What's a good wireless backup solution for me? (external HD)

I'm trying to figure out the best way to backup everything from my laptop, and I really don't know what I need. I'll probably be upgrading my secondary internal HDD to a 750 GB/1 TB, so I'll probably need a 1, 1.5, or 2 TB external drive and I want a wireless one. I use my laptop in my lap on the couch, so having something plugged in would be a hassle. Most of the ones I've found on Amazon have bad reviews. Can anyone recommend any good wireless externals or other solutions?

 

You are better off with a standard external hooked to a router or a small NAS, but any NAS isn't gonna be cheap.

Another option, if you have a desktop, would be to install one or more drives in the desktop and set network sharing so that you can backup to them.

 

can any external HD be hooked up to a router? Or does it have to be one meant to be wireless? Something like the Seagate GoFlex Home?

 

If your router supports it, any external will do. Performance won't be super fast though, expect transfer speeds of somewhere between 5-20MB/s. Now that i think of it, there is probably another option, a HDD that can be hooked via ethernet, i think WD makes an external with those capabilities. Lacie probably makes some as well.

 

Like these?
Amazon.com: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Home 1TB STAM1000100: Electronics
Amazon.com: Western Digital My Book Live 2 TB Personal Cloud Storage Drive: Electronics
These are meant to connect to your router via ethernet, but they have terrible reviews. That's why I was wondering if there's a better solution.
Both of the above externals have software that automatically backs up your files in the background whenever there are changes. Would 5-20MB/s be fast enough for automatic backups or would I notice the slowness?

 

That really depends on what you are doing and your setup. For example, if i backup to my desktop through my network, i will saturate my wireless connection and internet will feel a bit slow, the computer is as responsive as ever though.

To be honest, the absolute best solution is a NAS, but like i said, a NAS is pretty expensive since it's meant for more than backups, usually has a RAID controller and can house multiple drives.

What i would consider the second best solution would be backing up to another computer (preferable wired to the router), you could either backup to an Internal drive or an external drive connected in computer #2.

Finally, i am not sure which of an ethernet drive or a drive connected through USB would be better.

The WD and Seagate drives aren't meant to be operated continuously, they'll run hot. Aside from potential software issues, i do not see a problem with that solution as long as the HDD inside the enclosure is decent.

I can vouch for the enclosure of this one: Amazon.com: LaCie d2 Network v.2 2 TB Ethernet Network Attached Storage 301506: Electronics, but not for the software part. I have a d2 quadra at home (non-network version) and for an external with no active cooling, it runs cool even when you abuse the drive inside. You can also disassemble it, it's held by screws since the chassis is aluminium.

The thing is that with ethernet drives, some people expect NAS like interfaces and capabilities, but that would mean higher prices.

By the way, which router do you have? If it has a USB port and support for an external drive, you can always try it for a while with an external you have on hand.

 

I just have the Verizon Fios router. My dad has probably 15-20 TB of externals connected to his computer for his business, but I don't think it's shared on the network. I'll ask him. What's your internet speed? I'm supposed to have 15 down, 5 up, but on a good day, it's more like 10 down, 4-5 up. I don't want to sacrifice internet speed for backups :/

 

Mine is pretty slow, but the thing is that when i transfer a file on the network, it's pretty much eating the whole network bandwidth i have available which boils down to ~21MB/s WAN to LAN. I can still browse sites like NBR fine, it is a tad slower, but nothing that ruins the experience, i can forget about downloading stuff at the same time or watching good quality streams.

Also when you will not be backing up something which will actually be most of the time, you will see no difference what so ever. The Internet itself won't get slower, it's just that large file transfers over a network tend to use as much throughput as possible which leaves little for the Internet to get through over the network. That is of course provided that you can saturate your wireless network. If i transfer small files, i see no difference, but when i transfer files like DVD rips, i know to expect slowdowns while the file is being transferred.