Travel Storage?

Hey POTN Tech Gurus...

I leave for 3 weeks in Africa next month. I've never used any kind of travel storage beyond my laptop (which will be going with me) but I have never taken such a long photo intensive trip before. At home I use Western Digital external hd;s for my back up, but wasn't sure what I need for a trip like this. I am traveling with my wife and daughter, and my daughter will aslo have a full set of photography gear, so we will certainly burn through some storage. I do NOT have enough cards to back up 3 weeks X 2 photographers worth of shots, but who does. (Some of you propably do... )

One time, or at least very rare, trip for us, so I really can't see spending too much for storage that I won't lilley use again.

Suggestions that won't break the bank?

Thanks

Well 3 weeks in African cant have been cheap, it would be a shame if you lost your photos from such a trip? As you say a once in a lifetime trip. I wouldn't skimp on a bad setup.

I travel a lot with the LaCie "rugged" firewire drives and have never had an issue. I would get 2 of them and keep 2 copies of all your shots in 2 different bags.

Have you considered using an on-line backup storage service?

Good luck on your trip.

Always the possibility of borrowing storage from friends or family, instead of the outlying costs if its a one time deal?

I would definately say, make sure you have sufficient backup space though, don't want to have to limit your photo opportunities on a trip like that!

I back up to my laptop which has about 350GB free space. This also allows me to review what I have shot and do some editing if I choose. With my prior laptop, which had a lot smaller hard drive, I would free up space before a trip by moving entire folders to an external drive, leaving on the laptop only what I was going to need during the trip. The laptop also provides me with the ability to burn a second backup to a DVD/CD when needed. Online backup sounds great in theory but the places I go rarely have fast and reliable internet access.

Get a "portable" external 2.5" hard drive, say 500 GB or more and back up both to your laptop and to that; then keep the external drive separate from both the laptop and your memory cards while you're traveling. You can always use more disk space. It might be worth seeing if you can upgrade the hard drive in your laptop before you go, too. I travel with a 500 GB netbook, 128 GB SSD and 1 TB Seagate FreeAgent Go drives.

Get a Hyperdrive case and install your own laptop harddrive in it. The case is sold separately and is not that expensive. There are instructions here in another thread on exactly how to install a laptop drive into the case.

Having 2 copies of your photo files on a notebook computer and an external portable drive is a good idea for several reasons. Either drive can fail at any time, so you do have a "hot backup" at all times which is good. Plus, a notebook computer is just as attractive for theft as a camera, and if both are found together by a thief with time, both will be gone. A "nondescript" external hard drive is not as attractive an item, plus it can be easily hidden in your travel bag with your underwear or something. Another possibility if you have cd/dvd write capability with your notebook computer is to simply burn a copy of your files each day. You can even mail them home occasionally for additional security.

-howard

When I was traveling out of country for a month, I had two portable HDs and duplicated all of my files. Worked great.

Online backup is fine for home use because you can leave your computer on and it runs in the background. Otherwise it's extremely slow, and that's assuming you've got a reliable connection. For this and security reasons it's probably not feasible to just leave a laptop running and uploading while you're out of the hotel. I own a netbook, as well as a Western Digital 2.5" notebook drive in an Acomdata enclosure that's about the size and weight of a small stack of postcards. On a trip, I back up nightly, then keep the netbook in my backpack (locked inside my Pelican carry-on which itself is locked to the furnace or bedframe) while the backup drive goes into the hotel safe down at the front desk. If I feel really paranoid I may throw in a USB DVD burner and mail yet another copy by registered parcel to a friend back home, but it hasn't come down to that yet.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I know that internet connection is slow (dial up) at best where we have it, and non-existant in other locations, so I don't this online backup is an option.

So I think I'm looking at an external HD, just not sure what make/model yet. Looks like Adorama (I haven't looked elsewhere yet) has some very reasonably priced Lacie and Seagate drives available.

Hyt, I don't know anything about using an internal drive in the Acomdata enclosure, but sounds like a lightweight way to go. Is that as stable/durable as a "regular" external drive? Cost?

Off to shop. If anyone would recommend one model/maker over another, please don't hesitate to advise.

Tim

500 gig pocket drives are so common and cheap right now that you can carry two easily. When I spent four months traveling in Europe, I carried a laptop and a spare pocket hard drive, plus the laptop had a dual-layer DVD drive. My policy was to download images every night to both the laptop drive and the pocket drive, then burn a DVD when I had 8 gigs of images to store. I would mail five DVDs home at a time to one of my kids and as soon as they emailed me that the DVDs were intact and readable I cleared the laptop space for more. I did end up buying a second pocket drive because 500 gig drives weren't readily available at that time.

Bring LOTS of CF cards. I copied from CF card to small netbook every night and left the images on the CARDS. Keep them separate from your laptop at ALL TIMES. One gets stolen/water damaged/crushed, the chances are better that the other will survive. If you can afford the power needs/weight/time/spac​e... get a portable HDD... carry it in a 3rd bag separate from cards and laptop.

NUMBER your CARDS.... use them in order. Only wipe one when you hit the end and need to start recycling.

Where are you going(which Country?/which parks?) Lodge or tenting?

Reflections2000 wrote in post #9982083
Hyt, I don't know anything about using an internal drive in the Acomdata enclosure, but sounds like a lightweight way to go. Is that as stable/durable as a "regular" external drive? Cost?
Tim

It's just like those pre-built Western Digital "Passport" or Seagate "FreeAgent Go" pocket units, except, because you build it yourself (and all you need is a precision Phillips screwdriver and the common sense to not zap anything with static), you've got a user-upgradeable drive inside a reusable aluminum casing that dissipates heat better than the plastic pre-built ones.

Here's what I have:

http://www.amazon.com …ics&qid=1271112​587&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com …ics&qid=1271113​173&sr=8-1

I bought a WD "Blue" because I didn't see the need for a ("Black") 7200RPM drive for backup purposes. The "Blue" variety is 5400RPM and runs quieter and cooler, for (theoretically) longer and more reliable service life. But if you don't want to bother with any of that, the Seagate "FreeAgent Go" pocket drives are very well reviewed and are available in various sizes up to 1TB. Before I built my own, I had a 160GB WD Passport. I had various problems with reading/writing on that unit so I can't honestly recommend it. Of course I'm only a sample of one, but the Amazon reviews of that as well as more recent WD Passport models seem to bear me out.

I carry Seagate Go drives with me. Very small and work great. I would not trust just one though. Get 2 and have multiple copies.