Can I get a Wireless External HD? Or should I just use Time Machine on a new Macbook?

[flyersman]

Hey all,

I was curious if there was a way to backup your HD, and wirelessly have it indexed to your spotlight. I have about 800GB of a 1TB 2016 Macbook filled, running pretty slow as well, and was unsure whats better:

- Get a new Mac at 1-2TB, and keep it fresh as new. But somehow have my current HD on a wireless external drive, indexed to my spotlight so the files are there. And any applications, settings, etc Im fine with starting from scratch and re-downloading.

- Get a new MacBook Pro, but 2-4TB of space, and restore it via Time Machine backup. My only worry is I dont want to lose speed, as its currently slow but loading it with almost 1TB of data.

What do you thinks best, and is it even possible to have a wireless external HD accessible in the spotlight.

 

[ignatius345]

I'm a little unclear on what you're aiming for.

It sounds like your internal drive is full and you want to move some files out onto another drive. I believe a NAS (network attached storage) drive would do what you want, but you'll take a hit on speed accessing over wifi. I can't speak to whether Spotlight would index its contents, but maybe someone else can.

You're also talking about buying a new computer with far more storage than you currently have. If you're buying a MacBook Pro with 2TB of space but you have 800GB of files on your current machine, that would leave you with well over 1TB of space free on the new MacBook. I'm not sure how a wireless drive be necessary there, as it seems like everything would be on your internal drive.

Whatever you do, I'd make sure you keep everything backed up -- meaning also that anything on that wireless drive would get backed up to an additional drive for safety. You really never want anything important to exist on only one drive. You have to assume any drive can fail at any time.

 

[flyersman]

Thanks for the reply. My concern is speed, Im not sure if I want to Time Machine this device to a new macbook, solely as I dont want to ruin the speed of the new system by immediately using half the hard drive. Is this a bad thought, would I have no problems?

Ideally I want to start fresh on a new macbook, and have all files on my current macbook available on an External HD (wirelessly for convenience) where I can search for things I may need, preferably with spotlight. If I do this, should I do a time machine backup for the external HD, or since Id be searching for file names just a simple clone/copy of all files make more sense?

 

[yukari]

If speed is your main concern, I think you would have to use an external SSD via USB-C.

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks for the reply. My concern is speed, Im not sure if I want to Time Machine this device to a new macbook, solely as I dont want to ruin the speed of the new system by immediately using half the hard drive. Is this a bad thought, would I have no problems?

Ideally I want to start fresh on a new macbook, and have all files on my current macbook available on an External HD (wirelessly for convenience) where I can search for things I may need, preferably with spotlight. If I do this, should I do a time machine backup for the external HD, or since Id be searching for file names just a simple clone/copy of all files make more sense?

There might be some small performance loss. Generally you'll just want to keep an SSD at least 20% free.

 

[ThrowerGB]

Not sure exactly what you're trying to achieve, but:

1. I have an iMac and a MacBook Air. I've attached two WD external drives to the iMac via USB. I set up TimeMachine on the iMac to backup the iMac to one of the external drives. I use System Preferences>Sharing>Shared Folders on the iMac to make the second external drive sharable on my local network. Then on the MacBook Air, I set up TimeMachine to point to that second drive, (which should now be seen by the MacBook Air) as the laptop backup drive. So, in effect, I use TimeMachine on the laptop to backup wirelessly to a drive connected via USB to the iMac.
   1. The problem with this is that the bandwidth between the laptop and its backup drive is constrained by the local wireless network speed and the speed of the USB drive. So this setup is fine for backups but probably too slow for what I think you want.
2. If you're just trying to save space on the HD in your laptop, you could attach an external SSD drive to the laptop and offload some large directories to it. (I offload HD>Users>"user">[Movies, Music, and Pictures] to it.) I have a Samsung Portable SSD X5 attached to a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port. Using a Thunderbolt 3 port enables very fast transfer speeds. The Samsung Portable SSD X5 is also able to handle very fast transfer speeds, so the throughput is close to having an internal SSD drive. I have the external SSD formatted APFS which also helps with throughput.

Hope this is useful.

 

[glenthompson]

If your Mac is running slow, the first task is to determine where the bottleneck is before throwing money at it. While performing your normal tasks run Activity Monitor and look at memory pressure, cpu utilization, and disk activity. Some mention of what apps you run and current system configuration would provide more relevant answers.

 

[flyersman]

Sorry maybe I should have been more specific.

My biggest concern is my laptop speed, running to full potential. I simply use too many windows at once for work for this 2016 model, and already had to delete files from approaching 1TB before.

So I’ll be getting a new one. With 2TB, but don’t want to compromise the new laptops performance by time machine-ing in half of the hard drives space. Or would that have no affect?

I think ideally I want to start “new” on this computer, but have easy access to my old files in a way where I can pull the file onto my new computer. To me, that means being able to access them by typing in the file name (as I do now with my computer) into spotlight, and being able to access all files on my external HD easily. Meaning the external is indexed in spotlight, and also connected wirelessly. So I am wondering if I can buy some sort of external harddrive that’s wireless, that will index in my spotlight. If so, what’s the best one?

Thanks to all for attempting to help me here!

 

[Blowback]

Sorry maybe I should have been more specific.

My biggest concern is my laptop speed, running to full potential. I simply use too many windows at once for work for this 2016 model, and already had to delete files from approaching 1TB before.

So I’ll be getting a new one. With 2TB, but don’t want to compromise the new laptops performance by time machine-ing in half of the hard drives space. Or would that have no affect?

I think ideally I want to start “new” on this computer, but have easy access to my old files in a way where I can pull the file onto my new computer. To me, that means being able to access them by typing in the file name (as I do now with my computer) into spotlight, and being able to access all files on my external HD easily. Meaning the external is indexed in spotlight, and also connected wirelessly. So I am wondering if I can buy some sort of external harddrive that’s wireless, that will index in my spotlight. If so, what’s the best one?

Thanks to all for attempting to help me here!

Why does it have to be wireless? I have ~ what ThrowerGB describes above: a 500GB Samsung T5 velcroed to the top of my MBP....connected via USB. I also have a (wireless/net) TimeCapsule/TimeMachine router backup but its nowhere near as fast as the wired T5. You could probably mimic (our) T5 setups using a Thunderbolt enclosure / NVMe drive and get speeds akin to your internal. If I think one part of what you're asking is 'always indexed' you may want to re-word your query (or check the Apple Support Forums) to see if or how that can be made possible. Seems as if you want Spotlight/indexed access to each drive to be instant??? Hope some of this helps.

 

[Blowback]

Not sure exactly what you're trying to achieve, but:

1. I have an iMac and a MacBook Air. I've attached two WD external drives to the iMac via USB. I set up TimeMachine on the iMac to backup the iMac to one of the external drives. I use System Preferences>Sharing>Shared Folders on the iMac to make the second external drive sharable on my local network. Then on the MacBook Air, I set up TimeMachine to point to that second drive, (which should now be seen by the MacBook Air) as the laptop backup drive. So, in effect, I use TimeMachine on the laptop to backup wirelessly to a drive connected via USB to the iMac.
   1. The problem with this is that the bandwidth between the laptop and its backup drive is constrained by the local wireless network speed and the speed of the USB drive. So this setup is fine for backups but probably too slow for what I think you want.
2. If you're just trying to save space on the HD in your laptop, you could attach an external SSD drive to the laptop and offload some large directories to it. (I offload HD>Users>"user">[Movies, Music, and Pictures] to it.) I have a Samsung Portable SSD X5 attached to a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port. Using a Thunderbolt 3 port enables very fast transfer speeds. The Samsung Portable SSD X5 is also able to handle very fast transfer speeds, so the throughput is close to having an internal SSD drive. I have the external SSD formatted APFS which also helps with throughput.

Hope this is useful.

ThrowerGB: any heat and or throttle issues with that X5 in 'general' use? How about photo or video or gaming use?

 

[flyersman]

Why does it have to be wireless? I have ~ what ThrowerGB describes above: a 500GB Samsung T5 velcroed to the top of my MBP....connected via USB. I also have a (wireless/net) TimeCapsule/TimeMachine router backup but its nowhere near as fast as the wired T5. You could probably mimic (our) T5 setups using a Thunderbolt enclosure / NVMe drive and get speeds akin to your internal. If I think one part of what you're asking is 'always indexed' you may want to re-word your query (or check the Apple Support Forums) to see if or how that can be made possible. Seems as if you want Spotlight/indexed access to each drive to be instant??? Hope some of this helps.

I was thinking wireless moreso for convenience of being able to be anywhere in my home and be able to browse the spotlight for my drive.

Im not opposed to a wired like mentioned and believe it can be accessed by spotlight, but if I’m simply searching for random files from it, am I better off backing it up as a clone/simply transfer my hard drive to the X5, or do it as a time machine backup?

 

[ThrowerGB]

ThrowerGB: any heat and or throttle issues with that X5 in 'general' use? How about photo or video or gaming use?

Not had any heat or throttle issues. Haven't used it for photo/video editing, or for gaming. I see quite a few people using it as an external boot drive to free up space on an internal drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

My opinion only:

- Get an external USB SSD, same size as internal drive.
- Get CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper
- Use either CCC or SD to create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of the internal drive

Now you have both a backup AND an external boot source which can be used in an emergency.
Of course, you will have to connect the backup drive, RUN the backup, and then disconnect the backup drive. But the SSD will make the operation go fast.