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Archive 2016 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road

  
 
hogwallow
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


I'm travelling for about a month in a remote area without internet access and will probably record 20,000+ images and video clips. I want to back up my CFast, CF and SD cards, and the cloud is not an option.

I have an old Wolf drive I used once upon a time but it's ancient and won't support most of my newer cards.

I've considered just getting a portable external SSD and figuring out how to get it to work with my Chromebook or exploring the latest memory card backup devices, which are awfully expensive.

Advice?

Scott




Apr 17, 2016 at 07:13 AM
jcolwell
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


I use my Galaxy Note 3 smart phone. This requires an On The Go (OTG) cable. First, I mount a USB card reader on the phone and read the images into the phone. I have a mostly-empty 64GB microSD card in the GN3. Then, I mount a Transcend StoreJet 25H3P 1TB USB3.0 external drive on the GN3, and download the images to the disk. An external SSD would be an even better solution.

I always take enough cards that I won't have to erase and re-use any of them.

Backup SD card > phone > external USB drive [GN3] https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1318332/0#12578773
[travel backup] (cites above) https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1375895/0#13105069



Apr 17, 2016 at 07:22 AM
jcolwell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


I just had a look at my active archive disk, and it has 65k image files (RAW + SF jpeg), so that's 32k photos in 839 GB of disk space. The images are from 16MB to 20 MB cameras (6D, 1DX, 1DIV, X-E2, X100S), with typical RAW file size of 21 MB and typical jpegs of 1.5 MB.


Apr 17, 2016 at 07:48 AM
EB-1
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


I prefer the Nexto devices such as the ND2901 for speed (80MB/sec. CF) and portability.
However, if you already have a tablet/laptop device then perhaps get one of the Samsung portable SSDs for storage. The T1 series in the smallest (only up to 1TB), but discontinued. The T3 series is the current version that goes up to 2TB. If a bulkier solution is not an issue then you can buy an SSD and put it in an enclosure.

EBH



Apr 17, 2016 at 10:03 AM
hogwallow
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


EB-1 wrote:
I prefer the Nexto devices such as the ND2901 for speed (80MB/sec. CF) and portability.
However, if you already have a tablet/laptop device then perhaps get one of the Samsung portable SSDs for storage. The T1 series in the smallest (only up to 1TB), but discontinued. The T3 series is the current version that goes up to 2TB. If a bulkier solution is not an issue then you can buy an SSD and put it in an enclosure.

EBH



Good suggestion. I'm looking at the Nextos now. They seem to be just what I need but a little pricey. I'll probably go that route if I can't get a Samsung T3 to work with my Chromebook.

Scott



Apr 17, 2016 at 10:27 AM
Roland W
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


I am not sure about Nikon or Fuji or other cameras, but many of the newer Canon cameras that have two card slots allow for using the camera to copy from one card to the other. For cameras with one of the slots as an SD card, you might consider getting enough SD cards to make copies, including backup copies, right on to the cards. No external device is needed, not even a card reader. The cost tradeoff will need to be looked at to see if it is a worthy solution, but it sure would be the lightest weight way to solve your backup solution. Your 1DX II would need to be backing up on to CF, which are more expensive than SD, but you might even find that a different Canon camera could then copy the 1DX II files from those CF cards further on to SD cards.


Apr 17, 2016 at 12:33 PM
EB-1
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


Roland W wrote:
I am not sure about Nikon or Fuji or other cameras, but many of the newer Canon cameras that have two card slots allow for using the camera to copy from one card to the other. For cameras with one of the slots as an SD card, you might consider getting enough SD cards to make copies, including backup copies, right on to the cards. No external device is needed, not even a card reader. The cost tradeoff will need to be looked at to see if it is a worthy solution, but it sure would be the lightest
...Show more

I actually had to do something like that with the 5DsR because my older Transcend 1000x 64GB cards would not read in one PSD for some compatibility reason. Although the CF->SD copying did work it was not fast and did drain the battery. It's something to consider as a second copy, but I'd not trust it as the only copy.

EBH



Apr 17, 2016 at 12:42 PM
hogwallow
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Backing up CF/SD cards on the road


With some help from the Tom's Hardware community, it appears that my Chromebook will work with both my card readers and an external drive. So my plan is to back up to a 500GB SSD for about half the cost of the Nexto solution, though with slower transfer rates and a little less convenience.

The card copying/backup approach worked great on my old camera, which had one CF and one SD slot. But the 1DX II has one CFast and one CF slot, and I can't really afford to stock up on CFast cards until the price comes down quite a bit.

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

Scott






Apr 17, 2016 at 01:19 PM





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