Portable Hard Drive

[Anonymous]

Anybody ever use something like this? I'm thinking about picking one up before going on vacation this summer...

http://www.wetpixel.com/reviews/xs_drive/

This is just the kind of cool thing that all digital picture lovers have been waiting for! Have you ever been in the situation where you are down to your last Flash Card and you're running out of space.. Pretty soon, you start making sacrifices - this picture goes, this stays, this one maybe... Wouldn't it be cool to have a portable storage device to dump your pictures to and then keep on snapping - no need to lug along a computer? That's EXACTLY what this device does -- what is it?! It's the X's-Drive!!! With this terrific unit, you can dump your pictures directly onto a hard drive (you buy and install) from your digital camera media. It'll read SmartMedia, SmartDisk, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, CompactFlash Type I/II and IBM MicroDrive! To give you an idea how quick and simple this item is, you simply take your digital camera medfia (say, a CompactFlash card), plug it into this battery operated, portable X's-Drive, press the "copy" button and in about 3 1/2 minutes (for a 128MB CompactFlash card) all the pictures are copied to the drive!! Take the card out, erase all the pictures on it with you camera and start taking them again - confident in knowing that all the pictures that you took are safely stored away on the X's-Drive. When you get home, simply plug the X's-Drive into a handy USB port on your computer and it is then seen as another hard drive by your computer.. You can then take all the pictures off it - no muss, no fuss!!! This drive does NOT include a hard drive as we sell it - you need to provide that and install it. You simply take off the two back screws and plug in the drive, then put it back together.. It's that simple to install !!! This device will take a standard 2.5-inch IDE notebook drive 9.5mm or smaller in height with no capacity limit (the first time you install the drive, you will need to format it with your PC). The built in Li-on batteries ensure a long operation time for sharing data (you can transfer that same 128MB Compact Flash card up to 42 times on a single charge)! Get an X's-Drive now for the Digital Photophile in your family!

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[jamesw]

Good - you read Eric's review.

I use the original X-drive and took it on a two week trip to hawaii without any problem. I backed up photos from my S2/Microcrive and my girlfriends CP990/CF Card.

The drive doesn't confirm that all of your photos transferred properly, and their is no way to browse them, so I recommend you fit your XS-drive with a large hard drive, and if your photos are really valuable, back them up onto the XS-Drive twice.

HTH
James

 

[Anonymous]

Good - you read Eric's review.

I use the original X-drive and took it on a two week trip to hawaii without any problem. I backed up photos from my S2/Microcrive and my girlfriends CP990/CF Card.

The drive doesn't confirm that all of your photos transferred properly, and their is no way to browse them, so I recommend you fit your XS-drive with a large hard drive, and if your photos are really valuable, back them up onto the XS-Drive twice.

HTH
James

Are there any similar products out there that have a bit more, featurewise? Such as a confirm that files are transferred? Or that are a bit more stable with Win XP (it seems from a couple of statements about this one that it's a little gimpy with XP)?

 

[NKT]

There's always the Nixvue line of products which typically offer 20gb or so of memory, plus an LCD review display. Issues with this unit have been insufficient battery life, however. The Mindstor (I think they're out of business) was a similar device. Epson has just recently come out with a "PhotoPC Player" which also has an LCD screen. Here's more info about the epson:

http://dpreview.com/news/0304/03040202epsonp1000.asp

 

[NKT]

Here's something that might be the solution to your needs: $199, user-installs hard drive of choice:

http://www.digital-gear.com/cgi-local/S ... g+DL-001SA

 

[jamesw]

NKT:

Wow! I already have a 40g IBM drive that wrocks. This makes me seriously consider upgrading to the Nixvue!

Cheers
James

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I really like the looks of that Nixvue. Going to have to save some money and butter up the wife. :wink:

 

[wetworx101]

I've used many portable drives, seen most. The western digital portable hard drive line is the most convenient ( no CD needed ) , most reliable (look it up, it is an actual hard drive company, not some gadget shop piecing other crap together) , and easy on the eyes...and i forgot to mention less expensive than most. Pockeys are my second choice, only not as fast and more expensive due to their small size. Iomegas suck, just suck!! Maxtor's are slow. Smartdisk's are slow, although they do make dual connection (USB + fire) models. Buslinks are unreliable and slow as well with most of their models, or their better models are expensive. Dont believe me? fine. look up the reviews yourself... or buy a "fastercuzwesaidso" brand and see how your warranty holds up in a few years...or weeks with some.