Ok...Which Portable Hard Drive (Digital Wallet)

[yeaton]

Thanks to many of you...I've decided to buy a portable hard drive unit rather than a portable CD burner. Now I need to know your thoughts on what is the best portable hard drive. Let me know what you use and have used. What do/did you like or dislike about each product?

Thank You!

[Sketcher]

You might want to add Vosonic's Xs Drive Pro.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22415&highlight=

Many of us here have the Xs Drive and Xs Drive II and like them quite well. I purchased an Xs Drive II because I have spare Notebook hard drives. Getting 30GB of portable storage for $89.00 shot all the other products out of the water - even if they had additional features or performed better. It's bare bones and reliable - which is really all I need atm.

[Canuck]

Thanks to many of you...I've decided to buy a portable hard drive unit rather than a portable CD burner. Now I need to know your thoughts on what is the best portable hard drive. Let me know what you use and have used. What do/did you like or dislike about each product?

Thank You!

I have casted an "other, please explain" ballot...
I have a flashtrax drive and you can see all the pics you have taken as proof that they are there. It has a 3.5 LCD screen, about 4x the real estate as the puny one on the 10D. It isn't cheap though.

[Belmondo]

I have casted an "other, please explain" ballot...
I have a flashtrax drive and you can see all the pics you have taken as proof that they are there. It has a 3.5 LCD screen, about 4x the real estate as the puny one on the 10D. It isn't cheap though.

Ditto. FlashTrax 30-gig. Works like a charm.

[Phil Hall]

1 bought an xdrive II but do not use it very much. I use my laptop mostly. My son uses an Archos..

http://www.archos.com/

It has a cf card attachment, a good small screen, reads/plays mp3, mp4 and downloads tv. The main problem is the cost $550

[neil_r]

Still got the origional X Drive, no lcd just flashing led's. Never let me down, it's just slow but reliable.

Neil

[Jesper]

I have casted an "other, please explain" ballot...
I have a flashtrax drive and you can see all the pics you have taken as proof that they are there. It has a 3.5 LCD screen, about 4x the real estate as the puny one on the 10D. It isn't cheap though.

Ditto. FlashTrax 30-gig. Works like a charm.

Me Too. I have the 40 GB FlashTrax, which for some strange reason is cheaper than the 30 GB version in mainland Europe (if you order from www.smartdisk.com , which looks like it's in the UK). The LCD is nice so that you can see the photos are there - it can also read Canon RAW files. The resolution of the LCD isn't very high though, so you can't use it to check the quality of your photos.

The first FlashTrax drive I got stopped working after I had used it for 2 hours, so I had to send it back; I got a replacement fairly quickly, and haven't had problems with it.

[Jack_C]

If your using a 1GB CF card and want to unload it to a portable device, I heard it's takes from 12-16 minutes to transfer the 1GB of data, and you will only be able to transfer 4 -5 GB before the battery runs out. While they are at USB2 speeds from device to PC, from CF to device they run at PCMCIA speeds appx USB1.1.

Is that correct?

[robvonk]

I recently bought an X's drive pro and i like it. The clumsy screen shows what files are transfered and you can get an index too. It didn't let me down in the two weeks that i have it :)

[chris.bailey]

I have casted an "other, please explain" ballot...
I have a flashtrax drive and you can see all the pics you have taken as proof that they are there. It has a 3.5 LCD screen, about 4x the real estate as the puny one on the 10D. It isn't cheap though.

Ditto. FlashTrax 30-gig. Works like a charm.

Me Too. I have the 40 GB FlashTrax, which for some strange reason is cheaper than the 30 GB version in mainland Europe (if you order from www.smartdisk.com , which looks like it's in the UK). The LCD is nice so that you can see the photos are there - it can also read Canon RAW files. The resolution of the LCD isn't very high though, so you can't use it to check the quality of your photos.

The first FlashTrax drive I got stopped working after I had used it for 2 hours, so I had to send it back; I got a replacement fairly quickly, and haven't had problems with it.

Me too and it has taken some hammer over the last few months carrying around business presentations, works very well though the battery life is not that great.

[hmo66]

I purchased FlashTrax 30GB. I can't depend on it in the field due to it's short battery life. If I use it's huge LCD, I get less than two hours of juice. In theory, It is the best image bank. If it's battery was double the current capacity then maybe it becomes #1. I sold mine (when I sold my Minolta A1). I will not buy it again because it's best feature (3.5" LCD) is not usable unless you buy more batteries and keep charging them.....

[thomascanty]

1 bought an xdrive II but do not use it very much. I use my laptop mostly.

Same here (well, my Xdrive is an old original model, not a II). I have enough CF cards that I can pretty much shoot all day without running out of room. At the end of the day, if I'm not home where I can move them off to my regular PC, I'll copy them to the laptop and burn a CD. I haven't used my Xdrive for anything other than an external hard drive or card reader in months.

[where1]

I have an 40 gig XDrive II. It hasn't failed me yet, and I use it as a backup device as well as a place to empty my CFs. I copy the CFs to the XDrive even if I copy them direct to my computer. When I get my pics backed up from the computer, then I delete them from the XDrive. I also purchased the 12v power cord along with the XDrive.

[JStone]

I voted other.
I still have an original 20GB digital wallet that I am getting ready to retire...it served me well for three years...
I'm getting an 20GB iPod for a multi purpose tool...
If I were to get a dedicated portable storage device I'd get the Flashtrax...I've sold a bunch of them and every one who's bought one has boasted about how nice they are.

[KennyG]

FlashTrax. Nothing to touch it.

[Tom W]

Thanks to many of you...I've decided to buy a portable hard drive unit rather than a portable CD burner. Now I need to know your thoughts on what is the best portable hard drive. Let me know what you use and have used. What do/did you like or dislike about each product?

Thank You!

Thanks to many of you for letting me know just what a digital wallet is! I envisioned a big bulky portable HD that you had to treat with kid-gloves. Apparently, my perception was wrong. :)

[yeaton]

Thanks for everyone's vote and information. FlashTrax looks AWESOME, but I don't want to spend that much. I'm surprised that more people have not voted for The Tripper. I've read some great things about that device and have had people on other forums recomend it as the best. I think I'm down to either The Tripper or the X-Drive II.

KEEP THE VOTES COMING!

[Longwatcher]

Other....
I have the Delkin Picture Pad 30gig (which is sounds is like the Flash trax)
Reasons I am glad I bought it.
1. I can copy files back and forth from the CF card.
2. I can view the files to make sure I actually recorded it correctly
3. I can view the pictures themselves
4. Very rugged

Faults:
1. battery life
2. Can't upgrade HD
3. Doesn't play music (but then I have other devices for that)

[Rich_F]

See also the Archos Gmini 120. I've not used it, but it looks interesting.

Rich

[Andy_T]

See also the Archos Gmini 120. I've not used it, but it looks interesting.

Rich

I've been looking at that one, too.

However, if you're interested in using it as an MP3 player, it got pretty bad reviews (compared to the jukebox models) as far as sound quality is concerned.

So the jukebox MM might be bulky, but better in that respect...

Think the 2 units option (Imagetank and separate MP3 player) might be more viable...

Regards,
Andy