Portable Wireless HDD for College

So I just picked up a Razer Blade for the freshman year of college. My only gripe with the laptop was, and still is, the limited storage capacity, so I am in search of an external storage solution to add to the 256 Gb I already have. At first my idea was to use just a regular USB HDD. With wireless drives out, I am looking at leaving the drive in my backpack all day and just connecting to its signal whenever I would need access to the information on the drive. I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this, or have any other solutions? Whatever I end up using, it HAS to be password protected somehow, whether its through the drive itself or the wireless transmitter.

First thought: using a drive with the wireless built in, ex.
Seagate Wireless Plus Mobile Storage | Corsair Voyager Air Series

Second thought: a "normal" external HDD paired with a wireless USB hub, if the receiver ever runs out of power, I could just plug in a regular USB battery pack
HyperDrive iUSBportHD + WD MyPassport Ultra (or similar external HDD)
RAVPower WiFi Disk + WD MyPassport Ultra (or similar external HDD)

Any experiences/responses/reviews are greatly appreciated and equally considered! Thanks!

 

So return the Razer. Then buy a laptop that actually has storage. What's the point in having a super thin laptop but have to carry around an external drive?

 

I'm sorry, but I seem to misunderstand YOUR view on MY situation. I have thoroughly weighed my options of laptop choices and believe the Razer to be the best. 256 Gb is enough for college work: essays, powerpoints, etc. If you would like to give me real input on my topic of choice, it would be very appreciated! I do not plan to defend my choice of laptop. Thank you!

 

These are probably what you're looking for. It's just a hdd, battery and wifi connection all-in-one. There's probably more out there but here are some well-known brands.
http://www.cnet.com/uk/topics/storage/best-hard-drives-and-storage/best-mobile-wireless-drives/

Alternatively you could consider network attached storage drives. They sit at home and connect to your router with a cable and your stuff can be accessed from anywhere on any device via the internet.
Advantages are: battery never runs out, can easily upgrade storage by just getting a bigger hdd and installing it, no need to carry anything around, protection against data loss (you can auto backup and you won't lose this as it's just at home).
Disadvantages: when you're out speed is limited to your broadbands upload speed (when you're at home it'll be gigabit ethernet which is fast), cannot get to your information with no internet connection.

Also just to mention, any modern storage solution will have encryption / password protection available on it. You don't need to worry about this.

 

There are two things that come to mind that might throw a wrench in the gears so to speak.

I'd be worried about the drive's temperature if it's kept in an enclosed space. It might be a non issue, but it's something I'd make sure isn't an issue or you could end up killing the drive prematurely if you use it constantly when it's in a bag. That's a maybe, but keep in mind that you may have to pull the drive out of the bag for prolonged use.

The second thing is that wireless environments in colleges are terrible in terms of interference, etc. That won't be a problem with accessing the drive or it shouldn't, but you can expect things to get slow when you're transferring data.

I would avoid solutions that go through Internet, at that point, you might as well use a cloud storage service to access those files via Internet and keep the wireless drive for stuff you want when you don't have access to the Internet.

In the end, the drive should be fine for storing files and data, but definitely not for programs. Alternatively, if your laptop has a SD card reader, I'd suggest that as an add on storage for your most used files like music you'd want to be able to access anytime, etc. and use the drive for the other less used stuff. Sean listed a decent bunch of wireless drives. Personally, I'd avoid the Lacie, not that their products are bad, but they tend to offer less value for the money. I'd get the WD provided it has decent warranty.

 

My advice: Don't bother with wireless drives. Get a wired USB 3.0 drive instead.

I think that you're getting blinded by the assumption that "it's wireless, and it's newer, so therefore it must automatically be better." Nothing in your description leads me to believe that wireless is a must-have. It seems to me that you think wireless is a nice-to-have, but haven't really considered the drawbacks.

Wireless drives will be slow to transfer, will depend on a battery to operate, will add unnecessary carry weight to your backpack / briefcase, and will be more expensive than a comparable USB 3.0 wired drive. The only usage scenario I can see for a wireless drive is a multi-user video streaming scenario (e.g. multiple people on a car ride, all trying to stream videos that are stored on the wireless drive). For you, with a single user, single laptop, you're going to be much happier with the choices, price, and speed of a wired USB 3.0 drive.

 

Thanks so much everyone on your input! I'll probably pick up a regular wireless harddrive that is also USB 3.0. Having it all compact would be a huge advantage and if the signal ever drops, I can just plug it in. Thanks!

 

Looking forward to your purchase of a 512 msata drive