If you decide to use the app, WD has also bundled in some neato backup software for your Android or Apple iOS devices, with both WiFi and 3G/4G data able to be used to back up those photos you’ve told yourself you’d back up ten times over.
The app made for this is very easy to operate and simply requires a directory to be made for a device, with the backing up generally happening in the background, which is probably the way it should be.
For the most part, this ease of use and this simplicity is what we love about the WD My Cloud Mirror, and it’s what we liked about the last generation.
In fact, if you compared the two, you probably wouldn’t find much that was different, something which is even more obvious when you look at them side-by-side. They don’t look all that different, and most of what has changed is on the inside, with that faster processor making the dent.
One thing that should have changed and yet hasn’t, however, is the lack of any front USB ports, something that will make backing up a camera or another USB connected device a little annoying.
Sure, you’ll find two USB ports on the back, but these are generally here for external storage, which isn’t quite the same thing.
We’d prefer if one USB port made it to the front next time, because it’d be great if we could back up our camera simply by plugging it in when we walked in, letting the drive do all of that heavy lifting quickly and easily.
Our final quibble is one network drives have had for ages, and WD’s doesn’t do anything to change: no wireless.
In this day and age, it is a little surprising to find a network appliance that doesn’t offer wireless connectivity, especially when so many households rely on wireless networking.
We need to stress that wireless networking isn’t usually as good as its wired brethren, and we’ll always opt to make a network drive something you plug into a router at any given time, but it won’t be true for all users.
Your router might be full as it is, and so a wireless option might be all you have, and if that’s the boat you find yourself in, the WD My Cloud Mirror will merely ask you to unplug something because it is wired dependent.
There’s also only one port, so if you have no ports left but think maybe you’ll be able to daisy chain, plugging another network device into the hard drive, again you can’t do that.
That’s one of those issues WD’s My Cloud Mirror has with modern networks: it’s still made for the old school ones, and while that’s fine, it does mean working out if you’ll have to make a compromise or two.
Conclusion
As far as newbie options go for starting a network drive, it’s hard to look past WD’s My Cloud Mirror, especially now that it has a slightly faster processor, but just as much ease of use thanks to the excellent My Cloud OS 3 WD packs into the drive.
We’re always going to recommend mirrored backup solutions over singular drive options, and that’s because you get a level of redundancy, something we feel is needed in this day and age when data is important and everywhere.
In fact, data is vital, and integral to what we do. Making sure you have the important stuff backed up is alway going to be a big deal, and if you’re the least bit paranoid of files going missing, a mirrored solution makes a lot of sense.
Fortunately, WD’s My Cloud Mirror is a good beginner’s option to mirroring simply because it doesn’t require much effort of any and yet offers a bit of versatility.
Seriously, you don’t need to know much, and thanks to a great little browser based operating system, WD has come up with a good little storage option for homes and businesses looking for a little more security. Recommended.
