As a travel writer, I am always required to carry a good amount of technology with me. I typically travel alone, with a large rucksack strapped to my back, so it can be rather difficult to master the art of packing as light as possible. When I traveled for nine months through 20 countries in Europe/Northern Africa/Iceland in 2013, I struggled under my load for the first couple of months. When you must carry a computer, camera, lenses, tripod, other camera gear, hard drives, phone, tablet, and then on top of all of that, you have to carry the typical backpacker necessities, such as warm-weather clothing, cold-weather clothing, toiletries, bedding/towel, extra pair of shoes, and more, it can be quite a daunting task to move your pack from one place to another, let alone carry it with you religiously each and every day.
So, seeing as how my 2015 travels will take me deeper into the wilderness, where carrying everything (including camping equipment, tent, sleeping bag, food/water, etc) on my back will wear on me more than ever before, I must be extremely cautious as to what I commit to bringing along with me.
So, seeing as how my 2015 travels will take me deeper into the wilderness, where carrying everything (including camping equipment, tent, sleeping bag, food/water, etc) on my back will wear on me more than ever before, I must be extremely cautious as to what I commit to bringing along with me.
| The Seagate® Backup Plus Fast Portable Drive performs at up to 2× the speed of other portable hard drives.
| The Seagate® Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive is the simple, one-click way to protect and share your entire digital life. Perfect to take on the go, the sleek metal case design allows for the thinnest portable hard drive available with up to 2TB of capacity. It goes anywhere — without getting in your way.
| The Seagate® Wireless Mobile Storage Drive allows you to bring along hundreds of movies and thousands of songs, photos, and files. Wirelessly stream them to your tablet or smartphone without wires or web.
| The Seagate® Seven(mm) Drive is what portable storage looks like—7 millimeters slim and charismatic. Precision-crafted with premium materials, the Seagate® Seven Portable Drive clearly looks to the future, but also gives a hat tip to the distinctive industrial designs from Seagate’s rich and storied 35-year legacy.
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I upgraded computer systems, opting for the lightest and smallest, yet most powerful laptop edition available today. Additionally, I upgraded camera systems, choosing the powerful small-body Sony A7R, and strong wide-telephoto lens. Though a single external portable hard drive may not seem like a big deal as far as weight and space go, but when you're a professional photographer, lenses and hard drives, and memory cards, and all of the various gear required to work remotely as I do, every gram and item is worth scrutinizing. When preparing for my current travels in Colorado, I reached out to Seagate for some assistance.
Seagate suggested a mix of four hard drive styles, for all different uses. A master backup in the 4GB Backup Plus Fast, a quick general use drive in the Backup Plus Slim, a wireless storage drive for all of my multimedia/entertainment needs and wants, and last (my personal favorite), a heavy duty hard drive enclosed in steel for all of my most important documents/project files.
Through my travels out west in the United States this summer, I have found this 4-way hard drive setup to be quite ideal – truly, my files have never been happier! ;)
Through my travels out west in the United States this summer, I have found this 4-way hard drive setup to be quite ideal – truly, my files have never been happier! ;)
The Seven hard drive reigns king with its structurally sound design, high transfer speed, and thinness, which made it extremely easy to pack and to keep my most important files safe. The 4GB Backup Plus came in as a close second, as I love the large capacity, as well as its small design. As a photographer and occasional filmmaker, storage space is priceless, and as a backpacker/solo traveler, physical space is precious, and the Backup Plus saved my ass on more than one instance. The Backup Slim is in the same realm as the 4GB Fast version, perfect for everyday usage, though available in smaller capacities. I keep the Backup Slim in a waterproof pack, in the middle of my rucksack for easy access – whenever I finish a new article, short story, or have too many movies on my laptop, then I quickly upload the files to the Slim, and away I go again. Last, but not least, a bit of a more unique hard drive, the Wireless Mobile drive – this drive was the least useful in the group, only because I don't spend a lot of time streaming multimedia remotely, which is possible with this hard drive, and as I travel alone, there were not instances when I wanted to share a file or film with another person/group. Otherwise, the Wireless drive is a pretty cool concept – you can store 500GB of whatever you want, then simply turn it on and any computer that has wifi can pickup the signal and transfer the files.
 This article was written by Brandon Scott. |
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