Wit Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Which external hard drives are best to take for rough traveling circumstances? Preferable in a minimum of 2 TB and suitable for Mac. Price is also important. The La Cie rugged mini looks good but max 1 TB. The WB digital passport is cheaper and has 2 TB but not sure if it is an SSD. What are you using and are you happy with it? Thanxs for helping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dahlfors Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 SSD's cost around 150 euros and upwards for 250 GB, over 300 euros for 500 GB sizes. SSD's are the most rugged ones for sure. Hard disks are far more sensitive to rough handling and shocks than SSD's. However, they are the most sensitive when they are powered on. If you eject hard disks safely before powering off - hard disks park their mechanical parts (arms with read/write heads). When in parked state, hard disks can withstand quite a lot of shocks and rough handling. So, if you want lots of storage for a cheap price, hard disks are the way to go. If you want the absolutely best ruggedness but can survive on a bit smaller storage, SSD's will be the best choice. Depending on where you travel, you want to keep both SSD's and HDD's dry. In jungle-like humidity you really would want to have some kind of sealed box/bag with something that absorbs humidity, like silica gel. I've seen how bags get treated at airports, and would it be me, I'd be sure to keep the portable disk as hand luggage, wrapped in a sweater or so. Normal carrying like that in a backpack or so shouldn't be a problem if you aren't unusually careless about the bag. When it comes to the casings of the hard disks, I wouldn't care too much about if it is padded or not, that's mainly cosmetic. What I'd care more about would be the cooling properties of the hard disk case. According to largescale tests done by larger data centers, hard disks have the least amount of failure if they run at around 30-40 degrees celcius. Cooler or warmer running increases risks for failure. My personal recommendation for traveling storage on the cheap would be to get two portable hard disks, one for backup, then using same transporting & dry keeping for both of the disks. If they'd get banged around enough to break - you got a good chance that one of the disks survive at least. Hard disks are the same all around the world as well, so you'd easily be able to get a replacement for backup if one would break down. Also, any portable hard disk that has the right interface for your mac (USB/Firewire) will work, no real difference. My own solution is to get any cheap metal (better for keeping drives running cool) casing I can find for the interface I need (usb/firewire/esata), and then I drop in just a normal 3.5" hard disk. No reason for you to do it if you need a new case, I just do so because I usually have a lot of extra hard disks lying around. Zach and Wit 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wit Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 Thanxs! Can annybody tell me if the WB digital passport is a SSD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 dahlfors just did. A 2TB SSD would cost around 1500 to 2000 euro's. The WD Digital Pasport is a normal HDD. If you want 2TB on a budget, an SSD is not an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wit Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 OK thanxs for helping! The hard drives have to travel in a bicycle bag riding off road & camping wild, Mongolia, Himalaya's & that kind of stuff. I'll sleep a night on my decision ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dahlfors Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Mongolia & Himalaya - then you will have another issue: altitude. Traditional hard disks rely on air pressure inside, and they are limited to around 3000 meters maximum operating altitude. I think your only choice here is to get one or several SSD:s. Could perhaps also work if you use a bunch of flash memory cards at the higher altitudes. Keeping a hard disk powered off is alright at higher altitudes, but don't power it on much higher than 3000 meters, or your disk is likely to break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leang Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Depending on how long your trip is and shot ratio per day I think a 1TB will be more than enough. You can custom protect WD's just like the rugged Lacie. Seeing as to where you're going I'd get two 2TB WD's and then return them within the store's policy! Ghetto style :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dahlfors Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Also, biking trip around those areas sound awesome! :) I do biking trips as well, just in a bit different style: https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/268538_10150247561327263_4360904_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/293359_10150271161587263_8107439_n.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wit Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 Depending on how long your trip is and shot ratio per day I think a 1TB will be more than enough. You can custom protect WD's just like the rugged Lacie. Seeing as to where you're going I'd get two 2TB WD's and then return them within the store's policy! Ghetto style :P What do you mean by customizing, Leang? Is it possible to do with the WD passport? I'm using one as 'scratch disk' and one as Back up all disk. Maybe buying cheaper disk on the road to send material home to clear space. Also, biking trip around those areas sound awesome! :) I do biking trips as well, just in a bit different style: https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/268538_10150247561327263_4360904_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/293359_10150271161587263_8107439_n.jpg Wow quiet a performance for a pussy cat! Check out WordCycle Videos which I moderate dahlfors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wit Posted April 21, 2013 Author Share Posted April 21, 2013 I got a good deal on the La Cie rugged mini's. Does it matter what usb cable I use ? Or is the cable just connecting and are the in- and out- usb 3.0 ports counting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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