Cheap Portable Storage

[CScottMcQueen]

I have 5 2mb CF cards and get a bit trigger happy (or should that be shutter happy) and was looking for a way of not having to take my laptop to tunisia with me when I go in may. I have read several threads on here about portable storage and decided that this for me was a better option.

Looking around I found that some of these carry a hefty price tag. Eventually I found a better way of doing it.

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=storage+b14

I brought this little device and after a couple of weeks of use, think its a perfect addition to me camera bag.

I had a couple of 80GB laptop hard drives, formatted one up as FAT32(using an old 98 startup disk) and I am impressed.

It takes CF/MD/SD/MMC/MS/Smart Media and XD (although its not marked as taking XD).

Also makes a real good external hard drive.

So if your looking for a good 'cheap' portable storage device, this works a treat.

Scott

[nyland]

A very nicw price !

[DrJack]

What's the battery life like, and how quick is image transfer?

Jack

[purelithium]

Looks interesting... Can you tell us anything about it as DrJack asked?

[CScottMcQueen]

What's the battery life like, and how quick is image transfer?

Jack

Right after running a few tests on it (and bearing in mind this is continuos use and not as you would probably use it in the field).

I used a 2GB(40x) CF Card Full of images (RAW) -

Transfer time: 14 mins
# of cards before it needed a charge: 6
Recharge Time: About an hour

The unit comes with a chinese PSU and a convertor (5vdc), This went straight in the bin and was replaced with a UK plug 5V PSU. It can also be charged directly from the USB port (which I prefer).

I also use it as a card reader so it charges at the same time.

Another good thing about this is the fact that it has auto shut off. Stick the card in it, tell it to copy and stick it back in your bag, after it copies its shuts down to save battery life.

Hope this helps

Scott

[Logrus]

I am so chuffed to see this, i bought one of these from the same seller a few days ago, the price makes it seem worth a punt as i also have a spare 2.5 drive laying around.
Still waiting for my delivery, but i am slightly mroe excited now :)

Additionally i am really realyl pleased it charges from USB, because this is exaclty what i was looking for :)

[CScottMcQueen]

I am so chuffed to see this, i bought one of these from the same seller a few days ago, the price makes it seem worth a punt as i also have a spare 2.5 drive laying around.
Still waiting for my delivery, but i am slightly mroe excited now :)

Additionally i am really realyl pleased it charges from USB, because this is exaclty what i was looking for :)

One thing you do have to do as I said in my first post is to format the drive as FAT32. This can only done under WIN98 if its over 32GB (XP's Limit)as the drive wont work under NTFS.

And to be perfectly honest, I think its a great unit.

[bigmike1983]

One thing you do have to do as I said in my first post is to format the drive as FAT32. This can only done under WIN98 if its over 32GB (XP's Limit)as the drive wont work under NTFS.

I'm considering picking up this unit as well although I don't have access to any WIN98 machines.

Is there any other way to format the drive as FAT32?

[erpetao]

Hi!

I bought this device as well (it arrived today) as you can see in this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296573).

Bigmike to format the drive as FAT32 from XP you can use a software called swissknife (http://www.compuapps.com/download/Swissknife/swissknife.htm), that's what I used and it worked very well.

[Double Negative]

Sweet! What a good find. I picked one up as well. I'll be using it with an 80GB drive and a Mac.

[gjman]

Holy el carpo...this thing looks EXACTLY like the SmartDisk PhotoBank. The same layout for the SD/CF cards and on/off and copy buttons. How much does one of these cost in American money.

[vondo]

16 pounds is something like $30 with our weak dollar.

[nqjudo]

For about 100$ you can get the Wolverine FlashPac 60G. It's plug and play and no worrying about formatting, etc. Highly recommended for someone not looking for a HD case solution. No frills, just plug in your card and dump it to the drive.

[tekkie]

after reading this thread I ordered one of these off ebay, stuck in an old 40GB drive and voila in a matter of a couple of minutes it was up and running :)

pretty happy with it, it beats dragging around a laptop :)

[Double Negative]

I've been using mine for about a week now, with CF cards and a Mac, via USB also. It works as advertised! I have no complaints about the device and it works well.

I had a freebie 40GB laptop drive, so the overall cost was $16.99 + shipping. :)

EXACTLY what I needed to dump cards!

[Richard_Miami]

The ebay listing says Hard Drives up to 80 gb. Does anyone know any reason that I could not put in a 160?

[Double Negative]

There may be FAT32 limitations... Dunno. If that's the case, partition it... You might only be able to use the other partitions as a HDD, not for the reader part.

[Richard_Miami]

HDDs are cheap as heckhese days... but maybe an 80 wil do me.. I need to think it thru.. one of these is definitely in the works tho. Thanks DN.

[gjman]

I've been using mine for about a week now, with CF cards and a Mac, via USB also. It works as advertised! I have no complaints about the device and it works well.I had a freebie 40GB laptop drive, so the overall cost was $16.99 + shipping. :)EXACTLY what I needed to dump cards!

Which one did you get? Link? What capacity CF cards to you use? The main reason I returned the $100 SmartDisk 40GB photobank is coz it just freezes after reading 20% of a 4GB card. But it seems to read 2GB cards just fine.

I do have a SmartDisk Fotochute 20GB and it will read a 4GB card in about 30min via a card reader and it will do about 2 cards on a single charge. Thats more than enough for me (for now).

[vondo]

The ebay listing says Hard Drives up to 80 gb. Does anyone know any reason that I could not put in a 160?

You should be able to go to 120. Make sure you get the right interface. Laptop drives are moving from PATA to SATA. I'm not aware of PATA drives over 120 and there is a 137 GB limit in certain versions of the PATA protocol.

[Double Negative]

Which one did you get? Link? What capacity CF cards to you use? The main reason I returned the $100 SmartDisk 40GB photobank is coz it just freezes after reading 20% of a 4GB card. But it seems to read 2GB cards just fine.

I do have a SmartDisk Fotochute 20GB and it will read a 4GB card in about 30min via a card reader and it will do about 2 cards on a single charge. Thats more than enough for me (for now).

I got the one linked to earlier, without the drive.

I use 4GB SanDisk Extreme III cards and so far have had no freezes - whatever's on the card is read to completion. It works well as an external HDD and even card reader when attached via USB.

It seems to read cards at a reasonable clip but I haven't looked at it scientifically - how long it takes to copy X amount of data and how long the batteries last in doing so... They claim two hours battery life. You can run it and/or charge it via the supplied charger or USB cable.

[hotmonkeyac]

does it use an EIDE or SATA drive?

[boink]

does it use an EIDE or SATA drive?
eide, of course.

[rambler71]

I bought one of these cases off of EBay and an 80gb drive from Newegg. Set it up and formated the drive with swissknife. Works like a champ. It transferred 8gb (off a Sandisk Extreme III 12gb card) on a charge.

[SunTsu]

You should be able to go to 120.

Not necessarily. It's likely a limitation of the firmware rather than the interface. If anyone has access to a drive larger than 80GB, I'd be interested to hear if this thing works with it. Does anyone find the transfer speed slow?

[SunTsu]

Holy el carpo...this thing looks EXACTLY like the SmartDisk PhotoBank. The same layout for the SD/CF cards and on/off and copy buttons. How much does one of these cost in American money.

I'm almost certain it is the same product. It's quite normal for ODMs in China to design a reference platform with specs for PCB size, LCD pinouts, jack locations, etc. They then go and sell the designs or even manufacture the exact same design but with different plastics. If you're having problems with one brand, it's likely to occur with the other because everything will be the same except for the exterior plastic design.

[tcphoto1]

If you are shooting professionally, I would look for quality at a good price. Memory cards are getting cheaper and cheaper and I would not trust my images to that item. I am looking for a portable hard drive and will purchase a G Technology drive in the next week or two. My second option is an Epson P-3000 which is a very nice option with 80GB? of storage. I do not have money to burn, but you get what you pay for.

[tekkie]

why would you not trust them to this but you would to the epson, a hard drive is a hard drive its that simple, once the image copies there its the same thing

I agree that this may not be as good as the epson but the risk of data loss vs the epson is the same once they are there. This copies the files so if it fails during the copy you will know anyway.

[erpetao]

I agree with Tekkie. In fact you can choose the hard disk that is inside, so you can buy a good brand (Seagate, Western Digital) and be even safer. You are not stuck with whatever they think is a good hard disk in the Epson.

[Double Negative]

I agree with tekkie and erpetao... There's really no difference between this unit and an Epson, for example. Pick a good hard drive and go for it.

Of course hard drives aren't as robust as flash RAM - but for $16.99 (plus drive) vs. $220 for a 4GB CF card, guess which one I'm going with? I have several CF cards for redundancy and capacity in the field - but at the end of the day, I dump them and re-use them the following day. Better than schlepping a 17" laptop around for the same purpose.

[SunTsu]

I'd agree that once the data is on the hard drive, it's no longer an issue. It's the transfer process that I'm interested in. Someone in this thread mentioned that the SmartDisk crashed on them. Also, the transfer speed seems a bit slow. That would drive me nuts if the unit crashed even 10% of the time as I was unloading my 8GB CF card.

I'm still curious ast to whether or not this thing will take a HD larger than 80GB so if anyone can share, that would be great.

[ekie]

if those that dont wanna order from ebay, meritline has a simlar device ...

http://www.meritline.com/usb2-0-digi-mate3.html

i have this and installed a spare 30gb HD i have in there with no problems. works great actually. stick the CF card, it recognizes it instantly and just press the button and it starts transfering the files.

:D

[mighty_falcon]

I am thinking of getting one myself but the only worry I have is that it is being shipped from hong kong and will take forever. how long did it take for you guys to arrive?

Thanks

edit: also if anyone in the us/canada ordered it, how long did it take to ship? also about the charger what voltage does it run on and how is the plug?

[Double Negative]

The seller I bought from doesn't seem to be active on eBay anymore...

http://myworld.ebay.com/velectronics

[erpetao]

You still can get it from this link (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Portable-Storage-Digital-Camera-Backup-Card-reader-B14_W0QQitemZ280123776394QQihZ018QQcategoryZ43450Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).

I didn't take too long to arrive, I can't remember exactly how long. I used it successfullly when abroad a couple of weeks ago without any problems. :D

[bbruno]

I spent a week at Yosemite in March, and had the same dilemma--how to avoid hauling a laptop along. I used an 8GB memory card, and downloaded each day onto a GIGAone. This storage device holds 40GB, which was more than enough for the trip, and I was amazed by its speed. I didn't time it to the second, but it took under ten minutes to unload 8GB worth of images. My older 1 GB cards transfer in just a few minutes. Battery life is GREAT, and when I returned home I just popped in my USB and viewed everything in my image browser.

Here's a link to the product. It cost me around $160.
http://www.adorama.com/ICDG1.html

[bbruno]

Here's a link to the product. It cost me around $160.
http://www.adorama.com/ICDG1.html

[r.morales]

I emailed the guy asking for price in dollars - no response yet .

[airbutchie]

if those that dont wanna order from ebay, meritline has a simlar device ...

http://www.meritline.com/usb2-0-digi-mate3.html

i have this and installed a spare 30gb HD i have in there with no problems. works great actually. stick the CF card, it recognizes it instantly and just press the button and it starts transfering the files.

:D

This portable drive doesn't include a drive (as noted on the description), but has anyone installed an 80GB hard drive? It says, "... hard drive less than 80GB...", but it doesn't say if an 80GB will work. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

- airbutchie :D

[CScottMcQueen]

An 80gb should work no problem, most of these devices are the same inside in just different cases

[CScottMcQueen]

Here's a link to the product. It cost me around $160.
http://www.adorama.com/ICDG1.html


That is identical to the unit I bought without the drive, Its a good bit of kit.

[gjman]

Its not really portable but I just acquired one of these to supplement my SmartDisk FCD20.

Mediagear Image Bank HD with a 120GB drive. (http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/MG-ImageBank-HD.html)

Now I got the enclosure from Geeks for about $40 and the 120GB HDD from Newegg for about $60. You do need to know how to format > 40GB HDD as FAT 32 (all these devices are FAT 32 else they dont work with the card reader).

Right now I am using it to dump stuff as a permanent backup of the CF card before I even process it further.