External hard drive with wifi?

I'm buying a new HP laptop and I'd like to get a new external hard drive that has wifi capabilities so that I can automatically back up my data wirelessly - if possible? I know mac has this option, but I'm buying an HP so am hoping for something similar. I think I would back up my data a lot more (then my current twice a year) if I didn't have to drag my external hard drive out of the closet and hook it all up (lazy, I know). Any experience with this?

 

Some routers have a USB port and you can share an external hard drive or printer as an external resource.

I've always found wifi data transfer too slow when it comes to large files and backups though. E-sata just blazes it.

 

For backup purposes wireless is *really* slow. I've got a backup running right now that it going to take 8 hours for a few hundred GBs on an 802.11n network (effective speeds are about 12MB/s for some reason...). That isn't even all my data...it would take more than 12 hours to back that much up.

Obviously for you it might not be that much, but it could be worse depending on how you use your PC.

You could get a network attached storage device, a GigE ethernet hub, and hook those up so that the drive is always available on the network. With that sort of environment I typically get 40MB/s write speeds (which is about all my NAS can handle in it's RAID1 configuration).

 

I have my backup-HDD attached to my WLAN Router with USB port. That's the best / cheapest solution as it is then also shared with all computers on the network. You must know though that the transfer speed is 1-2 MB/sec (could be a bit more depending on the router and it's USB capabilities). For me enough to backup small files every now and then, as I use an automated tool and don't really care if it would take 10 minutes, an hour or even 3 hours. And whenever I need to copy a bigger amount of data, I just attach it directly.

 

Agreed.... data transfer over WiFi is waaaay too slow IMO and I'd rather have network-attached storage of some kind or cloud backup that I access via a wired internet connection

 

It that's the case why bother? You need to backup your data way more often than that. How ofter? That depends on how often you update, and how important your data is.

I keep my backup drive right in my desk drawer with the cable attached. When I need to do a quick backup, I just reach down, plug in the cable, and push go. If I'm really in a hurry or have more data, I use the eSATA port.

 

I didn't even think about wireless being slow, thats a good point. I'll just stick to my normal wired connection and try not to be so lazy haha

 

Right. Wireless is really only good for low-rate data transfer, like accessing the Internet (hardly anyone has a home connection approaching even 100 Mbit) or printing. At least for now. My home wireless gear will only do N (300 Mbit/s max), even slower than USB 2.0.

 

@OP, You can try a product like the Buffalo LinkStation:
Amazon.com: Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live 1.0TB Shared Network Attached Storage LS-CH1.0TL(Black): Electronics

And, you might want to look into getting a wireless router with USB port to hook up an external drive.