I bought this with the intention of storing digital movie files (legally) and streaming them to Plex on the same home network. WD + Plex make it ridiculously easy to set this all up. However, despite some users saying that their WD NAS could keep up with streaming and transcoding, mine could not. I tried a few settings and nothing worked; it took too long to load up the movie and start playing it. I WOULD NOT recommend this as a media server. I WOULD definitely recommend this for storage outside of media streaming. Set up is super nice and easy. Cost per GB is good. Software, sharing, and the interface is user friendly.

I bought this so I could stream movies and have piece of mind that they're backed up between the two drives in the device. The default is raid 1 (mirrored) so I didn't need to configure it for that. I wouldn't want to go through the process of ripping my Blu-Ray collection again. You can set it up to use the full 8TB, but then if a drive goes bad all of it goes bad. The device itself cannot really do the streaming for you so you'll want to map the drive on your computer and then use the PLEX server software. It'll work perfectly then. If I had to give a downside is that you'll only really get 3.5TB useable instead of something a lot closer to 4TB as was expected. I knew they'd be overhead, but that still takes away about 200-300GB of space that I cannot account for and haven't tried to figure out. Not exactly sure what the space is being used for. Surely the raid software doesn't take nearly that much space and the device itself doesn't provide a whole lot of software to write home about. It's rather minimal, though that's fine. Just doesn't compute as to where the space went. Just remember not to buy this thinking it'll work like an external hard-drive. That's not at all what its for.

My biggest problem with this is that it tries to force you into having Western Digital software all over the place. Want to install the desktop app? You have to install the mobile app first!!! Want to install the backup software, you have to install the discovery app first!!! and so on. It's unnecessary and intrusive. Even saying no to sharing your usage data pops up another prompt saying "are you sure" with confusing button colors. Then there is the ability to "wirelessly back up and sync all your PC and Mac computers" - nonsense. At least not if you aren't a computer expert in the first place. Their backup software didn't even discover the drive. It's mapped as a network drive and the built in windows backup is happily using it, but not WDs own software. I ripped out all the WD stuff and use it as a NAS. If you don't know what that means don't bother buying this. If you do then it's a cheap NAS with a default RAID1 configuration. So I've given it two stars for that use alone.

Simple, Fast and Reliable about sums it up. I was looking for a back-up to replace my 1 TB USB drive to back up my personal and small business files and create my own cloud. I have the 8 TB Home Duo, giving me 4TB capacity. I found it very easy to set up. Hook up an ethernet cable and plug it in to a power source. I was able to back up over 3,000 photos from my I Phone easily and quickly. Also backed up all photos on my I Pad, and 2 PC Computers. Was also able to download entire C drives from my HP and Surface laptops, all documents for both personal and business and all the files from my One Drive with ease. The best part is that it automatically backs up photos automatically. If I add new photos to my camera roll they are automatically backed up on My Cloud. I can access all of the files from any of my devices, from anywhere there is a WiFi signal. This probably isn't for the serious techy that likes to touch, feel and massage their data. But if you want a relatively simple, easy to use and reliable back up system, I would recommend giving the My Cloud system a try.

Be aware, it syncs folders and files, it does not function as a backup. Think about what your needs are. It also will not accept the DESKTOP folder per se, you need to enter the desktop sub folders individually. The operation is automatic and smooth in the background. The setup is not difficult,