external hard drive that takes a beating...?

[MotoEdde]

True...any solid state device with no moving parts would be better than one with mechanical, the price point for 250GB affords you several laptop hard drives at the price of a 250Gb solid state device.

I bought a laptop HD and stuck it in a removable Rosewill case...

A laptop HD is much more ruggedly built than a desktop...thank IBM...

The HD I used...
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint M Series HM120JC 120GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache ATA-6 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM

BUT the HD I'd recommend...Hitachi Travelstar...took over IBM's HD division is whats used on the Space Station...
Newegg.com - HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722020K9SA00 (0A50940) 200GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM

The enclosure I used...

Newegg.com - BYTECC HD-201U2 (SILVER) Aluminum 2.5" USB2.0 mini External Enclosure - Retail

HTH

This equipment went RTW with me last year, and held up through many deserts, creek crossings, dropped bikes, etc...its still what I'm using today.
HTH

edde

[Redboots]

These look damned strong... but pricey!

ThinkGeek :: Fortress Ultra-Rugged Hard Drive

John

[MotoEdde]

Why would you spend $800 on a 100 gig external hard drive when you can spend $100 for one(including enclosure that will do the same job?)...

Actually you're paying $60 for HD and $740 for the case...

Overrated/overhyped/overmarketed crap...

Keep it simple and use proven stuff...like your old school GS or my K75...although I do have driveshaft and final drive envy...yours was so much better built than mine!

[Mombassa]

Whatever you do, burn a CD or DVD once in a while and send it home. That way, if you get robbed, you'll still have your pictures. I took 2 4GB SanDisc flash drives with me last year on my trip. One packed it in ... My laptop was a Fujitsu P5020 and it survived just fine. Trick is to pack it horizontal, not vertical, and on top of your clothes. I bought a Tupperware container and lined it with fleece material as well. Worked like a charm.

If I had to do it again, I'd go with a small 2.5 inch USB powered $100 or so thin you can buy everywhere. It's backup after all... If the computer packs it in, you've got the 2.5 inch ... if the 2.5 packs it in, toss it and buy a new one when you can.

Size is going to be an issue. Pack as little as you can. No need for a 7 foot drop resistant drive case...

[motoreiter]

I've got a smaller version of the Lacie drive, took it on a 15k mile trip around the US last summer, worked fine. I would rather have solid-state, but if anything with this kind of capacity exists, I imagine it would be horribly expensive.

[PocketHead]

I'm another contender for the ipod classic, mine is 80gb and small and really durable not to mention you can listen to your tunes too!

[Flyingdoctor]

I've got the same Western digital 250GB drive as Stephano, attached to my Eee-PC for photo's and video. I haven't used it in anger yet on a prolonged trip but I'm hopeful it'll survive along with my Eee in bubblewrap inside a Peli case in my topbox. It's definately small enough and the right shape to put in an inside pocket so I may go that route. I like to shoot on-board video so I soon use up memory. Some days though I think life was so much less bother when all I needed was 10 rolls of Fuji and my Nikon FM2.

[jarax]

If u know how HD works, its just a question of time when bad blocks and errors starts to appear on HD used under heavy conditios. I use Canon DSLR with CF card. Prices are acceptable - 16 GB for 200 USD. If using SD cards, price is 16 GB for 100 USD. I have 2 cards like this - i can store 3200 (1600x2) pictures in 10mpix RAW format - enough for one month of travelling between two civilized spots, where i can burn CF to DVD and send home. Bit more expensive, but safe and simple solution.

[g4wod_john]

For what its worth, I have tried to use my ipod video and the apple camera adaptor to download images from my Canon camera and I have found that downloading a 1GB card with RAW images on is about the max I can download before the battery on the IPOD went into the red, I don't believe that this is a suitable device for the task in hand, though there are several CF / SD / card reading hard-drive backup devices that might be more suitable.

Cheers John

[Bjorn]

Others might disagree, but this is my experience:

- stay clear of any iPod with a hard drive. I had a 40GB iPod replaced 3x (!!!) on warranty - ALL of them because of hard drive failure. And, no, i didn't even use it for running or the gym (vibration). Just walking from & to work. First one gave up 6 months after purchase, 2nd one 3 months later, 3rd one another 5 months later. No more warranty = no more ipods.
This experience also made decide against a MacBook Air – they have the same drives as iPods have.

- stay clear of LaCie drives. I had 2 desktop drives fail on me within 4 weeks. I work professionally in design/photography and heard the exact same comments from various Photographers and Art Directors: a lot of LaCie drives failed on them quite early - both desktop and mobile hard drives

- try Western Digital drives (renowned for their build-quality).

- a friend of mine just finished riding from London to Sydney. He used a Freecom ToughDrive. No problems whatsoever.

- If in doubt, go for lower capacities. I heard rumours (!) that:
smaller capacity = mechanically less sensitive.

- an expensive but safe alternative: CF cards. 7dayshop do some very cheap Sandisk cards, 8GB for £34:
7dayshop.com - Online Store

8GB should be good for about 500 RAW files on a 10 megapixel camera. After that: go to an internet cafe and do a rough edit to free up some space.
Stay clear of cheap eBay Sandisk cards – most of them are cheap copies with less write speed and less reliability.


Bjorn

[Margus]

Re: Western Digital

I've seen them giving up loads (used to work as a IT guy in the shool with loads of computers).

Also I'd look away from any IBM drives.

The only company that who's drives have worked for us was Seagate, both ultra-fast rotating SCSIs in the servers and ATAs on desktops and 2.5" in laptops. And it was the only company giving 5 years warranty for their HDs, too.

[TDMalcolm]

Originally Posted by Margus

Re: Western Digital

I've seen them giving up loads (used to work as a IT guy in the shool with loads of computers).

Also I'd look away from any IBM drives.

The only company that who's drives have worked for us was Seagate, both ultra-fast rotating SCSIs in the servers and ATAs on desktops and 2.5" in laptops. And it was the only company giving 5 years warranty for their HDs, too.

Hi Guy's, I agree with Margus, i to work in education IT and find that seagate seam to be the best HDD to use, but, I would use S/State in preference to any electromechanical device for day to day use let alone traveling
TDMalcolm

[Babybadger]

Corsair 32GB Flash Survivor USB 2.0 Flash Pen Drive - CMFUSBSRVR-32GB - AWD-IT.CO.UK

Take 2 of these if budget will allow.....

[jeromedelay]

shoot jpg instead of raw.. more bang for the buck!
and the lacie 250g is rugged and takes lots of abuse.
j

[bikerfromsark]

I have just added up all my photos from my last bike trip, 10months UK to Cape Town. I am a keen photographer and take many photos. After a month or two I did't really bother deleating my bad photos as I just got lazy. I was using a 10Mp camera, mostly shoting in Jpeg but also quite alot in RAW. I was surprised to find that adding up all my photos they only came to about 36GB. My friend who shot more RAW than I used half of his 100GB portable hard drive, he was on the road for 9months.
I just burnt DVD's in each capital city and sent them home, all made it. I found no matter how carefuly I packed my DVD's (caselogic etc...) that they still got buffed on the underside, so you really need to post them home as soon as possable!

I am this time planning (RTW 5years) and looking at taking a portable storage system, hard drive/ipod/something.
With the ipod can you see your pictures on the screen?

Also could someone please clarifie for me the difference between solid state and hard disk,-which one is better and what does an ipod use?

Thanks, please be patient with me, I new to this!