portable backup when travelling

GeX · 22 Jan 2016 at 22:57

When I used to shot more (and SD cards were much more expensive), I had a portable 2.5" HDD enclosure, it had an internal battery and SD / USB connectors on it. I would take the card from my camera, hit the button and it'd back it up to the HDD.

I'm now looking for something similar, I have a 256GB mSATA that I'd want to put it on - or I could repurpose an SSD from elsewhere. I do not want this to be HDD based. My main reason for wanting this is to just actually have a backup of all the pictures, video etc - so I'd be less annoyed if I dropped a camera in the sea or something.

Any suggestions?

Amp34 · 22 Jan 2016 at 23:08

Just buy a few more SD Cards. Smaller, lighter, less likely to break and cheaper.

I always used to wonder about a backup system like that then realised a nice SD card case (can get waterproof ones if you really want) and a couple more cards made far more sense.

If you're going travelling a lot then best bet may be to buy multiple microSD cards and send them back in the post (with duplicate on you).

GeX · 22 Jan 2016 at 23:42

It's the duplicate bit that I want, I'm not taking a laptop - hence looking for something that can do that

a1ex2001 · 25 Jan 2016 at 09:32

GeX said:
It's the duplicate bit that I want, I'm not taking a laptop - hence looking for something that can do that

What sort of accommodation will you be using? Most half decent hotels have a PC for guest access so a couple of USB adapters and some extra cards and your away!

Hodders · 25 Jan 2016 at 09:40

If saving as jpegs then could you not use internet cafes and just upload them somewhere ?

If using raw then you will need something else. External USB ssd and just copy files across using internet cafes.

Last option if you have a camera that will write to two cards at once is to use the 2nd cards as backups.

Smeghead · 25 Jan 2016 at 10:23

I've been toying with the idea of getting something like a Surface Pro to take with me on trips. Full fledged Windows so I could install Lightroom/Photoshop to do some light touchups when I get back to the hotel if I feel like it, touchscreen which would come in handy for maps (and just general itenary sorting), and it's relatively light and portable compared to a proper laptop, but not limited to crappy "apps" like a tablet. I think it takes MicroSDs as storage, which you can get a 128GB for £40 currently.

It's quite a bit more expensive than just an external HDD though, and the price for the storage is quite a lot in comparison.

Flibster · 25 Jan 2016 at 16:33

Method I used in California was pretty barking.

USB3 hub plugged into my tablet or phone by a USB3 OTG cable.
64gb USB3 stick, 1tb USB3 HDD and the camera plugged into the hub.
Copy and paste. I had a multitude of 64gb USB3 sticks and it chopped and changed depending on capacity remaining on the stick.

Got home, copied onto the Drobo.

Amp34 · 25 Jan 2016 at 19:22

GeX said:
It's the duplicate bit that I want, I'm not taking a laptop - hence looking for something that can do that

As mentioned above, a camera with two card slots would do.

The obvious benefit of sending photos home is they are not on you and can't get lost if you are robbed, whereas with a single backup device it could quite easily end up in the same location as the original documents.

Reminds me of a time at uni. We were 3 days from handing in our dissertations. One of our friends lost his laptop on the train in, with his dissertation. He had a backup though, a HDD that was also in the laptop bag that he lost.

Luckily he got it back the next day, until then he was well and truly *******.

As for uploading, unless you're in a western city does that even work? I know most of the places I go it's rare to get a connection good enough that you can Skype properly, or even not wait a minute to load a simple web page. That's if there is internet available at all. I can't imagine trying to upload GB of images though those connections!

EDIT: Actually, you could probably pick up a cheap 7" Android tablet to act as your backup device. That way you could copy photos from an SD card to mSD for sending home (or stashing on your person). MicroSD because they are generally cheaper than high performance camera SD cards and you can send them in the post without any extra cost over a normal letter.

Vertigo · 25 Jan 2016 at 20:28

I use my old Samsung N110 netbook for this purpose. Relatively compact and you can pick up used netbooks for virtually nothing these days as no one wants them any more.

And · 25 Jan 2016 at 20:58

I take my MBP and an external HD with me on my travels. I replaced the CD drive with the original 500Gb HD (SSD as OS drive) and I do a mirror of that on the external. Belt and braces and all that.

To be fair I have 48Gb of CF storage (2x16, 2x8) which I can't remember exceeded in a day's shooting.

avatar12m · 28 Jan 2016 at 10:11

i had similar dillema, in the end i bought a microsoft surface 3 and a usb 3 hub , i plug a 500gb ssd in and a card reader and copy across, main reason is that sd card copying thing costs £300 odd and thats all it does and its massive for what it is/does, , with the surface 3 i can check photos in the field and back them up and do all other stuff aswell, the tablet is only 10" and is very light and compact.

or buy loads of sandisk 65mb 90/80 r/w cards