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Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Hi All,

I did a search here on Getdpi but didn't come up with or see anything substantial. MY question is sort of twofold.

I would like to get a fairly cost effective small portable hard drive for a older PC laptop that has USB 2.0. It would either be a 500 GB or 1TB drive, simply to download a large # of large image files for storage while on the go and later for transfer to a PC desktop. So many options and opinions out there regarding which one. My criteria is physical size (the more compact the better) and quality/reliability and of course read/write speeds. Not all USB 2.0 drives are the same in regards to read/write times. I'm not against getting one of the newer USB 3.0 drives to use with 2.0 laptop for now, making it useful on a newer laptop sometime down the road. Any suggestions with specific model name and #?

Lastly (and a seperate question), I had read somewheres of a portable hard drive designed to work with the iPad I (plug & play?). Any references to it and also how does this drive in terms of uploading/downloading speeds compare to the above senario, and is it viable for saving and then downloading large # of large image files to/from it as an alternative to using the PC laptop/protable drive described above?

Thanks for any info on these two questions!

Dave (D&A)
 
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D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Thanks for the info Steve....I should get around to contacting them. The reason I also wanted to consider a quick off the shelf solution, is for this one project on-location, I am in a bit of a rush and just wanted to quickly purchase a drive that all set to go..but one that is both fast and reliable. Many thanks again for the suggestion., its appreciated!

Dave (D&A)
 

atanabe

Member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Dave,
LaCie Rugged has my vote. Both USB and Firewire and has padded sides in bright orange so it will be hard to leave behind when in a rush. I store my Lightroom library on it and back it up on my Mac tower. Keeps everything in sync between field and home. Had other enclosures both from OWC and generic for my drives but the padding really helps with the LaCie.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Dave,
LaCie Rugged has my vote. Both USB and Firewire and has padded sides in bright orange so it will be hard to leave behind when in a rush. I store my Lightroom library on it and back it up on my Mac tower. Keeps everything in sync between field and home. Had other enclosures both from OWC and generic for my drives but the padding really helps with the LaCie.
Hi Al,

Very much appreciate the info and suggestion! I actually had one of the Lacie rugged drives (in a smaller capacity version) some time ago...fine drive as you say and less worries about handling BUT...in my particular case this time around, I need something smaller and thinner in dimension, since I will be moving with them and have very limited space, so this time around, I've eliminated the Lacie from contention. I still don't have a surefire recommendation to meet my criteria and would have to close my eyes and just pick out a brand at random. Seems most reviews are equally plit at the top 3-4 major off the shelf brands...each having those that swear by them, or curse them for some failure. No abolsute agreeement amoung most "which is the best one" from a size and reliability point of view.

Dave (D&A)
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Note that if you want Mac<>PC cross-platform usability, you need to format the drive as FAT, and then loose the self-protection features of the journaled Mac and PC formats.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Note that if you want Mac<>PC cross-platform usability, you need to format the drive as FAT, and then loose the self-protection features of the journaled Mac and PC formats.
Thanks Jack...yes, I am aware of the need to format as Fat, if I was planning to usC it on both a Pc and MAC.....but at this point the drive will strickly be used on a PC. I'm still though unsure what is the most recommended small portable 500GB or 1TB drive that's also known to be very reliable, but most of all relatively fast.

Dave (D&A)
 

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Have you looked at the Western Digital Passport? Small in size and large in capacity.
I actually have and came close to purchasing one untill I heard a few not so complementry stories with some who had problematic ones. Then again in all fairness, I've been able to find posts for most any brand where failures have occured....so I guess it comes down to percentages...which brands seem to have relatively few reported issues. Thanks for the recommendation!

Dave (D&A)
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

I have 3 WD Passports. One is several years old. I would buy 2 of whatever you choose. I always have several layers of redundancy. With the WD Passports, I can easily carry two. When I get home, I backup onto Mercury hard drives from OWC.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

..but at this point the drive will strickly be used on a PC.
Dave (D&A)
Okay. But since your thread title said both PC and iPad2, I thought I'd clarify that point...
 

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

I have 3 WD Passports. One is several years old. I would buy 2 of whatever you choose. I always have several layers of redundancy. With the WD Passports, I can easily carry two. When I get home, I backup onto Mercury hard drives from OWC.
Thanks Cindy...and I think eventually I'll probably have to go with some kind of redundency and take two drives "in the field" with me and use as a mirror type back-up, in case one drives fail. I think relying on only one drive until I can get back to a desktop, may be risking too much. Normally on much shorter shoots, I'd just leave images on cards till I got back to workstation. So far it seems WD portable passports or Seagate portable drives have been suggested the most. I looked at a Buffalo brand portable drive which claimed faster than usual USB 2.0 speeds, but once I read user reports, it actually appeared that this specicif drive was slower than most. So company claims about any of these portable drives, have to be taken with a grain of salt. Thats why I am inquiring about actual user feedback.

Once back to a desktop, appropriate back-up is not an issue. Thanks again!

Dave (D&A)
 

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Okay. But since your thread title said both PC and iPad2, I thought I'd clarify that point...
Hi Jack,

I see now my initial post was somewhat confusing and I should have seperated it into two parts. The first inquiring about which very small and reliable external portable 500GB or 1TB drive to use out in the field (running off the laptops bus power) for use with a PC laptop.

The other question is regarding any portable hardrives that might be available on the market, that easily interface with a ipad I (and also runs off the ipad's own power)...and what experiences, if any someone has had with one of these portable HD. Specifically, it's largest capacity and once stored with images, that it can it easily be unplugged from the ipad and connected to a PC desktop for download of images. Thanks!

Dave (D&A)
 
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Dave,

I have a WD Passport, 2-3 years old. Very small, absolutely no problems (tho I did have a failure with one of the drive of their desktop RAID a year ago, and they wanted me to figure out which drive went bad by taking it apart and swapping the drives in and out of my "tower", which couldn't be done because I have a laptop- they finally relented and swapped the unit after I persisted and insisted on a replacement).

I have also had good experience with Seagate FreeAgent 1gb drive, about a year old, and my LaCie Rugged (tho my son went thru several successive failures with his).

As you noted, lots of negative reports on most manufacturers. I have had two problems with my large OWC desktop RAID, about a year apart, and am not as happy with them as I was before.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Re: Portable Hard Drive suggestions for both PC laptop and/or iPad I??

Dave,

I have a WD Passport, 2-3 years old. Very small, absolutely no problems (tho I did have a failure with one of the drive of their desktop RAID a year ago, and they wanted me to figure out which drive went bad by taking it apart and swapping the drives in and out of my "tower", which couldn't be done because I have a laptop- they finally relented and swapped the unit after I persisted and insisted on a replacement).

I have also had good experience with Seagate FreeAgent 1gb drive, about a year old, and my LaCie Rugged (tho my son went thru several successive failures with his).

As you noted, lots of negative reports on most manufacturers. I have had two problems with my large OWC desktop RAID, about a year apart, and am not as happy with them as I was before.
Thanks for the feedback. It seems WD and Seagte get the most recommendations, but then again they seem to be the largest of the two major consumer brands out there. The LAcie either gets praised or condemmed...much like their larger desktop drives. I've been using Lacie drives on my desktop for years and knowck wood, not a single issue. Guess I'll just have to take the plunge and have back-up.

Dave (D&A)
 
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