Portable HD to directly upload memory cards

[maccagerl]

Hi,

Do they make small portable hard discs that you can directly upload photos from a memory card to?
I'd like to dump my memory cards each night on my upcoming trip, but don't want to drag along my laptop.
Thanks for any info.

 

[xlxo]

Yes, they do... however as memory cards continue to get bigger (64gb)... the batteries have not kept up with long transfers. I prefer a small laptop to review my pictures.

 

[elmoandzoey]

I had one of those. Compared to what you get for your money, they are ridiculously expensive. The Sanho hyperdrive case is $250 WITHOUT a harddrive inside. So you'll need to add the cost for a 2.5" SATA drive on top. The Nexto drives are even more expensive.

Battery power for the drive, as mentioned above, is also a problem with large cards. I took such a backup drive to the Australian outback for dumping pictures when I had no access to power up the laptop. End of story was that the battery lasted me for two backup sessions (8GB cards) and a few picture views and then I was left in the outback with a complete drained battery and not able to backup my cards. On my tablet, I am able to backup about 5 times that and use the tablet on top before the battery goes down. One of my colleagues had the same problem on that trip with his Nexto drive. About a week later the screen of my drive broke on top while it way in a storage puch in my backpack. Now it's just a normal, ridiculously expensive external harddrive (without the screen you can't operate the functions).

Moneywise you'll be better off just buying extra memory cards. I don't recommend such drives at all. What I do now is use a cheap 7" Android tablet with USB host function and a microSD slot to backup my cards. I hook up a card reader to the tablet and dump the photos from the camera card to the microSD card in the tablet. That setup is faster, cheaper, weighs about the same and I have an entertainment device for the kids on top

 

[nigelp]

I have one of these...
http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html
It has a USB port and SD slot allowing me to transfer photos to a portable HDD - I use my iphone to control/organise the transfers. I can also store some movies on the HDD for streaming on to my iphone.

"The RAVPower Filehub lets you transfer photos, music or files between iOS devices and an SD Card or a USB HDD. You can also move files between the SD card and an attached USB drive. The RAVPower streams music, or video. The small unit has a 3000 mAh battery for charging smartphones, and using its NAS file server, you can connect multiple devices like a laptop, iPhone, iPad or desktop machine all at the same time!"

 

[DizBee Brian]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but you might want to check the WD Wireless Hard Drive. The 1 TB is about $170 on Amazon [2TB ~$200]. I own one and it works good so far [although I have not had the oppertunity to use it on vacation yet or for that long, the concept/idea is great to me!]

WD My Passport Wireless 1 TB Wi-Fi Mobile Storage (WDBK8Z0010BBK-NESN)

Good luck!

B-

 

[maccagerl]

Thanks everyone!