New Portable HDD Storage Solution

[openspace]

Thought you guys might want to check out the Flash-HD To Go from Media Gear (www.mymediagear.com). I was looking for a portable hard drive / flash card reader solution for a while, but I just wasn't satisfied with any of the units out there. Mostly, I wanted the smallest unit I could find for backpacking.

Enter the Flash-HD. It measures a measly 4.9 x 1.2 x 2.9 inches (126.3 x 31.33 x 75.11mm), is USB 2.0 compliant and doubles nicely as a fast external hard drive for my computer (FAT 32 format).

The LCD is kind of cheesy. It's got a few token icons and flashing arrows to tell you what's transferring where, and displays the copy process in percentage complete, however there is no verification process although if you are really paranoid, you can copy the same card and images multiple times to the device without writing over what's already there - the device creates a new folder for the images each time (CF001, CF002, etc.) regardless of the image names. There is no way to preview the images on the device (but who would? It wastes batteries!)

At least in my unit, the HD is a Fujitsu which, as a network tech, is a brand I have always had good luck with. The bad news is Media Gear doesn't sell a "shell" allowing you to use your own HD. It comes in 20, 40 and 60GB sizes and sells for $199 - $299 US depending on HD size.

I did talk to the Media Gear tech however, and he says that the HD is user replaceable (although it voids the 1-year warranty), and they have gotten up to a 80GB drive to work with it. They think it would support up to a 200GB drive., but they haven't tested it.

Anyway, it reads all the standard cards - CF1, CF2, microdrive, SD, Memory Stick, SmartMedia and xD (with included adapter). Although it is USB 2.0 from device to computer (it is fast), the transfer speed from card to device is highly dependent on the type and speed of card memory you use.

The battery seems to have a fairly long life. At least I have never had it die on me. One really cool feature of this unit though is it not only recharges from the wall, it also recharges through the USB port on your computer. Nice.

Oh, and no, I don't work for Media Gear. If I did, would I call the LCD cheesy? And it is. But oh, is the unit small.

[DocFrankenstein]

would I call the LCD cheesy?
Of course, to hide the fact that you work for them... obviously :roll:

[CyberDyneSystems]

Just curious,. what about this device seperates it from say, an X-drive?

[eRebel]

Maybe it was just my unit...but I did not like this thing at all. I bought a 40gb Flash HD-to-go. It is a great idea...but I felt very funny about dumping my photos on it and not really knowing that they were there.

I made up my mind when I noticed it wasn't transferring all of my images. It would pop up with some sort of data error on one image and would fail to copy all of the images after that. I would only notice this if I was staring at the thing during the transfer. Even after an error, the unit would power itself down and upon powering it back up...there was no indication of a error. I returned it and bought 2 more 512 MB cards.

-Erick

[robertwgross]

One really cool feature of this unit though is it not only recharges from the wall, it also recharges through the USB port on your computer.

That is kind of unusual. Many of those devices will power up through the USB cable, but not to recharge the internal battery also.

---Bob Gross---

[openspace]

I would say one of the big differences between the Media Gear Flash-HD To Go and the Vosonic X's-Drive is the company itself. Like any of you guys, I cannot afford to lose images to cheap gear, so I did a lot of research into portable storage solutions.

The only other product I looked at was the X's-Drive II (2060), primarily because of the favorable reviews on this website. Unfortunately, Vosonic was far less than helpful when it came to providing technical specs, and that worried me. Most of the documentation they pointed me to was vague and very poorly written, and their tech support was useless.

Mediagear on the other hand was very helpful, plus they offered me a 30-day money back guarantee which I appreciated plus the 1-year warranty, which I do believe Vosonic does also offer. Mediagear is a fairly new company so time will tell, but thus far, the unit has performed very well, although I have had to hit the reset button a few times (no data loss though).

Regarding transfer errors or lost images, I have never had one although with all of these devices, that is a risk. I did have one card that had a corrupted image on it (according to my 10D), but the Flash-HD transferred the entire card without a problem.

The unit is well built - the top and bottom covers are brushed aluminum. It comes with what they call a "leather like" case which didn't sound promising, but it turned out to be a very high quality case with a magnetic snap closure and pocket for CF cards etc.

But mostly, I liked the fact that I could recharge this unit through a USB port on my - or any - computer. I asked Vosonic if their units did this, but nobody could tell me (?).

So all in all, I would say that the two units (X's-Drive and Flash-HD) are probably more similar than different. Heck, they could have been designed by the same guy for all I know. But the customer service made the difference for me.

By the way, Mediagear also has a cool product called a Keychain Memory Stick Reader. Basically it turns any CF card into a USB flash drive. They also have a secure digital version, and both sell for under $10.

[rsnadel]

I bought one (40Gb version...for $210US delivered) a month ago just before taking a 10-day trip out of the country. I must confess that my initial concerns were similar to what eRebel expressed-- you have to have faith that the files will be where you expect them. I was also concerned about the possibility of overwriting a folder in the event pictures previously copied were in the same "hundred" as the next batch being copied. All those concerns have been eliminated after using the device.

Yes...the screen could offer more information. And yes, it would be huge to be able to copy from the HD back to the CF. But the plain truth is that this device does what it promises-- to quickly transfer files from the CF card onto the HD, without problems. And at a price I could afford. I realized that the "other" stuff-- on-screen viewing, etc., was all icing and not cake for me. So I'm a happy user.

[Cordell]

openspace,

I don't know if you work for them or not, but please stop sounding (IE typing) like you do. If you are promoting this thing because you do work from them you still be less obvious.

[alfa]

I have Visonic's X's-Drive II and admittedly it works and has never failed me. It's cheap and upgradeable as you can change the hard drive later if the HD capacity becomes to small or if the drive is fried. Its got a generous battery life giving you 5 to 10 transfers on a 256MB card.

I only have one misgiving about it. It doesnt have a screen where i can visually see the pictures that i dumped into the hard drive. Everytime i transfer the pics to the HD, and non have been corrupted, i feel like i i'm doing a big leap of faith.

If i had the chance to buy a new storage devide i'd get one with an LCD (colored or black doesnt matter) which would give a visual confrimation that the pics are in the HD.

When i go the drive i saved around US$300.00 by buying the no lcd drive. Factoring in the cost of one vacation, and the priceless pictures that i took, i think i pinched pennies on the wrong item.

[scottbergerphoto]

One really cool feature of this unit though is it not only recharges from the wall, it also recharges through the USB port on your computer.

That is kind of unusual. Many of those devices will power up through the USB cable, but not to recharge the internal battery also.

---Bob Gross---
Bob,
They sell cell phone chargers that connect to USB ports.
Scott

[who10]

They sell cell phone chargers that connect to USB ports.
Scott

...iPod on the Mac also recharges via USB, convenient if nothing else...

[robertwgross]

They sell cell phone chargers that connect to USB ports.


That must be something new that has popped up in the last year.

I'm convinced that this is not the time to invest in new technology for cameras or computers. This is the time to invest in battery technology.

---Bob Gross---

[openspace]

Openspace, I don't know if you work for them or not, but please stop sounding (IE typing) like you do. If you are promoting this thing because you do work from them you still be less obvious.

Hmmm. Ok. How about this...

Hey guys, I bought a box shaped device that allows me to transfer pictures from CF card to hard drive. It's got a bunch of slots and is silver and black. It's got a hard drive and a place to plug in a cord to charge it, oh and did I mention slots? And it's made by an electronics company! How cool is that? For more info, just do a search on the web for "box shaped hard drive device." I found it listed on page 478 of the results.

Is that better?

Oh and by the way. I like Twinkies. They're oooey gooey delicious. Damn! Now you probably think I work for Hostess*.

----

*Disclaimer: I actually don't eat Twinkies, but I can't tell you why because that might make me "sound" like I work for Hostess rival Moistess, the maker of Twunkees and Ding Long Dongs. So I'll just shut up...

:?

[NickC]

If openspace worked for this company, he would have pitched the product at post count 1 or 5. But he's been around to make over 100 posts. I for one don't believe he works for Media Gear.

Also, this device looks like one that someone here at work showed me, except they bought it in Asia for about the same price. Same case and buttons. Looks like the product may be an OEM, branded individually by whoever buys a bunch of 'em. We used the drive to copy files off a computer.

[openspace]

Interesting, Nick. It very well could be. Kind of like the original X-Drive which several companies peddled.

[DocFrankenstein]

If openspace worked for this company, he would have pitched the product at post count 1 or 5. But he's been around to make over 100 posts. I for one don't believe he works for Media Gear.
Yeah, right. The first 100 posts was an elaborate plot to infiltrate the canon club. It's always the 101 or 105 posts that they start advertising their stuff.

And how do you even know he actually posted 100 posts? He could've hacked the server and changed the post count.

*puts his tinfoil hat on*