NAS and external hard drives are both two great options for storage except for the clouds when you are trying to scale out your infrastructure. NAS is scalable, accessible, and customizable that can be tailored to specific needs and use cases. An external hard drive is portable, affordable, and fast to connect. To combine both advantages, some NAS users create a USB/external hard drive backup for redundancy and reliability.
In this article, I’m going to show 4 ways to back up WD My Cloud/Home to external hard drives/USB in 4 ways.
Quick answer: The method depends on your device. On a My Cloud Home, plug the USB drive into the device and use Copy USB > To drive in the My Cloud Home app, or copy files through a computer. On a My Cloud NAS running My Cloud OS 5, plug the drive in and create a job under Backups > USB Backups with the direction NAS to USB. You can also copy files manually from any computer that can access the NAS.
| Method | My Cloud Home | My Cloud (OS 5) | My Cloud (OS 3) | Automatic? |
|---|
| 1. Copy and paste via a computer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No |
| 2. Copy USB in the My Cloud Home app | ✓ | — | — | No |
| 3. USB Backups in the dashboard | — | ✓ | ✓ | Auto start when connected |
| 4. Safepoint | — | — | ✓ | Scheduled |
Method 1. Copy and Paste in Windows
Copy and paste is a traditional way to backup WD My Cloud Home to external hard drives by connecting to the computer via Ethernet but it’s also time-consuming.
These steps are done in the My Cloud Home web app (home.mycloud.com) or the My Cloud mobile app, not in Windows.
1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer.
2. Access WD My Cloud Home by either inputting the NAS credentials directly or mapping the network drive. (This PC> Map Network Drive> choose a drive letter and Browse a folder to map> Reconnect at sign-in> Finish.)
3. Copy target files/folders and paste them to the external storage device.
Method 2. My Cloud Home USB Backup in Windows
The external drive must be formatted as NTFS, HFS+ or FAT32, and must not be password-protected. NTFS or HFS+ is recommended, because FAT32 can’t store files larger than 4 GB.
1. Connect the external drive to the USB port of WD My Cloud Home.
2. Click the 3-line menu.
3. Click the Copy USB icon.
4. Click To drive when the Checking USB Status message shows.
5. Choose copy all or select files.
Copy all: solely duplicate the data within the private space of the user that initiated the export.
a. Select Copy all> Copy now.
b. Click OK in the Checking USB message window.
c. Click Ok when the Copying to external drive appears.
Select files: do not copy data in the Shared section.
a. Click Select files or folders.
b. Choose the source files/folders.
c. Click Copy to drive> Copy now> Ok.
6. Click Ok after the copy.
Method 3. My Cloud USB Backup
This method applies to My Cloud devices running My Cloud OS 5, such as EX2 Ultra, PR2100 and Mirror Gen 2. Set the backup type and turn on Auto Start When Connected if you want the job to run every time you plug in the drive.
1. Log into the My Cloud device and connect the external drive to the USB port of WD My Cloud.
2. Click Backups on the navigation bar.
3. Click USB Backups under Backups.
4. Click Create Job.
5. Specify the job name, direction (NAS to USB), and source and destination folder. Select backup type from the dropdown and choose to turn on or not Auto Start When Connected.
6. Click Create.
Method 4. My Cloud Safepoint Backup
My Cloud firmware 4. xx. xx-xxx includes a pre-installed tool that enables the secure backup of all data, user accounts, settings, and shared items to either a connected USB drive or network storage.
Note: Safepoints are only available on older My Cloud devices running My Cloud OS 3. My Cloud OS 5 removed this feature. On OS 5 devices, use USB Backups (Method 3) instead.
1. Access the dashboard of My Cloud and connect the external drive to the USB port of WD My Cloud.
2. Click Safepoints on the navigation bar.
3. Click add a Safepoint icon on the left pane to open the screen.
4. Choose Local USB.
5. Select the USB available in the list.
6. Input a name and brief description for the Safepoint. Toggle on Auto Update if you don’t want a one-time backup. It can be turned on or off at any time.
7. Tune up the frequency and time.
8. Choose to create a Safepoint immediately or later. Configure when to start if you choose Later.
9. Click Finish.
There are other ways to back up WD My Cloud to external hard drives/USB, one can attach the drive to his PC and use a third-party tool to copy data from My Cloud to the local drive connected to the computer. Or, to back up specific shares or subfolders automatically, one can use Rsync and CRON to set a backup schedule.
How to Restore WD My Cloud from an External Drive
My Cloud Home: connect the USB drive to the My Cloud Home, open the My Cloud Home app, click Copy USB, and choose to copy from the drive to your My Cloud Home. You can also copy the files back through a computer, the same way as in Method 1.
My Cloud (OS 5): go to Backups > USB Backups, create a new job with the direction USB to NAS, choose the backup folder on the drive as the source and a share on the NAS as the destination, then run the job.
My Cloud (OS 3) with Safepoints:
1. Connect the USB drive that holds the Safepoint to the My Cloud.
2. In the dashboard, click Safepoints on the navigation bar.
3. Scroll down to Restore Content with a Safepoint and click Start Recovery.
4. Select the USB drive, choose the Safepoint you want, and click Finish.
5. Wait for the restore to complete. It overwrites the current data and settings on the My Cloud.
Backup WD My Cloud to NAS/NAS Backup Solution
Although external storage tends to be convenient, and the WD NAS backup to an external device is pretty easy, undeniably, external hard drives are vulnerable to physical damage and costly with the increasing data volumes.
Thus, WD My Cloud users can opt to backup WD NAS to Synology, other NAS devices, or a professional backup solution that integrates the NAS backup, recovery, anti-malware protection, and backup to another NAS.
Vinchin Backup & Recovery supports all NAS devices regardless of their brands, Synology, QNAP, WD, TerraMaster, or others under NFS/CIFS protocols. It also protects 19+ virtualization platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox and XenServer, mainstream databases, and Linux and Windows servers.
You can automate scheduled NAS backup, filter the specific type of files/folders to backup, and choose from Full, Incremental, and Differential backups in one click.
The backup speed can be accelerated via multiple thread lines and compressed data to save storage.
Encrypt data with the AES-256 standard and thwart any suspicious visits with a real-time IO monitor.
Restore to original location/another NAS/Linux & Windows file server systems via a maximum of 32 threads.
Here is how to back up WD My Cloud with Vinchin Backup & Recovery:
1. Go to NAS Backup > Backup, select the My Cloud share, and choose the files or folders to back up. Under Advanced, add include or exclude filters if needed.
2. Choose the backup node and storage, such as a local disk, another NAS or a storage server.
3. Configure the backup strategies, including schedule, backup type (full, incremental or differential), compression and encryption.
Download the 60-day free trial to explore more incredible features like the seamless and agent-free V2V migration across 10 virtual platforms.
WD My Cloud Backup FAQs
1. Can I back up My Cloud Home directly to a USB drive without a computer?
Yes. Plug the drive into the USB port on the My Cloud Home and use Copy USB > To drive in the My Cloud Home app. Note that Copy all only copies the private space of the user who starts the copy, not the shared space.
2. Which format should the external drive use?
NTFS or HFS+ is recommended. FAT32 also works, but it can’t store files larger than 4 GB.
3. Can I back up WD My Cloud to the cloud instead?
Yes. You can sync My Cloud folders with cloud services such as Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. See how to back up WD My Cloud to Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox.
4. Is an external drive enough as my only backup?
It’s a good start, but a single USB drive can fail or be lost along with the NAS. Follow the 3-2-1 rule: keep at least one more copy in another place, such as a second NAS, a backup server or the cloud.
Final Thoughts
WD My Cloud users are able to backup the WD NAS to an external hard drive like USB with copy-and-paste, internal USB, and Safepoint backup. But those methods are flawed. They need the right and compatible USB format or do not support full and incremental backup. Not to mention the defects of external hard drives.
You can choose another NAS or a backup solution with comprehensive backup strategies and anti-ransomware protection as the other backup destination. This way may be safer and more reliable.
