Portable hard drives

mercphoto · September 29, 2004

Having a 512M and a 2G Ultra-II cards I find it hard to buy another 2G card. For the money a portable card read and hard disk might be better. I know about this unit:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-163-502&depa=0. Is that a good product? And what are the competing products?

I don't care if I can view the photos on the device via an LCD. I just want to be able to download a card so I can use it again. Small so I can carry it with me. Firewire is preferred, but USB is ok I guess. And I want each card's contents put into its own folder.

wxwax · September 30, 2004

Never tried one. But Humungus got a different brand, says he put it through hell, and it survived fine.

PerezDesignGroup · September 30, 2004

I bought the Archos GMini 120 (20gb) from the member PhiDong over at FM. Got it for $160. Its amazingly small, lightweight and robust. Still haven't been able to deplete the batteries so I can't tell ya yet how long it lasts. PhiDong said it lasted him between 8-10 hours. He was using it for long shoots at High School events. It can verify pics, play MP3's and even act as a temp storage device for other file types. A true all around hardrive. It transfers at a blazing 480mbps using USB 2.0. I honestly think all portable solutions now transfer pics to their own folder but I'm not 100% on that. It's the wisest investment I've made yet.

All I use is (2) 256mb cards. One tranfers while the other lets me keep shooting.

mercphoto · September 30, 2004

Archos

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

I bought the Archos GMini 120 (20gb) from the member PhiDong over at FM.

I went to their website. Its not obvious the unit can handle raw files. It says "will copy JPG...". I know it can only display JPG's on its LCD, but it can store raws, correct?

PerezDesignGroup · September 30, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

I went to their website. Its not obvious the unit can handle raw files. It says "will copy JPG...". I know it can only display JPG's on its LCD, but it can store raws, correct?

You can transfer absolutely anything into this. It is a true hardrive. RAW is included, tested and verified by myself.

It cannot *display* the actual JPEG's or RAW's though. You only see file size detail such as name, size, date, etc. You do not actually see the photo. The LCD is backit but can only handle text, not images.

Hope that helped. And transfer speeds on this baby are true USB 2.0. Transferring images from compactflash to Archos takes 5 seconds per image. I have old, slow Sandisk CF cards. I don't know if faster cards will transfer faster.

mercphoto · September 30, 2004

portable hard drives

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

You can transfer absolutely anything into this. It is a true hardrive. RAW is included, tested and verified by myself.

Thanks. I'm tossing this back and forth. Looking at Archos and Vosonic solutions, versus more CF cards. The Vosonic solution looks cheaper, but I've heard the transfer from CF to HD is very slow and the battery life is poor.

Decisions...

Ultra-II 2G is back to $187 on buy.com

jwear · September 30, 2004

Roadstor ??
For a serious digital photographer, the Micro Solutions RoadStor is about as close as you can get to an electronic Swiss Army knife. This slim device solves one big problem of traveling with a digital camera: downloading images without dragging a laptop along. The RoadStor accepts all popular memory card formats and burns their contents directly to CD-R or CD-RW discs—no need for a PC. Has anyone tried this ? does it burn raw any image ect I did not find that in the review

mercphoto · September 30, 2004

Cd-rw

jwear wrote:

For a serious digital photographer, the Micro Solutions RoadStor is about as close as you can get to an electronic Swiss Army knife. This slim device solves one big problem of traveling with a digital camera: downloading images without dragging a laptop along. The RoadStor accepts all popular memory card formats and burns their contents directly to CD-R or CD-RW discs—no need for a PC. Has anyone tried this ? does it burn raw any image ect I did not find that in the review

I'm not sure I like that solution. Possibly the DVD-R version, but certainly not the CD-R version. For one, its only 700MB per disc. My 1G and 2G cards become a burden then. Two, writing to CD-R is slow compared to writing to a hard disk -- too long before your card is usable again in the field. And I think an optical writer is more fragile than a HD is. I just didn't get a warm fuzzy from that solution myself.

PerezDesignGroup · October 1, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

I'm not sure I like that solution. Possibly the DVD-R version, but certainly not the CD-R version. For one, its only 700MB per disc. My 1G and 2G cards become a burden then. Two, writing to CD-R is slow compared to writing to a hard disk -- too long before your card is usable again in the field. And I think an optical writer is more fragile than a HD is. I just didn't get a warm fuzzy from that solution myself.

I looked at those and I had the same issues as well as one more. What if the battery dies in the middle of a burn? That would be tragic.

jwear · October 2, 2004

batt life

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

I looked at those and I had the same issues as well as one more. What if the battery dies in the middle of a burn? That would be tragic.

After reading the the hole thing they say the batt life is apx 2 1/2 hrs or 2 cds but if the batt died

cmr164 · October 2, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

Having a 512M and a 2G Ultra-II cards I find it hard to buy another 2G card. For the money a portable card read and hard disk might be better. I know about this unit:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-163-502&depa=0. Is that a good product? And what are the competing products?

I don't care if I can view the photos on the device via an LCD. I just want to be able to download a card so I can use it again. Small so I can carry it with me. Firewire is preferred, but USB is ok I guess. And I want each card's contents put into its own folder.

http://www.mymediagear.com/ has what you want. I have been using the 60G model to offload from 4G CF cards, 1G CF cards, and various sizes of SD cards. I looked at the various other solutions and MediaGear was the best price/features and was the only one that could handle 4G cards now without waiting for future firmware upgrades. The user interface is easy and simple while the price range is fantastic for a small stand alone device.

I have been traveling non-stop since Sep 10th, NY, Canaveral, Bahamas, Boston, Philipines, Japan.... (China got canceled) The mediagear is traveling well and has 25G of pics so far. We will see how I am doing on Oct 10th after a month of continent/island hopping when I fainally get home to the edit job from hell.

BTW: Use wall or USB power when you can. Sure would be a pain if you trashed all your work depending on batteries.

Japanese Girl on the train today.

wxwax · October 2, 2004

Pardon my ignorace....

I've seen a couple of references to problems if the batteries die on a CD burner. Surely the worst that would happen is that you'd have to keep your images on the CF card, right? These devices don't reformat the card, right?

And on a hard drive, does the media die if the battery dies?

FWIW, in previous discussions about portable CD burners, professional users have preferred them. The primary issue for them is securing the images, which are their livelihood. They'll gravitate towards the most secure solution. Once the media is transferred to a CD, it's safe. You can make multiple copies and send one batch home, if you wish. No reliance on a potentially fragile mechanical hard drive.

cmr164 · October 2, 2004

wxwax wrote:

Pardon my ignorace....

I've seen a couple of references to problems if the batteries die on a CD burner. Surely the worst that would happen is that you'd have to keep your images on the CF card, right? These devices don't reformat the card, right?
And on a hard drive, does the media die if the battery dies?

If the battery of the portable drive dies during the copy, there is some potential for making the drive unusable until you can get it to a computer. Since the point of this type of device is to avoid having the computer be necessary...

FWIW, in previous discussions about portable CD burners, professional users have preferred them. The primary issue for them is securing the images, which are their livelihood. They'll gravitate towards the most secure solution. Once the media is transferred to a CD, it's safe. You can make multiple copies and send one batch home, if you wish. No reliance on a potentially fragile mechanical hard drive.

Different solution to a similar but different problem. The solutions differ in quantity of storage and in being tethered to a computer. I would have to have burned about 50 CDs with some logistic issues there also. I also would not beable to hike around with my offloading solution in my bag.

yvonne · October 11, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

Thanks. I'm tossing this back and forth. Looking at Archos and Vosonic solutions, versus more CF cards. The Vosonic solution looks cheaper, but I've heard the transfer from CF to HD is very slow and the battery life is poor.

Decisions...

Ultra-II 2G is back to $187 on buy.com

Have you considered the Smartdisk Flashtrax?

I shoot weddings and use several 516mb CFs, as I'm worried that I lose too much if a card gets corrupted on a 1GB+ card. I have the flashtrax in my pocket and with 40G of space (though different sizes are available) it sees my nicely through the day. I'll shoot an average of 1500 pictures on large jpgs during a normal day.

mercphoto · October 11, 2004

Battery life

yvonne wrote:

Have you considered the Smartdisk Flashtrax?

I shoot weddings and use several 516mb CFs, as I'm worried that I lose too much if a card gets corrupted on a 1GB+ card. I have the flashtrax in my pocket and with 40G of space (though different sizes are available) it sees my nicely through the day. I'll shoot an average of 1500 pictures on large jpgs during a normal day.

What type of battery life do you get? One gripe of mine with similar solutions is the poor battery life. Some solutions also copy from the CF card rather slowly, making it too long before your CF card is ready to use again.

I'll also admit I shy away from microdrives due to the "drop and break" fear. But I dropped my iPod this morning, who knows how often that happens, but it is still functioning even right now.

I like the idea of a portable hard disk with card reader. It just seems many (hopefully not all) of the solutions are not quite there yet.

cmr164 · October 11, 2004

mercphoto wrote:

What type of battery life do you get? One gripe of mine with similar solutions is the poor battery life. Some solutions also copy from the CF card rather slowly, making it too long before your CF card is ready to use again.

I'll also admit I shy away from microdrives due to the "drop and break" fear. But I dropped my iPod this morning, who knows how often that happens, but it is still functioning even right now.

I like the idea of a portable hard disk with card reader. It just seems many (hopefully not all) of the solutions are not quite there yet.

MGHG-160 60G for $299 and the 20G is only $199

My use has been as a backup to my notebook computer for both security from theft and loss. Thus the portable drive went in the safe if the computer was out and in the air the computer went in the carry-on while the MGHG-160 drive went in the checked luggage.

Well I just got back from a month of travels that included a cruise from NYC to the Bahamas, flights and bouncing around from Boston -> Detroit -> Nagoya -> Manilla -> Narita -> Detroit -> Boston. With huricanes, an earthquake (5.7), a typhoon, +100F temps with 100% humidity to the -xxF chill of baggage compartments and whatever airpressure the baggage has at 38,000 feet. Copying from SD cards and 4Gig microdrives raw and jpeg images from both Canon and Minolta.

The solution is ready, tested and much cheaper than the competition, kind of an unbeatable combination.

wxwax · October 11, 2004

That's quite a recommendation.

Richard · May 26, 2005

Portable storage followup

mercphoto wrote:

Having a 512M and a 2G Ultra-II cards I find it hard to buy another 2G card. For the money a portable card read and hard disk might be better. I know about this unit:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-163-502&depa=0. Is that a good product? And what are the competing products?

I don't care if I can view the photos on the device via an LCD. I just want to be able to download a card so I can use it again. Small so I can carry it with me. Firewire is preferred, but USB is ok I guess. And I want each card's contents put into its own folder.

I realize this is very old news for many but I find that I am looking for exactly what you described, Bill. Something really simple that I can dump a whole lot of pics into while I am on the road. I was wondering what you ended up getting and whether you are happy with the results.

Thx.

mercphoto · May 26, 2005

rsinmadrid wrote:

I realize this is very old news for many but I find that I am looking for exactly what you described, Bill. Something really simple that I can dump a whole lot of pics into while I am on the road. I was wondering what you ended up getting and whether you are happy with the results.

Nothing, yet. But the Epson P2000 seems to be exactly what I want. From all reports, very good battery life, very fast at reading cards, large capacity. They are just hard to find right now. Most other solutions I've seen have poor battery life (some might not download 2G before going out), or poor read performance (takes too long to download a large card).

Richard · May 26, 2005

mercphoto wrote:

Nothing, yet. But the Epson P2000 seems to be exactly what I want. From all reports, very good battery life, very fast at reading cards, large capacity. They are just hard to find right now. Most other solutions I've seen have poor battery life (some might not download 2G before going out), or poor read performance (takes too long to download a large card).

Thanks for the quick reply. There is a good summary of products maintained by Frederic Houde available here.

The Epson looks like overkill for me. I would really like to spend no more than $250 US if possible, and I don't think I need a review screen at all.

Anybody else out there have a good (or bad) experience to share?

Cheers.

NHBubba · May 26, 2005

Two options
#1: The guy down the hall here at work just bought one of these things for his 20D: Delkin DVD Burnaway. The price was steep, but it looks to be worth it. Basically it's a (removable!) DVD-R drive like you find on a laptop mated to a flash card reader. You pop the flash in the slot, pop a new CDR or DVDR in the drive, press a button, and walk a way. When you get back you've got your photos on the DVD. The upside is it reportedly makes multisession discs and spans. Meaning you can span your 1 or 2 GB CF card across more than one CDR if needed. He says it does not destroy the contents of the flash card, it only copies! So if the process goes south you just try again w/ a new disc (and/or different power source).

This seems like a great solution to me, for many of the reasons wxwax mentioned earlier. Namely you can make multiple copies and mail some home, leave w/ a friend or client, whatever. Also media is cheap (comparitively). You've got effectively infinite storage at a relatively small incremental cost. The downside is the unit retails at over $350! Kind of an ouie for those of us on a budget.

He just got the thing the other day after a shipping snafu. He brought it by for us geeks to oggle over. It looks pretty sturdy, although is slightly larger than I expected, partly because of all the chargers, adapter cables, remotes, and other accessories it comes w/. I imagine the kit could be slimed down for actual travel.

#2: While we were reading up on specs for this thing, before it actually arrived, we discovered the Delkin USB Bridge. This $50 device lets you copy contents of any camera or flash card (via a USB reader) to any USB flash drive, HD, or device that can be treated as an HD. For those of us that have MP3 players already, this looks to be a passable, innexpensive option.

Basically my thought is that you could re-use your MP3 player as a portable photo collector when on vacation.. Then re-up the music when you get home for use at the gym. A better option for those of us on a budget.

Unfortunately I doubt it would be that easy. Such universal, one-device-serves-all setups rarely work as well as the dedicated, real thing. Besides, in my case my MP3 player is only 5 GB. Plenty for music.. but not much for a vacation's worth of photos..

Still, two options prolly worth a look!

wxwax · May 26, 2005

NH, I think Gubbs said he went through two Delkin DVD burners before giving up on them.

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=87540&postcount=22

ginger_55 · May 26, 2005

My external hard drive, Maxtor, the one Sid recommended, it is almost full. It holds a bunch, 153 gb and only 9 gb of space left. I have a CD burner on the PC, just quit backing up which is stupid, I know, but it takes too long. I mean I shoot a bunch and a CD doesn't hold much. So, I bad, I quit. I know, I could lose it all.

Right now, I am chimping on the hard drive, the external one, forget the PC one, it is full, so I am chimping on the external one to make space to keep shooting. Then I come home with 4 gbs of memory, put it in, delete some, make others, etc.

I am tempted, or I have been, to buy another Maxtor, and just hook it up like this one is, keep buying and filling hard drives. But my guilt tells me I need a way to back this stuff up on DVDs at a reasonable pace.

I understand that is expensive, too. And the DVDs are not guaranteed durable. I know the more stuff you have your photos on the safer it is, but a lot of time could go into that, plus money.

I am not a pro, I lose everything, I lose it, though I would hope that wouldn't happen, I am not out money. I did lose everything in a hurricane once, so I know I can live through it.

However.....................Sid, would you just get another external hard drive, what?

9 gbs left right now. I could spend the weekend chimping. OH Joy.

ginger

jwear · May 26, 2005

NHBubba wrote:

#1: The guy down the hall here at work just bought one of these things for his 20D: Delkin DVD Burnaway. The price was steep, but it looks to be worth it. Basically it's a (removable!) DVD-R drive like you find on a laptop mated to a flash card reader. You pop the flash in the slot, pop a new CDR or DVDR in the drive, press a button, and walk a way. When you get back you've got your photos on the DVD. The upside is it reportedly makes multisession discs and spans. Meaning you can span your 1 or 2 GB CF card across more than one CDR if needed. He says it does not destroy the contents of the flash card, it only copies! So if the process goes south you just try again w/ a new disc (and/or different power source).

This seems like a great solution to me, for many of the reasons wxwax mentioned earlier. Namely you can make multiple copies and mail some home, leave w/ a friend or client, whatever. Also media is cheap (comparitively). You've got effectively infinite storage at a relatively small incremental cost. The downside is the unit retails at over $350! Kind of an ouie for those of us on a budget.

He just got the thing the other day after a shipping snafu. He brought it by for us geeks to oggle over. It looks pretty sturdy, although is slightly larger than I expected, partly because of all the chargers, adapter cables, remotes, and other accessories it comes w/. I imagine the kit could be slimed down for actual travel.

#2: While we were reading up on specs for this thing, before it actually arrived, we discovered the Delkin USB Bridge. This $50 device lets you copy contents of any camera or flash card (via a USB reader) to any USB flash drive, HD, or device that can be treated as an HD. For those of us that have MP3 players already, this looks to be a passable, innexpensive option.

Basically my thought is that you could re-use your MP3 player as a portable photo collector when on vacation.. Then re-up the music when you get home for use at the gym. A better option for those of us on a budget.

Unfortunately I doubt it would be that easy. Such universal, one-device-serves-all setups rarely work as well as the dedicated, real thing. Besides, in my case my MP3 player is only 5 GB. Plenty for music.. but not much for a vacation's worth of photos..

Still, two options prolly worth a look!

gubbs was right on with this if you call delikin and talk with the repair dept.you will not buy it unless you ask them if it is great they will say yes but in 1 year you will be looking for another unit Jeff

ginger_55 · May 27, 2005

I just bought another Maxtor external hard drive. That would not help with storage on the road, at least not without a computer, but it helps me. I am happy with the first Maxtor, don't want to move everything onto DVDs. I paid 179.00 total, free shipping, for 200 gbs at Dell.com.

Ships in 1-2 wks? So, I will still be clearing files. For a couple of weeks.

Plus I do have a Wolverine small storage thing, $200.00. It is for when I am on the road, quite literally. I am nervous about it as I can't tell if the stuff has really uploaded. But I have had no problems, other than the fact it does not tell me what is in there. So I tend to upload my cards, I have 3 cards, so time is not that important. I can be shooting while one uploads. But then I am not sure it is uploaded, so I am afraid to use the card. I may be missing some info about how to operate it.

All I see is the power button and the copy button. Harry had/has one, he recommended as what he used/uses. It was awhile ago. It does not erase the card.............and I don't know how many it will upload.

ginger

gus · May 27, 2005

I have an old model X-Drive (1 year now :cry ..thats a long time in this field) I cant praise it enough. They hold RAW files no worries as they are just a HD hooked up to a card reader. You undo 4 screws & drop a new HD in if you want more room but 60 gig is a lot....no platform or prog involved. They claim it can suck down a 1 GiG card in 2 mins & will do (from memory) about 15 x 1 gig cards on one charge.

Mine takes 20 mins to suck down a 1 gig card & will do about 3 or 4 x 1 gig cards on a charge but i always carry my chargers with me & they do charge fast both a/c outlet & 12 volt car/bike.

Here is the new model. That about $300 USD converted. They fit in a top shirt pocket. You can put any computer file onto them as a temp drive when you are not using them for photos.

Good Luck...Gus

wxwax · May 27, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

.Sid, would you just get another external hard drive, what?

ginger

You should definitely back up with a DVD burner, Ginger. But I have 2 Maxtor external drives as well. Like you, I'm not as diligent about backing up as I should be. I fear that someday I will regret it. I chide myself about it often. I try to backup RAW files as soon as possible.

NHBubba · May 27, 2005

wxwax wrote:

NH, I think Gubbs said he went through two Delkin DVD burners before giving up on them.

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=87540&postcount=22

jwear wrote:

gubbs was right on with this if you call delikin and talk with the repair dept.you will not buy it unless you ask them if it is great they will say yes but in 1 year you will be looking for another unit Jeff

Doh! Well, hopefully my associate who just received his Delkin unit has better luck. Such a shame too, it sounds like such a neat device.

Anyone have any comments on option #2, the USB bridge mated to a MP3 portable? .. Then again, if Delkin has QC problems w/ the Burnaway, they'll probably have problems w/ their other products to eh?

Richard · May 27, 2005

Delkin bridge device
It sounds like a possible solution for those who already have:

An mp3 player that has a large enough capacity (and is compatible with the bridge).
A camera that is certified to work with the bridge.

I don't have an mp3 player, so this won't help my case. If I did, though, I think I would want to know whether the bridge can be connected to a card reader rather than to the camera directly. I would prefer not to tie up my camera during a download, but rather swap out the memory card and use another.

BTW, Belkin (not Delkin) makes a product that does exactly what I described for iPods (except the mini). Last time I looked it was selling for around 70 USD.

BBones · May 27, 2005

I recently got the P-2000 for track work and I have to say I love this thing so far. It is probably overkill for what you are looking for but for me it was awesome and the battery lasted all day (9am until 9:30pm) and that included me uploading about 5 times to the device from my laptop and constant turn offs and ons as people walked up to see the shots.

Richard · May 27, 2005

Humungus wrote:

I have an old model X-Drive (1 year now :cry ..thats a long time in this field) I cant praise it enough. They hold RAW files no worries as they are just a HD hooked up to a card reader. You undo 4 screws & drop a new HD in if you want more room but 60 gig is a lot....no platform or prog involved. They claim it can suck down a 1 GiG card in 2 mins & will do (from memory) about 15 x 1 gig cards on one charge.

Mine takes 20 mins to suck down a 1 gig card & will do about 3 or 4 x 1 gig cards on a charge but i always carry my chargers with me & they do charge fast both a/c outlet & 12 volt car/bike.

Here is the new model. That about $300 USD converted. They fit in a top shirt pocket. You can put any computer file onto them as a temp drive when you are not using them for photos.

Good Luck...Gus

Gus,

The new model you mentioned has more bells and whistles than I need, but I found another model on their site (about to be released) that will give me 60GB for about 230 USD. Excellent!

Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

Cheers.

Portable hard drives

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