Should I buy an external hard drive or more photo cards? (m)

[OurDogCisco]

I'm planning a 14 day trip next summer. I typically take anywhere from 100 to 200 photos per day on vacation. I have 4 cards so that would only cover about 4 to 6 days worth of photos. Usually, I download the photos to my laptop and then, upload them to kodak gallery. I keep them on my laptop until I get home and then, once I'm satisifed they have been transferred to Kodak gallery then, I back them up to my regular computer. Well, we'll be on the Disney Cruise in Europe next summer and I don't think I'll have the computer time to upload photos to Kodak Gallery. So, should I just buy more cards? Buy an external hard drive? Or rely on my laptop as backup? Any advice would be great. I'm looking to buy something soon so that I can practice on our next trip to WDW before our European Cruise. So I'm looking to buy something this month. Thanks!

 

[safetymom]

I would buy a photo viewer to download the images to. I have the Epson P 2000 and love it but there are other models out there.

Don't you backup onto CD's? If something should happen to your computer you could lose lots of images.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

If your laptop doesn't already have a burner, you can pick up an external DVD burner for about $60.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I would buy a photo viewer to download the images to. I have the Epson P 2000 and love it but there are other models out there.

Don't you backup onto CD's? If something should happen to your computer you could lose lots of images.

Thanks, my computer is backed-up regularly. It is required for work so I'm not worried about losing images there.

I'm more worried about losing the images when I go on vacation. My laptop is my personal pc and I use it only for remote access while on vacation. I rarely save things to its hard drive. If I do save something there I immediately transfer it to my PC at home when I get home.

 

[OurDogCisco]

If your laptop doesn't already have a burner, you can pick up an external DVD burner for about $60.

Now, why didn't I think of that. I knew the answer was easier than I thought.

 

[handicap18]

I just bought a case that will house a hard drive. It has a USB 2.0 connection and also has a 9 in 1 built in card reader. This way you don't even need a computer to download your pictures. You can add any size hard drive to it depending on how much you want to spend. When not using it on vacation it can substitute as a regular ordinary external hard drive.

The case cost $30 (some card readers alone cost upwards of that price). I haven't gotten a hard drive yet, but this week I might pick up the 160GB one that compusa has for $70. I looked into all the 200GB drives on sale recently for like $20, but those weren't compatable.

Just another option.

 

[Boss Hogg]

I always use our iPod to back photos up to. Used it on our recent trip to WDW with no issues whatsover, and it had around 1800 photos on from our new 400D, so decent size images.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I just bought a case that will house a hard drive. It has a USB 2.0 connection and also has a 9 in 1 built in card reader. This way you don't even need a computer to download your pictures. You can add any size hard drive to it depending on how much you want to spend. When not using it on vacation it can substitute as a regular ordinary external hard drive.

Thanks... I know this will sound like a dumb question but what does a case look like? This might be something I might like better than DVDs... Is a case small enough to go on carry-on lugguge onto a plane?

I like the Ipod idea too. We don't have an Ipod yet so maybe that is something we can look into as well.

 

[boBQuincy]

I keep looking at external photo storage devices and keep buying more cards instead. It always seems that for the price of the devices I can get enough cards that I don't have to worry about memory space for the trip.

The cards are extremely durable, the storage devices all use hard drives which are considerably less reliable.

 

[safetymom]

I have found my Epson photo viewer to be very durable. I have dropped it on the floor a couple of times and it still is working. Memory cards can fail just like hard drives, it doesn't happen all the time but that is why it is good to have several back ups just in case.

 

[jann1033]

i have plenty of memory but one thing about the external hard drive is also (for me at least) something i can store my pics on at home...i have them on cd but really find that is kind of a pain when i want to work on them so i think the external hd would let me work on my more recent pics till i really hardly look at them then move them off line. now i have to move them off line an put the cd/dvd in everytime i want to see them which i think is a pain( but then i hate changing my dslr lens too so lazy must be my middle name )

handicap you have mentioned the case before ...could you post where you got it since i don't really know what you mean? Thanks

 

[manning]

Memory cards can fail just like hard drives,

True, but not nearly as often as hard drives.

bought a case that will house a hard drive. It has a USB 2.0 connection and also has a 9 in 1 built in card reader. This way you don't even need a computer to download your pictures. You can add any size hard drive to it depending on how much you want to spend. When not using it on vacation it can substitute as a regular ordinary external hard drive.

The case cost $30 (some card readers alone cost upwards of that price). I haven't gotten a hard drive yet, but this week I might pick up the 160GB one that compusa has for $70. I looked into all the 200GB drives on sale recently for like $20, but those weren't compatable.

Just another option.

Is there a way without the computer you can verify the CDs burned without error?

I had bought a Wallet without a screen and realized I couldn't verify an error free backup so I bought another one (different brand don't rememember name) with a screen. Then I realized both had spinning HD in them. I now take my laptop and burn CD. They are now getting smaller and cheaper to buy.

Buying more cards makes since. I may do that and leave the laptop at home.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'd feel weird in a hotel without my laptop. That's just a given. I use it for keeping up with things at the office, checking the weather, getting directions, looking at photos I've taken, reading the news, and so many other things. Since I'll just about always have a laptop with me, I just use it to burn disks. I usually leave one copy of everything on the HD and burn one copy. That's enough for me.

Next year we've got a couple of wilderness camping trips planned. They'll probably be 4-5 days. For those, I'm going with lots of memory cards. They're cheap and light.