Chromebook for in-the-field Backup

[donaldsc]

Until now, I have been using my tablet or phone for in-the-field photo backup.  What I do is to copy my photos from my camera card to my tablet or phone.  I then attach a flash drive to my tablet or phone and copy the photo to the external device.  When all is copied, I format the camera card in the camera.  This has worked but it is user unfriendly, slow and it is hard for me to follow what is happening.

I am thinking about buying a Chromebook for my in-the field backup.  My next trip will be to a location that does not have wifi or internet so everything has to be done off grid.  It will also be a once-in-a-lifetime trip so I want to maximize my chances of getting good photos.  I will admit that I know next to nothing about Chromebooks.

 

I plan to do essentially the same thing with the Chromebook as I am now doing with the tablet.  I assume that Chromebooks have SD slots for my camera card.  I will put my camera SD card into the Chromebook SD slot and copy the files to the Chromebook memory.  I will then do a quick check of the photos to make sure that there are no camera problems and I would also delete any really bad photos before going to the next step.

 

I don't plan to keep the files on the Chromebook as it has very limited storage capacity.  I will then connect a flash drive to the Chromebook USB port (do Chromebooks have USB ports) and copy the files from its memory to the flash drives and maybe even to an external hard drive.  Once all this is done, I would delete the camera files from the Chromebook.

I also have a camera that takes both SD  and CF  cards.  If  Chromebooks also have an USB port, can I connect my camera card reader to the Chromebook so I can also backup the photos on the CF card.

 

One last question.  All my tablets take a micro SD card I use the card to increase the effective memory of the tablet my storing my photos on the micro SD card and not on the tablet's internal memory.  Do Chromebooks have the same ability.  Do they have a micro SD card slot that I can use effectively as an external disk drive.

 

Sorry to be so wordy but does any of this make any sense.  Will it work.  I should add that I plan to use the Chromebook only for in-the-field backup and maybe to check my e-mails.  I don't plan to do any photo editing.

Thanks

 

DON

[pierces]

Chromebooks typically have only about 16mb-32mb of internal storage since they are primarily a web client. Typically no micro-SD slot but all or almost all have a standard SD slot. The good news is that they have more than one USB port so hooking an external drive up for storage is simple. You can use that large flash drive. or even an external SSD.

 

Dave

Edited October 29, 2018 by pierces

[numtini]

My experience would be the opposite, they almost always have a microSD, but not a full SD.

 

I guess you could connect a USB SD Card reader and then copy to the microSD? It's probably not the most optimal device for backup due to the small primary SSD--you'd be constantly juggling SD/microSD cards.

[donaldsc]

Just to tell you all what I did, I found a very small very light weight (2 lbs, 4 oz) Asus Windows based computer that was an open box item at Best Buy for $163.  It only has 4 G of memory and 32 G flash memory but since I am going to use it just for checking pictures, deleting bad ones and backing them from my camera card to a flash drive and/or a hard drive, it will work for me.  It has 2 USB ports and I also bought a port duplicator so I plug my camera card reader into one port and the port duplicator into the other one so I can plug in my mouse and either a hard drive or a flash drive.  I can read and check the pictures directly on the camera card. Because the file transfer process does not take much of the flash memory, I can work with my 64 G camera cards even though the computer does not have much internal memory.  

 

This should be a great solution to off-the-grid travel photography.  

 

DON

[donaldsc]

On 10/30/2018 at 4:03 PM, donaldsc said:

Just to tell you all what I did, I found a very small very light weight (2 lbs, 4 oz) Asus Windows based computer that was an open box item at Best Buy for $163.  It only has 4 G of memory and 32 G flash memory but since I am going to use it just for checking pictures, deleting bad ones and backing them from my camera card to a flash drive and/or a hard drive, it will work for me.  It has 2 USB ports and I also bought a port duplicator so I plug my camera card reader into one port and the port duplicator into the other one so I can plug in my mouse and either a hard drive or a flash drive.  I can read and check the pictures directly on the camera card. Because the file transfer process does not take much of the flash memory, I can work with my 64 G camera cards even though the computer does not have much internal memory.  

 

This should be a great solution to off-the-grid travel photography.  

 

DON

 

I have verified that this works.  I can transfer a 32 G camera card to a flash drive or a portable hard drive in only a few minutes.  I have installed a simple photo viewer on the thing as well as g-mail reader.  I am using Edge as my browser since it was is pre-installed and I don't want to load the thing up w software.  Not only that but since there is no hard drive in the thing, it should be pretty immune to shock.

 

I think that my problem has been solved.