[SOLVED] Best External Storage At Home

[efultz]

I have a Dell laptop with not enough disk space. The USB port has been disabled (by company). My Comast rounter and my other router both do not have USB drives. I am looking for a solution to expand my disk storage that I can use as, essentially, another disk drive on my machine. I have looked at wifi-enabled external storage - this has the benefit that I can take it with me when I go from my home office to the company office. But I have read these can be slow. I have looked at NAS solutions but other than being more expensive I can't figure out if I can use these as just another drive on my laptop. Can I make a NAS accessible when I am in the office? If not then it may not be a workable solution for me.

The information is so confusing that I am not sure how to proceed - looking for suggestions. If a regular wifi-enabled drive is the way to go then is there a recommendation for the best? I can probably get away with 1TB but is more space much more expensive?

 

[USAFRet]

How about just a USB connected drive?

Easily transportable, cheap.
8TB can be had for ~$150 or less.

EDIT:
oops...did not see that USB is disabled.

 

[USAFRet]

If the company has disabled a USB, it is likely that WiFi is also not going to work.

A NAS box connects to your router via ethernet.
Available to any system in the house.
I have a QNAP for this.

Accessible from outside? Yes, with some some MAJOR considerations.
You need to be really really really careful in the setup of this.
If you can access from outside, maybe someone else can as well.

 

[punkncat]

Some of the current NAS solutions offer a "cloud" type service. It would be well slower than most of the other options you mention. In order to use a NAS you would likely have to have permissions to 'mirror' a drive/network location.

Something else of thought, based on how much space you are wanting to add, would be something like Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and such. Your place of employment may already have something available but permission to use could be restricted. Since this is their machine you have to consider that they will be able to have access to your usage and information.

 

[Zerk2012]

How about just a USB connected drive?

Easily transportable, cheap.
8TB can be had for ~$150 or less.

EDIT:
oops...did not see that USB is disabled.

He said the USB port was disabled by his company.
Sounds to me like they don't wish for him to use it.

 

[Zerk2012]

I have a Dell laptop with not enough disk space. The USB port has been disabled (by company). My Comast rounter and my other router both do not have USB drives. I am looking for a solution to expand my disk storage that I can use as, essentially, another disk drive on my machine. I have looked at wifi-enabled external storage - this has the benefit that I can take it with me when I go from my home office to the company office. But I have read these can be slow. I have looked at NAS solutions but other than being more expensive I can't figure out if I can use these as just another drive on my laptop. Can I make a NAS accessible when I am in the office? If not then it may not be a workable solution for me.

The information is so confusing that I am not sure how to proceed - looking for suggestions. If a regular wifi-enabled drive is the way to go then is there a recommendation for the best? I can probably get away with 1TB but is more space much more expensive?

To error on the safe side I would talk to whoever at you company and see what your options are.
Were not really supposed to help with workarounds when your using a company PC.

 

[USAFRet]

Some of the current NAS solutions offer a "cloud" type service. It would be well slower than most of the other options you mention. In order to use a NAS you would likely have to have permissions to 'mirror' a drive/network location.

Yes, QNAP does this.
MyQNAPCloud.

Direct access through a browser.

It works, but pretty slow.

 

[USAFRet]

He said the USB port was disabled by his company.
Sounds to me like they don't wish for him to use it.

Yes, I did not see that initially. Edited.

 

[Bob.B]

I have a Dell laptop with not enough disk space. The USB port has been disabled (by company). My Comast rounter and my other router both do not have USB drives. I am looking for a solution to expand my disk storage that I can use as, essentially, another disk drive on my machine. I have looked at wifi-enabled external storage - this has the benefit that I can take it with me when I go from my home office to the company office. But I have read these can be slow. I have looked at NAS solutions but other than being more expensive I can't figure out if I can use these as just another drive on my laptop. Can I make a NAS accessible when I am in the office? If not then it may not be a workable solution for me.

The information is so confusing that I am not sure how to proceed - looking for suggestions. If a regular wifi-enabled drive is the way to go then is there a recommendation for the best? I can probably get away with 1TB but is more space much more expensive?

If this is a company owned pc and your running out of space have the company install a bigger disk.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a Dell laptop with not enough disk space.

This is a company system?

Ask them.

Sharing data (living on a NAS or external) between your company system/LAN and home may be a complete showstopper.
Where I work, that is a short walk to a firing.