Backing up overseas

[sevomadus]

I'm looking on how to back up my photographs while I'm on overseas trips. I seem to have narrowed it down to two options:

1) A cheap laptop: Basically just get a laptop and use it as an interface to transfer photos from my SD card to an external hard disk. I found the Lenovo Ideapad 100s that sells for about $300.

Good thing about using a laptop is that I can use it for simple web browsing when i need to on the trip (checking directions or making plans). The bad is that the laptop is heavier and bulkier compared to a hard disk like the WD My Passport Wireless.

2) WD My Passport Wireless: Comes with a SD card slot that allows me to plug in the card and automatically back everything up. Easy and convenient.

The good is that it's much lighter and easy to use. The bad is that at about $220, getting the Lenovo seems like much better value.

So I'm having a little bit of difficulty deciding between these two options. Any views or suggestions?

 

[Berkins]

If you're tight on hand carry luggage, and location has security issues, then laptop is not the option. Don't forget you have to lug the often heavy brick power adapter too.

The wireless HDD is a more practical option IMHO. I assume it comes with its own power connection ie don't require powered by usb?

 

[pettypoh]

I'm looking on how to back up my photographs while I'm on overseas trips. I seem to have narrowed it down to two options:

1) A cheap laptop: Basically just get a laptop and use it as an interface to transfer photos from my SD card to an external hard disk. I found the Lenovo Ideapad 100s that sells for about $300.

Good thing about using a laptop is that I can use it for simple web browsing when i need to on the trip (checking directions or making plans). The bad is that the laptop is heavier and bulkier compared to a hard disk like the WD My Passport Wireless.

2) WD My Passport Wireless: Comes with a SD card slot that allows me to plug in the card and automatically back everything up. Easy and convenient.

The good is that it's much lighter and easy to use. The bad is that at about $220, getting the Lenovo seems like much better value.

So I'm having a little bit of difficulty deciding between these two options. Any views or suggestions?

WD Wireless is the better choice but need to be very careful in transferring > coz I have had a few occasions when the transfer resulted in corrupted images (quite possibly due to low power of the WD Wireless) ... and I had to use PC to transfer from SD card instead

When the WD Wireless works, it's actually very convenient

 

[richiemccaw1]

May I also suggest the following?
- if your camera has dual SD or CF card slots, to write into both cards at the same time.
- use multiple smaller capacity cards like 8GB instead of one 64GB card so if you do lose one 8GB card, you lose only a percentage of the photos you have taken.

I use the second method above since I decided I did not want to incur extra cost or carry extra items while travelling. And then again our needs could be different, i.e. I'm shooting for fun.

 

[seii7]

Maybe iogear mediashair2
Under 100 and able to backup to any large thumbdrive. Too bad usb2.0 only, same as Lenovo 100S.

 

[kandinsky]

If you can afford the space and weight, laptop + ext hdd would be my vote. You can verify quite easily if your files have been transferred properly.

Even then I would still make sure to get enough SD cards so that you don't need to clear the cards until you get back. This way you have true backups, two copies - one on the cards, one on the ext hdd. Keep them seperately during your trip so that if for some reason one is compromised (theft/loss/etc), you still have the other one. If you simply transfer everything to the HDD and format your cards the next day, you don't really have a backup with one copy. If your ext hdd fails, gets stolen, lost, then that's it.

 

[DSolZ]

suggestion is get Kingston 5 in 1 mobile companion and a 128g thumdrive.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KU2E9IW?keywords=Kingston&qid=1457013400&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra...40&sr=8-1&keywords=Scandisk+128+gb+cruzer+fit

The cost would be less then 100

 

[ryanlio]

Good thing about the WD wireless is that it initiates an auto backup once an SD card is inserted. I'm trying to hack mine to use ssd drive instead of the HDD drive

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

 

[Berkins]

Now I'm a little confused as my definition of a backup is having a 2nd permanent copy in case the original one is lost. Merely transferring from SD card to HDD cannot be considered as doing a backup.

 

[Octarine]

Now I'm a little confused as my definition of a backup is having a 2nd permanent copy in case the original one is lost. Merely transferring from SD card to HDD cannot be considered as doing a backup.

Your definition is not wrong
The two options listed do not cover the aspect of what will happen to the original files on the cards.
Here my advice would be: get as much memory cards as required. Never delete any images, never touch the card again after creating the backup.

 

[kandinsky]

Now I'm a little confused as my definition of a backup is having a 2nd permanent copy in case the original one is lost. Merely transferring from SD card to HDD cannot be considered as doing a backup.

It would be if you kept the SD card aside after transfer, and only use fresh cards each time.

 

[shierwin]

If you delete the files on the SD/CF cards after transfer, you still do not have a backup copy.
Backup here should be defined as having 2 copies of the same file in separately kept devices

 

[catchlights]

I'm using this method, since I have a couple of external hard-disc available and don't have a notebook. Not the fastest way but works for me.

Because it has evolved.

Use a USB OTG and use a combination of your HP, HDD, USB hub, and SD card + reader.

Handphone -> USB OTG -> Powered USB Hub -> Split into HDD and SD Card Reader

Use a android handphone's file manager to transfer the files directly from SD/CF to your HDD.

 

[jouste]

FWIW, I misplaced my 64GB SD card from my 10-day Europe trip recently. But because I transferred the images to my iPhone / iPad on a daily basis, I managed to recover a good 80-90% of the images, including the associated RAW files. Really sibei heng~!