here.

What I've read underscores my reluctance to buy a NAS and take software for it, from WD, Seagate, LG, Netgear, Buffalo and all the other low margin competitors. ASUS is too bleeding edge, feature shortfalls.

For me, it's all about the NAS software goodness.

 

[LinAdmin]

Can you provide specifics about the bugs?

I have not done exact statistics but from reading their forum in the past months I have seen many times desperate users who suddenly lost connection to the LAN. For some of them interrupting power for a few seconds helps to reboot and establish a connections. Others have no luck and the box remains inaccessible forever.

Many others complain about extremely slow transfer rates. Me too had low rates of < 5MB/s. Replicating a 4 TB cloud box could easily take several days.

Many buyers told they had given it back for a full refund. Someone saying to be from reseller Staples in NL wrote that they had too many refunds and intend not to offer the product any more.

Posters complaining too loud get banned and their postings (even containing useful help and technical info) are deleted.

I wonder how long it will take until they have a shirtstorm or a class action....

 

[stevech]

My DSM212 has run every day for 2 years now. Not one outage/glitch or data loss. I've done 2 OS updates without issues. Including a few AC power failures that the UPS didn't cover.

Their OS is why I chose Synology. The WD, Seagate, Netgear, and other hardware-centric companies for which NASes are a sideline business, and NAS software is probably outsourced to an I-don't-Care company, is why I chose what I did.

 

[Cybernut]

.
..
The 1-drive MyCloud even has a Raid-1 on the same platter. But WD says this is not a bug but a feature.

Let me just add some facts here. I find several claims made by LinAdmin here to be grossly false and/or misleading, in this and other threads he commented on. I recently bought WD's 2-bay My Cloud EX2 NAS, which perfomance-wise is a middling NAS but as my first venture into the NAS world, it's a decent NAS but I didn't expect a whole lot more given how cheap it is comparedto QNAP and Synology, etc.

The reality is for everyone else to see rather than buy the canards being spread here by LinAdmin. The single drive My Cloud DOES NOT offer RAID 1 AT ALL - see here -> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/personalcloud/consumer/

...
Posters complaining too loud get banned and their postings (even containing useful help and technical info) are deleted.

Again, "complaining too loud" was not what LinAdmin was doing. It's one thing to complain (which WD mods tolerate) as I myself have on several occasions complained about the lack of sftp and a broken ftp - when you can back up your claim and prove to them that something is broken and/or tell them that a customer can build something that they couldn't, they don't mind...see for example, my post here on enabling sftp -> http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX2/SFTP-possible-on-EX2/m-p/715812#M253

But LinAdmin got banned because he violated the TOS of the forum and spreading canards just like the one above and then after several other violations he was booted off, he would troll the site by creating a new username night after night, as if he had a personal vendetta against WD and constantly rabble rouse other forum members (initially I was fooled too as I was new to the forum and wasn't aware of this behavior of his).

Here's a post that has been stickied on WD forums for his persistent trolling behavior and someone in this post even has a link to the countless times LinAdmin registered a new username day after day to simply disturb the peace there -> http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/Don-t-feed-the-Troll-Be-forewarned/m-p/715742#M12417

I myself at first offered him some technical info about my NAS' source code but soon learnt of his disruptive behavior on the forum day after day. I just wanted to clear the air on this forum about some of the inaccuracies being spread. I'm not here to defend WD's products - which I'll admit are far from perfect but I do find the behavior of LinAdmin troubling in deliberately spreading misinformation on other NAS sites. WD NAS drives work for many people but yes, there are some unhappy customers, who have valid reasons. But rarely do they get banned as you'll see in the moderator's comments on the 3rd link above.

My apologies to the mods of this site if I have broken your rules with my very first post.

 

[LinAdmin]

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/Fuming/m-p/727360#M13784

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/No-Safepoints/m-p/727440#M13795

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/WDMyCloud-disappeared-from-Networks/m-p/727824#M13840

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/I-m-about-done/td-p/724678

Other fully satisfied customers of WD NAS.

 

[LinAdmin]

Let me just add some facts here. I find several claims made by LinAdmin here to be grossly false and/or misleading, in this and other threads he commented on. I recently bought WD's 2-bay My Cloud EX2 NAS, which perfomance-wise is a middling NAS but as my first venture into the NAS world, it's a decent NAS but I didn't expect a whole lot more given how cheap it is comparedto QNAP and Synology, etc.

The reality is for everyone else to see rather than buy the canards being spread here by LinAdmin. The single drive My Cloud DOES NOT offer RAID 1 AT ALL - see here -> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/personalcloud/consumer/

Only naïve users would publish such advertizing stuff of a company to prove a technical point. Fact is, that MyCloud single drive does have a Raid-1 as is shown by

CL1:~# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] 
md0 : active raid1 sda2[1] sda1[0]
      1999808 blocks [2/2] [UU]

That raid holds the root partition and often falls apart without the average user realizing because the webinterface does not show that dangerous situation!

Again, "complaining too loud" was not what LinAdmin was doing. It's one thing to complain (which WD mods tolerate) as I myself have on several occasions complained about the lack of sftp and a broken ftp - when you can back up your claim and prove to them that something is broken and/or tell them that a customer can build something that they couldn't, they don't mind...see for example, my post here on enabling sftp -> http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud-EX2/SFTP-possible-on-EX2/m-p/715812#M253

Here again Cybernut publishes allegations without really knowing what all has happened since Jan. 2014.

But LinAdmin got banned because he violated the TOS of the forum and spreading canards just like the one above

Well, what Cybernut calls a canard may be a lame duck, or more clearly said, a plain false accusation.

I myself at first offered him some technical info about my NAS' source code but soon learnt of his disruptive behavior on the forum day after day.

I doubt that Cybernut could have given any technically competent advice because he obviously lacks expert knowledge to analyze that firmware system.

I just wanted to clear the air on this forum about some of the inaccuracies being spread. I'm not here to defend WD's products - which I'll admit are far from perfect but I do find the behavior of LinAdmin troubling in deliberately spreading misinformation on other NAS sites.

That description pefectly fits my impression: It is Cybernut who spreads not inaccuracies but gross errors! And of course his hidden intention is to defend the abominable firmware of MyCloud and the questionable way WD handles dissatisfied customers in their forum.

There is a great number of banned users, I have myself seen at least 11 others disappearing from the forum. Because most do not care to come back with a different nick this becomes only visible to those who have contacts independent from that forum.

WD also does read so called private messages between members of the forum in order to have everything under full control!

I will not answer to any other allegations of Cybernut here. This is a technically oriented forum and I wonder why his accusations have been published here.

 

[thiggins]

Point and counterpoint done. Thread closed.