Portable backup storage.

[RaglanSurf]

Is there such a thing as a portable back up hard drive with a built in SD card reader, so I can back up without taking my laptop?

 

[Box Brownie]

Is there such a thing as a portable back up hard drive with a built in SD card reader, so I can back up without taking my laptop?

There certainly used to be ones based on both HHD and SSD storage but I have not read of any available for some years.

I think with memory card capacities having increased and methods of cloud backup available perhaps the manufacturers lost and/or never managed to grow the market for that type of product.

IIRC I have an old one long since unused, that has a 2.5 inch HDD and used AA rechargeable batteries. I think I was a bit of an early adopter and from what I recall it's major downside was the battery life! This was for use with CF cards.

 

[Peter123]

This thread may be helpful

What backing up equipment do you use when travelling

I'm trying to minimise weight when travelling abroad, and dont want the hassle of carrying laptops, tablets etc and then transferring data to the cloud. I would rather keep the data on a portable drive Is there any equipment that I can connect to wirelessly or by usb and store the data on it...

www.talkphotography.co.uk

 

[troutfisher]

Depending on what gear you have something like this would do the job.

USB-C to SD Card Reader

The USB-C to SD Card Reader transfers high-resolution photos and videos at UHS-II speeds to your Mac or iPad Pro. Buy now at apple.com.

www.apple.com

There are doubtless cheaper versions

 

[droj]

I just use whatever cards the camera uses, take plenty of them and stash them when they're getting close to full. Extremely small & light, and no device or power needed. What's all the fuss about?

 

[rob-nikon]

If your camera has two card slots you may have a feature to copy the contents of one memory card to another card to create a new backup copy.

I remember the portable storage devices you're talking about. Once cameras had two card slots and added the above feature, and memory cards got cheaper there wasn't much point to the portable storage devices.

Here's a link of it the the Nikon Z7 manual:

Copy Image(s)

onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com

I just have a huge card in one slot and multiple smaller cards for the other and shoot in backup mode all the time. At worst I have multiple smaller cards with the images on, or all on the large card in camera.

 

[Snapsh0t]

If you have a smartphone then you can get by with a suitable USB hub with a card reader and an external drive.