"On the road" image storage solution for $30.

[MICKEY88]

This device would be a better answer in that you would not have to burn to CDs, etc., but you would still probably have very slow uploading times for the memory cards. These cheaper devices perform the function, but it's just way too slow for me. I will not use precious vacation time trying to get memory cards uploaded at a snail's pace. It's not for me. I've experimented with this CTX-MC-602 device and I would need some real convincing to try any other ideas.

upload time depends partly on the speed of the hard drive you install. and the speed of the cards you are using...one more reason I prefer faster cards and find the price difference worthwhile...it should be no slower than a laptop, since they use the same size drive. takes up less space while traveling..

as I stated earlier I have 2 devices similar to this, would I upload in the park, no,

last February while at WDW I carried 6 gig of memory .. each night I would upload back at my room, reformat my cards and be ready to go the next day..
I did it last february

you could get one of these with a 100 gig hard drive for a bit less than 100gig of memory cards...

 

[Groucho]

As always, remember that hard drives, especially laptop (2.5") hard drives, are by far the least reliable way to store your photos... One hard drive failure at the end of the trip and all your pictures are gone.

 

[MICKEY88]

As always, remember that hard drives, especially laptop (2.5") hard drives, are by far the least reliable way to store your photos... One hard drive failure at the end of the trip and all your pictures are gone.

newer 2.5 drives are being made more durable, and accoreding to a web site I visited recently, the general consensus is, the reason laptop harddrives are more prone to failure than desktop dirves is 2fold.

1... many people leave their laptops on 24/7, which causes heat failure over a period of time.
2. the fact that laptops are moved while running, which is more likely to cause failure, than mooving them while not running...


one of my portable storage devices has been in my camera bag for 3+ years, my bag goes everywhere I go... 7 days a week.... no failure yet...


if one is afraid of hard drive failure, then the storage device is not the way to go, but if a person is considering using a laptop, the devide is a better idea.

cheaper, more portable, can fit in a camera bag more easily, and is less likely to be broken by impact to the camera bag{being smaller the odds of it taking a direct hit are smaller...}

this is kind of like the debate on whether one should use large cards or have many small cards.

I belong to the 2-4 gig card group.

most card failures occur due to frequently removing the cards form the camera, and also the increased risk of dropping them while doing so.

 

[Groucho]

I generally agree with most of what you're saying... however, it doesn't change my statement.

Hard drives are by far the least reliable way to store your pictures. By a huge margin.

Many people have faulty hard drives and don't even know it, if they are not storing (or accessing stored) data in the damaged areas. (You need to run a full scan with the HD manufacturer's software to tell for sure - and I have even seen flaky, dying drives pass a full test.) Hard drives can fail after a month or after five years, but they're going to fail, and usually they fail sooner rather than later. Why do you think all the HD manufacturers (except Seagate) have reverted to a one-year warranty instead of the old standard 3-year warranty?

I've also seen countless hard drives fail in PCs that are never moved and that are adequately cooled. The movement that laptop hard drives get certainly doesn't help, but someone who never moves their laptop is still at a high risk of hard drive failure. The problem is that they're moving parts, and very delicate ones. Laptop hard drives are smaller so they're even more delicate.

On top of everything else, there's a good chance that when your hard drive fails, it will fail catastrophically, and you'll lose everything, and the only way to recover will be to pay a professional recovery service a lot of money (easily over $1,000).

Memory cards? Pretty reliable. CDs/DVDs? Pretty reliable, too. Hard drives? Unreliable. It's as simple as that.

I still say that the best solution is to burn redundant DVDs with a laptop while on your trip. The other best option is to put them on two hard drives - like if you have a laptop and an external USB drive. Redundancy of some kind is best, but if they have to exist in only one place, a hard drive is worst.

Also, I don't know where they got the idea that people are leaving their laptops on 24/7? I haven't heard such a thing, and it's not a valid reason even if it were true - they reach their maximum temperature fairly quickly. It shouldn't matter if the drive spends one hour at 100' or one hundred hours. Furthermore, it's the starting and stopping that generally causes the most errors (just like turning a lightbulb on and off.) Leave your device on all the time and disable the hard drive power saving spin-down option and that should help.

 

[Bete]

I absolutely agree the best answer is to have an external hard drive and your laptop store your pictures each at the same time.

I was hoping for a simple answer with these other storage devices and I just don't think there's a simple answer available yet.

 

[Charade]

I absolutely agree the best answer is to have an external hard drive and your laptop store your pictures each at the same time.

I was hoping for a simple answer with these other storage devices and I just don't think there's a simple answer available yet.

Many professionals are using HD tranfer units. Granted, some are much more reliable than others. Best bet is research.

 

[MICKEY88]

I generally agree with most of what you're saying... however, it doesn't change my statement.

Hard drives are by far the least reliable way to store your pictures. By a huge margin.

Many people have faulty hard drives and don't even know it, if they are not storing (or accessing stored) data in the damaged areas. (You need to run a full scan with the HD manufacturer's software to tell for sure - and I have even seen flaky, dying drives pass a full test.) Hard drives can fail after a month or after five years, but they're going to fail, and usually they fail sooner rather than later. Why do you think all the HD manufacturers (except Seagate) have reverted to a one-year warranty instead of the old standard 3-year warranty?

I've also seen countless hard drives fail in PCs that are never moved and that are adequately cooled. The movement that laptop hard drives get certainly doesn't help, but someone who never moves their laptop is still at a high risk of hard drive failure. The problem is that they're moving parts, and very delicate ones. Laptop hard drives are smaller so they're even more delicate.

On top of everything else, there's a good chance that when your hard drive fails, it will fail catastrophically, and you'll lose everything, and the only way to recover will be to pay a professional recovery service a lot of money (easily over $1,000).

Memory cards? Pretty reliable. CDs/DVDs? Pretty reliable, too. Hard drives? Unreliable. It's as simple as that.

I still say that the best solution is to burn redundant DVDs with a laptop while on your trip. The other best option is to put them on two hard drives - like if you have a laptop and an external USB drive. Redundancy of some kind is best, but if they have to exist in only one place, a hard drive is worst.

Also, I don't know where they got the idea that people are leaving their laptops on 24/7? I haven't heard such a thing, and it's not a valid reason even if it were true - they reach their maximum temperature fairly quickly. It shouldn't matter if the drive spends one hour at 100' or one hundred hours. Furthermore, it's the starting and stopping that generally causes the most errors (just like turning a lightbulb on and off.) Leave your device on all the time and disable the hard drive power saving spin-down option and that should help.

as i stated before, for those people who would use a laptop, the portable device is better, because of size and it is no more likely to fail, than a laptop...I'd much rather have my 100 dollar drive stolen, than a laptop,

and if you are so set against using a device with a hard drive, why recommend a laptop with a usb external drive, you contradict yourself.???

again why is a laptop/external drive combination better than my 2 small photo storage devices...???

in either case there ar 2...2.5 hard drives involved, what makes your suggestion better or safer...??


as someone else stated, lots of pros use small photo storage units rather than laptops, for size and convenience, if it were as risky as you want us to believe, pros would not use them, nor would PPA have listed FLASHTRAX as the best photo storage solution for traveling photographers....


as for the laptops being left on 24/7, go walk thru a college dorm and see how many are on, or ask a few college students...


my source was a message board full of computer repair techs, they all agreed that more often than not when they had a laptop with a hard drive failure, upon talking to the owner they discovered that the unit was rarely if ever turned off...

technology is an addiction to the younger generation, they are afraid if they turn their laptops off they will miss an email or IM...

 

[MICKEY88]

I absolutely agree the best answer is to have an external hard drive and your laptop store your pictures each at the same time.

I was hoping for a simple answer with these other storage devices and I just don't think there's a simple answer available yet.

why not 2 storage untis, total price around 200 dollars, for 200 gig of storage

 

[caniswolfie]

The reason most hard drives fail on startup is usually because that's where the most stress of the unit is. Usually these drives fail in the mechanical components of the system rather than the electrical or data surface. Data surface errors usually show up during the reading of these areas and cause random errors. The electrical errors usually happen at random point and usually cause the drive to stop functioning thereafter. These units usually have issues spinning up the disk to acceptable levels or the disk head has trouble moving. Sometimes it's not the startup when disks fail, it's in the drive resting after being in motion so long. The spindle is lubricated and after running for a long time the lubrication can break down and get gunky or dry. This doesn't get too bad if the drive is in motion. Once the drive sits it "seizes" up and the motor can't get it in motion good enough for the drive to spin up.

As far as warranties go, Seagate (who has since swallowed up Maxtor) offers 5 year warranties on a great number of their products currently. Western Digital offers a one year warranty on it's retail kits (except for the high end Raptor series and some enterprise drives) and 3 year warranties on bulk drives for a lot of the lineup.

Flash drives seem like a great storage medium, but they have a limited write cycles (though admittedly it is a large number and most will not come close to the rated number) and can go bad just like hard drives. They are shock stable however and work well in those applications. They tend to be abused more. They are more likely to be run through the wash for example and be destroyed by the washer's static electricity buildup.

CD and DVD's seem like great storage mediums, but in there were some studies saying that the medium starts to break down way before the rated lifespan of the media and most consumers haven't noticed because of the robust error correction build into the standard but leaves the data in precarious position if there any other issues with scratches, etc.

While I do agree leaving data just on hard drives in probably a bad idea. It's more of a case of having data in multiple places on different medias is smart since it spreads out the failure rates so that the chance that both with fail at the same time is small. This is why usually if you have two hard drives (an external and the internal drive) storing the data you can make out pretty well and not have too much loss. This is assuming that you don't delete the data on the internal computer hard drive so that the data is in two different places. The idea is not only backup, but multiple backup so that you aren't putting all your eggs in one basket.

 

[MICKEY88]

The reason most hard drives fail on startup is usually because that's where the most stress of the unit is. Usually these drives fail in the mechanical components of the system rather than the electrical or data surface. Data surface errors usually show up during the reading of these areas and cause random errors. The electrical errors usually happen at random point and usually cause the drive to stop functioning thereafter. These units usually have issues spinning up the disk to acceptable levels or the disk head has trouble moving. Sometimes it's not the startup when disks fail, it's in the drive resting after being in motion so long. The spindle is lubricated and after running for a long time the lubrication can break down and get gunky or dry. This doesn't get too bad if the drive is in motion. Once the drive sits it "seizes" up and the motor can't get it in motion good enough for the drive to spin up.

As far as warranties go, Seagate (who has since swallowed up Maxtor) offers 5 year warranties on a great number of their products currently. Western Digital offers a one year warranty on it's retail kits (except for the high end Raptor series and some enterprise drives) and 3 year warranties on bulk drives for a lot of the lineup.

Flash drives seem like a great storage medium, but they have a limited write cycles (though admittedly it is a large number and most will not come close to the rated number) and can go bad just like hard drives. They are shock stable however and work well in those applications. They tend to be abused more. They are more likely to be run through the wash for example and be destroyed by the washer's static electricity buildup.

CD and DVD's seem like great storage mediums, but in there were some studies saying that the medium starts to break down way before the rated lifespan of the media and most consumers haven't noticed because of the robust error correction build into the standard but leaves the data in precarious position if there any other issues with scratches, etc.

While I do agree leaving data just on hard drives in probably a bad idea. It's more of a case of having data in multiple places on different medias is smart since it spreads out the failure rates so that the chance that both with fail at the same time is small. This is why usually if you have two hard drives (an external and the internal drive) storing the data you can make out pretty well and not have too much loss. This is assuming that you don't delete the data on the internal computer hard drive so that the data is in two different places. The idea is not only backup, but multiple backup so that you aren't putting all your eggs in one basket.

I won't disagree with anything you've said,


but the main topic here is portable storage for traveling, not archiving for long term storage..


so the idea would be to transfer to a more permanent storage media at home...

 

[Groucho]

Many professionals are using HD tranfer units. Granted, some are much more reliable than others. Best bet is research.

A professional photographer is not someone who I would choose to rely on for PC hardware technical expertise.

 

[Groucho]

and if you are so set against using a device with a hard drive, why recommend a laptop with a usb external drive, you contradict yourself.???

I recommend a laptop because you can put a DVD burner in them. I think DVD storage is the best option at this point. If one doesn't have a DVD burner or doesn't want to burn DVDs for whatever reason, then a laptop *AND* an external USB drive are a pretty good system.

again why is a laptop/external drive combination better than my 2 small photo storage devices...???

It's not. If you carry two portable USB drives, you're no better or worse. But I still prefer DVDs, which are vastly cheaper.

I don't believe that you had mentioned using two duplicate hard drives. If you did, then I apologize. But trusting one's entire collection of trip photos to one single hard drive, especially a laptop one, is very dangerous.

as someone else stated, lots of pros use small photo storage units rather than laptops, for size and convenience, if it were as risky as you want us to believe, pros would not use them, nor would PPA have listed FLASHTRAX as the best photo storage solution for traveling photographers....

Again, I would not expect a photographer to be a hard drive expert any more than I would expect a network administrator to tell me how to set up umbrellas for a fashion shoot.

as for the laptops being left on 24/7, go walk thru a college dorm and see how many are on, or ask a few college students...

Much as they think they are, college students are NOT the center of the universe. The business world uses laptops far more than college students do. Most businesses and most adult laptop owners don't leave their laptops on...

But that's all a moot point as that's not a valid reason IMHO. I don't know where you read that but it makes no sense. Again, maximum temperature is reached quickly and and the hard drives are designed to run at that temperature... and anyway, on any modern OS with default settings, the laptop's hard drive is powered down when the laptop is left unattended for a while.

I've done systems administration professionally for over ten years, not a single user I've supported leaves their laptops on 24/7, yet I've seen countless hard drive failures. Most recently, Dell Latitude C640 hard drives were dropping like flies. Over the three-year-lease, probably 15-20% of them had failed hard drives. That's a pretty big percentage.

As far as warranties go, Seagate (who has since swallowed up Maxtor) offers 5 year warranties on a great number of their products currently. Western Digital offers a one year warranty on it's retail kits (except for the high end Raptor series and some enterprise drives) and 3 year warranties on bulk drives for a lot of the lineup.

I believe that Seagate offers 5-year on all hard drives they sell, no exceptions. As for Western Digital - it, along with nearly every other manufacturer, went from the usual 3-year warranty to a 1-year warranty several years ago. They then began offering three-year warranties on the OEM (and later retail, IIRC) "Special Edition" drives (with larger, 8-meg caches), and many other manufacturers began following suit, making larger-cache premium drives with longer warranties. Unfortunately, I believe that all of them, except Seagate, have gone back to one-year warranties on all drives (excepting enterprise-class SCSI drives.) I can't find any indication that Western Digital will give you anything more than a one-year warranty on any consumer-grade IDE/SATA hard drive, unfortunately.

 

[MICKEY88]

I recommend a laptop because you can put a DVD burner in them. I think DVD storage is the best option at this point. If one doesn't have a DVD burner or doesn't want to burn DVDs for whatever reason, then a laptop *AND* an external USB drive are a pretty good system.

rather than 1000 on a good laptop, why not 80 gig worth of memory cards, much safer than a laptop..
It's not. If you carry two portable USB drives, you're no better or worse. But I still prefer DVDs, which are vastly cheaper.I can get 2 100gig portable drives for 200-250, how can a laptp and dvds be vastly cheaper?

I don't believe that you had mentioned using two duplicate hard drives. If you did, then I apologize. But trusting one's entire collection of trip photos to one single hard drive, especially a laptop one, is very dangerous.

COLOR="Red"]in this thread and severaal others where this topic has come up I've mentioned having 2 portable drives and a back up 2.5 hard drive that i could drop into either one if needed..[[/COLOR]


Again, I would not expect a photographer to be a hard drive expert any more than I would expect a network administrator to tell me how to set up umbrellas for a fashion shoot.a single photographer no of course not, but PPA basing their decision on thousands of working pros, who are traveling the world, outdoors, wildlife etc...using the drives hard, I would trust them


Much as they think they are, college students are NOT the center of the universe. The business world uses laptops far more than college students do.I don't know when youwere last ona college campus, but there are a lot more laptops there than in the average business environment... Most businesses and most adult laptop owners don't leave their laptops on...

But that's all a moot point as that's not a valid reason IMHO. I don't know where you read that but it makes no sense.I clearly stated that I read that on a message board full of repair techs, nothing personal, but given the choice of believing a large group of repair techs, or one disboards member, I'd put my money on the numbers.. Again, maximum temperature is reached quickly and and the hard drives are designed to run at that temperature... and anyway, on any modern OS with default settings, the laptop's hard drive is powered down when the laptop is left unattended for a while.I'm not a computer expert, but this was mentioned and they claimed it's a misconception, that the drive constantly cyles on and off..

I've done systems administration professionally for over ten years, not a single user I've supported leaves their laptops on 24/7, yet I've seen countless hard drive failures. Most recently, Dell Latitude C640 hard drives were dropping like flies. Over the three-year-lease, probably 15-20% of them had failed hard drives. That's a pretty big percentage.were they hard drive failures, I know from talking to the people in my computer dept, that dell has a serious problem with motherboard failure, from using under sized resistors, they are aware of the problem but won't correct it..


I believe that Seagate offers 5-year on all hard drives they sell, no exceptions. As for Western Digital - it, along with nearly every other manufacturer, went from the usual 3-year warranty to a 1-year warranty several years ago. They then began offering three-year warranties on the OEM (and later retail, IIRC) "Special Edition" drives (with larger, 8-meg caches), and many other manufacturers began following suit, making larger-cache premium drives with longer warranties. Unfortunately, I believe that all of them, except Seagate, have gone back to one-year warranties on all drives (excepting enterprise-class SCSI drives.) I can't find any indication that Western Digital will give you anything more than a one-year warranty on any consumer-grade IDE/SATA hard drive, unfortunately.

western digital will let you upgrade the warranty to 3 years ,online, for 14.95

 

[Groucho]

rather than 1000 on a good laptop, why not 80 gig worth of memory cards, much safer than a laptop..

I'll assume that you don't really need an answer to that.

I can get 2 100gig portable drives for 200-250, how can a laptp and dvds be vastly cheaper?

DVDs are vastly cheaper than hard drives. The best DVD deals give you about a gig for 4.5 cents, while the best hard drive deals cost you about $4/gig. That's nearly 100 times more expensive, and a hard drive won't last as long.

a single photographer no of course not, but PPA basing their decision on thousands of working pros, who are traveling the world, outdoors, wildlife etc...using the drives hard, I would trust them

Thousands of working pros drive cars, but I'd still trust the car reviews from Car & Driver or Road & Track before theirs.

I don't know when youwere last ona college campus, but there are a lot more laptops there than in the average business environment..

Turn that around and I'd say the same thing. Lots of college students have laptops, but many large companies are laptop-only at this point. Anyways, it's a moot point. Laptop hard drives are failing just as often no matter where they're used.

I clearly stated that I read that on a message board full of repair techs, nothing personal, but given the choice of believing a large group of repair techs, or one disboards member, I'd put my money on the numbers..

You should know that you can't trust things said on an internet message board! Anyway, think about it. 1. Why would it matter if a laptop hard drive is left on for two hours or 20 hours in a row? It's not going to get any hotter than it does after maybe 15 minutes or so, 2. The laptops and hard drives are designed to run 24/7! Claiming that people are doing something wrong by leaving them on is inaccurate, and 3. are you claiming that continuous running is worse for a hard drive than starting, stopping, etc over and over?

I'm not a computer expert, but this was mentioned and they claimed it's a misconception, that the drive constantly cyles on and off.

It depends on the power settings. It often depends on how the OEM has configured things. You can check by going to Control Panel, Power Options, and you can see how long (if ever) that the hard drive will power down after inactivity when plugged in or running on battery.

I certainly didn't claim that the hard drive constantly cycles on and off.

were they hard drive failures, I know from talking to the people in my computer dept, that dell has a serious problem with motherboard failure, from using under sized resistors, they are aware of the problem but won't correct it..

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ I think I could tell the difference between a hard drive failure and a motherboard failure, thank you very much! Yes, Dells are generally shoddy in construction and motherboard failures are common (especially on the C-series Latitudes) but the hard drives also fail with great regularity. There were serious problems with the 30g IBM drives in the Dells failing (curious as they weren't failing so much in IBM laptops...) Dell did seem to be getting better in their newer laptops but I'd still never buy one for myself.

western digital will let you upgrade the warranty to 3 years ,online, for 14.95

Again, I'm not sure how that changes anything that I said. I'd rather buy a Seagate and get a 5-year warranty for free than a WD and pay extra for a 3-year warranty. (Yet I have three WD drives in my main PC, funny how that works. Probably because they were bought before the warranty changed.)

 

[MICKEY88]

I'll assume that you don't really need an answer to that.since you blasted me for not answering one of your questions on another thread, common courtesy would dictate that you answer mine, but I guess the rules are different for you..


DVDs are vastly cheaper than hard drives. The best DVD deals give you about a gig for 4.5 cents, while the best hard drive deals cost you about $4/gig. That's nearly 100 times more expensive, and a hard drive won't last as long.$4 a gig, where do you shop, as I've stated several times in this thread you can get a 100 gig 2.5 drive for under $100, that's hardly $4 per gig. but you also leave out the other part of the mathematical equation to make your answer seem correct, I said the 2 drives are cheaper than a laptop, you seem to have left that price out of the equation...


Thousands of working pros drive cars, but I'd still trust the car reviews from Car & Driver or Road & Track before theirs.your choice, but if thousands of pros are telling me the flashtrax works well, without failing, I will believe them, I don't question that you've dealth with laptop failure, but how many photo storage drive failures have you dealt with...perhaps the drives are more rliable due to different work conditions..??


Turn that around and I'd say the same thing. Lots of college students have laptops, but many large companies are laptop-only at this point. Anyways, it's a moot point. Laptop hard drives are failing just as often no matter where they're used.


You should know that you can't trust things said on an internet message board! but you expect me to take your word on everything... ?Anyway, think about it. 1. Why would it matter if a laptop hard drive is left on for two hours or 20 hours in a row?it's called planned obsolescence..everything has a given life expectancy...if a laptop drive is designed tolast 500 hours, which fails first one turned on occasionally for uploading of pics, or one left on 24/7... It's not going to get any hotter than it does after maybe 15 minutes or so, 2. The laptops and hard drives are designed to run 24/7! Claiming that people are doing something wrong by leaving them on is inaccurate, and 3. are you claiming that continuous running is worse for a hard drive than starting, stopping, etc over and over?


It depends on the power settings. It often depends on how the OEM has configured things. You can check by going to Control Panel, Power Options, and you can see how long (if ever) that the hard drive will power down after inactivity when plugged in or running on battery.

I certainly didn't claim that the hard drive constantly cycles on and off.I never said that you said that, I clearly stated that the techs said that...


Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ I think I could tell the difference between a hard drive failure and a motherboard failure, thank you very much! since you choose to be condescending, this will nbe my last replyYes, Dells are generally shoddy in construction and motherboard failures are common (especially on the C-series Latitudes) but the hard drives also fail with great regularity. There were serious problems with the 30g IBM drives in the Dells failing (curious as they weren't failing so much in IBM laptops...) Dell did seem to be getting better in their newer laptops but I'd still never buy one for myself.


Again, I'm not sure how that changes anything that I said. I'd rather buy a Seagate and get a 5-year warranty for free than a WD and pay extra for a 3-year warranty. (Yet I have three WD drives in my main PC, funny how that works. Probably because they were bought before the warranty changed.)

it doesn't change what you said, however you stated that you were unaware of WD offering anything more than one year warranty, so I chose to make you aware of the warranty extension....on the outside the seagate sound like abetter deal, but since everywhere I've looked they are a tad higher priced to begin with, the 14.95 with WD is still cheaper.....the seagate drives I've seen locally only have a 3 year warranty..

 

[Groucho]

since you blasted me for not answering one of your questions on another thread, common courtesy would dictate that you answer mine, but I guess the rules are different for you..

I do wish that we could have a civil discussion about something. Seems like every time you post in a thread I'm active in, it's to disagree with me. I'm not TRYING to pick fights with you, honestly.

ANYWAY. The comparison is silly. Obviously a laptop offers a lot more than a pile of memory cards, not the least of which is the ability to burn DVDs.

$4 a gig, where do you shop, as I've stated several times in this thread you can get a 100 gig 2.5 drive for under $100, that's hardly $4 per gig. but you also leave out the other part of the mathematical equation to make your answer seem correct, I said the 2 drives are cheaper than a laptop, you seem to have left that price out of the equation...

Whoops, my math was off - I admit that. I was actually going by 3.5" drives which are even cheaper. They're still much more expensive and much less reliable. One would assume that someone will have more use for the laptop than just emptying their memory cards when on vacation so I am not counting that into the equation.

your choice, but if thousands of pros are telling me the flashtrax works well, without failing, I will believe them, I don't question that you've dealth with laptop failure, but how many photo storage drive failures have you dealt with...perhaps the drives are more rliable due to different work conditions..??

A 2.5" hard drive is a 2.5" hard drive is a 2.5" hard drive, it doesn't matter if it's in a laptop, an MP3 player, a camcorder, or a portable USB drive. If you really think that a portable photo storage unit is not going to fail, well, I feel sorry for you - I've seen countless people lose huge amounts of work due to hard drive failures. Obviously you're smarter than that since you have two units.

it's called planned obsolescence..everything has a given life expectancy...if a laptop drive is designed tolast 500 hours, which fails first one turned on occasionally for uploading of pics, or one left on 24/7...

Actually, it's called MTBF. HD manufacturers are certainly not trying to make their devices fail - that costs them money in warranty repairs. And startup is the hardest thing on a hard drive (being a mechanical device), and I've seen many cases where a hard drive is unused for a long time and has problems when it's run again.

it doesn't change what you said, however you stated that you were unaware of WD offering anything more than one year warranty, so I chose to make you aware of the warranty extension....on the outside the seagate sound like abetter deal, but since everywhere I've looked they are a tad higher priced to begin with, the 14.95 with WD is still cheaper.....the seagate drives I've seen locally only have a 3 year warranty..

Generally the Seagates are approximately the same price as any others, especially if you watch the Sunday ads - generally, that's the best deal to be found (160 gigs for $40 after rebate is a common price). Also any retailer who claims that their Seagate drives have a 3-year warranty is incorrect. link

"Seagate Technology, the world's leading hard disc drive maker, today announced it has introduced a 5-year warranty, effective immediately, on every Seagate internal PC, notebook and enterprise hard drive shipped through its distribution and retail channels throughout the world. This unprecedented move establishes Seagate as the undisputed leader in providing best-in-class warranty protection, boosting standard 1-year and 3-year warranties to an industry-leading 5 years on the world's most reliable hard drives. Together with the company's unparalleled introduction last month of 12 new products for every hard drive application, Seagate has further strengthened its category leadership in the storage market. The new warranty applies retroactively to applicable hard drives shipped since June 1, 2004."

Mind you, even though they bought Maxtor, I still would never buy a Maxtor drive - I've had horrible problems with them failing early.

 

[MICKEY88]

I do wish that we could have a civil discussion about something. we will have to make that happen...I don't wish to fight with you either...from my perspective it seems that you are always the one who first disagrees with what I say ...LOLSeems like every time you post in a thread I'm active in, it's to disagree with me. I'm not TRYING to pick fights with you, honestly.

ANYWAY. The comparison is silly. Obviously a laptop offers a lot more than a pile of memory cards, not the least of which is the ability to burn DVD



a laptop does offer more, but not all people who are into photography have the need for a laptop, therefore it would be silly to spend hundreds more than neccessary..

I agree
Whoops, my math was off - I admit that. I was actually going by 3.5" drives which are even cheaper. They're still much more expensive and much less reliable. One would assume that someone will have more use for the laptop than just emptying their memory cards when on vacation so I am not counting that into the equation.for someone into computers that is probably valid, but I for one, and I'm sure I'm not alone, spend all my time on vacation having fun, then I return to my room upload my cards, format, and go to bed to be ready for the next day, a laptop would be an unnecessary distraction that would cost me sleep..


A 2.5" hard drive is a 2.5" hard drive is a 2.5" hard drive, it doesn't matter if it's in a laptop, an MP3 player, a camcorder, or a portable USB drive.I agree, however that 2.5 in my storage unit that is only used on vacation and with model photo shoots, should last longer than the 2.5 in a laptop that is used on a daily basis....just like the engine in my car would be the same engine if placed in a racecar...but will last longer just driving to and from work, than it would if it were on a racetrack everyday, being pushed to the limit... If you really think that a portable photo storage unit is not going to fail, well, I feel sorry for you - I've seen countless people lose huge amounts of work due to hard drive failures.again were these failures in laptops, used regularly, or in photo storage devices that were used once or twice a year... Obviously you're smarter than that since you have two units.


Actually, it's called MTBF. HD manufacturers are certainly not trying to make their devices fail - that costs them money in warranty repairs.I never said they are trying to make them fail, but they do have a life expectancy, and all products have planned obsolescence, warranties are always calculated to be shorter than planned life expectancy, to avoid payout.....no manufacturer would survive if they made a product that would last forever. And startup is the hardest thing on a hard drive (being a mechanical device), and I've seen many cases where a hard drive is unused for a long time and has problems when it's run again.


Generally the Seagates are approximately the same price as any others, not in my areaespecially if you watch the Sunday ads - generally, that's the best deal to be found (160 gigs for $40 after rebate is a common price). Also any retailer who claims that their Seagate drives have a 3-year warranty is incorrect. the 3 year warranty was printed right on the box..link

"Seagate Technology, the world's leading hard disc drive maker, today announced it has introduced a 5-year warranty, effective immediately, on every Seagate internal PC, notebook and enterprise hard drive shipped through its distribution and retail channels throughout the world. This unprecedented move establishes Seagate as the undisputed leader in providing best-in-class warranty protection, boosting standard 1-year and 3-year warranties to an industry-leading 5 years on the world's most reliable hard drives. Together with the company's unparalleled introduction last month of 12 new products for every hard drive application, Seagate has further strengthened its category leadership in the storage market. The new warranty applies retroactively to applicable hard drives shipped since June 1, 2004."

Mind you, even though they bought Maxtor, I still would never buy a Maxtor drive - I've had horrible problems with them failing early.

I feel so much better now that you've enlightened me on WD hard drives....

I just installed a 250 gig and 160 gig WD in my home pc and bought a 250 gig external WD for photo storage...

LOL

 

[Steve's Girl]

OK, if you two don't mind me interrupting your friendly exchange here, I have a question - are regular DVDs OK for long term photo storage or is there such a thing as archival quality DVDs? I had heard that CDs and DVDs are only reliable for about 3-4 years.

 

[barrie]

For what it's worth, here are my 2 cents...

I take my laptop and a tiny little 60GB external hard drive when I travel. I back up all my photos on both drives. I also upload all my photos to phanfare each day as a third backup.

I leave my laptop sitting on the table in my room througout my trip - never had a problem (I always request an upper level room and make sure the curtains are pulled when I leave). When I go home, I carry-on my laptop and pack my external drive in my checked baggage.

This system really works for me. I also looked into photo storage devices and the best seemed to be these two:

• Epson P-5000 80GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD
• Epson P-3000 40GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD

At the time I was researching them I also needed to purchase a laptop and couldn't afford to do both. Besides, I really like to be able to go online at Disney World. But - if I ever have the money to spare, I would still get one of these devices for shorter trips.

 

[MICKEY88]

For what it's worth, here are my 2 cents...

I take my laptop and a tiny little 60GB external hard drive when I travel. I back up all my photos on both drives. I also upload all my photos to phanfare each day as a third backup.

I leave my laptop sitting on the table in my room througout my trip - never had a problem (I always request an upper level room and make sure the curtains are pulled when I leave). When I go home, I carry-on my laptop and pack my external drive in my checked baggage.

This system really works for me. I also looked into photo storage devices and the best seemed to be these two:

• Epson P-5000 80GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD
• Epson P-3000 40GB Multimedia Storage Drive, Viewer, and Audio-Video Player w/ 4-Inch LCD

At the time I was researching them I also needed to purchase a laptop and couldn't afford to do both. Besides, I really like to be able to go online at Disney World. But - if I ever have the money to spare, I would still get one of these devices for shorter trips.

did you look at the flashtrax at all, if so, what did you like better about the epson..