Wireless Hard Drive

[therocket]

Call me paranoid about crime but...

I was wondering if there was any hard drive products on the market that are actually 100% wireless (other then a power supply). I figured that if someone breaks into my house and decides to steal my computer and everything around it, that I could at least have a back up of everything in my attic on a wireless hard drive or something. I know that there are network drives but I have my router right by my computer and for my purpose, a network drive would be pointless.

I am looking for a simple plug in and connect-to-network in a few steps while hooked up to the computer, then just have a hard drive that I can connect to through my network, not an old PC that i would use as a hard drive, because I have read about this else where and am not interested.

Thanks

 

[flynz4]

Call me paranoid about crime but...

I was wondering if there was any hard drive products on the market that are actually 100% wireless (other then a power supply). I figured that if someone breaks into my house and decides to steal my computer and everything around it, that I could at least have a back up of everything in my attic on a wireless hard drive or something. I know that there are network drives but I have my router right by my computer and for my purpose, a network drive would be pointless.

I am looking for a simple plug in and connect-to-network in a few steps while hooked up to the computer, then just have a hard drive that I can connect to through my network, not an old PC that i would use as a hard drive, because I have read about this else where and am not interested.

Thanks

A much better solution is to subscribe to a cloud backup service like Crashplan or Mozy if you are worried about disaster recovery. Your drive in the attic will be destroyed along with your computer in a fire.

IMHO... primary backup should be to the cloud. Secondary backup should be for convenience... and is OK to be local. All backup must be automatic without human intervention.

/Jim

 

[87vert]

You can do this with a time capsule or airport extreme w/ USB drive by having it join your current wireless network.

A better plan would be to do backups on another drive and store it off site. That way if you have a fire you still have your backup.

I keep an external hard drive at work that I bring home over the weekend, do a backup, bring it back to work.

Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
(You may need to temporarily connect an ethernet cable from your computer to one of the LAN ports on the Time Capsule to help AirPort Utility "see" the Time Capsule. You can disconnect the cable once you have the TC configured).

Click the Wireless tab below the icons
Wireless Mode = Join a wireless network. (Hold down the option key on your computer if you do not see this choice appear)
Wireless Network Name = Your wireless network
Wireless Network Security = Exact same security setting as your wireless network
Wireless Password = Exact same password as your wireless network

Click Update at the lower right and you should get a green light on the TC in 20-25 seconds.

Click System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock and open Time Machine.
Click Select Disk
Click the name of the Time Capsule
Click Use for Backups

 

[mstrze]

A better plan would be to do backups on another drive and store it off site. That way if you have a fire you still have your backup.

I keep an external hard drive at work that I bring home over the weekend, do a backup, bring it back to work.

I keep meaning to do this with at least our iPhoto library. The rest of the stuff I can lose, but not the family photos.

To the OP:

Host your router in another room or in a closet and keep a hard drive attached to it and do you backups to that. In a break-in, since the drive is not with the computer or hopefully hidden in a closet, the drive might remain secure if it's just a crash-and-dash type break-in. In these days of wifi, there is no good reason to have your router and computer in the same room.

My AEBS is in my bedroom along with our printer and one external HDD. My iMac is 50 feet away with a PC laptop next to it and my wife has a MacBook that is never in the bedroom. Iphones and Wii also access this same router. If you have a cable modem or DSL and a newer home, you should be able to set up your router/modem anywhere you have a cable or phone outlet.

 

[ActionableMango]

Apple Time Capsule is a wireless hard drive.

Any wi-fi router that supports USB drives, plus any USB drive, would act as a wireless hard drive.

Any NAS plus an Ethernet-to-wireless adapter would also act as a wireless hard drive.

If you want to go really small and low power, I'd look for an Asus WL-HDD2.5. They are out of production, so you'd have to find a used one. I'm not aware of any current product that does something similar.

 

[stevieg83]

does Time Capsule support external hard drives with Airport Base Station?

Official line says no but is it possible?

 

[skorpien]

does Time Capsule support external hard drives with Airport Base Station?

Official line says no but is it possible?

If you're asking if Time Machine supports external hard drives connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station, then yes it does but not officially. Many users have had success setting this up, but there are users who have experienced problems with this as well. If you still haven't purchased any hardware, I'd suggest an AEBS with a NAS connected which supports Time Machine backups.

Just an FYI: Time Capsule is the actual device which integrates both a router and a hard drive whereas Time Machine is the software. Also, the AirPort Express does not support USB connected HDDs.