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external wifi HDD for MBP

E

ElCidRo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 29, 2010
315
168
You will have to partition a drive to use for both TM and other things like storage. Also, how about getting a large hard drive for your MBP instead so you will not need to connect with an external as much. I have a fast 750Gb drive now, see signature, which is wonderful and now I rarely need to how up to externals other than the occasional backup with TM and also drive clones.
 
I'm using a Time Capsule (1TB) as a back-up drive and my wireless router. I did previously use it as a wireless storage drive, though. I also stream HD video over my wi-fi, so I'm pretty sure your router will be able to handle it. Time Machine probably would work, but if you were to store other stuff on the drive, it would slowly close in on it (as the rest of the drive fills with back-up data). :eek:
 
Thanks for the replies.
So how would I be able to stream from the HDD from my ipad?
I'm currently using Air Video - but I really hate the fact that I have to keep a computer on the whole time. I would prefer to have that HDD running for my streaming.

So what app do I need for the ipad 2 to watch movies from the HDD over wifi?
Also could I watch mkv?
Air Video has this really cool Live Conversion that allows you to watch 720p mkvs flawlessly :)
 
GoFlex Home 2T

I use the GoFlex Home 2T WiFi router for backup, via Time Machine, and file storage, iTunes. I believe this is a 5400RPM drive, and the Buffalo is 7200RPM.

It was easy to set-up and worked well for ~6 weeks, then Time Machine erased all the backup's and would not recognize the drive again.

I reinstalled the software and it's been working well since. If it fails again, I will return it to Costco ($149) and buy the Buffalo drive.
 
so TimeMachine is mostly hit or miss with these NAS drives...
I just want to be able to stream over wifi to my ipad 2... so do I need the PRO edition of that Buffalo hdd or is the regular one good for that too?

I read about the filebrowser app that can stream from a NAS. Hopefully the cheaper Buffalo hdd is good for this purpose cuz I can get 2TB for 150 instead of 1TB for the pro edition.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

ElCidRo said:
so TimeMachine is mostly hit or miss with these NAS drives...
I just want to be able to stream over wifi to my ipad 2... so do I need the PRO edition of that Buffalo hdd or is the regular one good for that too?

I read about the filebrowser app that can stream from a NAS. Hopefully the cheaper Buffalo hdd is good for this purpose cuz I can get 2TB for 150 instead of 1TB for the pro edition.
Click to expand...

Haven't looked at the drive specifically but the drive isn't going to be the limiting factor when streaming over wifi. Get the 2TB one.
 
Is it even possible to stream from a hard drive to the iPad to begin with? I was not aware that it could even be done.
 
Filebrowser $3.99

snaky69 said:
Is it even possible to stream from a hard drive to the iPad to begin with? I was not aware that it could even be done.
Click to expand...

Yep, I downloaded it the other day. Pointed it to my GoFlex Home WiFi 2T drive and streamed a DVD I had ripped with Handbreak as Apple TV2 format. Works great.
 
Hi there:

I am thinking of buying this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/629823-REG/Buffalo_LS_CH2_0TL_2TB_LinkStation_Live_LS_CHL.html

A great product, doubtless, but is it really practical?

1. Do you have a better suggestion?

Yes. Get an external FireWire 800 HD or SSD and hook it up the old fashioned way. I'm not sure, but I'd bet you'll get around 15Mbps over WiFi, HDD can go around 60-100Mps. SSD is 200-550. USB 2.0 averages around 20-30Mbps, whereas FireWire 800 is 80Mbps. This is all Megabits, not megabytes, so its all slow anyways. But FireWire IS WAY FASTER!
2. Will I be able to watch HD movies on my MBP and iPad over wifi? Is it fast enough?[/QUOTE] I doubt it since the wireless transfer rate is still extremely low even on the fastest networks.

Speed rank in this order:
1. FireWire
2. USB 2.0
3. WiFi

Of course this is only the ports compatible with your computer...
 
2. Will I be able to watch HD movies on my MBP and iPad over wifi? Is it fast enough?[/QUOTE][/I] I doubt it since the wireless transfer rate is still extremely low even on the fastest networks.

Huh? Filebrowser allows me to stream HD movies from my WiFi backup drive to my iPad with the MBP TURNED OFF.

Here is the Speed Test from my iPad WiFi...
 

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I already got a sata3 SSD for my MBP. But this NAS would help me put all my movies and TV shows in one place for everyone in the house to quickly access and also to stream to my ipad 2.
It would help me a lot.
 
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