Desktop or Notebook grade hard drives for travel?

[lsquare]

Let's say you guys are travelling for 99 days somewhere in Asia or Europe. Would you guys consider buying a desktop or notebook grade hard drive and stick it to a external enclosure? I would think a notebook grade hard drive would be better since it's designed to better handle the shocks and bumps from travelling, but capacity is smaller than its desktop counterpart. Last year when I was travelling in China for 99 days, I didn't had an external hard drive on me. I shot in RAW with my Canon XTi and I ran out of space on my laptop. The laptop had a 80GB hard drive, but I had about 300GB worth of data. Fortunately, I remember to bring my slim DVD burner with me and just burn to discs that I bought when I was in Hong Kong. One of the lessons that I learned from the trip is that burning to discs while travelling isn't very ideal. It's actually more of a hassle so now I want to get a external hard drive solution on the go. What would you guys do if you were in my shoes?

[the_weird_one]

Laptop grade harddrive since it doesn't require you to have an external powersource, and at least in the UK they're not too badly priced, just picked up a Seagate 320gig drive for £60 ~ $90

[lsquare]

Good point.

[sparksdjs]

I have one of these Toshiba external drives for my laptop:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8761903&type=product&id=1202650704851

Small and USB-powered, it works perfectly for me. I have this 320GB version but there is a 500GB available now.

Dave

[DisrupTer911]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136323
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136318

that'd what I'd get, one of those.
and tons and tons of CF cards and don't delete them til you get home to do your proper download/backup procedures.

[fishfoto]

For travel I use the iOmega Silver Portable drives, in 250gb size (http://store.iomega.com/section?SID=81de5ee92efd1ff93361b6a090d2aa1d97f:47 60&secid=39516)

I find these drives to be compact and easy for travel, easy to use as they require no external power, work off both USB-2 as well as Firewire 400, come with a secondary USB-to-Power cord, allowing you to use it without AC power if you're laptop does not kick out enough USB power to operate the drive directly.

My iOmega drive has traveled extensively as my Mac Time Machine and packed in a slim neoprene sleeve has endured quite a bit of abuse.

So for me, laptop drive in external case , or a durable drive pre-assembled, would be the only way to go. I address backing up on the road in a few entries on my site for traveling photos Flying With Fish (http://www.flyingwithfish.com) (www.flyingwithfish.com (http://www.flyingwithfish.com)) it may provide some good info for you.

Happy Traveling!

[Jon]

With the ever-increasing capacities and decreasing prices of USB flash drives, they're becoming viable alternatives nowadays.

[lsquare]

With the ever-increasing capacities and decreasing prices of USB flash drives, they're becoming viable alternatives nowadays.

USB drives would be viable if I was shooting in JPG. I shoot in RAW and therefore even a 64GB drive will still be too small for me.

[Richgsr]

I'd get a terabit OEM drive from newegg (most can be had for 100 dollars), and an external hard drive enclosure and call it a day. It's a bit bulky, but I'm assuming you'll be doing your back ups in a hotel room somewhere. One advantage a 3.5 hard drive over it's laptop counterpart is the speed. Most laptop drives spin at 5400 rpms instead of 7200.

If that proves to be too large to travel with, then I second the WD portable hard drives. I have a 250 gig passport and I love it. Very light and portable, and requires no external power source.

[lsquare]

I'd get a terabit OEM drive from newegg (most can be had for 100 dollars), and an external hard drive enclosure and call it a day. It's a bit bulky, but I'm assuming you'll be doing your back ups in a hotel room somewhere. One advantage a 3.5 hard drive over it's laptop counterpart is the speed. Most laptop drives spin at 5400 rpms instead of 7200.

If that proves to be too large to travel with, then I second the WD portable hard drives. I have a 250 gig passport and I love it. Very light and portable, and requires no external power source.

I intend to get a 7200RPM HD no matter if it's 2.5" or 3.5". 5400 RPM hard drives aren't that bad. My 80GB HD in the laptop that I used in China for 99 days was a 5400 RPM drive.

[LowriderS10]

I have a Western Digital laptop external...love it.

[bohdank]

Backing up to an external using Firewire/USB2... 5400rpm/7200rpm... you won't notice any difference since the bottleneck is the interface and not the drive RPM.

[Familiaphoto]

My travel drive is a 250 gig WD Passport. Works just great for me, no complaints.

You want to see a travel laptop kit on steroids go see what Chase Jarvis uses.

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2007/03/photography-laptop-case-aka-pimp-your.html

He has a case for everything. :D

[Jon]

USB drives would be viable if I was shooting in JPG. I shoot in RAW and therefore even a 64GB drive will still be too small for me.
I shoot RAW too; you needn't use one USB drive. But if you're looking to store over 300 GB, you'll still likely need an external power supply, or multiple drives, in which case one of the laptop vs. desktop advantages goes away.