Ok, for a little background: I had been looking for a external drive to use for a system back up (mostly on Amazon.com; price $120 for 3tb, $160 for 4tb). My only requirement is that it come with an ethernet connection so I can plug it into my wireless router. Using the filters (had to be 4tb and come with an ethernet connection) on Amazon, I bought a Seagate 4tb and received it on Saturday. Only then did I realize the filters on Amazon don't really work as it only came with a USB connection. I would really like to keep it and use it but apparently the only way I can is if:

1 I plug it into each of systems (1 desktop and 1 laptop)
2 Find a connection adaptor (convert a USB plug to an ethernet connection)
3 Buy an entirely new router that comes with USB port
or
4 Exchange the drive for an ethernet ready system ($199 on Amazon)

Any suggestions on what should I do? I tried online to find a connection adapter (no luck) and went to a store called MicroCenter (no luck).

Thanks FT family/computer geeks for any help/suggestions you might have.

Return the drive and buy a NAS. Most us like the Synology NAS like this one. I use a larger Synology. There are lots of other vendors as well. It's nice to have a NAS that you can expand as your storage needs grow.

That's because what you want is not a drive but a NAS (network attached storage) - essentially a small computer with a big hard drive and a network card.

You can buy a NAS enclosure (I recommend the ones made by Synology - the cheapo ones made by D-Link and the like get very mixed reviews). This will require returning your hard drive and buying 1 or 2 internal hard drives, then sliding them in to the NAS. This is the cheapest good NAS I like: http://amzn.com/B007KWLXRK

For $50 more you can get one with two drive bays. Get another hard drive and have it mirror both drives.

YOu can also buy an Apple Airport Extreme with TimeCapsule, which is a NAS with a fancy name, but I don't know if they work well with Windows. If you're feeling adventurous, some home wireless routers now include usb ports for sharing a hard drive onto the network.

There's really no such thing as a USB to ethernet adapter of the type you're looking for; they are completely different protocols for different applications.

You could also interface it through a PogoPlug device which allows for all computers on your network to see the drive (as well as through the internet).

But isn't an NAS just a external storage device? While I guess I understand the concept, do they sell them with ethernet connections? Are they expandable? Do they just plug into my desktop (or laptop)?

My desktop has a mirror drive (2 x 2 tb). My laptop has a 500 gb drive. While 4TB is excessive in size, I would want to be able to access it wirelessly so I can see pictures, files, music, etc from my desktop, my laptop and any other device I might acquire (like a tablet).

A NAS is a low-power computer with a big hard drive and a network controller. It's more than just a USB hard drive, which is what you bought.

If it's located on your network (plugged in or on wifi) then you'll be able to access it from any compatible device on your network.

A NAS is really the way to go. Seagate does make a hard drive that has an ethernet and USB port. I bought one that was on clearance for about the same price that just an USB drive would be. It has some nice features, automatic backups, and you can access the drive from anywhere on the internet. If all you want to do is backup small files, and have multiple computers you want to back up it isn't bad. It is slow, so if you are backing up large files it can take a while. Even though it says it can stream video, it doesn't do a good job, and even viewing photos off of it is a bit slow.

As far as the router with a USB port, I wouldn't consider this, as this will be an exceptionally limited device, and not worth spending any additional money. My router has the USB port and it is of very limited value.

A NAS is a step up, as is a low power consuming file server computer (remember this needs to be on all the time so you can access the files). You can also use a NAS to share files, music or to stream video to your TV, Roku, or whatever, as well as to backup files. You will buy a 1 or 2 (or more) bay NAS, each bay is where you can put a hard drive. If you go with a 2 bay you can do RAID where it makes a copy on each disk so if one drive fails, you still have a copy. You can buy whatever size HD the device will support, so you can get a pretty large backup.

Some of the NAS units have apps, some can download torrents right to the device, so it can download or upload even when all the computers in the house are turned off. They are mini computers, and like all computers get more expensive as you add features or higher performance. You can search on various manufacturers, like Synology and find user groups and can get an idea as to how user friendly they are to set up. They are not exactly plug and play yet, and the more you want it to do the more tweaking it will take.

Most are pretty simple to set up if all you are doing is just backing up data on multiple computers. However when you see all the things a NAS can do, you probably will probably want to get a little higher end unit, it will be worth it.

Also when you get the hard drive(s) for your machine, get a faster drive that is designed for a NAS or file server, as the NAS will be on 24 hours a day, and some drives are not up for this challenge. I like the WD Red Drives, as they aren't that much more expensive than any other drive but were designed for the home NAS market.

I've started seeing some fairly positive reviews for the Western Digital My Cloud.

My concern with network connected drives is always security. While I appreciate the convenience of worldwide access to my files, I take a pass. Paranoia, sure. Ounce of prevention, yes.

One important feature of a NAS is that you can run RAID on it. With a 2 disk array, running RAID 1 will essentially mirror content on both drives. While this won't give you maximum capacity, it is a real help if (actually, when) a drive goes down.

I have a dual drive NAS which lost a drive earlier this year. It was a simple as removing the bad drive and inserting a new, matching drive into the bay to fix the problem. The system automatically populated the new drive and I didn't lose any data.

It looks like one of my friends has an extra 3tb drive that he will give me for free. It has an ethernet connection already so I can return my 4tb drive to Amazon. Plus, it also has a USB connection so I can expand by plugging in one of my other drives if I need to.

Thanks for everyone's advice/suggestions.

Ok, I am sold on the NAS idea. A friend who built my computer was out visiting this past weekend and he further convinced me it is truly the best way to go. I am going to get a RAID version so there will be a mirror of all the data. If I go for a 8TB (4TB RAID), it is around $500 at the local MicroCenter. I just have to start saving for it. Plus have to update my router and my wireless card in my desktop. A bit more expensive than I thought but worth it knowing all my data has a backup.

I wish I had the URL handy but I read a great article about how RAID technology is becoming less useful as hard drives get larger because of the increased probability of having a second failure during the time it takes to rebuild the drive that is replacing your first failed drive.

I personally back up my primary NAS nightly to a second NAS since I can live with a bit of down time at home if I lose a drive. In addition, I get complete protection against a failed RAID controller and partial protection against user error causing data loss on the primary NAS. (Don't ask what happened!)

I actually have a couple of RAID servers. I use RAID 1 for data security.

They are essentially an older computer with a hardware RAID controller (I like Promise). They already had Windows installed so all I had to do was put in the controller. At bootup, the bios detected the new hardware and let it do its thing. Shortly thereafter, I had a RAID 1 "NAS" (well, it is a Network Attached Storage unit).

If you work it right, the drives will be the most expensive part of the whole deal.

Remember, I have a basement/junk box chock full of electronics of all sorts, so finding the parts was easy for me. I recognize that many of you keep 'sparse' households - finding an old computer might not be an option, and may not be worth the worry if you've never had anything but new stuff in your life.

With the usual 10/100 NIC, pretty much anything that will run at least Win XP would work, and I like to put 512M in the machine for more efficient buffering. Each computer on the network maps a given folder on the RAID, and it's just like another local drive - just drag-n-drop whatever you want to/from the server.

If you use gigabit ethernet (and I know many of you are constantly horsing multi-megabyte/gigbyte files around), it might be worth while to get a faster cpu/more memory.
As I understand it, this problem arises when you buy two identical drives for the server - they are most likely from the same lot and would have similar failure points. Buy identical drives, but from different stores to minimize the problem.

Nothing will guarantee 100% uptime come-what-may, but there are cheap and easy insurance things to do to better your odds.

Why?

I personally am happy with a local external drive which backs up nightly to the cloud (CrashPlan). Having a NAS solution at home still requires backing up to an off-site location for full protection (in case of a disaster which destroys your home).