# Hdd/SDD storage for trip



## xps (Jun 16, 2013)

Need another advice plkease:

I need a mobile, accu-powered >300 GB HDD/SDD with an card reader or the option to switch an card reader on the HDD/SDD to store all the photos I will take, whe I am back in the lodge.
Which one to buy? Should be safe, speed is not the main criteria to buy.

Thanks


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## lilmsmaggie (Jun 16, 2013)

xps said:


> Need another advice plkease:
> 
> I need a mobile, accu-powered >300 GB HDD/SDD with an card reader or the option to switch an card reader on the HDD/SDD to store all the photos I will take, whe I am back in the lodge.
> Which one to buy? Should be safe, speed is not the main criteria to buy.
> ...



??? I got the mobile and capacity requirements, but a bit confused about the accu-powered and card reader uses.


Would either of these drives (i.e. 500GB capacity) meet your needs: 

WD passport: http://www.wd.com 

Seagate: http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives

Toshiba: http://www.toshiba.com


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## RGF (Jun 17, 2013)

xps said:


> Need another advice plkease:
> 
> I need a mobile, accu-powered >300 GB HDD/SDD with an card reader or the option to switch an card reader on the HDD/SDD to store all the photos I will take, whe I am back in the lodge.
> Which one to buy? Should be safe, speed is not the main criteria to buy.
> ...



I never use the "digital wallets" - card read, tiny screen or no screen at all, and HDD. Very expensive what you get.

You can use a laptop/notebook to download to a portable hard drive, typically I use WD pasport or Seagate 1TB drives. Cost around $90. For the laptop if you want to minimize weight try a netbook (no recoomendations) or possibly a Macbook Air 11".

I don't think SDD are quite affordable in the size you want (roughly $1/GB).

Good luck


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 17, 2013)

xps said:


> Need another advice plkease:
> 
> I need a mobile, accu-powered >300 GB HDD/SDD with an card reader or the option to switch an card reader on the HDD/SDD to store all the photos I will take, whe I am back in the lodge.
> Which one to buy? Should be safe, speed is not the main criteria to buy.
> ...



I'm in the same boat. Sadly, it seems like most of them were designed poorly and are total junk or insanely over-priced and semi-junk. 

For my upcoming trip I didn't know the heck I'd do for Magic Lantern RAW video footage since it gobbles up like 4GB every 45 seconds or so. Buying heaps of 1000x CF cards would cost an absurd amount. The $149+ 320GB-500GB storage devices that you talk about that are currently available seem to get reallllly bad reviews, sadly. It's kind of ridiculous there is not a good one on the market, one that even lets you slide in a HD like atomos ninja 2 system.

About the best I've been able to come up with is the new ASUS laptop for $269 at Best Buy with 500GB HD that weighs 4lbs. I guess I could pick one up and then dump it on CL when I get back and hopefully not lose more than $30. It seems to be about the lightest (4lbs, most laptops are 5+ lbs)/cheapest laptop that gives you 500GB for the price and has USB 3.0 connector so card reads won't take forever, although perhaps USB 2.0 could be gotten away with depending how many CF cards and how much shooting and how much time you have to download midday.

Maybe there is some cheap little netbook and then you can plug in a cheap portable 500GB-1TB USB drive??

If anyone has better ideas....


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## scottkinfw (Jun 17, 2013)

I tried an earlier version of the Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA and although the interface was a bit clunky, it worked flawlessly. It contains a rechargeable batteries so that it works on its own or plugged in. Does not require computer to work. Just turn it on, plug in the card. Looks like the new versions do wireless transfers as well (I didn't look into these however).

To save money and configure my way, I purchased the empty unit and a compatible hard drive elsewhere. Easy assembly. I used the device for a 12 day safari for thousands of raw photos and didn't fill up a 500 GB HDD. Theoretically, you could bring a second HDD if the first one gets near full, and change it out. This does not have RAID capability however.


http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-UDMA2-p/hdu2-000.htm

sek


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 17, 2013)

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2013/01/16/using-a-google-chromebook-as-a-digital-camera-backup-device/

sounds like the chromebooks are not so good for this sort of thing, granted many Canon users don't use exFAT formatting for most things, but that is the way to unlock >40 second continuous magic lantern takes (using exFAT), a shame, since there is one samsung that is 2.43lbs and has a USB 3.0 port.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 17, 2013)

scottkinfw said:


> I tried an earlier version of the Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA and although the interface was a bit clunky, it worked flawlessly. It contains a rechargeable batteries so that it works on its own or plugged in. Does not require computer to work. Just turn it on, plug in the card. Looks like the new versions do wireless transfers as well (I didn't look into these however).
> 
> To save money and configure my way, I purchased the empty unit and a compatible hard drive elsewhere. Easy assembly. I used the device for a 12 day safari for thousands of raw photos and didn't fill up a 500 GB HDD. Theoretically, you could bring a second HDD if the first one gets near full, and change it out. This does not have RAID capability however.
> 
> ...



thanks

I wonder if understands exFAT formatted cards and what it does if it hits upon non-standard files, like Canon ML RAW video. I assume it just tries to copy over any all files, but you never know. 

I thought I saw someone say something about it got confused by certain types of advanced CF cards thoughm but perhaps not.

It is nice and small and light, although you can get a laptop with 500GB drive for only $20 more. Still the size might make it great for most people. And you plug in a cheap extra large capacity drive.

For someone wanting to do stuff like me, transfering lots of ML RAW, 27MB/s means like 36min or so to transfer each 64GB over. And I wonder if it wouldn't get confused by UDMA 7 cards or exFAT cards and how you could verify non-standard files had even transferred at all.

EDIT: hmm sounds like it only supports and transfers specific formats, so great for stills only shooters, but if you do DSLR video, even internal, never mind non-standard, I fear it wouldn't even attempt to transfer the files at all, so definitely no good for me then

seems like it is samsung netbook (2.8lbs unit alone although you still need to add an external HD) and live with 45 second takes and hope it recognizes all your cards or the ASUS at Best Buy for $269 (model: X401U-BE20602Z; 4.1lbs).


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 17, 2013)

Another option is the $229 Acer Aspire One with 320GB included. Only USB 2.0 support. 2.9lbs. It plus external drive for an additional 1TB-2TB is still under 4lbs and total price $299 for 1.3TB of HD space (with 1TB WD passport).


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## fugu82 (Jun 17, 2013)

I would be cautious about the cheaper portable HDD's; sent a very new one back after it cratered a few months ago and then read some super scary reviews. [Impulse buy]. I now try to stick with WD or LaCie. Don't use any cheap media to back up your shots. I copy mine to my MacBook Air for viewing/editing, but keep the originals on the cards.


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## brianboru (Jun 17, 2013)

I used a very geeky option for a recent two week long RV trip: a Raspberry Pi. 

Pi $35
Pi Case $6
Travel WiFi Hotspot $20 (I liked it better than the $10 wifi dongle.)
Powered USB HUB $15

SD Card for the Pi's OS - Lying Around
USB Hard Drive - Lying Around
CF/SD to USB card reader - Lying Around

It worked well. I installed a VNC server on the Pi and then used either my Nexus pad or iPhone to log into the Pi via VNC client to kick off an rsync script to backup the various cards from the cameras. 

I tried gphoto2 to directly read off the camera but liked the external reader better as I could just use rsync to manage incremental copies.

I also used the Pi as a media server to the various devices in the RV which is did well too.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 19, 2013)

It's a crying shame Apple didn't put two USB 3.0 ports on their iPads. Pop in a WD 2TB passport and a USB 3.0 card reader and there you'd have it.


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## Harry Muff (Jun 19, 2013)

An SSD would be less susceptible to knocks. No moving parts. Just sayin'


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## Vivid Color (Jun 19, 2013)

I am trying to decide whether to take some sort of back up device along on a trip to Africa or just take enough cards. While I like the idea of a backup device, the ones with sufficient capacity are not inexpensive and take up additional weight (I have a 33 pound limit). I would also think that one still might need to keep all of the photos on the cards until you get home. Otherwise, one risks losing all of the photos should the backup device fail or get broken and not just those on perhaps one card. Right now I'm leaning toward just taking cards, but my mind is by no means made up. 

My question to all CR readers is: Have you ever had a new card fail on you during a trip that resulted in lost photos? 

If yes, please provide details about the card and what happened. Thanks!


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## RGF (Jun 20, 2013)

Another option is skip the device and go with cards. More expensive but secure than a digital wallet. Since you will need 2 wallets, the difference in cost may not be so large depending upon the number and size of your current set of cards (plus you can borrow some maybe).

2 x $300 digital wallet = $600
8 32gb cards (cf) @ $70 = $560


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## Powder Portraits (Jun 20, 2013)

I have heard plenty of horror stories of lost data with the portable hard drive storage devices. Here is a rock solid idea. An inexpensive laptop with a dual layer DVD burner, put your images on the laptop hard drive then backup daily to the DVD’s. Then store the DVD’s in another place.


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## unfocused (Jun 20, 2013)

I use a Toshiba netbook and a WD Passport Drive. But, I only shoot stills. A found a free RAW viewer (Google?) that I put on the netbook, so I could see what the files looked like. 

Plug a cheap card reader into one of the USB ports or just transfer direct from camera to the netbook. Take a quick peek at them and then transfer to the portable drive. 

Not the quickest method, but it's cheap and you have a netbook for surfing the web while traveling. If your paranoid, you can always get a second portable drive and keep duplicate files on the second drive.


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## Halfrack (Jun 20, 2013)

Powder Portraits said:


> I have heard plenty of horror stories of lost data with the portable hard drive storage devices. Here is a rock solid idea. An inexpensive laptop with a dual layer DVD burner, put your images on the laptop hard drive then backup daily to the DVD’s. Then store the DVD’s in another place.



Hate to shoot this down, but DVD-DL only holds 8.4gb / disk. Take into account size, the time to spread a 64b card full of raw files across 8-9 disks, you're better off getting more SD/CF cards.

There are lots of similar threads here and other places - most come back to the answer that it's either the HyperDrive like devices or drag along your laptop and external drives.


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## Powder Portraits (Jun 21, 2013)

Halfrack said:


> Powder Portraits said:
> 
> 
> > I have heard plenty of horror stories of lost data with the portable hard drive storage devices. Here is a rock solid idea. An inexpensive laptop with a dual layer DVD burner, put your images on the laptop hard drive then backup daily to the DVD’s. Then store the DVD’s in another place.
> ...


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 22, 2013)

If you don't do video, you can get away with a ton of CF cards, especially since for many trips you don't 1000x $$$ cards. If you do video it's a bit trickier. If you do Magic Lantern RAW video as I plan to the CF card route is just insane, since nothing less than the very top 1000x CF cards are fast enough and a 32GB card only stores like 7minutes or something and they cost $$$$. You need to transfer so much that USB 3.0 helps. So far the ASUS I mentioned plus a WD passport (all USB 3.0 so that should help speed) seems like one of the few options.

Years ago I used one of those digital wallet with HD, it was very finicky, very, but I managed to both safely store and retrieve everything, it was hairy at times, but not one pic was lost. These days I'd be more prone to getting a ton of slow large CF cards since the cost isn't so bad for that now. Providing you intend to stick to stills or, at the least, avoid doing RAW video.


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## mdmphoto (Jun 22, 2013)

I have an Epson storage viewer that I only use when shooting events where I want to show off some raw images to the client before departing at the end, i.e. weddings, parties, and so on. It’s a cute marketing item, but not nearly enough capacity for travel. When travelling I use several high capacity memory cards that I download/implore through Lightroom to a usb hdd attached to my laptop that stays in the room. I hadn’t thought of using a netbook while on the go, but I am now intrigued to find a raw viewer for my transformer 101 (my 7-year old will be less than pleased) so afford me the option.
Anyway, I used wd passports until I had failure issues with 2 out of 5; I was able to recover one drive, but the one with spectacular Chicago Bulls game/ Derrick Rose pix on it is still resolutely locked-up for 2 years now. Not giving up on that particular drive yet ( great shots if I can ever recover them), but I did give up on wd after years of trusting them.
I’d been using Seagate portables until just recently. Bought 2 online, filled on halfway and then opened the second one about 2 1/1 months later only to discover it doa. The retailer referred me to Seagate since the was past 30 days. Seagate hemmed and hawed until finally sending me a refurbished drive at my shipping expense: same excuse, length of time since I bought the drive. Okay. I got the replacement. I don’t trust it much. I don’t trust Seagate at all anymore.
Silicon Power: happened upon this drive on sale at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-2-5-Inch-Military-SP010TBPHDA80S3B/dp/B005EWTL7C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371926915&sr=8-2&keywords=silicon+power
Good solid feel, plain-spoken 3-year warranty, and inexpensive. So far I am mighty pleased, as it’s worked well so far with no boot or other issues. Ordered a second one for my upcoming trip. We’ll see how it goes.
Silicon Power website:
http://www.silicon-power.com/product/product_detail.php?main=19&sub=58&pro=132&currlang=utf8


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## RGF (Jun 23, 2013)

Recommendations for new HDD. Fill it up at least once before you go on a trip. Anything will do. Just write and write and write to it. HDD are most likely to fail when new.


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