WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra Review - Bring 8TB Of Data Anywhere You Go

[@MrKrisWhyNot]

This review has been immensely useful, unlike many others I've stumbled upon. Thank you.

[@MrBlade2021]

I've watched about 6 reviews on this one product alone trying to decide if I wanted to get one or get a different model and so forth. You are the first one that didn't completely bore me to death. So thank you for a good straight to the point review. I just placed an order for one and I can't wait till its here.

[@TechInspected]

halt2021 thank you, that means a lot! Glad to have helped and good to know that the review was spot on. Hope you enjoy your new NAS!

[@JoaQimR]

Where did you order it? US? I can't seem to find one locally. Kahit online stores.

[@MrBlade2021]

Ordered mine off amazon.

[@thethirdman225]

Up sides: simple to use, good app, good connectivity. Down sides: enclosure gets hot, can only use WD drives (including WD Red SSDs), low spec. I’ve owned three MyClouds.

[@Archigreg]

Access to my wdcloud nas is no longer available outside my home because I can't update to OS5. If I replace it with ex2 I see that support ends in 2026. So I'd have the same problem? Do I have to wait until 2026 to buy a Nas in order to have 8-10 valid support and therefore access to the NAS outside my home? Thks

[@c.3827]

It does a lot well, just don't expect to stream your media via the internet to your phone. (download to it, yes, stream to play, no) unless someone knows how to do this?

[@lukeman91]

Just curious if you have to setup it up as a RAID device, or if you can setup like normal storage. Also I bought the diskless version and only one drive, will device boot and run with ony a single drive in it? Good video, very informative.

[@TechInspected]

You don't have to use it as RAID, any single HDD will do as non-RAID too. Hope that helps.

[@FBurck]

Will not let my allow Cloud Access "Something went wrong, please check that you have an active Internet connection and try again. Invalid state"

[@ulaganath]

Can you give more insite to FTP/HTTP download Like is there any size limitation or threading based download possible. Once account added will it auto login and keep downloading. How many queuing possible. Does only 1 job run at a time or multiple. Do we have control over multiple jobs running Etc. Is there secure protocol supported.

[@wildwestunlimited]

I have two of these attached to the same network and I REALLY do like these NAS drives. There IS one thing I just CANNOT figure out. If I turn on my Cloud Storage and I only want to share ONE folder on my drive, HOW can this be done? I have found that I turn on cloud storage and it's ALL shared, if I turn it off, it's all NOT shared. I should be able to share just ONE folder if needed right? What am I doing wrong?

[@hbpandya11]

Hello dear, I just bought WD my cloud ex2 ultra Disk less unit. And have purchased 2 x 4TB WD NAS Drives separately, after inserting the drives and booting up the device, Both drive indication lights turned red. And I can’t see drive capacity on my cloud Dashboard,

[@redhorsegarage]

Can you down load directly from your PC to the WD device via usb cable?

[@JackDoonerMusic]

You mention the drives are running in RAID 1. Let's say for example you removed one of the drives and connected it to a Windows PC or Mac... what format are the drives in? ExFAT? Fat32? Thanks, and great video btw :)

[@TechInspected]

Hmm you know I'm not that well versed with experimenting with pulling RAID drives so I can't tell. Not even sure if it'll be recognized without the other pair. Sorry! =)

[@JackDoonerMusic]

The Technoclast That’s my concern. If it’s going to act as a back up system, then it needs to be accessible from other devices other than the EX2. If you imagine using this for 10 years and WD go bust and don’t make the EX2 anymore, then your data is inaccessible. If you have a chance, if you could pull a drive out, put it in a caddy and try access it from windows because I’m really curious.

[@TechInspected]

Oh I'm sorry the NAS was a loaner unit from WD. I already returned it after the review. I don't have one now unfortunately.

[@XJLCA]

The Technoclast Credibility out of the window!

[@TechInspected]

@@XJLCA How's that supposed to affect anything? The review was perfectly unbiased. I didn't get paid to review it and had to return the unit. I've had absolutely no incentive to give it a good review. All I get is content for my channel and your views. =)

[@gwaponobby]

What happens if I plug in two hard drives to the USB ports? What options does that give me? Great vid cheers.

[@TechInspected]

USB Drives become NAS drives also, but not sure if it supports 2. It should, but never tried.

[@gwaponobby]

Thanks for the reply. You should have tried adding hard drives to the USB ports.

[@tahirotahir]

Does anyone know what is the format of these NAS Drive's hard drives? I purchased a new 4TB hard drive by Seagate, but when I put that inside this WD MyBook Duo enclosure, it never sees this new drive. I tried taking out both and only put the new one, still a standing yellow light at front. I have tried to format the drive in all know formats, like exFat32, FAT32, NTFS, etc, etc, but no use. Please help guys.

[@obscuredlove4043]

Is it possible that it can be used for a gaming server? like hosting minecraft or stuff like that? just courious.

[@tonywrigley5174]

The bandwidth limitation is the drives not the ethernet speed, Mbps vs Gbps

[@TechInspected]

uh, no.

[@Vylkeer]

I actually have had a WD Elements, the one you showed in the video, fail on me because I connected to my Mac while it was on standby and apparently that can cause a corruption if done accidentally many times over. I hope I'll be able to at least recover the files from my Elements, but I wouldn't buy a new Elements or any other external HDD for that matter. I'm thinking of finally making the upgrade and get a NAS and this one looks like it could be the right choice. Before I had to detach the external HDD from my TV and connect it to the Mac to put new stuff on it. Now I should be able to do this remotely which is safer and more convenient. Once connected to the Wi-Fi router, I should find it in the Finder under "network" I think and it should also appear as a media device on the TV. I really hope that'll be the case, because if it is, it means I've found a definitive solution for data storing and I'll have my own personal "media server", so to speak.

[@dcarnielli]

Do you think that worth to have this with 1x SSD and 1x HDD and prioritise the SSD for access and the HDD for the internal backup?

[@TechInspected]

I think you'll reach the theoretical speed of the gigabit ethernet connection, which is about 125MBPS so it wouldn't really be that much faster than a typical 100+MBPS HDD. I also don't know how well it will fit inside the device. Hope that helps!

[@dcarnielli]

@@TechInspected Thank you! I'll try regular HDD first.

[@jamesgluzlegacychannelweha8934]

so you said that the drives are set up so one is clone and that means only 4tb are useable. Is there a way to set it up to have 8tb useable without clone?

[@TechInspected]

Yeah, just gotta change the RAID settings.

[@niccoc1603]

Great review, can you stream 4k through Plex within the home gigabit LAN?

[@TechInspected]

Within the LAN yes, but only if your content bitrate is lower than the max throughput of 100-110MBPS. That said, you'd also need some allowance for other data so I'd go for media below that in bitrate. For example, I shoot in 100MBPS 4K with my camera and store the files in the NAS. It's tough to stream but lower bitrate 4K is much easier.

[@niccoc1603]

Thanks, I am not an expert of 4K video, what is the average bitrate for a standerd 4K movie? Gigabit LAN should allow 130MBPS, so why only 100-110MBPS?

[@TechInspected]

Netflix 4K movies are generally around 15MBPS because they're a streaming platform so they lower the bitrate for better streaming. Downloaded movies may be around 20-40MBPS. But that's assuming you're watching movies that were encoded by someone. If you're talking about, say, camera footage they generally are in the vicinity of 30-200MBPS depending on the camera.

[@chanphilip2257]

No repairing services around the world, it means it become rubbish if your case is damaged after warrant time.

[@arthurvasey]

What music software does it have that’s compatible with an iPad/iPhone? And is there an option to shuffle my entire music collection and not be restricted to one album at a time?

[@arthurvasey]

I have since discovered that, on an iPad or iPhone, apps like Jet Audio and Evermusic work well with it, but only on your network! Plex and Plexamp can work outside of your network - but you either need data or wi-fi other than your own! This far on, I still haven’t worked out how to access it remotely!

[@jamesparish7234]

Can you upgrade the drives to larger drives after the purchase? Buy the 8TB and later install more drives to make 16 TB in the future?

[@TechInspected]

Yes you can. Here's the official drive compatibility list so you avoid any potential issues: support-en.wd.com/app/products/product-detail/p/130#WD_compatibility

[@kashinathpratapm]

Will you suggest this for small business? Will it be good to store excel sheets, corporate data and use it as a main access server for office?

[@TechInspected]

Yeah that should do the work pretty good.

[@alvaro_garita]

What is your experience 4 years later?

[@TechInspected]

It was a review unit from Western Digital so I returned it to them already.

[@alvaro_garita]

@@TechInspected Thank you for your reply, best regards

[@TechInspected]

@@alvaro_garita you're welcome, regards to you as well.

[@jindrazechmeister2561]

Best review I found, thanks

[@TechInspected]

You're welcome!

[@vincentgitto3138]

very helpful

[@minibox9555]

Can it be compatible with iMac ? I m using iMac n have a lot of photos.

[@TechInspected]

Yep it'll work with Mac. =)

[@minibox9555]

Thx so much. So it can works with iPhone too !

[@TechInspected]

@@minibox9555 yup!

[@damayoclinic]

I use to love this NAS, it failed me; and WD software is not supported by the latest version mac OS.

[@TechInspected]

That's too bad. Hope your data was recoverable.

[@Mr-Dutchy-Dutch]

I just ordered one but does it have to have a WD RED?

[@TechInspected]

Doesn't have to be, but the WD RED drives are designed for NAS usage. Hope that helps!

[@Thecatboi]

I have 60000+ photos laying on a extern drive I'd love to have on a NaS. Tried different solutions where the Android Apps couldn't handle the load and crashes. Can this handle 60k+ pictures without crashing the app when trying to view them?

[@TechInspected]

I don't know what kind of pictures you keep first of all. Are they in RAW format or high - like 20MP+ resolutions? Either way I think your phones gave up because of the RAM needed to just read the disc information. With a NAS it shouldn't be a problem. I don't have 60k+ photos in high res or RAW so I can't test it for you though. But I'm pretty sure a NAS can handle it. If not, I guess you should return the NAS. (Or try splitting into folders...)

[@Thecatboi]

@@TechInspected Thanks for the reply! They have their initial format from the respective cameras used, so that's all from 4k and down the the worst phone camera you can imagine. I would rather not split it into folders (made a desktop app that can organize them by exif data). I rather have it in one huge pile though. Eventually I'll buy a NaS then I can let you know if it's possible. :-)

[@salsplace]

Where did you get the clips attached to the hard drive. I am looking to purchase drives seperatly.

[@TechInspected]

You mean the tabs? They come with the pre-configured system. I guess you'd just need a very sticky sticker to replace them.

[@stephentrencansky7872]

@@TechInspectedThe diskless version comes with two tabs and four of the guide screws to be used for the two drives you will dd..

[@maxbroomfield5392]

Could you put 2 iron wolf pro 10tb hard drives in it?

[@TechInspected]

Should work as it should accept any standard hard drive unless the Iron Wolf needs special drivers I guess. If it doesn't, I bet it plug and plays.

[@Hesham1155]

thank u

[@salsplace]

They should put 7200 rpm speed drives in it

[@TechInspected]

It won't be that much faster cause the bandwidth of the ethernet connection only goes up to 125MB/second. It will improve random access times though when the drive is spinning up to search data.

[@mikeyoung9666]

Sir, will it steam to an AppleTV 4 ?

[@TechInspected]

I don't have much experience with Apple TV but I do know that PLEX app is available on Apple TV so if you install PLEX Server on the WD MyCloud it should work. Hope that helps =)

[@markbarr6996]

Yes - Streams beautifully

[@Undecided0]

The best Nas is the one from Queens.

[@Jayeskool318]

🤣🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣😂🤣

[@salsplace]

How can I map it to the root? \\mycloudex

[@TechInspected]

Its on the video around 5:21, if I remember correctly its \\MyCloudEx2Ultra . Hope that helps!

[@salsplace]

In your video, you map to a folder under \\MyCloudEx2Ultra. How do I map to the root \\MyCloudEx2Ultra?

[@TechInspected]

Hmm, doesn't mapping it to \\MyCloudEx2Ultra\ just work?

[@salsplace]

I could not get it to work.

[@housbinpharteen7445]

SORRY JUST A STARTER HERE .. AND LIKE YOUR JUST FLYING AND POINTING EVERYWHERE ... SLOW DOWN BRO

[@Zack_Darce]

They are "L" "E" "D" lights not "led" lights

[@TechInspected]

But is it "O" and "K" or "Okay?"