Topic: Portable External Hard Drives (Read 16505 times)

SPatton · « **on:** December 11, 2006, 07:04:05 pm »

I am going on an extended photo trip and need to be able to download and backup about 150 to 200gb of photos. I have looked at all the portable hard drives and most top out at 120gb. Wolverine drives are advertized as being larger, but I can't find any reliability data on them. Most reviews on all drives stress speed and/or backup software and not reliability. As the trip is expensive, I am concerned w/ cost (as well as weight and space), but as the trip is expensive, isn't it foolish to worry about the cost of saving and backing up the very reason one is going :-))
Any info on reliability and/or suggestions? Thanks in advance

feppe · « **Reply #1 on:** December 11, 2006, 08:38:17 pm »

I just ordered a HyperDrive SPACE and will be installing a 160GB drive myself. You won't be seeing 200GB portable solutions as 2.5" drives top out at 160GB currently AFAIK, and I'm not aware of portable storage for photographers with larger desktop drives. With HyperDrive you'll save a lot of money by buying the casing only and installing your own store-bought HDDs. I don't know if other brands offer casing-only options.

The only viable solution I can see is to buy two, which has the added benefit of you being able to double-backup most of your shots if you "only" need 200GB.

Reliability of HDDs is mostly a non-issue - apart from bad production runs - as they all withstand g-forces you'll likely encounter by dropping them. And the moving parts in these small drives are so small - ie. little inertia - that it is highly unlikely you'll damage them by dropping even when they're reading/writing. So the main point of breakage is the casing. I went for the simplest one due to this, one without a screen which I find useless anyway. Besides, a screen unnecessarily drains the battery faster and costs a lot more.

John.Murray · « **Reply #2 on:** December 12, 2006, 03:39:20 pm »

If you don't mind the size, Maxtor has a nice 3.5" external 300GB USB/Firewire solution - under $150 US

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822144067

feppe · « **Reply #3 on:** December 12, 2006, 04:21:43 pm »

That Maxtor is an external HDD, ie. it requires a laptop to be of any use. Although the top poster didn't mention if he's bringing a laptop with him, I assume he meant a portable CF reader slash HDD, such as HyperDrive.

SPatton · « **Reply #4 on:** December 12, 2006, 08:04:38 pm »

I am taking a laptop, so just need external drives, and not even w/ backup software - and I want 2. I would prefer not to need a separate power plug for the drive, but essentially I guess that's the choice. Two cheap, large drives w/ ac bricks, or several svelte expensive ones that run off the usb port :-)) I'll be on a ship - a small one - so have to balance weight, space and plugins. Thanks for your input.

feppe · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2006, 08:47:00 pm »

Well if you're bringing a laptop that changes everything, makes things easier but lots more to choose from. Your options are pretty much unlimited and you can get external HDDs from almost any computer hardware store. You can get external 2.5" HDDs up to 160GB and larger up to at least 1TB.

RonBoyd · « **Reply #6 on:** December 13, 2006, 09:42:33 am »

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Well if you're bringing a laptop that changes everything, makes things easier but lots more to choose from. Your options are pretty much unlimited and you can get external HDDs from almost any computer hardware store. You can get external 2.5" HDDs up to 160GB and larger up to at least 1TB.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Except that "external" does not mean "portable." Unless a HD is designed specifically for portable use -- i.e., in a laptop -- it should be considered a non-movable object. Serious damage can occur if you "bang about" a non-portable HD.

While I am here, I might as will mention that there are several online sources of computer stuff you should check out including:

[a href=\"http://www.krex.com/]http://www.krex.com/[/url]

and specifically at

http://www.krex.com/index.asp?PageAction=V...TS&Category=447
http://www.krex.com/index.asp?PageAction=V...TS&Category=448

see also their $15 kit at

http://www.krex.com/index.asp?PageAction=V...ROD&ProdID=1672

Ron

feppe · « **Reply #7 on:** December 15, 2006, 10:09:21 am »

Quote

Except that "external" does not mean "portable." Unless a HD is designed specifically for portable use -- i.e., in a laptop -- it should be considered a non-movable object. Serious damage can occur if you "bang about" a non-portable HD.

When we're talking about 2.5" HDDs they are all portable for all intents and purposes, whether external or not. Whether they're designed to be banged about is another matter as enclosures differ in build quality so one should definitely look for a more rugged design as there are quite a few flimsy plastic enclosures which are designed to be sat on an office table.

And again, the HD is not the issue. All 2.5" HDDs withstand tens of Gs even when reading/writing which is more than you're likely to experience in normal use.

RonBoyd · « **Reply #8 on:** December 15, 2006, 10:19:56 am »

Quote

When we're talking about 2.5" HDDs they are all portable for all intents and purposes, whether external or not. Whether they're designed to be banged about is another matter as enclosures differ in build quality so one should definitely look for a more rugged design as there are quite a few flimsy plastic enclosures which are designed to be sat on an office table.

And again, the HD is not the issue. All 2.5" HDDs withstand tens of Gs even when reading/writing which is more than you're likely to experience in normal use.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=90693\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I agree that the 2.5" HDDs are designed for laptops (but not used exclusively that way) and have no quarrel with your observation about the enclosure. I believe I was thrown off by your reference to HDDs up to 1t of storage space. Please tell me where I can find such a thing -- in the 2.5" size.

Ron

Paul Kay · « **Reply #9 on:** December 15, 2006, 11:24:27 am »

From personal experience I've found two mabile storage solutions to have been reliable and effictive in the field. First is a small LaCie portable drive (I have an older 80Gb version but bigger ones are available) which fits very nicely inside a Lee filter pouch. These are very light and you can easily carry a couple. An alternative (bought when I'd clogged up both hard drive and computer drive on a long distance trip myself, is an iPod! Expensive but very small and with a substantially higher resale value (and other potentialities too) and useful once you specify its use as a hard drive rather than as a media player.

As I specialise in temperate underwater photography, my G4 12" and these drives have suffered substantially from being bounced around and having had to operate in damp and salty environments, often on small boats and in far from ideal conditions. The only problem I have actually encountered on a boat has been trying to write DVDs whilst a marine diesel is running - failure after failure - which seemed to be due to the harsh, pentrating vibration which goes through everything. The answer was to wait until we were anchored up and then run the p'book from an inverter to write DVDs.

Hope this is helpful.

feppe · « **Reply #10 on:** December 15, 2006, 11:43:58 am »

Quote

I agree that the 2.5" HDDs are designed for laptops (but not used exclusively that way) and have no quarrel with your observation about the enclosure. I believe I was thrown off by your reference to HDDs up to 1t of storage space. Please tell me where I can find such a thing -- in the 2.5" size.

Ron
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=90696\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The sentence was a bit confusing: "You can get external 2.5" HDDs up to 160GB and larger up to at least 1TB." Larger refers to larger than 2.5".

sapobufo · « **Reply #11 on:** December 16, 2006, 10:50:48 pm »

Quote

Well if you're bringing a laptop that changes everything, makes things easier but lots more to choose from. Your options are pretty much unlimited and you can get external HDDs from almost any computer hardware store. You can get external 2.5" HDDs up to 160GB and larger up to at least 1TB.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

2.5"external HDDs are available at least up to 200GB
[a href=\"http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go]http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go[/url]

feppe · « **Reply #12 on:** December 16, 2006, 11:16:29 pm »

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2.5"external HDDs are available at least up to 200GB
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=90924\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

That's news to me. Price per gig is outrageous, though. But if that's not an issue...

mahleu · « **Reply #13 on:** December 17, 2006, 03:52:19 am »

You can get a lot bigger by getting a 3.5" external. Seagate who i generally use make a 750Gb. Western digital make up to a 1Tb

RonBoyd · « **Reply #14 on:** December 17, 2006, 09:29:19 am »

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You can get a lot bigger by getting a 3.5" external. Seagate who i generally use make a 750Gb. Western digital make up to a 1Tb
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=90939\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Again, I urge caution when confusing "external" with "portable."

Ron

Dale Allyn · « **Reply #15 on:** December 19, 2006, 08:53:52 pm »

I have two of these: http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cf...uestTimeOut=500

and I'm happy with them. I bought the empty enclosure and put my OEM drive from a MacBook in the first. It's a Seagate 80GB drive. The second has a Western Digital 120GB drive in it, from another upgrade project. These can be purchased with or without the drive.

This is a Serial ATA enclosure with lots of interface options. It comes with USB 2.0, FW 400 and FW 800 cables.

Apparently Wiebetech are selling the same enclosure, albeit at a slightly higher price.

If you buy the drive separately and instal it yourself (VERY easy) you'll get a 5 year warranty on a Seagate drive or a 3 year warranty on a Hitachi/IBM. I think Toshiba gives 3 years as well. Otherwise the warranty is one year if buying it as an assembled unit.

BTW: this drive can be ordered with a 200GB drive installed if you really want that much space.

--
Dale

feppe · « **Reply #16 on:** December 19, 2006, 09:15:35 pm »

I've had my HyperDrive SPACE for a week now and it works as advertised. They upgraded the overseas delivery to Holland to UPS Next Day Courier at no extra charge. Solid, simple metal construction, passable UI, small and light, works with multiple partitions. No moving parts which could break. I installed my own Samsung SpinPoint 160GB 2.5" drive in it and it works wonderfully - installing your own is _much_ cheaper than buying the SPACE with the drive. The documentation is rudimentary, though - had to contact tech support on how to enable large drive (over 120GB) support, but they replied very quickly.

It copies a 2GB Sandisk Ultra CF card in less than 3 minutes without verification, a bit over 10 mins with full verification. This drive is apparently the fastest in the market. It appears to be finicky about formatting, though: data verification doesn't work if the drive was formatted in Linux. I'm working on figuring out the reason for that with tech support.

And it works as an external HDD as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find an additional AAA battery pack in the package and a car charger which eliminates the only objection to the drive I had in the past: that you need a wall outlet to recharge the internal li-ion battery. Though the manufacturer claims it can download up to 100GB on one charge which won't be an issue for me any time soon.

Bottom line: the drive which according to reviews was exactly what I was looking for is exactly what I was looking for. Cheap, small, no unnecessary image viewing screen, user-upgradable HDD, fast, has data verification, works as external HDD, takes batteries.

TerryM · « **Reply #17 on:** December 24, 2006, 01:24:00 pm »

Quote

I am going on an extended photo trip and need to be able to download and backup about 150 to 200gb of photos. I have looked at all the portable hard drives and most top out at 120gb. Wolverine drives are advertized as being larger, but I can't find any reliability data on them. Most reviews on all drives stress speed and/or backup software and not reliability. As the trip is expensive, I am concerned w/ cost (as well as weight and space), but as the trip is expensive, isn't it foolish to worry about the cost of saving and backing up the very reason one is going :-))
Any info on reliability and/or suggestions? Thanks in advance
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=89945\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you are shooting a 12MB raw format, that is 12,000 pictures.!!!!!

SPatton · « **Reply #18 on:** December 24, 2006, 07:09:04 pm »

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If you are shooting a 12MB raw format, that is 12,000 pictures.!!!!!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=92184\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

"Note that last year were on board for a total of 10.5 days and Seth and I each shot over 110 gigs of images...this year we'll be onboard 20 days and shooting in even more varied areas and conditions, so the single biggest advice I can give is bring a lot of storage drives!!!" Jeff Schewe
That's the reason for my question :-)) Also may need nu-skin for my trigger finger :-))

Mark D Segal · « **Reply #19 on:** December 24, 2006, 07:44:36 pm »

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No moving parts which could break. [a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=91505\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The parts may not move but they can break anyhow. The card slot is very poorly designed and inserting the card with the slightest misalignment can bend the pins. I sent mine back to a refund after this happened. I also hasd alot of trouble with the firmware in respect of getting the batteries charged. Many people are pleased with this product, but my experience indicates that great care is needed in the field using it.

Author Topic: Portable External Hard Drives (Read 16505 times)