How Long Does it Take to Backup to Another Computer on your Network?
So how fast does your data travel from drive to drive across your network? If you have a typical 100 mbps in your home (remember this is megabits per second) network and you’re backing up 42 Gigabytes of data; it would take approximately 1 hour.
3,600 (seconds in an hour) x 0.011920928955078125 (Gigabytes per second) =
42.9153442 Gigabytes in an hour or roughly 1 TB in 23.86 hours
Today’s modern enterprise networks will typically contain 1 Gbps switches and network cards thus providing a 1 TB backup in a little over 2 hours.
Home users with more modern computers can add a 5 port Gigabit Switch for around $55.
If you have two computers ‘wired’ to a router, unplug the computers and plug in the switch. Next plug the computers into the new switch and run a CAT 5 cable to your router (only one cable is needed) from the switch. Transfers between your computers (if they have 1 Gbps NIC cards) will be 1 Gbps. If one computer has a 100 Mbps card, you will only transfer at this slower speed.
Also remember there is a difference between a 100/1000 switch and a 1000 switch. The 1000 switch will only operate a 1 Gbps and all computers connecting to the switch must have a Gigabit NIC card. The 100/1000 switch adjusts for the NICs rated speed.
Remember, wireless cards are rated at 11 mbps (B), 54 mbps (G) and 150-300 mbps (N). These 802.11 wireless technologies are limited because of wireless technology.
These rates assume that the network is not used and the bandwidth is committed to the backup (no internet or moving files). Also you must take into consideration the speed of your hard drives, processes (programs running on the computers) and other factors. This is just an estimate.
For more information, see the Bandwidth Calculator
