Wireless Hard Drive Review
Need external storage that’s extremely portable? I’ve wished for an external hard drive enclosure that’s wireless, and my wireless hdd guide will show you the in’s and out’s of what’s currently available!
This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!
I’ve blogged a lot off an on about making your home entertainment network more user friend, and the gadgets that can help you get it done. Yesterday we were talking at home about the value of maybe getting a big external hard drive and hooking it up (wired) to one PC so the entire household could store their media on it. We’d maybe start it off with one big USB 2.0 external 500GB disk. You can get one new for around $120. I’ve written about the wireless USB hub and how you could connect multiple external hard drives or enclosures that way, and I’ve also posted about the value of a good network storage drive. But now they’re coming out with wireless hard drives that may start to change all of that…
What is a Wireless Hard Drive?
You have to be very careful when you’re shopping for a wireless hard drive, because devices that may appear to do the same thing may not. There are many, many flavors that may do many many different things - pay attention to what your needs are, the price, and value for the money. I’m going to show you some different kinds of wireless hard drives and enclosures:
The Iomega 33349 StorCenter has 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB) of storage and is a “Network Storage Device” - meaning you can plug it into your router or switch on your home or business network for everyone to share (without having it hooked to one dedicated computer). The StorCenter is “wireless” as well as wired, so all laptops and mobile devices can access it. Imagine having one device that could be accessed by PC’s, laptops, cell phones, PDA, iPhone, iTouch, or even your PSP or other mobile devices. There’s a price to be paid for all this technology, and it’s a little under $500 (as of this writing). You can get the latest price by following these links.
Iomega 33349 StorCenter 1 TB Wireless Gigabit Ethernet Network Storage
 | US $512.99 End Date: Saturday Nov-22-2008 19:13:45 PST Buy It Now for only: US $512.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
You have some products that proclaim to be a “Wireless Media Player” like the MG-350HD HD Wireless 802.11G Media Player by Mediagate. This is just fancy hard drive enclosure - since the device comes sans hard drive. It does proclaim so pretty boasty features, like the ability to stream HD video via wireless up to 1920 x 1080p. It’s got all kinds of fancy connections, like L/R stereo out, and composite, component, and S-video out. This particular unit can stream video from an internal hard drive or a PC on the network and even has a remote control. So you can see that this unit (as a wireless hard drive) is very different in that it can be a set-top box OR a media gateway to access (from networked PC’s). Follow these links to find more out about this device.
MG-350HD HD Wireless 802.11G Media Player. By Mediagate
 | US $80.00 (9 Bids) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 18:35:38 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
You might be interested in an Asus Wireless Storage Router which has an internal 250GB hard drive. It has a USB connector so you can connect other (wired) storage devices to it for sharing, and it even has the ability to download files from the Internet when your PC is turned off. The specs say you can download up to 7 bitTorrent files or 10 FTP/HTTP files simultaneously. For what it does, this wireless hard drive is a pretty good at half the price (and storage) as the StorCenter. You can get the wireless storage router through these links:
ASUS WL-700GE WIRELESS STORAGE ROUTER 160GB
 | US $277.28 End Date: Thursday Nov-27-2008 13:46:26 PST Buy It Now for only: US $277.28 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
ASUS WL-700GE MULTIFUNCTIONAL WIRELESS STORAGE ROUTER
 | US $214.23 End Date: Saturday Nov-29-2008 1:47:12 PST Buy It Now for only: US $214.23 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
ASUS WL-700GE WIRELESS STORAGE ROUTER W/ 160GB HDD NEW
 | US $223.92 End Date: Saturday Dec-13-2008 22:01:32 PST Buy It Now for only: US $223.92 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
ASUS WL-700GE WIRELESS STORAGE ROUTER W/ 160GB HDD NEW
 | US $240.86 End Date: Thursday Dec-18-2008 19:34:49 PST Buy It Now for only: US $240.86 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
ASUS WL-500G PREMIUM WIRELESS ROUTER MEDIA STORAGE V1
 | US $89.99 End Date: Friday Dec-19-2008 8:18:36 PST Buy It Now for only: US $89.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
If you a have a hard drive lying around, you might be able to stick in a wireless hard drive enclosure box and put it on your network (wirelessly) that way. You can get one pretty reasonably, but the two I found were only for 2.5″ drives. I hope we see more (and a 3.5″ version) on eBay soon:
You can actually make any external hard drive enclosure wireless by using the Linksys Storage Link for USB Disk Drives. Just like many other devices Linksys makes to connect computer hardware to your home or business network, they make a Storage Link that will connect any 2 USB storage devices to your wireless local network. The thing that’s always sucked about external hard drives is that they have to be attached to a physical computer via USB to work, and then you have to access them through that computer on the network. If that computer is turned off or locked up - you can’t access those drives. With a Linksys Storage Link, you can put up to 2 USB storage devices on your network independant of all your PC’s. Just plug it into your router or hub (or switch) to work. Oh - you can even stick a flash memory stick or drive into one of the USB slots to share it on the network as well. This is not only great for file sharing, but an easy way to connect with many mobile devices!
Linksys Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives NSLU2
 | US $24.08 (5 Bids) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 14:06:22 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
LINKSYS NETWORK STORAGE LINK USB 2.0 DRIVES NSLU2 NEW!
 | US $45.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 15:37:03 PST Buy It Now for only: US $47.44 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
LINKSYS CISCO NSLU2 NETWORK STORAGE LINK NAS 4 USB HDD
 | US $22.39 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 18:00:00 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router Storage Link WRT350N
 | US $79.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 18:22:34 PST Buy It Now for only: US $85.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router+Storage Link WRT350N
 | US $79.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 18:41:55 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
LINKSYS NETWORK STORAGE LINK USB 2.0 DRIVES NSLU2 NEW!
 | US $45.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 18:50:46 PST Buy It Now for only: US $47.44 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Wireless Hard Drive Auctions
Products and listings change on eBay all the time, so here’s the lastest auctions for “wireless hard drive” on eBay right now!
NAS SMCWAPS-G HD Hard Drive Wireless Network Storage | US $50.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 14:26:22 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
NAS SMCWAPS-G HD Hard Drive Wireless Network Storage
 | US $55.00 (10 Bids) End Date: Thursday Nov-20-2008 14:35:40 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
Western Digital 1 TB External Hard Drive, Wireless
 | US $152.50 (11 Bids) End Date: Friday Nov-21-2008 9:38:55 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
NAS SMCWAPS-G HD Hard Drive Wireless Network Storage
 | US $9.50 (5 Bids) End Date: Friday Nov-21-2008 14:34:18 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
APPLE MAC Time Capsule 1TB Wireless Hard Drive PRO Mode
 | US $305.00 (14 Bids) End Date: Friday Nov-21-2008 16:41:08 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
NAS SMCWAPS-G HD Hard Drive Wireless Network Storage
 | US $49.99 End Date: Friday Nov-21-2008 17:27:30 PST Buy It Now for only: US $49.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
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