Backing Up Footage During Travel?

[DrDrew3]

I am filling up SD cards pretty quick and rather back them up in the field than risk losing valuable footage. I have a hard time handling those tiny cards and they are easily misplaced (I am vision impaired).

Has anybody used this DJI hard drive to transfer files direct from the aircraft (no laptop or card removal)?

DJI Copilot BOSS 2TB Hard Drive with direct drone link

Seems like a good solution. Any thoughts?

 

[Former Member]

I dont own that drive but I dont find it necessary. Are you archiving all the old footage for some reason? How come your SD cards are filling up so quickly?

I make a habit of either livestreaming every flight to Facebook and/or immediately uploading/offloading my SD card contents to Facebook, Youtube or my hard drive once I get back inside. My SD card always starts as empty for a flight.

If you are in the field and want to offload footage, can you just back it up to your laptop, or a cheaper external hard drive? That 2tb drive you mentioned will hold 60 hours of 4K video. Thats alot to keep on a portable device without backing it up to either an online or network drive.

 

[crazyju]

I use one of these when i dont have wifi to back it up to the cloud.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-my-...zPjL31RSWmQ1bWv0jYAaAmBGEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

You can place the card in and it will copy it automatically. It does have a USB connection as well, and I bet you could just connect the mavic directly to it and copy as well.

 

[DrDrew3]

I dont own that drive but I dont find it necessary. Are you archiving all the old footage for some reason? How come your SD cards are filling up so quickly?

I make a habit of either livestreaming every flight to Facebook and/or immediately uploading/offloading my SD card contents to Facebook, Youtube or my hard drive once I get back inside. My SD card always starts as empty for a flight.

If you are in the field and want to offload footage, can you just back it up to your laptop, or a cheaper external hard drive? That 2tb drive you mentioned will hold 60 hours of 4K video. Thats alot to keep on a portable device without backing it up to either an online or network drive.

I travel for weeks at a time with my Mavic, a GoPro and a digital SLR so plenty of 4K video to fill cards.

I don't carry laptop in the field and couldn't recharge one anyway. YouTube requires an internet connection. And Facebook is just a hot mess.

And I do archive my footage as many clients will request clips some months later.

Thanks for your ideas tho. You actually convinced me to buy the backup drive

 

[colinfowler]

I just carry spare sd cards as they take up no space and don't need charging

 

[MiniPalourde]

Yea, buying a hard drive seems like a good idea. Last time I travelled, I came back with 100 gb of footage. And it was all quality stuff that I didn't want to delete.

 

[RunnerGuy]

I saw 128GB's for under $20. I insert clean cards every flight in case drone gets lost. It's super quick to pull data off via computer sd slot. Almost as quick as changing battery.

 

[bushie]

When i travel i take a small netbook
I try to daily upload my video and stills to the hard drive. I also have a NAS at home that i can log onto and upload from the netbook when ever i have wifi access. The NAS also backs up to the cloud.

 

[ataraxia]

I have a large MicroSD in my phone and use this to plug the drone directly into my phone and transfer the files over, then carry on filming.

 

[FatherXmas]

I carry a Surface Pro tablet with a 256g on board storage and a 1TB USB drive. I pull the files off the SD cards to the Surface then make a second copy on the HD and always start the day with clean SD cards in both cameras and drone. Over the years I've had SD cards and hard drives go south but never both at the same time.

 

[supergimp]

I know this isn't necessarily an option for everyone, but I use a CrystalSky which has a bunch of USB ports, micro SD card slots and a file manager. When I'm on the road I use it to dump my SD cards to a portable HDD or SSD if I'm not able to get to my computer right away. Not super fast, but makes a functional backup.

 

[FoxhallGH]

I have a large MicroSD in my phone and use this to plug the drone directly into my phone and transfer the files over, then carry on filming.

Do you need/use some file transfer app' to get the files transferred between the two??? If so, what??

 

[supergimp]

Do you need/use some file transfer app' to get the files transferred between the two??? If so, what??

Nope, you can use the built in file explorer to navigate and then copy/paste the files from the SD card to the drive. It's not elegant at all, but works.

 

[j.r.r.]

I know this isn't necessarily an option for everyone, but I use a CrystalSky which has a bunch of USB ports, micro SD card slots and a file manager. When I'm on the road I use it to dump my SD cards to a portable HDD or SSD if I'm not able to get to my computer right away. Not super fast, but makes a functional backup.

This is excellent idea, just tested and it works like dream with my Samsung T5 Portable SSD - 1TB. Thank you supergimp for great suggestion!

 

[Kilrah]

Good option but I'd still want a 2nd drive and a computer to sync them because backups.

 

[JSKCKNIT]

I am filling up SD cards pretty quick and rather back them up in the field than risk losing valuable footage. I have a hard time handling those tiny cards and they are easily misplaced (I am vision impaired).

Has anybody used this DJI hard drive to transfer files direct from the aircraft (no laptop or card removal)?

DJI Copilot BOSS 2TB Hard Drive with direct drone link

Seems like a good solution. Any thoughts?

View attachment 55098
View attachment 55097

I thought about getting one of these, opted for a 4TB external hard drive instead. Was only $99.

 

[JSKCKNIT]

I just carry spare sd cards as they take up no space and don't need charging

I carry a spare SD card cause it never fails that I leave the last one used for my drone in my laptop!

 

[networth]

I carry this https://amzn.to/2PjSfCN all the time and off load in the night to a SSD 1TB - https://amzn.to/2QftLje

 

[ataraxia]

Do you need/use some file transfer app' to get the files transferred between the two??? If so, what??

Nope, you can use the built in file explorer to navigate and then copy/paste the files from the SD card to the drive. It's not elegant at all, but works.

Sorry, been away for a bit, but yes supergimp is correct, native file explorer app on Android. Works fine for me, and means I just have to buy a cable instead of another HDD. Also don't need to mess around with taking the MicroSD out of the drone.