Image Tank vs. X-Drive vs. Digital Wallet vs. Archos Jukebox

[colorblind]

There are a number of devices out there that can backup the content of your CF cards onto a HDD.

Which one do you use? Which one should I buy or avoid? Any suggestions?

I don´t care much about pretty design and transfer speed. However the device is not allowed to fail or (much worse!) lose data.

[DamienB]

Not had any problems with my X-Drive, easy to use and seems robust. Rather slow to transfer an entire 1Gb microdrive contents over though.

[defordphoto]

I have an X Drive I and have had no issues with it. It has been 100% reliable since day one. No errors, no lost pictures. Nada, Nyet. Nothing.

Perfect.

[cowman345]

I picked up an x-drive 2 on ebay for around 100 bucks and have had good results. The only drawback is that in the heat, and as the drive gets full, the transfer times for a 128MB CF card can take up to 8-10 minutes!! And God help you if you move the drive so much as an inch, it will give me a write error and have to start all over.

I'm not sure this is normal. It may be the result of the crappy hard drive I installed (old 3 gig cheapo drive). Any input on this x-drive users?

-dave-

[robertwgross]

Yes, I have the old original X-drive. I'll bet mine was one of the cheapest. The total for the bare unit, the hard disk, and shipping came to less than $140.

I can't complain.

---Bob Gross---

[robertwgross]

cowman345 wrote:
I picked up an x-drive 2 on ebay for around 100 bucks and have had good results. The only drawback is that in the heat, and as the drive gets full, the transfer times for a 128MB CF card can take up to 8-10 minutes!! And God help you if you move the drive so much as an inch, it will give me a write error and have to start all over.

I'm not sure this is normal. It may be the result of the crappy hard drive I installed (old 3 gig cheapo drive). Any input on this x-drive users?

-dave-


Do you think the transfer write error is caused by something in the hard disk unit, or in the overall X-drive housing? I would guess the former.

You know, a laptop-style hard disk is pretty cheap ($50 or less). You could slap a new disk in there quickly.

---Bob Gross---

[CyberDyneSystems]

I recently got an X-Drive II and installed a 30 gig notebook drive. I love it!

It does double duty for me,. obviously it is an in the feild back up for my CF cards,. but since its USB2,. I did not have to purchase a faster Card Reader! Tranfer rates are much faster from the X-DriveII to PC than they were from the old USB Card reader.

[hurry]

I use a XdriveII (40gb) with my CF/SM/SD/MMC/xD cards - no problems.

[George]

Has anyone had any experiences with Image Tank? I've heard that the lcd screen on visor is poor. I have a Palm Tungsten that has a great color screen. I'd like to store photos from my Gigabyte microdrive, and then transfer selected photos to my SD card for my Tungsten. Does that work with Image Tank? Is it a reliable unit? Thanks!

[colorblind]

I had an image tank G1 some time ago. It worked well for me although my PC sometimes didn´t recognise the image tank when connected via USB.

George: You cannot transfer data from an image tank to a flash card, only from the flash card to the tank.

[George]

The JOBO website states "Copies data to and from memory cards to self-contained hard-disk" for the G2. I can not see any such statement for the G1. Are you saying that you can not do that with a G2?

[colorblind]

Sorry, I don´t know anything about the G2. The G1 is very simple and has only three buttons: "on/off", "change partition", and "copy whole flashcard onto HDD". The display has only five pixels.

[Moosehunter]

I have an XS Drive II which errors after transfering a few (the number varies, but usually less than 10) files (Both .jpg & .raw formats). I contacted the UK importers and the first suggestion was to format the card using the XS Drive. When this failed to solve the problem, the importers requested that I send it back to them for a firmware upgrade with a card that had caused problems. I'm awaiting it's return with bated breath.

jim

[SteveCliff]

The XS Drive (model I & II) seem to do well in the reviews, but has anyone used the Archos Jukebox ?

Does it actually allow you to xfer from CF to the Archos unit without requiring a PC ? I suspect it has to be connected to a PC in order to do the transfer, but can't find anyone who says that .... ?

[werty]

To be sure you get this , i'll thrread it to yours ..

I have X-drive 6230 , it lacks . wont do but MP3/.AAC
its a pain to copy files . LCD isnt too bad ...
$280 here .

I live in Bangkok . Pantip sells computer stuff .
$3 gets a 2.5" HDD to PC link ( + alum box /USBcable).
add your own HDD .

$13 gets a OTG DigiMate . I added 2.5"Seagate .
It dnloaded photos from My Minolta Z-6 !!

$27 gets a DigiMate II which is boring , only copys from
it's many card slots to the 2.5" HDD . It is an UNCONDITIONAL copy . You push the copy button
and it copies ALL . No selection allowed .
So ! Now i have 2 links from Z-6 ....
But ya still need to carry 40 AA cells for Z-6 !

6230 uses a Texas Inst 360? CPU , just like the
Iriver and Epson P2000 .