OK New Portable Card Reader/HD Time...

[FlyingPete]

Well due to the untimely demise of my X'S Drive, it is time to replace it. My employer is reimbursing $100US (That is how much my X’S Drive II cost) for its replacement as it died whist in the line of duty. The 40GB drive is still fine, so I can reuse that.

Now, I have looked at newer X’S Drives, however a mail to Vosonic a few months back confirmed that they have not fixed the issue of speed (my X’S Drive took typically 30 mins to do a 1GB card as I copied twice due to the lack of verify function) and they wouldn’t comment on the file verify. Also my current Vosonic X’S Drive broke, and I see the part failure as a design flaw, which makes me trust them less.

So what I am looking for now, a drive faster than the X’S drive, preferably with file verify, no image preview screen required, only CF slot needed now, non of that other nonsense!

Did some searching around here on the PD7X, sounds like a reasonable option, supposed to be fast anyone ever had any issues with these?

Others I have seen are the Image Tank G2 OTG, the Image tank was around when I last looked, but I required MS card support then. The Epson P2000 is pushing my $$$ limits somewhat.

Bottom line:
- Only require CF card support
- Must be noticeably faster than my X’S Drive II
- File verify would be very nice to have
- A bonus would be able to reuse my old drive
- I don’t need a photo review screen

Any thoughts?

[joeseph]

Here's a fairly old speedtest I found:
http://www.insidecomputer.com/performance_comparison.htm

My unit is a "Tripper" (now obsolete) which does reasonably well with the 256M cards I have. I got it from ausy: http://www.jaldigital.com.au/ and would happily deal with them again. If you want to use local folks, it gets a bit harder. Noting that flashcards.co.nz seem to only do Vosonic...

Nice to see your employer coming to the party! at least it's not coming out of your pocket...

[Wazza]

It will be interesting to what you chose..

In September I am going to need probably 40Gb storage, whislt touring the South Island. I really don't wanna drag my bulky computer everywhere with me! And the fact it could get pinched when leaving the car in carparks, when walking along tracks

[FlyingPete]

It will be interesting to what you chose..

In September I am going to need probably 40Gb storage, whislt touring the South Island. I really don't wanna drag my bulky computer everywhere with me! And the fact it could get pinched when leaving the car in carparks, when walking along tracks

Will let you know, may end up getting the wrong thing (again!) so might pay to see how things pan out!

Lots of nice options now with 1.8 inch drives as well!

[MarkH]

So what I am looking for now, a drive faster than the X’S drive, preferably with file verify, no image preview screen required, only CF slot needed now, non of that other nonsense!

Did some searching around here on the PD7X, sounds like a reasonable option, supposed to be fast anyone ever had any issues with these?

Bottom line:
- Only require CF card support
- Must be noticeably faster than my X’S Drive II
- File verify would be very nice to have
- A bonus would be able to reuse my old drive
- I don’t need a photo review screen

Any thoughts?

The new PD70X is probably your best bet. I have the PD7X and am impressed with the speed. I used the drive from the X's Drive that I had used previously. You can buy the PD70X without a HDD and add the drive you already have, this makes it very affordable.

[FlyingPete]

The new PD70X is probably your best bet. I have the PD7X and am impressed with the speed. I used the drive from the X's Drive that I had used previously. You can buy the PD70X without a HDD and add the drive you already have, this makes it very affordable.

That is the way I am swinging at the moment, also deals with my battery life issue taking AA's, so I can carry spares unlike the X'S Drive, which as a non user serviciable internal battery.

[rent]

i'm kinda in the same boat. my xdrive likes to malfunction when used outdoors. do you guys have a link to the PD7X? thanks!

-alex

[formula4speed]

Here's the PD7X

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/s.nl;jsessionid=ac112b801f43951f5dc605624738b95bd1 cd6ccf9b92.qQvJq2PEmlnva30N-BbQmkLz-ATzr6Lzn6rzqwTxpQOUc30KaNDNo6XKq6zInRmLa3iL8RbCpR0 HoA5Qmh0KaMTNo6XK-kDvrA4Ka3aIqRnvp6iIpAjOp6jynQjM-AbJpgaLaNiQbh8TbNaS8Oexo6XHngbynknvrkLOlQzNp65In0_ _?sc=2&category=386

But I'm having trouble finding the new PD70X which is supposed to be much faster and all around better.

[FlyingPete]

Just as an potentially interesting point, I have emailed Vosonic with my grumble list from the X'S Drive II, with the angle of 'Have you fixed these issues in new drives?', if I get a response, it will be interesting.

[Osmium]

I posted this a short while ago, but I'll re-post here:

Regarding the PD70X:

I just got mine from JAL in Melbourne. See: http://www.compactdrive.com/ for a list of countries and the distributors.

I fitted mine with a 7200rpm Hitachi drive. I already had the drive. A note in the manual says that cache size is more important than rotational speed. My drive has an 8Mb cache.

Just to test: A full 2Gb 40x Lexar CF card (236 raw files) copied in 5 1/2 minutes. I think the CF card might be the limiting factor here.

I like the new unit. The design changes make sense - the manufacturer has obviously been listening to the customers.

[FlyingPete]

Just to test: A full 2Gb 40x Lexar CF card (236 raw files) copied in 5 1/2 minutes. I think the CF card might be the limiting factor here.


That is what I like to see, the more I read, the more it looks like it will be one of these.

[Osmium]

In your original post you talked about wanting data verification. Data verification meaning that once the files have been copied, the software re-reads the original files and the copies and compares them to make sure they are the same.

In a couple of places I've read that the PD7X and PD70X verify the files. This is not the case. I asked the manufacturer about this and they replied that these drives verify the integrity of the file structure but do not actually perform a data verification on the files. They considered that the file structure verification was a sufficient indicator that the copy was successful.

Personally, that's fine by me. In the short time that I've had the PD70X it has performed well.