Spec Me: External Wireless Backup Drive

[Valo]

I'm looking for an external backup drive for use with Time Machine, preferably wireless or connectable to a router.

Capacity wise something between 1TB or 2TB as the drive in the MacBook Pro it's going to backup is 128GB SSD.

Any recommendations?

 

[InfiniteNoise]

You're probably better off going with normal external hard drive and connect it to the router, also cheaper, WD and Seagate drives are decent.

If it's only used for TM backup, 500GB+ should be fine, typically you want minimum 2x the capacity of the internal drive anyway.

 

[Valo]

You're probably better off going with normal external hard drive and connect it to the router, also cheaper, WD and Seagate drives are decent.

If it's only used for TM backup, 500GB+ should be fine, typically you want minimum 2x the capacity of the internal drive anyway.

I'm only seeing USB 3.0 drives from WD and Seagate. Any ideas for one that can be connected via Cat5 to a router?

 

[InfiniteNoise]

Router doesn't have a USB port? If it does and it's 2.0, USB 3 will work, it's backwards compatible.

If it doesn't have USB port, well, I guess you'll have to go with wireless drives then, dunno any good ones, never used them.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

A USB drive plugged into a router isn't supported for TimeMachine, unless the router explicitly runs an AFP proxy. Basically Apple doesn't allow backing up to an SMB/CIFS network drive.

 

[InfiniteNoise]

It works if you create a sparse bundle on the drive and do some fiddling with terminal, seems like a bit too much work though.

OP, any reason why you're not connecting the drive to the Mac directly? I'm assuming USB ports are all taken up or something like that.

 

[hartgeh3]

I would go with a WD Passport I have 2, 2TB and 4TB fast and USB 3

Other option is NAS Synology etc but ££££

 

[Feek]

OP, any reason why you're not connecting the drive to the Mac directly? I'm assuming USB ports are all taken up or something like that.

I'm guessing that's because it's too easy to forget, or just not to bother. If it's effectively always there when the laptop is connected to the network then there's less chance of forgetting to connect it for a backup. Fully automated with no end user intervention is always better.

 

[Valo]

I'm guessing that's because it's too easy to forget, or just not to bother. If it's effectively always there when the laptop is connected to the network then there's less chance of forgetting to connect it for a backup. Fully automated with no end user intervention is always better.

That's exactly it. I'm just looking for something that can sit on the network to which the MacBook Pro can just backup to when it's connected to the same network, rather than having to make an effort to remember to plug in a drive.

 

[Feek]

How about an Airport Extreme with a USB drive connected.