How do you back up Raw photo files while on vacation for a couple weeks?

grdnangl

Senior Member
How do you backup and store RAW photo files when traveling? I don't think I want to take along a ton of cards for storage in case I misplace them, etc. and I would like to back my photos up each night. WiFi may be spotty at times.

I want to know what my alternatives are for carrying something light along for a trip that will last a couple weeks. So that means I will be taking tons of photos.

I have thought about a small netbook for the storage aspect, but there again I would have to lug it around all day long. And I am not able to transfer RAW photos to my ipad, sooo I'm just not sure what route to go with this.

Has anyone used devices like the Nexto DI or the HyperDrive that have an LCD monitor to preview images? How many RAW files would I be able to store on them?

Any other suggestions?
 
I always carry my laptop. I leave it in the hotel room and transfer the photos each night. This also gives me the option of looking at them and see what I got for the day.
 

grdnangl

Senior Member
Leaving in hotel is not an option as some days we will be traveling to another city and then have to leave our luggage in the car while we are out exploring before being able to check into the next hotel in the late aftrenoon, etc. Plus I am also worried about theft, and my laptop getting too hot in the car, etc.
 

olegeiser

Senior Member
Netbook for me (size of an IPad) equipped with a internal card reader with a small external USB HD (2.5") 500 GB
 
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Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
How do you backup and store RAW photo files when traveling? I don't think I want to take along a ton of cards for storage in case I misplace them, etc. and I would like to back my photos up each night. WiFi may be spotty at times.

I want to know what my alternatives are for carrying something light along for a trip that will last a couple weeks. So that means I will be taking tons of photos.

I have thought about a small netbook for the storage aspect, but there again I would have to lug it around all day long. And I am not able to transfer RAW photos to my ipad, sooo I'm just not sure what route to go with this.

Has anyone used devices like the Nexto DI or the HyperDrive that have an LCD monitor to preview images? How many RAW files would I be able to store on them?

Any other suggestions?
You're either going to have to carry something, like a netbook, use additional cards, or find a computer where you can upload photos online to a DropBox account or something similar. You could look into a Western Digital "My Passport Wireless" which is quite small and has a 2TB capacity. You can not view files on it, though, it's a hard drive, not a netbook.
 
You're either going to have to carry something, like a netbook, use additional cards, or find a computer where you can upload photos online to a DropBox account or something similar. You could look into a Western Digital "My Passport Wireless" which is quite small and has a 2TB capacity. You can not view files on it, though, it's a hard drive, not a netbook.


Can't you view the files on one of these with your phone?

Western Digital Hard Drives, Network Drives, Media Players

I have looked at these before and would like to talk to someone who actually has one and uses it.
 

grdnangl

Senior Member
So it looks like I am going to look into getting a notebook and then I can create a second backup to me WD 1TB hard drive I already have. The I will have peace of mind and can see how my pics are turning out too! Any ideas on the smallest most compact one out there with enough memory for a couple weeks worth of photos (thousands probably)?
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I travel with my laptop and an external drive to have 2 copies of everything. If you're not comfortable with a big drive bring along a 128GB flash drive.

The other option is to buy large and slow (i.e. cheaper) SD cards and at the end of the day use the camera to copy everything from your main card to the backup. Get yourself a card wallet and lock those suckers away somewhere.
 

grdnangl

Senior Member
Thanks for your advice everyone. I will be looking into buying a lightweight netbook to transfer my photos and will backup using the external hard drive I already own!
 

grdnangl

Senior Member
I have Apple computer at home with Photoshop and Lightroom i use to import my photos but would buy a Windows based netbook most likely.

What kind of photo software (not planning to edit while on the road just to upload) do I need so I am able to import my photos from the camera card?
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Probably no software would be needed to transfer, but if you want something Nikon offers View NX-i for free. It is what I use for transferring my photos from the SD card to the computer.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
I copy everything I shoot in a day every night via a laptop to a 500mb portable drive. I also have more than enough cards to not have to reformat any of them. So I always arrive home with three copies of everything.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I have Apple computer at home with Photoshop and Lightroom i use to import my photos but would buy a Windows based netbook most likely.

What kind of photo software (not planning to edit while on the road just to upload) do I need so I am able to import my photos from the camera card?
You don't need any photo software to copy files. It's just a copy function. You can always view the raw files with the basic Win photo editor.

I use an external Passeport 1T drive with my MacBook Air 11.5" when traveling. Since it doesn't have an SD slot, I also take a card reader with me. I remember forgetting the card reader home and had to just store my SD cards and fill them.

As far as room and weight, cards are still a very good option. One just has to stick to routine and always store them at the same place so they are not misplaced.

Safe trip.
 

grdnangl

Senior Member
Ok maybe it's been a long weekend but I have my new mini laptop (Windows based) and I am able to copy my RAW camera files one rot the Windows computer - no problem from the SDE cards. Now I want to copy those RAW files to my external hard drive. First of all when I plug it into my Windows computer it does not even recognize that it's plugged in. So I have tried to reformat it on the mac computer, but it is not working. Do you think something may be wring with the new Windows computer or user error. How would I format my external HD to be compatible with RAW files and transferring between both computers?
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Ok maybe it's been a long weekend but I have my new mini laptop (Windows based) and I am able to copy my RAW camera files one rot the Windows computer - no problem from the SDE cards. Now I want to copy those RAW files to my external hard drive. First of all when I plug it into my Windows computer it does not even recognize that it's plugged in. So I have tried to reformat it on the mac computer, but it is not working. Do you think something may be wring with the new Windows computer or user error. How would I format my external HD to be compatible with RAW files and transferring between both computers?
Since it's a USB drive, all that should be required is to connect the drive to your computer. Windows should recognize the drive and mount it automatically. You should not need to format the drive. Period. Not even for storing raw files; the drive won't care what sort of files you're trying to store on it. You say you've tried using the drive on a Mac but that it wasn't working on that computer either. Does that mean the drive would not mount on either computer? If that's the case, you may simply have a "dead" drive and if that's the case you should return it.

The only other thing I can think of is that *some* external USB drives require an external power source. If that's the case with your drive you should have a power cord that came with it.
 
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grdnangl

Senior Member
Ok I figured it out. I can import my photos onto Windows laptop. Then I can transfer them to my portable external hard drive, and then I can import them from the HD to my Mac. I did have to format the HD differently than I had it for the computer to recognize it. I reformatted it to MS-DOS (FAT) format and it worked great.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Ok I figured it out. I can import my photos onto Windows laptop. Then I can transfer them to my portable external hard drive, and then I can import them from the HD to my Mac. I did have to format the HD differently than I had it for the computer to recognize it. I reformatted it to MS-DOS (FAT) format and it worked great.

Wait......... what?

You're transferring them three times? First to a Win machine, then to an external drive,........ and then to an Apple?

Why?
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Ok I figured it out. I can import my photos onto Windows laptop. Then I can transfer them to my portable external hard drive, and then I can import them from the HD to my Mac. I did have to format the HD differently than I had it for the computer to recognize it. I reformatted it to MS-DOS (FAT) format and it worked great.
It makes no sense you had to re-format the drive (from NTFS format I am assuming) to FAT32 for the Windows computer to recognize the device. Mac's still use FAT but that doesn't explain why the drive wouldn't mound on the Windows PC... Still, it sounds like things are working at this point so I guess it's all good but, as 480Sparky points out (indirectly), why not simply import the raw files directly to the external drive?
 

grdnangl

Senior Member
Well my Mac is at home and my window laptop is small and portable so it's going with me on my trips. ( And I'm still learning so before I'm shooting them all wrong I want to see them. So that's why I'm transferring them over from Windows laptop to the external HD as a backup to my cards.
 
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