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10-14-2007, 05:56 PM   #1
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Which portable hard drive would you choose...

between this one: 7080 Wolverine FlashPac, 80 GB Portable Storage Drive & 7-in-1 Media Card Reader

and this one: HyperDrive Memory Card Backup Device ??

I already have the first one listed (Wolverine), but am strongly considering returning it. It works well, but the 90-second automatic shutoff leaves me with no indicative notice of successful transfer, when all is (supposedly) said & done. I used it just once, on our recent Bahamian cruise, and found myself not liking the inability to have such desired notice. It would either be within repeating the process, for the sake of feeling 'sure', or moving along with what you 'think' you have - and hope that you won't find yourself wrong about that at a later time. Does anyone here have the Hyperdrive Space? If so, please inform me if this unit would not have me saddled with that condition.

10-15-2007, 12:31 AM   #2
PDL
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I have a Wolverine - I rely on the time out to save the battery after a succesful transfer. When you first start up the device it will indicate how much disk space is left. If you remember how much was left you can get an indication of success.

Yes, the device does not have a method of traversing or viewing the files - but they are sequential numbers without date stamps anyway (the machine does not record the actual date of anything). However, you can carry around a USB cable and plug it into nearly any PC/Mac and get information off the drive.

I just rely on my workflow to indicate that I have copied the images to the device.

PDL - the elitist
10-15-2007, 08:08 AM   #3
m8o
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(didn't I see two of these threads with the same title yesterday?)

I have the HyperDrive and know a few others that have it, and all can vouch and highly recommend it. Only thing I didn't like was to see a WesternDigital drive used in it that I bought 'pre-configured' from them (120Gig'r) ... I just haven' had luck with WD, but the reality is all mfgrs probably have the same rate of failure. You can just buy the shell and put your own drive in it.

And lol... I did have one 'incident' in Africa, where on the last day of wildlife viewing before the end of the 10-day Journey, after over 3500 RAW images had been off-loaded to the drive, I received a "HDDDeviceNotFound" message after plugging in the card. EEK I took the card out but the same thing. I decided the old "Apple II fix" might be due. I tapped the unit on edge on my leg, flipped it around and did it again. Worked after that! You can't imagine the violent bouncing around you get in those Landrovers. The drive just needed a slight re-seat. I'm sure the 4 or 5 times I opened it up and took the drive out before I left on my trip doesn't help; when I didn't know what could be keeping the unit from charging back up; drive? battery? electronics? so just started 'messing' with things. If you buy it and leave it, you will probably be w/o incident.

Regarding what I mention @ the end of the paragraph above... In the 1st week of ownership I had an 'incident' I turned out to have cause, deeply running the battery down by leaving the card in the device (which keeps drawing power to keep a charge in the card I think? watch out for that and don't do the same!), and couldn't get it re-charged. I was upset I couldn't call them as their phone number wasn't on their website. I then wasn't getting e-mail replies from them. After a few days I got quite huffy and started sending 'nasty-grams'. The owner of the US distribution ended up calling me after I provided my phone #, stating they'd been replying... etc. Turned out Yahoo mail's spam filter had been redirecting their reply to junk mail and upon looking, there they were, and my Invoice was supposed to have their phone #, but didn't (they should have corrected that by now). In the end they sent me an extra rechargeable battery, and external battery charger specifically for that type of special battery. I offered to pay for them, but they wouldn't have it. The person who 1st recommended them me had nothing but great things to say about their support. With those unfortunate mis-communications out of the way, I have to concur with him; great support.
10-15-2007, 10:47 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by PDL Quote
I have a Wolverine - I rely on the time out to save the battery after a succesful transfer. When you first start up the device it will indicate how much disk space is left. If you remember how much was left you can get an indication of success.

Yes, the device does not have a method of traversing or viewing the files - but they are sequential numbers without date stamps anyway (the machine does not record the actual date of anything). However, you can carry around a USB cable and plug it into nearly any PC/Mac and get information off the drive.

I just rely on my workflow to indicate that I have copied the images to the device.

PDL - the elitist
PDL ~ Thanks.

You know, I am not really concerned with being able to view the files. I have used the unit two more times, and always find myself leaving the card in the unit for a much longer period of time required - just to be certain of successful transfer. Being that the unit powers down after 90-seconds, it would be nice to be able to see (if the power button was activated before transfer was completed) some type of notice stating that said transfer was either "In Progress" OR "Finished".

10-15-2007, 11:18 AM   #5
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forgive me for not reading your whole question. Yes, the Hyperdrive can traverse the FAT system to display all the directories (unique one made with each transfere) and files under them copied off a card. You just can't 'view' and image file. But you can get properties on it, to serve as an example confirmation the 1st and last file from a card are on the drive.
10-15-2007, 12:55 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by m8o Quote
forgive me for not reading your whole question. Yes, the Hyperdrive can traverse the FAT system to display all the directories (unique one made with each transfere) and files under them copied off a card. You just can't 'view' and image file. But you can get properties on it, to serve as an example confirmation the 1st and last file from a card are on the drive.
Thanks pal.

I appreciate this. Oh, and by the way, there was no need to apologize for anything .
10-16-2007, 12:21 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by NLAlston Quote
PDL ~ Thanks.

You know, I am not really concerned with being able to view the files. I have used the unit two more times, and always find myself leaving the card in the unit for a much longer period of time required - just to be certain of successful transfer. Being that the unit powers down after 90-seconds, it would be nice to be able to see (if the power button was activated before transfer was completed) some type of notice stating that said transfer was either "In Progress" OR "Finished".
When the wolverine (at least my model) finishes a copy, it does display the number of files copied and the folder name. Along the lines of "SD00001 100 files". Then it waits 90 seconds and powers off, I have had it fail before, and it displays an error message.

My Wolverine (purchased late 2005) is not the smartest thing on the block, but then I depend on my workflow to calm my assumptions. As long as I follow my workflow - I get the images stored. It would be nice to have more information available, but if I really need that sort of thing - I hook it up to a PC and have a look.

Oh - wait --- the main reason I bought the Wolverine was so I would not have to lug my laptop all over the place. Well, there goes a good theory shot to h*ll.

PDL - the elitist

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