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External hard drives- what kind and where to pack? External hard drives- what kind and where to pack?
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Photo by Stefan Thiel of Mark Hammond crossing a river in NW Mongolia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Stefan Thiel, of
Mark Hammond crossing
a river in NW Mongolia



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  #16  
Old 25 Aug 2015
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Seems like SSDs are indeed the way to go if you can afford them. I have one in my laptop, and will also be traveling with two 2TB regular drives I already have. My strategy will be to make redundant copies to each standard drive, and more importantly upload as frequently as possible.

I'll also be practicing shutter discipline, as I tend to take a billion photos and videos otherwise, which are then a huge pain to go through.

The idea occurs to me that NOT splashing out for an expensive SSD could be a false economy for many, when considering the overall cost of an extended trip and the value you place on your photos and videos.


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  #17  
Old 14 Nov 2016
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So it's over a year since the last post on this thread - have any of you guys any further experience with external SSDs? Have they come down in price yet?

I agree that using a HDD rather than investing in an external SSD may be inviting issues. SSDs seem almost a tailored/custom solution specifically for traveling on a motorbike, and IMO probably worth the cost.
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  #18  
Old 14 Nov 2016
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Price hasn't come down, but they are the way forward.

I now leave my 2TB 2.5" drive at home and carry a Samsung SSD. It's an internal one but I have an adapter.

I really want a 1GB Samsung T3 but £300 is too much for me. Once they come down to less than £200 I'll bite the bullet.

I also carry a 128gb flash drive, but even the fast versions of these are expensive now as they use the same tech as SSDs, and the slower ones aren't worth having.

EDIT:

I noticed that my last reply was in Aug 2015. Since then I've done near 10,000 miles around south america. I took a 2TB WB external drive. It survived off road, head, cold, and even a few crashes.
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  #19  
Old 22 Apr 2017
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Hi guys, new to these forums but I have been downsizing and planning to live off my motorbike. I enjoy my movies, my TV shows and my music and since my PC is going into storage I've been making plans.

For the last few years i've been working on ships with a lot of time to watch movies so the be 2TB hard drives are the go but since i've knocked 2 of them off the desk, i've been looking at better options for the bike.

I have a Lenovo Yoga 3 plus tablet with 32 GB storage. Beyond that I bought 2 x Lexar 128 GB flash drives https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers-...-black/991614/

they are tiny, I keep them in waterproof ziplock bags with a tiny bit of masking tape on them so I can identify each one. No chance of damaging them. No chance of dropping them. Give it one or two years and we should have 1 TB at this size for this price.
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  #20  
Old 26 May 2017
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I would recommend USB 3.0 flash drives too. They are rather cheap and you can find them in large capacities now. External HDDs are somewhat clunky for a long trip.
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  #21  
Old 21 Aug 2017
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Hi Guys,

We use a Samsung SSD to and its been great. Couple of other storage items to consider. My understanding is that old style external hard drives work by having and air gap between the disk and the needle (so to speak) and that as you go up in altitude this air gap is affected and can stop the effective use of the HD...... just what I'd read.

The other storage item that has affected us in SA is that I bought a cheap Samsung phone which had limited storage for items such as Maps Me ect. Anyway I had bought additional SD cards in Aust before leaving to use in the phone, but as Ive now discovered the SD cards I bought from Aldi......... while a bargin............... have very very very slow Read speeds and if large stored items are on the SD card it takes forever to load up on the phone. If buying SD cards get the best/ fastest you can afford.............. try buying an original, 64G Extreme Pro SD card in La Paz
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  #22  
Old 22 Aug 2017
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You can get 2TB memory sticks now, albeit for a rather salty £1,400. But the smaller 1TB or 512GB ones are more reasonable if you don't really need that much storage. And of course it means if one gets FUBAR'd or nicked you don't lose everything.
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