Mass Storage

[Clutchcargo]

I just ordered the Oly 5050 with housing. Now I'm concerned that I'm going to run out of memory while on vacation. With the 512MB Flash card I can only get about 67 pictures shot in RAW mode. I'd rather do all the post picture processing myself in Photoshop.
I've looked into some of the mass storage devices made to download memory cards onto their own hard drive. The small ones like these from Image Tank go for about $239.
I already own a 40Gb external hard drive, are there any devices (some kind of flash reader) that you can directly plug a USB hard drive into and download the memory cards?
thx
Cjh

 

[ENikS]

Offline storage may be a big issue if you are a trigger happy photographer. I have Olympus E10 and I can go through 5 or 6 of 128meg cards in one day. I used to carry my laptop to store all these pictures and free up the cards. Few month back I found this device: http://www.smartdisk.com/Products/DigitalMultimedia/FlashTrax.asp
It completely replaced my laptop and plus, it works as a mp3 player. I have around 400 CDs stored on it alone with my graphics.
Well, to make long story short, it is great device and I highly recommend it and NO, I don’t work for them and I don’t own any stock

 

[Dee]

There's one called Archos Jukebox that will accept RAW images but you can't view them. Check out THIS THREAD on Digital Diver for a discussion on this and other storage options.

 

[chippy]

I bought an Archos AV320 and the CF reader just before my holiday, and it was a life saver. The 4" screen is handy for double checking, albeit that it's not as good say as veiwing on a "proper" screen, plus you can watch MP4 video, listen to MP3's, etc. The AV320 has got a 20GB HDD, but you can get them with a massive 80GB HDD :wacko:

It's a great little device, if not a wee bit expensive at the moment.

 

[Genesis]

1. Hard disks die. Without warning. When they do, you lose EVERYTHING on them most of the time.

2. CD-Rs have been PROVEN not to be readable in some cases in as little as ONE YEAR after creation. So burning to CD-Rs (or DVD-Rs) may not be such a great idea either.

I personally keep ALL data files on a networked disk drive at my home. I have a separate disk for digital images and movies in the server.

That disk is backed up to DLT tape whenever I make any significant change (e.g. download a new dive, etc.) DLTs are considered "archival class" media with an expected retrieval life of 100 years. My "regular" working storage is dumped nightly by an automatic process, alternating tapes between two so if it dies DURING the dump I have the last day's tape intact.

Beware of any media you do not have an archival-quality backup of. If you're going to go to a disk drive, the only reasonably-safe way to do it is to go to a RAID array, which at least makes the odds of loss reasonable (you need to lose TWO disks in an array at once to be hosed.) The bad news with RAID arrays is that typically all of the disks have to be of the same capacity in order to get full redundancy, and you need either 2 (for mirrored) or 5 (for RAID-5) disks in the array; with two you get the capacity of one, with 5 you get the capacity of 4. RAID-5 requires special adapters to do on a PC as the typical IDE channels on a PC motherboard only support 4 devices.

My long experience with winchester disks says that their average lifespan is in the 2-3 year area; some will fail sooner, some much later, but Murphy is built into ALL of them and they ALL fail when you have just saved something you CANNOT recover.

I have not lost a data file in the last 10 years following this practice. I have had several disk drive failures over that time, but they have all been nuisances rather than "oh @#$#" events, requiring me to take a day to reload applications - but not data.

 

[Dee]

Genesis...he was asking about temporary storage while on vacation. What you're describing sounds more like a permanent thing at home.

Personally, I take my laptop and burn CD's of the originals, plus download to my hard drive before deleting any pictures from the cards.

 

[Genesis]

the problem with these "solutions" is that people tend to use them as a means of keeping things around, and once back home it ends up as a repository - or something like it does.

I don't know of one person in 10 that has archival-quality backup on their home computer. That's fine if you don't care about the DATA, since the programs are on CDs or whatever these days and are able to be reloaded.

But your DATA is what you really NEED to be able to get back!

MOST "consumer" style backup devices are simply not reliable enough. Anything that does not meet "archival" standards is potentially dangerous, as there is nothing worse than THINKING you're safe when you're really not.

Archival-quality storage is expensive, which is why most people don't use it.

If you're not going to use it, AT LEAST put in a second disk of the same size and mirror them - that way you have a fighting chance of surviving a dead drive.

These days, with 80GB drives costing under $200, there is no excuse for not having redundancy.

 

[TedJ]

chippy once bubbled...
I bought an Archos AV320 and the CF reader just before my holiday, and it was a life saver. The 4" screen is handy for double checking, albeit that it's not as good say as veiwing on a "proper" screen, plus you can watch MP4 video, listen to MP3's, etc. The AV320 has got a 20GB HDD, but you can get them with a massive 80GB HDD :wacko:

It's a great little device, if not a wee bit expensive at the moment.

The predecessor was the Archos Multimedia Jukebox that Dee makes reference to. I've used it for about a year and find it completely satisfactory, particularly since it now holds a bunch of MP3 audio files as well and I don't have to take a CD player and other stuff to Grand Cayman every March.

TedJ

 

[Dee]

Genesis once bubbled...
....These days, with 80GB drives costing under $200, there is no excuse for not having redundancy.

Is that like Computer DIR? :rofL: OK..bad joke!

You're right and I'm one of those who make a few back up CD's occassionally but nothing you can call archival by any means.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Genesis]

Yeah...

Just trying to warn folks that what you THINK is "backed up" might not be, and that far too many people don't do anything constructive at all.

The best backup is one you don't need to use (e.g. a RAID array.) The second best is one that transfers right back onto the new disk with no changes.

The latter is easy with Non-Windows machines (e.g. Unix), but damn difficult with Windows, as Billy Gates has made it hard.

I have a means to reload my file server in a couple of hours booting from a CDROM and then restoring directly from tape. It takes just minutes to set up, then the time to finish the job depends on the tape speed.

For Windows machines that is all but impossible, making it LOTS of fun to "get right" unless you are EXTREMELY careful to separate data and program files.