Can I use Nextcloud with my older WDCloud drive? I have a WDBCTL0300HWT-00 model WDCloud drive. It is an older HD drive configuration. I currently have it connected to my network router. It also has a usb connection on the back of it, but I am currently not using the usb connection. Please help.
so now please compare your thread to the thing I just cited from the very first sentence of your posting…
it’s a technical question, no doubt.
so what happens with postings that don’t meet the requirements… another citation from your first posting:
I’m not gonna delete it - you’re lucky. It’s gonna stay here for everyone to learn from it 
just a try to answer your question:
in general any HDD should work with NC as a datastorage,
I remember that there once was something like a NC-thingy from WD where you could even run NC with. I am pretty sure that you wouldn’t get really happy trying that with a new version. It was pretty slow even back then. But of course you can check it out yourself. I don’t know if WDCloud drive would meet the technical requirements to run an actual version.
just in case that it was installed via snap back then: be sure that I love snap. It’s the best! ever. 
happy nc’ing
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Hey @D_Man welcome to the nextcloud community 
ahhh… a blast from the past 
that sure is old… going on 10 years now. that WDCloud drive is what GITHUB | nextcloud-snap: 
was created for!
@kyrofa initially created the Nextcloud snap (and Ubuntu Core image) as a proposal for the Nextcloud Box product (a collaboration between Nextcloud and Western Digital), which ultimately ended up shipping with it.
as far as I can recall, that was around the Raspi2b age and probably what powers that WDCloud box… ancient hardware and probably a bit low on resources for a current Nextcloud snap.
maybe @kyrofa could give us some thoughts about reviving @D_Man’s WDCloud box?
Hi @D_Man
As far as I remember, those WD Cloud drives were basically external HDDs with a network port, a stripped-down NAS OS, and just enough compute power to provide a few SMB, FTP, or similar network shares. I highly doubt that you can install additional applications on them like you can on “real” NAS systems.
The only theoretical possibility would be if you found a way to “hack” the device and install a standard Linux distribution on it. If I remember correctly, that was possible on some WD NAS systems. However, the installation process was not straightforward like it is on a normal PC. I don’t know whether that’s possible on your particular model, and even if it were, it would probably be completely underpowered to run a current version of Nextcloud properly, as others have already mentioned. Again, those Cloud Drives were never designed to do much more than provide simple network shares.
However, you could still use it as an external storage device for a Nextcloud instance running on another device (e.g., a mini PC, Raspberry Pi, etc.), or simply use it for backups.
Note that WD My Cloud or whatever it’s called is not the same as the Nextcloud Box. I have no idea what runs on that thing.
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I found this: [GUIDE] Nextcloud on WD My Cloud - My Cloud OS 3 - WD Community
So, I suppose that it is, or at least it was at some point, possible to install Nextcloud on it.
However, I also found this: GitHub - xyliu/wd_mycloud · GitHub
…and there it says:
- Processor
- Mindspeed Comcerto 2000 (M86261G-12) dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 @650 MHz
- Memory
- 256 MB of Samsung K4B2G1646E DDR3 RAM
Conclusion:
Even if you manage to install Nextcloud on this device, it probably won’t be much fun to use with just two ARM Cortex A9 cores and 256 MB of RAM. 
q.e.d.
Although, in theory it could still work… System requirements — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation
But seriously, no, don’t do it!
Oh, and it’s also a 32-bit SOC, so there are even more limitations to consider: System requirements — Nextcloud latest Administration Manual latest documentation
Not that it really matters at this point
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JimmYKater
I’m sorry I thought it was a basic question, whether something would work or not. It’s not like I was asking how to connect something or specific about software etc.
You can see from the posts in this thread that it’s not that simple, can you?
Also, even for a general question, your post was worded a bit vaguely. You can tell from the fact that everyone here assumed you wanted to install Nextcloud on this device. But reading your post again, you actually wrote “with Nextcloud”. And yes, that could technically be answered with a simple “yes”, but such an answer wouldn’t be very helpful, would it?
If it actually is the latter, you could have just explicitly told us that you plan to use it with an existing Nextcloud instance and given a few details about your setup. That would’ve not only made it immediately clear that you don’t want to install Nextcloud on the device, but people might also have been able to provide some tips on how to use it best with Nextcloud.
Or was our assumption actually correct and you do plan to install Nextcloud on this device after all?
Either way, I think this thread has turned into a fun little discussion about WD Cloud drives, and there’s definitely some useful information in here. We just don’t know whether any of this information is actually useful for you.
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