Tablet for file transfer

On safari weight is an issue. In the past, I've taken a laptop CF reader and a 500tB external drive. To cut weight and size, I've been thinking of getting a tablet with two USB 3 ports and transferring from the CF card over to external HD via tablet. Any reason this won't work?

And any suggestions of tablets with two USB ports?

In my experience tablets can be slow, fiddly, and annoying. I'd keep the laptop, just buy the smallest one you can find/afford.

Seems overly complicating things.

Why not have a small laptop? You have the flexibility of two backups, one on the laptop and one on the external.

How about a Win 8 tablet?

This device might interest you.

http://www.besttechie.​com/2014/02/28/lacie-fuel-review/

flickserve wrote in post #16728246
This device might interest you.

http://www.besttechie.​com/2014/02/28/lacie-fuel-review/

yes, I saw a similar device by Seagate called Seagate Wireless Plus, since they are both owned by the same people, probably the same 'guts'. From reviews it sounded like it streamed to tablet quickly, but was slow to upload onto the drive. I'm going to look at this option a little further.

I have an Asus Transformer Prime, it does not however have 2 usb ports, but I was able to connect a usb hub and connect a mouse, keyboard and my externally powered hard drive. My keyboard dock has a SD slot which works for me. You may however be able to use a splitter and plug a CF reader and hard drive into it. When going real light I leave the keyboard dock at home and use a USB OTG adapter.

Its not as fast as a good laptop, but I tend to plug it all in when I get back to camp/hotel/car/where ever I am based out of, and go cook and eat dinner, so speed is not an issue.

Last night I ran a little test. I took 150 images on mhy 5D Mkiii in Raw (about 26mb each file) and then transferred them onto an unpowered portable external drive via a) My Lenovo P400 with one USB3 and a USB 2 port, weight 5 pounds, b) a 5yr HP pavilion with 2 usb ports weight 7 pounds and a core2 duo processors and c) an Asus eeee netbook my girlfriend owns which weighs 3.5 pounds with 2gb ram and atom processor. After each test, I reformatted the external hard drive so same space available. The Lenovo did the transfer in 4min. 50 sec., The old HP took 10m, 30 sec., the Asus netbook took 8m, 40 sec.

What does that tell me? I'm assuming the fastest transfer was due to the one USB 3.0. I expected it to be the fastest. I was, however, surprised that the tiny, cheap netbook could beat the HP. so surprised, I re-ran the test. I still believe even the smallest weakest device will do a fast transfer if it's got 2 USB 3 ports. The search continues, but this was a good start.

I picked up a MS Surface RT mainly to take on vacations to backup my memory cards. Since the USB port is 2.0 its limited to around 20MBps transfer speed. I can hook up an external drive plus a CF card reader to a hub. its much better than a laptop as its light and it lasts forever on battery. Last vacation I would at night upload the images to my server, by morning they would all be uploaded. Then from there I can open Lightroom on my the Surface rt and edit photos (this is through a function of RemoteApp built into server 2012 that allows me to run lightroom on my Surface RT)

gotaudi wrote in post #16736727
I picked up a MS Surface RT mainly to take on vacations to backup my memory cards. Since the USB port is 2.0 its limited to around 20MBps transfer speed. I can hook up an external drive plus a CF card reader to a hub. its much better than a laptop as its light and it lasts forever on battery. Last vacation I would at night upload the images to my server, by morning they would all be uploaded. Then from there I can open Lightroom on my the Surface rt and edit photos (this is through a function of RemoteApp built into server 2012 that allows me to run lightroom on my Surface RT)

Let me confirm: you use a hub into the USB 2.0 to copy from the card to an external drive. Then overnight you upload from the external to your server back home? How much does spitting the USB seem to slow transfer vs. your normal computer transfer methods?

buddy4344 wrote in post #16736778
Let me confirm: you use a hub into the USB 2.0 to copy from the card to an external drive. Then overnight you upload from the external to your server back home? How much does spitting the USB seem to slow transfer vs. your normal computer transfer methods?

I Plug in the external hard drive and card reader into a USB Hub, I plug the hub into the Surface RT (The RT acts as a host) I proceed to copy the contents on the CF card to the External hard drive. At Night With the External Hard drive plugged into the Surface RT I upload all my files to my home server if where I am has wifi. It has worked well for me thus far. I like that I can edit (again wifi/tether permitting) as my home server is much faster than 99% laptops out there. I kinda want the Surface 2 as the screen is nicer than the Surface rt.

Heya,

USB 3 makes a big difference to me.

Ultimately, I would use a netbook with USB3 and a USB3 card reader with fast cards of course. I wouldn't use a tablet, too many things can be problematic with that, plus storage space is very limited. Netbooks can have big hard drives that can hold a lot more photos.

Very best,

flickserve wrote in post #16728242
Seems overly complicating things.

Why not have a small laptop? You have the flexibility of two backups, one on the laptop and one on the external.

How about a Win 8 tablet?

Agree. My next "laptop" will be a Surface Pro 2 (or 3), which I'll be happy to replace my iPad with. It's heavier than the iPad, but a thousand times more useful IMO.

A win 8 tablet iis pretty much your only option for 2 USBs. You should be able to connect the card through one USB and then power the external HD with the other USB.

If you get a Pro version, you can potentially load lightroom and photoshop into it to edit on the go but you will be paying a lot more. If you want a tablet just for file transfer, get the RT or 2. It does have better battery life and a cheaper price tag but less power since it's a RT version of Windows.

This is i7 notebook data, but I took 29GB of photos on a Lexar 1000x 32GB card and using a USB3.0 hub in a USB 3.0 port I transferred the photos in 30 sec. to my USB 3.0 enabled portable hard drive. When I tried the exact same transfer with the hub plugged into a USB 2.0 port, the transfer took 3min. 20 sec. Definitely sold on USB 3 transfer, even if you only have one port and have to split it. The local staples said I could plug my toys into their surface pro demo model and time it. I will do that in the morning with same data on card and report back to you guys.