o-dog

I may have to do this for a future school situation... discuss?

how to do this while keeping my precious data intact?

EDIT: this would be on a 6 mile round trip from my house to the metro and back and a 40 minute or thereabouts metro ride from my local metro stop to the school in question.

Litespeedlouie

What is your major concern?
First, do not rely on this drive alone - copy all the data onto another drive. Always back it up.
Second, typical laptop size drives are rated for 900Gs shock when parked and off. I would just put it in a padded and water resistant box of some sort, like a Tupperware and a little foam wrap. These things get shipped around the world in nothing more than 2 plastic wedges and a cardboard box.

Popeyecahn

^What he said... And +11tybilion on a second backup, a second drive is far, far cheaper than data recovery and headaches caused by not having one.

CigTech

Sound like you need one of these:
https://www.unityelectronics.com/prod...ta/p/C801_32GB

just back up your data to it and your safe.

tehdely

Yeah, if it's just 40GB, get a flash drive. They're practically indestructible (still keep backups).

If you end up having to carry around a large one, I suggest doing it in your backpack rather than in anything strapped to the bike itself. The human body is a remarkably fine shock absorber which soaks up most of the rattles in the road so your cargo doesn't have to. When I go grocery shopping, I put all the glass bottles in my messenger bag, and strap the rest to the bike. This principle should apply to hard drives, too

Newspaperguy

There are some fairly heavy duty portable external drives available. Look into getting one of those. Then store it in a waterproof bag and carry it in your backpack or jacket.

wahoonc

Why such a small drive I carry around several different types depending on what and where I am going. I even drag the laptop along on occasion. For back up drives I use the USB sticks, carry them in my pants pocket, on a lanyard around my neck, in a baggie in my seat bag, etc. My big back up drive is 160gigs I have a small padded case that I slip that one into, it goes in the seat bag (big seat bag BTW) or sometimes in a jacket pocket. I use a Seagate Free Agent drive IIRC they are available from around 80gig up to 250 gig. There are other brands available.

Aaron

timothyday

I sometimes carry a LaCie d2 drive in a Pelican case. The case I have was made for kensington, but pelican offers it on their site. Waterproof, jolt proof, getting doored on your way to work proof.

But more often than not I carry the Small Seagate mentioned above or a Flash Drive. Check ecost for good deals on both.

lmxloco

I carry a portable 80gig smartdisk hdd on mondays/fridays in a backpack and haven't had a problem yet. If I can get away with it though, during the week I use a flash drive. Besides being lighter and smaller, shock absorbtion isn't really an issue.

dcrowell

I carry a laptop with two harddrives, in a sleeve, in one of my panniers. No problems so far, even with one fall (still adjusting to clipless pedals).

Of course, my employer owns it, not me

Szczuldo

solid state drive. Expensive but if the data is really important this is the best way to keep it safe. That or just make sure you have it padded well in your bad and that it does not jumble around too much. If you must carry around the drive then I can't help you much, but there are USB Flash drives which are up to 32GB for around 100$ and with those you wouldn't need to worry since it is a solid state drive.

poopisnotfood

I have a 1TB external drive that I carry for work. It has been flat out abused and it is holding up fine. If you are worried about it, do like everyone is telling you get a waterproof bag, or case. This one is not waterproof, but you get the idea.

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Logic-Com.../dp/B000HDJT4S

Mine goes in my bag when I ride between locations at work. That bag gets thrown around and tossed around every day. I don't worry because the data is backed up, worst case scenario I buy a new drive.

savethekudzu

You definitely have options: I'd repeat some of the above suggestions, plus this if it's a mechanical drive:

Suspend the drive as well as you can. This may mean suspending it from backpack straps which hang from your shoulders, which are in turn suspended by your spine; nesting a padded bag inside of another bag; anything to limit the hard shocks that otherwise could be transmitted from the road to the drive.

What kind of 40 GB external hard drive are you talking about? Sounds like this would be a few years old, because you can't really buy those any more. EVEN MORE REASON to keep a backup elsewhere.

sean000

I agree with the other advice so far... get yourself that 32GB USB thumb drive. Leave the 40GB external drive at home, but synchronize the two frequently. That way if one fails you've got the other. I'd also make a backup to another drive (like your computer's hard drive). You can never have too many backups, and 40GB is nuthin' these days.

I do sometimes carry a 400GB external USB drive in my pannier... WD MyBook. It's held up just fine for the at least two years I've owned it. Keep in mind that it is important to have a copy of your backup somewhere off-site. If your place is ever broken into, or worse, you can at least know that your data is backed up at another physical location. I use my office, but a friend or family member's place would also work. The key to good back up is regularity along with a method of verification. And USB Thumb drives are easy to lose, so I'd back up every night or so if you can.

noteon 

If you do end up with a hard drive, and the original packing is shock-resistant (eg, styrofoam ears inside a cardboard box) and not too big, I'd use that inside whatever bag I was carrying.

savethekudzu

Excellent point.

gotcha640

What kind of files are you transporting? 40gb sounds too big for basic data (Office documents, presentations), too small for video projects. Could you possibly use a web based email service to make your files available from all ends of the bike trips?

somedood

The heads on most hard drives, especially laptop hard drives, will "park" when they are shut off. If the drive isn't powered on while you are riding I doubt you'd run into many problems.

JanMM

Much easier to carry and to protect an external drive than a laptop. Lots of folks commuting with laptops.
My external drive is not a heck of a lot bigger than my Palm Zire.

o-dog

heh I don't know why I said 40GB, it'd probably be around 200GB or something like that

my main concern is shock damage, and carrying it around in a backpack in extreme temperatures (DC's 100-degree 95% humidity summers, or the arctic winters we've been having the last couple of years)... sounds like you guys have some good solutions to the former, but still wondering about the latter...

PS cool points to anyone who can guess what I'm going back to school for

somedood

I don't think you have to worry much about shock damage from an external hard drive in a bag when not powered up. You should be able to find tolerances for drives when looking at their spec sheet, if available. Just as a reference, this is a Seagate 2.5" laptop drive's spec sheet:

https://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/data...00.2_120gb.pdf

The temperature tolerances for that particular drive is -40C to 70C (-40F to 158F), so I think for most drives temperature would not be an issue either.

viclavigne

I carry my 250GB drive in my panniers. Haven't had any problems with heat (I'm in southern Georgia) or rain. As to your school, it'd be a little ironic if you were going for some type of engineering program.

Thepurplem0nkey

I lug a 500 gig external HD with me to work all the time. I've had it for over 2 years and I've never had a problem. I haul it in a backpack. that being said, remove any plugs or USB cables from the unit before carrying it. I had to re-set some of the internal components because I left some of the wires plugged into the unit (duhhhh) and it must have pulled the wrong way or something while seated on my backpack.
-TPM

BCRider

Laptop style mini HD in an external USB case. This is pretty much what the Lacie is and there's a number of external cases that you can fit a mini HD into. A protective carry case to hold the unit along with any power supply and provided it is lined with some high density foam rubber for shock absorption and you're golden.

noteon 

This wasn't really a disk shootout thread, but as long as brand names are being mentioned...

Check out the G-Tech Mini series. In my experience and that of some other filmmakers I know, it's more bulletproof than comparable LaCie products. I carried one around for a couple of years on my commuting bike and edited and composed the music for two short films on it at various Starbucks. I won't buy another brand again unless these guys go out of business.

As usual, your mileage may vary, if rash develops discontinue use, etc.