Tourfolio

Imagine that you just returned from a week long trek up Mount Kilimanjaro after taking some spectacular photographs of local wildlife along with views from the summit. After connecting the digital camera to the computer to relive your experiences, you are greeted with an error message, “Can’t Read Data. Data Corrupted.” This nightmare can sometimes be avoided by making sure you store your data on more than one device when traveling. This guide breaks downs different storage mediums that can be used to help ease issues such as data recover-ability or stolen equipment.

Flickr.com (Photo taken by Prensa Iomega España y Portugal)

Data Storage Terminology

I like to consider myself somewhat versed with technology so I just wanted to take a bit of time to breakdown some data storage terminology. When purchasing a data storage product or service, you will notice words such as MB (megabytes), GB (gigabytes) or TB (terabytes). These terms are used to define the amount of data that can be stored on the hard drive. It is also very important to know that 1024 MB equals 1 GB and that 1024 GB equals 1 TB. There have been many times that I’ve heard people asking electronic store employees questions such as; “How many pictures can 16 GB hold?” or “How much video can be stored on 1 TB?”. The examples below use an average data file size for a picture (3.5 MB), video file (1 GB for 5 minutes) or music (4 MB) file but the real amount can be more or less based on how the file is encoded. It can also vary based by features on a digital camera such as the digital photograph quality setting, so just remember that these are rough estimates.
1 GB – 300 pictures, 5 minutes of video or 256 songs
32 GB – 9,300 pictures, 160 minutes of video or 8,200 songs
500 GB – 146,300 pictures, 2,500 minutes of video or 128,000 songs
1 TB – 300,000 pictures, 5,000 minutes of video or 256,000 songs

There are a variety of data storage mediums that you can use to store digital photographs of your journeys, videos from your high definition camcorder, typed travel notes for a book you wish to publish or music files to listen to while sitting on an airplane to your next destination.

Secure Digital (SD) Cards

This is the type of data storage medium that you will most likely find in your digital camera. The best part of this storage type is the physical size of a SD card is about the size of a postage stamp. In addition, the price for SD cards is relatively cheap when compared to the other methods. The not so good news is that the amount of data that can be stored on these cards will be less than what can be stored portable external hard drive. A majority of new laptops or desktops come pre-built with card readers that allow you to read or move data onto the card. If you realize that your computer does not have a card reader, you will need to buy a card reader that can be plug into your USB port.

Example Product(s):Transcend 8 GB SDHC Flash Memory Card

USB Drives:

The USB drive is about .3 inches (8mm) deep, .8 inches (20mm) wide and 2.3 inches (57mm) long making the physical size of this medium makes it one of the better options for storing data while traveling. These also directly plug into a computer’s USB port and do not require any external power adapters. The amount of data that can be stored on these drives and average price are very similar to the previously discussed SD card. This method is by far the most popular method for transferring data files between computers and an overall good option if you will not be storing lots of data while traveling.

Example Product(s): Kingston DataTraveler 8 GB USB Flash Drive

Portable External Hard Drives:

The portable external hard drive is my personal favorite method of data storage options when traveling the world. The physical size of hard drives is rather small allowing you to fit one in the front pocket of your favorite pair of pants as it is about the size of a graphing calculator. The amount of data that can be stored on external portable hard drives is superior to SD cards and USB drives that were previously discussed. These also only require that you plug the USB cable from the portable hard drive into your laptop or desktop. The price for portable external hard drives is about equal to external desktop hard drives but in some cases you might pay a tiny bit more for the portability convenience.

Example Product(s): Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB Portable External Hard Drive

Desktop External Hard Drives

I personally do not recommend this type of storage option during your worldly travels unless you are staying at one location for a while. The good news is that these drives hold the most data (not including some web-based options). The bad news is that the physical size of these hard drives are larger than the previous options and will take up precious room in your luggage. In my opinion, this option is best suited for backing up data (e.g., pictures, videos and music) from your laptop or desktop. In addition, these types of hard drives usually require you to connect two (2) cables; one (1) into your computer’s USB port and one (1) into a wall outlet for the power adapter.

Example Product(s): Western Digital Elements 1 TB Desktop External Hard Drive and Seagate 1.5 TB USB Desktop External Hard Drive

Web Based

There are also a few web-based options that you can use to store your data when traveling. The positive aspect of this method is that some companies such as Box.net have a free version allowing you to store some data (e.g., 1 GB) for free. You can also use the trick of e-mailing yourself data files so that you can download them once you are home. As you can probably guess, the one major drawback is that you are required to have an Internet connection to access the website along with the possibility of the website being blocked in foreign countries.

Lastly, I just wanted to give you all a friendly reminder of a well known phrase in the technology world, “Data does not exist unless it is backed up.” You must backup your digital pictures and videos from your amazing vacations on more than one data storage device as it only takes one failure to lose evidence of all those special memories that you wanted to share with others.