Storage and duplication while traveling--does this make sense?

[eric_larsen1]

<p>Hello,<br>

I'll be travelling in India for 5-6 weeks and have been trying to figure-out the storage and duplication of image files thing. I'd like to bounce this "solution" off of those more experienced.</p>

<p>Money is tight so buying pricey storage devices are probably out of the question. I do, however, have the opportunity to pick-up a new Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook by cashing in my credit card reward points. Obviously, I'd be making an allowance for bulk going that route but hey, it won't cost me anying.</p>

<p>I was thinking of replacing the netbook's 160 gb HD with a 500 gb drive ($89) and then taking the 160 gb drive and putting it into a USB/SATA external enclosure (one that has USB-powered capability) for use as the backup drive (about $30). So essentially, I'd shoot on CF cards, download files to PC, copy to external HD, and then reformat and re-use CF cards if needed. I have three 8 gb cards and will probably pick-up three more. This scenario would leave me with three copies of files or at least two copies if CF cards had to be re-used.</p>

<p>Does this sound like a good strategy? Am I missing anything obvious here? I figure this is the cheapest way to get massive storage and duplication. The upside is that the cost is low here. The down side is the bulkiness of this setup and the fact that transfer speed from PC to external Hdd is going to be slow with USB 2.</p>

<p>I wish this netbook had eSATA! Any comments or suggestion for improvement?</p>

<p>Thanks<br>

Eric</p>

[kevin_hess]

<p>yes you are missing the cost of the new operating system just put the 500 gig in the case and call it good.</p>

[thomas_sullivan]

<p>you sound like you won't be shooting great volumes of pics "...reformat and re-use CF cards if needed. I have three 8 gb cards and will probably pick-up three more. This scenario would leave me with three copies of files or at least two copies if CF cards had to be re-used..."</p>

<p>so I agree with kevin....just leave the 160gb as is in the netbook, and just get the 500gb as a ready made external. Remember, netbooks don't come with DVD disk burners. so swapping the memories means you loose your operating system...and will have to at least buy a DVD machine to reload it onto the new drive. If you end up doing that, you may as well just burn everything to DVD while you're on your trip. Which makes you end up buying DVD burner, harddrive and DVDs......instead of just buying an external portable drive.<br>

But even if you do end up taking lots of pics..........160gb minus operating system and a few other programs leaves you plenty of space on the internal....and tons of space on the external. you could re-use that 48gb of cards 2 times and save a copy to the internal and external drive. Then when you use the 48gb of cards the 3rd time you don't reformat the cards and save them directly to the external drive.<br>

Or if cost is a "major" concern, then get a 250gb external. A great little portable 250gb hardrive is Lacie's Rugged All-Terrain Portable HD. B&H has it for $97 USD. Western digital has one for $77 at B&H. Most of the HD manufacturers have a portable version. The portables keep it smalll....my lacie rugged is maybe 1 1/3 the size of a deck of cards...and let you use USB connection without an additional power cord hook up.</p>

[curt wiler]

<p>What you are proposing is quite doable and the operating system can be copied directly to the new HD using a USB hard drive "dock" and special software. But I agree in your case it is best to just get a large external HD to go with the netbook. Personally, I have settled on a Buffalo MiniStation TurboUSB Portable - the 500 GB version can sometimes be found on special for as low as $89, and it has some internal shock protection. If the internal drive fills up, just write to the external drive and if possible don't delete the CF cards from then on.</p>

[david_f._stein]

<p>Anyone e-mail files to a site from on the road. This would give an extra step of backup.</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>I burn and send DVDs or CDs home every couple days when I'm traveling. If anything happens to my luggage, I've still got the photographs. You can usually burn at a local internet cafe.</p>

[thomas_sullivan]

<p>I don't know how well email would work out, but if you subscribed to one of those online storage sites and you had access to the Internet where you you were travelling, i imagine that would work pretty well. Long upload times for large files though. But, I guess you could run the upload all night while you were sleeping. don't really know.....but it is a thought.</p>

[joseph_wisniewski]

<p>Another of those rare days when I agree 100% with Jeff. Burn two sets of DVDs or CDs. Mail one set home every couple of days. Keep the other set with you.</p>

[marc_bergman1]

<p>I have also been looking at Netbooks for storage when traveling. It seems like a very cost effective solution.</p>

<p>I have been looking at USB-2 powered portable DVD burners. They look like another low cost but viable addition. They cost about $60. I want to make sure that adding a DVD burner to the Netbook doesn't boost the size and cost into small laptop area.</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>When traveling, I burn the day's pictures to both a portable hard drive and DVDs - the HD for convenience and backup and the DVDs for permanence. If possible, put a DVD burner into the laptop itself. An external burner is one more thing to carry and usually requires a separate power supply. External hard drives under 250 GB are usually powered by the USB bus.</p>

<p>For convenenience, I load up a zippered CD "book" with blank discs, and return them to the "book" once burned. It's small enough to carry on board and protects the discs well. I carry at least two days of CF cards, in case I can't backup up daily. Once the images are on DVDs and verified, I reformat the CF cards in the cameras. Backing up and recharging batteries is a dull but necessary routine each evening.</p>

<p>It's possible to transfer the entire contents of one hard drive to another, even to a larger drive, without partitioning. Norton/Symantec "Ghost" is one such product. An external USB drive port for the new drive costs about $40. It's sometimes tricky to make the new disk completely compatible - not something you want to try the night before. You also need to deactivate and reactivate any programs which require activation, including all Adobe professional products. You may need help from Adobe in this process.</p>

[robert_k1]

<p>Thomas, can you clarify what you meant by "re-use that 48gb of cards 2 times" and "use the 48gb of cards the 3rd time you don't reformat the cards"? IOW, what do you mean by "re-use", and why reformat a card after it is formatted once?</p>

[thomas_sullivan]

<p>I format my cards every time. I don't erase them in the computer or the camera. And I only format my cards in the camera I am going to use to take the pictures. That way the card is in perfect sync with the camera. Yeah, it's a nitpicky type of thing, but coming from an electronic background, I have gotten in the habit of formatting memory any time I start something new.....a totally new clean slate just seems better to work with. Erasing file DOES NOT start you with a clean slate. It basically only erases the index...not the actual files. Re-use is just a poor word choice for taking more pics on same card.</p>

<p>So, taking 1 card as an example.</p>

<p>Start <br>

1st time.... Format in camera. Take pictures. Copy pictures to computer internal drive. Copy pictures to computer external drive.<br>

2nd time....Format in camera. Take pictures. Copy pictures to computer internal drive. Copy pictures to computer external drive.<br>

3rd time.....Format in camera. Take pictures. Copy pictures to computer external drive.<br>

Stop</p>

[thomas_sullivan]

<p>That schedule would of course be until you got home and could create the 2nd copy of the<br>

(3rd time) files on your home computer. Then you could format the cards again and start taking pics on them again.</p>