A way to transfer photos from an SD card to a hard drive w/o computer

[rockymtnhigh]

I am thinking about buying a WD My Passport Wireless 1TB drive w/SD card reader built in. I am traveling abroad this February and not planning on bringing my macbook, but just an iPad and my camera. The appeal of this is that I can transfer my photos from my SD cards to the hard drive to have a backup, and can use the wireless private network it creates to view them on my iPad, and when I have wi-fi, upload them to the cloud. As I will be traveling in some amazing places for 12 days, I expect to have a LOT of photos, and do not want to rely solely on SD cards. Nor do I want to risk losing them all if the cards fail.

This is the device, from Amazon: Amazon product ASIN B00M9B3XZM
Anyone have any experience with this?

I have researched and not found a better solution. I did pick up a $40 portable device which serves as an iOS/portable device charger, but also includes an SD reader, which would let me use the iPad to control transferring files from the SD card to an external hard drive (without the intervention of a computer), but it is clunky, and slow. And I am not sure I want to rely on it.

 

[Ilya]

Sounds like a great choice for what you need. There is also a 2TB option for just $55 more. You can never have enough disk storage!
And when you do travel with a laptop you can use it for backup.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Sounds like a great choice for what you need. There is also a 2TB option for just $55 more. You can never have enough disk storage!
And when you do travel with a laptop you can use it for backup.

I know that 1TB will be far more than enough for the trip. at best I would use 100GB on photos, and that would be a LOT of photos. But I am mulling over both options, it is all a question of $$ as I have a few other things I need to get before I go. From what I can tell, this drive will do what I need though.

 

[Ilya]

Enough for this trip perhaps, but once you have this device, I am sure you will find other applications for it: backup of your laptop, carrying a copy of your photo library, taking movies with you and streaming them to your TV or iPAD, etc. It does works as a DLNA server, from what I've read. Soon enough you will wish you purchased a bigger drive. Just saying...

 

[Poke]

You might look at the My Cloud that way you can move things from any of your devices from any where plus tons of space No monthly fees. Also its more of a Personal cloud so you always have access to it to unlike other cloud services..

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1140


http://www.wdc.com/en/products/personalcloud/consumer/

 

[Ilya]

I wish I could travel without a laptop! I am seriously thinking of getting a Surface Pro 3 (or 4). Not only I would be able to backup my photos to it, but I would also have a full Adobe Lightroom and other programs installed and would be able to do most of the photo editing on the road.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I do not see this as a permanent home for my photos. Once I get home, I will transfer them all into an iPhoto Library, and then store that on several thunderbolt drives (I have 3 backup thunderbolt drives that I use to manage my photos). The reason why I don't think the extra storage is necessary is thus tied to the fact that I intend to off-load the photos when I am done. This is truly a backup system for when I am gone.

I am traveling sans-lap top primarily because I do not see myself doing writing work that requires the laptop while I am gone, and given where I am going, I want to avoid the need to lug the macbook and charger. During the day I'll have the iPad Mini 3 with me, at night, in my room, I will connect the mini to a wireless apple keyboard to enable me to write more easily. The trade-off of no laptop means more weight for camera gear.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

You might look at the My Cloud that way you can move things from any of your devices from any where plus tons of space No monthly fees. Also its more of a Personal cloud so you always have access to it to unlike other cloud services..

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1140


http://www.wdc.com/en/products/personalcloud/consumer/

I do not want to rely on Wifi to transfer photos while I am gone. Plus, I'd still need to get the photos to the cloud. That personal cloud is interesting but does not serve the needs I have while in the Middle East this winter.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I am going to do a one day test of the "sans-laptop" model in January, on an over-night to Chicago. I'll bring the keyboard and iPad with me, and see if it works out. In general, I carry my macbook air everywhere, as it is light. It is just the unique nature of this trip that is causing me to want to avoid having the most important computer I own with me for 2 weeks of travel.

 

[klang]

Have you checked out the HyperDrive models at http://www.hypershop.com/ ?

 

[Ilya]

Have you checked out the HyperDrive models at http://www.hypershop.com/ ?

iUSBport HD is interesting! It has a built-in rechargeable battery, so you can backup SD cards without any power source at all! Very cool!
The hard drive is replaceable too!

 

[mike123abc]

I wish I could travel without a laptop! I am seriously thinking of getting a Surface Pro 3 (or 4). Not only I would be able to backup my photos to it, but I would also have a full Adobe Lightroom and other programs installed and would be able to do most of the photo editing on the road.

I tried traveling with just an iPad for business. I usually could get by on a short 1-2 day trip. But, seems like something always comes up that you need a full computer for. Remote desktop on an iPad works OK, but that screen is tiny. I ended up getting the Surface Pro 3 and now take both. I use the iPad to watch video on the plane and such since its battery lasts a very long time.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Have you checked out the HyperDrive models at http://www.hypershop.com/ ?

That looks interesting, but it considerably more expensive than the WD one, which does basically the same thing. They have a "color space" version with an LCD screen, but that dang thing costs $600 for a TB. Nice, but over-kill. And I can view photos on the HDD using the private wireless network on the iPad. The WD also has a battery, so you can backup SD cards without power too. But I need to look at both carefully.

 

[Ilya]

I didn't realize the WD had battery too!

 

[Ilya]

Pricewise, the iUSBport HD might be a better deal if you have an extra 2.5" drive laying around.
For under $150 $130 you can get the enclosure and put your own hard drive in it. And you can upgrade the drive down the road. I bet the WD is not easily upgradable.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I didn't realize the WD had battery too!

Yeah, they have very similar features.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Initial reviews of the WD drive were mixed, in that it took a long time to transfer from the SD Card, but there is a new firmware that just came out that supposedly sped up the algorithm used in the transfer. They do more than just a raw dump, there is all sorts of verification to make sure the integrity of the data is preserved. I need to look for reviews of the Hyper Drive for comparison.

The ability to transfer from SD to HDD with one device (unlike the RavPower device that I previously bought) is very very appealing. Simplicity is what I am after for this trip.

All of this said, I intend to bring basically every SD card I own, with the hope that I do not have to wipe out the contents of any of them, for a second copy.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Pricewise, the iUSBport HD might be a better deal if you have an extra 2.5" drive laying around.
For under $150 $130 you can get the enclosure and put your own hard drive in it. And you can upgrade the drive down the road. I bet the WD is not easily upgradable.

Remember with simplicity the goal, I am trying to avoid bringing multiple devices.

 

[Ilya]

Remember with simplicity the goal, I am trying to avoid bringing multiple devices.

Not sure what you mean by that. Once you put an internal 2.5" hard drive inside the iUSBport HD enclosure there will be just one device to carry...

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Not sure what you mean by that. Once you put an internal 2.5" hard drive inside the iUSBport HD enclosure there will be just one device to carry...

Misunderstood you. I thought you were talking about bringing a second drive along and using it with it; I want simplicity in the number of things I bring on my trip. And I don't have a spare 2.5" hard drive sitting around, so it is kind of moot.