WD My Cloud PR2100 Plex Server Unboxing / Review

[@GlenReed]

👉🏻 Here is the link to a review of the NAS I almost went with 😬 kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJbKfn-trNdjsMk

[@fairmapp4249]

Glen, Thanks for the review on both the WD My Cloud Ex2 Ultra and the PR2100. I currently don't have an external storage device but have been using Apple's I Cloud, Dropbox, One Drive and Google drives. After looking at your videos I am now convinced that I'll buying the WD Western Digital My Cloud PR2100 immediately! I'm a new subscriber to your channel! Thanks so much for the information, keep up the good work!!

[@GlenReed]

That’s awesome! Thank you for the very nice and encouraging comment 😎

[@capaints]

Thanks for the Videos, was just about ready to buy the EX2 and then I watched your video! Hit the Brakes on that and then watched this Video.... Thank You

[@GlenReed]

Thanks for watching Doug, I'm glad it helped. Also thank you for taking the time to let me know, it definitely encourages me to keep making these types of videos. Happy New Year!!

[@RYTHMICRIOT]

I've been using this NAS as a Plex server for about 2yrs now. Solid unit. They recently updated the firmware which threw me for a bit of a loop. After updating there we're none of the pre-installed apps on the unit anymore so I had to reinstall Plex. The other app that I used was the Web File Viewer app which I used to transfer files from another remote PC on my network onto the NAS drives. That app is no longer available. I ended up having to install MyCloud OS5 on my external PC to be able to transfer files in the same way. MyCloud OS5 is simply the device management software. You can also get a mobile app and manage the device with your phone. It took some legwork to get adjusted to the new interface but I'm back up and running.

[@GlenReed]

I agree! It’s definitely a solid unit and has served me well. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment 🙂

[@WallyB4WJ]

Great review, Glen! Like many others, I was about to buy the EX2 Ultra until I saw your review on it and you made logical sense about the weaknesses of it. And then to see how much more you like this PR2100 NAS, I think I will absorb the extra cost knowing it will provide great performance and true Plex capability. And I would DEFINITELY be interested if you would please consider doing a video on Plex - what it is, how it works, and an intro on setting it up. That would be fabulous! Thanks, Glen!

[@GlenReed]

Thank you for taking the time to leave such a great comment! I will definitely take that into consideration when planning some of my upcoming videos. I have a few in the works so hopefully I get a few more requests for an in-depth Pled review.

[@WallyB4WJ]

@@GlenReed Thanks, Glen! I'll keep a lookout for your Plex video - you're obviously very busy, but if you are able to share your expertise, I (and many others) would be supremely grateful! Have a great weekend, Glen!!!

[@eat_my_boloz3422]

@@GlenReed i too was looking at the EX2 model and was glad to come across your reviews. much thanks :) a good marker.

[@GlenReed]

Thanks! Glad I could help 🙂

[@MontyDeane]

I followed your review of the wd ex and got my PR2100 today. Im just loading it up for now. Question for you brother. If im not using transcoding to other media devices, what would you suggest. Can I use some sort of a dlna software bypassing the processing power (transcoding) Im just using this for tv access. Have you researched any of that. I like you am looking for information. You went through what Im about to go through. Any recommendations now that you have implemented this bad boy? Any special apps, that I should know?

[@GlenReed]

That’s cool! Congrats! Unfortunately I haven’t researched much on that. These days I use it mainly as a file server to send video files to clients which works very well. I tried using it as a editing server but it doesn’t have the network bandwidth for the size files I use.

[@chimalozie]

Thanks so much for the nice review. Trying to ditch my EX2 (not Ultra) and go for this. Did you find loading on the home settings page faster with your new PR2100? As you can imagine, if it is slow on the EX2 Ultra, imagine what I'm going through with the EX2. And do you still have that issue playing a video in plex from the browser and saying "the server isn't powerful enough", after loading like forever? Thanks again

[@GlenReed]

Thanks for watching! The PR2100 is way faster than the EX2 ultra and has no problems loading the home screen or Plex on multiple devices at the same time. If you have the standard EX2 this thing will be like moving from a flip phone to a smart phone. Hope this info helps! 😎 if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

[@djad332104]

Just came across your videos. In 2020 is it still performing well with streaming 4k? Are you still using it or something different?

[@GlenReed]

Hey thanks for watching! It is still performing well. At this time I mainly use it for storing video production work and not much streaming. But it handles all my 4K files well.

[@Wilizm]

Glenn, I’m a Airport time Capsule guy. Quick and easy setup for me, but I got it in 2011. So I expect problems soon. Is this a good alternative or what would you recommend?

[@GlenReed]

I would classify the PR2100 as a setup that can be as simple as you want, but can also be advanced if you need it to. For me I use it very simple and access it through finder on my Mac and it works great to transferring large video files. It is a great and reliable upgrade for most users and compared to the compilation its budget friendly as well. Hope this helps 😉

[@arnewillaert8009]

Great review!! Just in your opinion what is the best NAS that you can buy (any brand) for home use, keeping in mind that the NAS is strong enough to run Plex?

[@GlenReed]

I went with the WD PR2100 just because of the simplicity. However if you want more fine tuning control some of the high end qnap synology NAS’s are really good. I needed to keep mine simple for others in my household using it. Thanks for watching!

[@arnewillaert8009]

Glen Reed yeah same thing with me simplicity is very important thanks for the quick reaction.

[@GlenReed]

No problem, glad to have helped 😊

Hello Glen, firstly thank you so much for this great review. I am currently using EX2Ultra and Will upgrade my unit to the PR2100-8TB. Could you compare performance between these two units? Also, did you hear anything about PR4100? Will it be better? Thank you.

[@GlenReed]

Hey thanks for the comment, and your very welcome! The performance is night and day between the EX2 ultra and the PR2100, you will notice a huge difference in speed all around. As far as the PR4100 the only difference that I’m aware of is that the PR2100 is a 2 bay unit while the PR4100 has 4 bays. Besides that I don’t believe there is any difference in performance as they are the same processors. However, both come with 4gb of ddr3 memory but the PR4100 can be upgraded to 16gb Hope this helps 😊

Glen Reed hello again, thank you for your quick response! Yes, I checked differences between these two models: upgradable ram, navigate a bowl LCD screen, 4 disk, raid5 and 10 support... I noticed that multiple users are trying to install third-party application to the unit like OwnCloud, NextCloud, Ubuntu etc. at WC official community forum. They makes me excited 😀

[@giorgiorocchi8313]

thanks, would love to hear your opinion on your experience using in, software, speed of the system ecc

[@GlenReed]

You very welcome! I like the system a lot! It’s fast mainly when your computer is on a wired connection to the router, wireless is ok but can be a little slow at times for larger files. I don’t use the software side of things much these days, it takes care of itself for the most part which is cool. My main regret is I wish I would have bought much larger drives to start with since I do a lot of 4K video work which takes a lot of space. I would still recommend this unit over many others. Hope this helps! Thanks for watching!

[@AlexandreRossLive]

Another top review, thanks for going into detail on the NAS. I think the majority of people are going to be comparing this to the EX2 and your reviews on both have been a massive help. Keep up the good work mate. As you've now had this drive for a while now, would you still recommend it?

[@GlenReed]

I would definitely recommend the PR2100! I have another KZbin channel “Cooking with Glen” and after I edit all my videos I store them on my PR2100. Transferring these massive files (usually 40-70GB) over my network is really fast. The convenience of not having to connect another external drive to my MacBook and being able to access my files from anywhere is AWESOME!! This drive is very fast and handles video very well. Thanks again for watching!

[@lambdaplus440]

One of the very few good PR2100 reviews out there! Do you think this is still a good buy in beginning 2022?

[@GlenReed]

Thank you! If you don't need high speed transfer and are just looking for a good network storage this unit is great. I still use it and it works well. However if you need faster transfer speeds like for direct video editing QNAP has recently launched a few new NAS's that are much faster. Thanks for watching!

[@rickslife]

@@GlenReed QNAP as a company is not great at security. As an IT pro I always steer people away from QNAP. Also this WD nas is ok except support will end December of 2026.

[@GlenReed]

Good to know, thank you.

[@brotha1984]

I'm debating to get this one or the pr4100 version

[@GlenReed]

If it’s in the budget for the extra drives I would go with the PR4100 so you can have different raid configurations giving you more storage. Thanks for watching!

[@thethirdman225]

Plastic body v metal body is a two way street. Metal cools better but makes more noise. Oh and it only has one actual RAID option because it's only a two bay drive. :)

[@michaelk946]

So you have had it a while. What do you think so far ? Mike.

[@GlenReed]

Thanks for watching! It has been working well for me. I was just sending some clients a few video files this morning and it makes things so convenient.

[@michaelk946]

Do u have to use a link directly to you or does it go through WD.

[@GlenReed]

You can do either

[@GlenReed]

At home I connect directly through my network, but away I connect through WD. Sending files works through WD as well.

[@sasomaros]

Hi Glen, great review, thank for it. Have one q. Im about to switch from ex2 ultra to PR 2100. Want to use drives from previous ex2 ultra. Can I just put them in new PR2100? Im lost how to do the "upgrade" using existing drives fro ex2 ultra. thanks for any advice.

[@GlenReed]

Thanks! And congrats on the upgrade! What raid configuration are you currently using on the EX2 Ultra?

[@sasomaros]

@@GlenReed RAID 1

[@GlenReed]

Unfortunately you may need to make a backup of your data prior to moving your drives. It’s not guaranteed that you will be able to put the drives in the PR2100 and not have it try to reconstruct the raid. It’s best to make a backup, verify the backup and then transfer the drives. Once you have setup the raid on the PR2100 then transfer over your data from the backup. I lost a lot of data once trying to swap drives without a backup. May not be the answer you were looking for but I hope this helps 🙂

[@sasomaros]

@@GlenReed i thought that this Will bé the way. Will do it Like you say. Thanks for your answers and help. Very múch appreciate. 👍👍👍

[@GlenReed]

No problem! Glad to help 🙂

[@davida6146]

Can you show us the software as well, that's usually what gets overlooked with... I want to see the interface and the features

[@GlenReed]

I have a few videos in the pipeline, but I will consider putting that on the list. Thanks for watching!

[@MontyDeane]

I am going nuts and cannot find the answer to this. Maybe you can help. I just purchased the PR 2100. Now I need my media files on it. My files are on mycloud home drive, and I cant find out how to get my files from that drive to my pr2100? Any Ideas. I cant believe ai have wasted so much time on this but desperate. Any suggestions?

[@GlenReed]

Hmmm 🤔 have you tried plugging the my cloud into the front of the PR2100? Also you should be able to open both on your computer and just copy and paste, it takes a long time but can be done. Hope this helps.

[@MontyDeane]

@@GlenReed Yeah, I did connect via usb and its copying over. Its a 6 hour process. I was hoping there was an easy way between the two. The only issue is that the mycloud home will not mount locally, so its a web directory structure, and it wont allow me to take copy files to my pc or other drives. I can copy from my pc to it via web interface, but not the other way. I would think there would be an easier way to do that. Like direct connet the mycloud home directly to the pr100 and go. I had to dump to a hd, connect that hd to the pr2100, so it took twice as log. At least its going. Maybe there is a way, but I guess others are having the same issues. I guess its not clear how to do it. Im happy its at least going though. Thanks

[@GlenReed]

That’s a bummer and I’ve been there. It definitely takes a long time. I would also verify that the files are intact once you are done before deleting the originals. The only other way I can think of is through SSH access but that’s a bit more advanced.

[@MontyDeane]

@@GlenReed Yeah Looked at that and didnt want to mess with linux. I know just enough to destroy everything. lol.

[@GlenReed]

Yeah a bit scary when it comes to precious data

[@islander37]

What size drives did/do you have the in EX2/PR2100 you never mention that?

[@GlenReed]

Hey thanks for asking! I used two 6 TB WD Red drives. They are the same drives in my WD PR2100 now.

[@islander37]

Glen Reed I just bought the ex2 ultra I know you said it gave you issues but I want to give it a shot in my home first. I got a great deal on it for $280 with 2 8TB drives. If you’re using 2 6TB drives are you using in raid 0 for redundancy? That would mean you only have 3 TB?

[@GlenReed]

That’s cool! Hopefully it works well for you and you save some money. I am using a Raid 1 configuration, basically mirroring one drive to the other giving 6 TB of total unusable storage. That way if I have one drive fail I can replace it and the PR2100 will copy all the data back to the new drive from the 2nd drive and I have no data loss.

[@islander37]

@@GlenReed Ah so you have 12tb got it. Yea this came with 2 4tb ones. I want to use RAID 1 as well for mirroring. I am afraid it won't be enough as I have already used 3.5 tb on my external right now and that won't give me much space. :/ I will have to probably upgrade HD's rather quickly I think.

[@GlenReed]

It definitely fills up fast. I’ve had to dump old footage several times to gain more space. Not looking forward to the cost of new drives though I know it’s coming.

[@davida6146]

Are you Canadian?

[@GlenReed]

No, I was born and raised in California and now live in Florida.

[@vice979]

So this vs the synology ds218+. Was wondering which had better performance.

[@GlenReed]

I have not personally tried the ds218+ but I can tell you the PR2100 has 4GB of RAM and a 1.6Ghz quad core processor while the ds218+ only has 2GB of RAM and a dual core 2.0Ghz processor. So in theory the PR2100 should give you way better performance and has worked well for me. From the specs the ds218+ is more comparable to the WD EX2 Ultra (I also did a review on the EX2 Ultra kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJbKfn-trNdjsMk ) which is much slower than the PR2100. Hope this helps 😊!

[@vice979]

@@GlenReed Thanks! Your videos and feedback have really helped narrow down my choices.

[@GlenReed]

Your very welcome 😊

[@rejojohn6036]

Great video! Thanks for making it! I was wondering what type of hard drive you went with? If you have a link that would be great! Thanks!

[@GlenReed]

Thanks for watching and commenting! So I went with the 6TB WD RED drive just because it is a very reliable drive and is listed as compatible for the NAS. Plus I got a great deal on it too!! Here is the link www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1070898-REG/wd_wd60efrx_intellipower_6tb_3_5_64mb.html

[@rejojohn6036]

Thanks Glen! Appreciate it!

[@GlenReed]

No problem! Glad to help!

[@brotha1984]

Can this transcode 4k movies

[@GlenReed]

Yes this can do internal transcoding.

[@RyanAA44]

How are you finding the PR2100 Plex Server using Plex?

[@GlenReed]

I have no complaints on the pr2100 at all. This thing works great!

[@NightSociety]

What size (TB) and what RAID you use?

[@GlenReed]

Hey thanks for watching!! I use 6TB drives in the Raid 1 configuration.