A standalone wireless hard drive is: A 3.5-inch hard drive in an enclosure where the enclosure on its own has Wi-Fi connectivity. Does such a thing exist? Yes. One such example is the Imation Pro WX, released in 2009 if I’m not mistaken. The Pro WX basically looks like a large-ish wireless router, except it’s a hard drive with its own wireless radio. Here’s a review on it. Another example of a Wi-Fi hard drive is Apple’s Time Capsule.

Is a dedicated wireless hard drive worth buying compared to alternative ways of going about the same thing? The answer depends on how much your willing to spend (or not spend) and whether the convenience is worth it.

There are two standalone alternatives I know of that will do the same thing.

Alternative #1: External USB enclosure connected to wireless USB hub

The IOGEAR GUWIP204 selling for $63 at the time of this writing could easily have a standard wired external USB enclosure hooked up to it, making for easy wireless connectivity. The drawback is that you have to have 2 devices plugged into the wall instead of just one.

Alternative #2: External USB enclosure connected directly to wireless router

Some Wi-Fi routers have a USB port specifically for connecting external devices to, such as this one. Wireless routers from D-Link in particular call this a Shareport.

The largest advantage of buying a Wi-Fi router specifically for wireless storage purposes is that it’s more or less guaranteed to work exactly as intended. D-Link makes great stuff and their technology works, so there’s no guessing whether it will be able to do the job or not.

The drawback here is that it’s yet another Wi-Fi router you have to set up, and set up as a WAP to boot. Or alternatively you could simply use a D-Link or like router as your primary wireless means and skip the WAP process altogether.

Rich’s opinion

Personally, I don’t see the convenience in owning a wireless USB hard drive mainly because I like my wireless devices to be as multi-function as possible. For the money, a wireless USB hub or dedicated Wi-Fi router with USB sharing ability seems to be the better deal, albeit slightly more inconvenient because of the extra stuff you have to configure and plug in to the wall.

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