[Lowell Goudge]

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Cross posted also in a response to backing up a K1 to an iPad

I have been musing over this issue of backing up memory cards since my first *IstD. Way back then I had a windows based PDA, (Dell Axim 50) I could put my CF cards into it, but what to copy to? I bought a USB hub card for it, but the issue then became power and trying to rig up a power supply for the usb hub, and hard disk.


Edit Note along the way, I had tried an early hard disk enclosure with card slots and a small LCD display for the control menu. The display failed making it unuseable.

Fast forward almost 20 years and I started thinking, what about using my iPad and the files program and some form of USB hub that plugged into the lightning connector.

I bought this on Amazon
Lightning to hdmi,iPhone Camera Adapter,iPhone SD Card Reader with Charging Port,Support HDTV/Monitor/Projector/USB Flash Drive/MIDI Keyboard/Mouse. : Amazon.ca: Electronics
It came in 24 hours.

As long as you have a 2 amp lightning charger, for external power, you can plug an SD card into one slot and a hard disk into one of the USB ports.

I was able to copy 3 GB of photos in 4 minutes from my 16 GB SD card to a FAT 32 formatted 250GB WD Passport. It needs to be a FAT 32 for Apple to write to it. I have a later WD 2TB Passport that is NTFS I can read files from it, but not write to it

Next step is to try powering from my 10aH emergency battery that I use for recharging cell phones, iPad and gps without power. If that works, and I don’t see why not, then I have a solution for on the trail back up on memory cards to a hard disk. Edit note, this is confirmed to work also

If you are not worried about on the move back up any powered FAT32 hard disk will do, but this arrangement lets you do a whole lot with just a tablet, and a small usb hard disk and eliminates a lot of the need to travel with a Laptop as long as you have a in iPhone or iPad running the latest IOS (I am running ios15)

Second edit note: it would be interesting if someone using an android product can confirm the same is possible

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Last edited by Lowell Goudge; 11-18-2022 at 05:40 AM.

[davidreilly3207]

I use a Ravpower WD09 and a SanDisk 500gb solid state. The unit has an internal rechargeable battery and a sd card slot. Insert your card, plug in SanDisk and push a button to transfer. It can also be used to charge devices.

[Sakura]

I use the Nexto DI. Bought one without diskdrive and placed a 2TB SSD in it.
Works like a charm.

Nexto di | B&H Photo Video

[Lowell Goudge]

On my path to the solution I came up with I had tried a similar box in about 2008. Self powered, with buttons to upload etc, the issue at the time was reliability, the display failed very soon and as all the actions were keyed to the display, it was almost impossible to use. A side limit was the limit of a formatted sector. I forget now but I think it was 32 GB.

What I was looking for was a low cost solution. The HD itself is cheap, and I travel with an IPad any way, but if it works, why not.

What had always bothered me is that we always have and travelled with a hand held device of some form over the DSLR era. PDA, Smart Phone, Tablet…..

Why should I have to buy anything other than a disk, and a usb hub to be able to copy, review etc. our photos

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Last edited by Lowell Goudge; 11-18-2022 at 05:11 AM.

[Not a Number]

Certainly a viable alternative. Downsides might be having to deal with the hub, cables and external powers supply. As long as the iPad recognizes the drive as write-able you should be good to go.

There are external USB drive enclosures that you can put the drive (HD or SSD) of your choice into. The come in 3.5" , 2.5" and NVMe M.2 and USB-C or USB 3 flavors. The 3.5" enclosures typically come with an external power supply.

[Lowell Goudge]

Certainly a viable alternative. Downsides might be having to deal with the hub, cables and external powers supply.

my approach was to start with what I had sitting around. I had the hard disk, I had the 10AMp Hour usb batter, and all the cables. All I needed was the hub, which acts as a card reader for the iPad also.

As long as the iPad recognizes the drive as write-able you should be good to go.

There are external USB drive enclosures that you can put the drive (HD or SSD) of your choice into. The come in 3.5" , 2.5" and NVMe M.2 and USB-C or USB 3 flavors. The 3.5" enclosures typically come with an external power supply.

The key is to ensure MTF32 or exMTF format so it is not treated as read only.

As I said, having all the pieces except a $30 hub/reader it was a no brainer.

Note it would also work with an iPhone, as long as iOS 15 or greater. There are reports that it should work from IOS 13 and up but the one test I saw was very low data rate. At 750 MB per minute what I worked out seemed pretty good

[jslifoaw]

Is your goal to protect your data with redundancy or free up card capacity? Or both?

Back when high capacity cards were expensive, portable drives were more common for purposes of offloading data from expensive flash memory - I was considering a solution for a trip to Africa in 2005 which involved a standalone battery powered device with a card reader and hard drive. Tablets or smartphones didn't exist in a meaningful capacity back then, and a 1GB SD card was $100.

Since then, I've found it easier to just buy more memory cards.

One possible backup option is that if you shoot with cameras with 2 card slots, you can either copy from one card to another in playback mode or write to two cards simultaneously. But in general, I think memory cards are inexpensive and reliable enough to serve as backups, unless you're dealing with very huge sums of data (like terabytes). Also, mechanical hard drives are considerably bulkier and heavier than a pile of memory cards (saw you were talking about trails where that might be important), and also more sensitive to shock and temperature variations. SD cards can take a lot of abuse.

For context, a good 256GB SDXC card is as little as $50 for the same capacity as the WD passport you described. It blows my mind - I paid $100 for 128MB in 2002 and for 1GB in 2005. $100 today buys me 512GB.

[gatorguy]

Would transferring via wifi on your smart-device then to Google Photos work (free 15GB), mitigating the need for any external hardware at all besides the smartphone you were already carrying? I haven't had the need to do so but seems like it would, particularly if you have a Google One subscription so no worries of an image being downsized.

Your solution sounds like a good one Lowell if wifi transfer isn't a usable workaround.

[Lowell Goudge]

Would transferring via wifi on your smart-device then to Google Photos work (free 15GB), mitigating the need for any external hardware at all besides the smartphone you were already carrying? I haven't had the need to do so but seems like it would, particularly if you have a Google One subscription so no worries of an image being downsized.

Your solution sounds like a good one Lowell if wifi transfer isn't a usable workaround.

I tried wifi transfer to my phone from my K1 MKII earlier this year. It took as long to transfer 1 photo to my phone,(let alone to another location) via wifi, as it took to transfer 105 K1photos from memory card to disk via the hookup I described.

[gatorguy]

I tried wifi transfer to my phone from my K1 MKII earlier this year. It took as long to transfer 1 photo to my phone,(let alone to another location) via wifi, as it took to transfer 105 K1photos from memory card to disk via the hookup I described.

Gotcha Lowell. So not a good solution when you have a few hundred to back up. Thanks for that.

FWIW, I've long carried a little 500mb Samsung SSD and USB cable I had spare just for this purpose, but never had a need to use it. I suppose I've never had several hundred that needed to be backed up since I'm never in the field or away from home long enough. I have pulled an SD card, locked it, and put it in the multi-storage SD case I always have with me after a particularly important event, but even that's rare.

Your's seems to be a good solution for those who need it, and there may be many of us who would benefit. Thanks for the thread!

[Lowell Goudge]

Your's seems to be a good solution for those who need it, and there may be many of us who would benefit. Thanks for the thread!

When I vacation, I might do 500-1000 shots a day, especially if wild life or other cities are part of the agenda, going away for a couple of weeks leaves a big risk of loss

[RGlasel]

Back up memory cards to a Hard disk without a computer

You need a computing device to do this; your flash memory card and the hard disk require software to read and write data, and neither device can communicate with the other without using software. If you want to have control over the transfer of data between devices, you need some kind of human interface, which also involves software. As you keep adding layers of complexity, the power requirements (both in terms of the computing device's processor and its energy consumption) increase.

I tried wifi transfer to my phone from my K1

This is all related to the trade-off between bandwidth (how fast data is transferred) and power consumption. Faster transfer takes more power, regardless of its physical implementation. Having your K-1 function as a high speed wifi access point would limit your ability to take up to a thousand shots per day.

A card reader that is connected with copper wires to your favourite computing device is going to give you the most satisfactory results. Having a reasonably powerful computing device with a good human interface that is only capable of one task, to read your memory card and write its contents to a hard drive, is a waste.

[Lowell Goudge]

You need a computing device to do this; your flash memory card and the hard disk require software to read and write data, and neither device can communicate with the other without using software. If you want to have control over the transfer of data between devices, you need some kind of human interface, which also involves software. As you keep adding layers of complexity, the power requirements (both in terms of the computing device's processor and its energy consumption) increase .

I agree a computing device, but not a computer as we know it and define it. An iPhone can substitute as the computing device to manage this quite effectively, and that is the point almost everyone travelles with a phone these days, but let’s not turn this discussion into one of semantics

This is all related to the trade-off between bandwidth (how fast data is transferred) and power consumption. Faster transfer takes more power, regardless of its physical implementation. Having your K-1 function as a high speed wifi access point would limit your ability to take up to a thousand shots per day.

A card reader that is connected with copper wires to your favourite computing device is going to give you the most satisfactory results. Having a reasonably powerful computing device with a good human interface that is only capable of one task, to read your memory card and write its contents to a hard drive, is a waste.

I agree which is why in don’t like the dedicated memory card data transfer cases. Sure it does the task but it costs quite a bit. As I started out stating in my first post, many of us already travel with and go out on photo shoots with a phone, or a tablet. Many of us also likely have a memory card reader so they can post some of their shots while travelling, and quite a few of us also have a high capacity lithium ion back up battery.

All I did was put all of that together, with a slightly different card reader (that is the key, to get one with a usb hub integrated into it) and add a disk I had laying around.

The result is, I get the function I wanted at a fraction of the price, using a tablet that also has books, music the odd movie or two, and the capability to connect to the internet and display my photos on a 9” screen. My ipad and charger weigh a lot less than a computer.