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by photoman4343 on Sat Nov 21, 2015 10:13 am
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I just got back from Africa where I used a 2TB Western Digital USB 3 external hard drive as my primary image backup, Given the large number of images taken each day, I rarely had enough time to backup and view images on a daily basis without sacrificing sleep.Backing up to the WD 2TB drive just took too long.  I was thinking of getting a 1TB SSD external hard drive for my win 7 laptop. I found one by Samsung, but would like to know if there are others out there I should be considering. Given that I am still on a win laptop, I would want one that works on these laptops or one that could work both on a win laptop or a Mac. Another advantage is smaller size and less weight.   How much faster would a SSD be than a WD USB 3 drive when copying images from the laptop to the external drive?  Other benefits or concerns would be appreciated too. (I know they are expensive.) 

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by SantaFeJoe on Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:39 am
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One thing to consider is that you need a fast card and probably a new model card reader to get your fastest speeds.

Joe
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by E.J. Peiker on Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:37 pm
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Does your laptop have USB3 outputs, judging from what you wrote, I'm guessing the laptop may be USB2 - your USB 3 drives still work but at USB 2 speeds. If you truly have USB3 ports, the SSD will probably take half the time. But if you are using a USB2 port on your laptop there will be no difference between an HD and an SSD as you are limited by the USB2 interface. Better to first find out waht type of USB ports are on your laptop.
 

by photoman4343 on Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:54 pm
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Ej, my laptop has two USB 3 ports, my card reader is USB 3 by Hoodman and my cards are fast ones. 

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by Wildflower-nut on Sat Nov 21, 2015 10:20 pm
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I use 64 gb cards. I can start a download and if necessary, let the computer run all night. That said, I could usually download during lunch and dinner in Africa with no problem about 45min to 1hr each making 3 copies at once.
 

by Primus on Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:20 pm
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I have two of the Samsung SSDs, each 1TB that I carry with me on any trip. Both are housed in  $15 enclosures from Inateck. I can get transfer rates around 400MB/sec with this on my 2012 Macbook Pro through a USB3 hub (or directly). The enclosure is important as the one I bought from another company (Anker) gave my 200MB/sec even though it claimed USB3 compatibility.

I store my LR catalog on one external drive and mirror it to the other one every day, so my laptop HD is not cluttered.

This is a great backup system, and along with the Colorspace UDMA makes it quite robust. I also take enough CF/SD cards so that I usually do not have to reuse them, they make a 3rd (or 4th) copy of my images if needed.

Pradeep
 

by Greg Downing on Fri Nov 27, 2015 8:25 pm
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Primus wrote:I have two of the Samsung SSDs, each 1TB that I carry with me on any trip. Both are housed in  $15 enclosures from Inateck. I can get transfer rates around 400MB/sec with this on my 2012 Macbook Pro through a USB3 hub (or directly). The enclosure is important as the one I bought from another company (Anker) gave my 200MB/sec even though it claimed USB3 compatibility.

I store my LR catalog on one external drive and mirror it to the other one every day, so my laptop HD is not cluttered.

This is a great backup system, and along with the Colorspace UDMA makes it quite robust. I also take enough CF/SD cards so that I usually do not have to reuse them, they make a 3rd (or 4th) copy of my images if needed.

Pradeep
I'm using a similar system but not using the colorspace or other stand-alone device. It would be ideal to have a backup method of offloading in case a laptop dies which is admittedly the weakness in my current system. I also do not offload the cards but I recently lost an SSD card somewhere (it was already copied) on a recent trip. If you're using both SSD's in the Inateck enclosures then where does the colorspace fit in, and what's inside of it? I'm considering the colorspace, or something similar with an SSD and a second SSD as backup.

Side note - right now I'm testing the Samsung T1 which is super fast and super tiny but it requires a specific driver be installed so if your computer dies you can't just plug it into another computer without first downloading and installing a driver. Considering sending it back for that reason. It's in the same price range as a standard 2.5" form factor SSD with enclosure (around $370).
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by Primus on Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:38 am
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Greg Downing wrote:I'm using a similar system but not using the colorspace or other stand-alone device. It would be ideal to have a backup method of offloading in case a laptop dies which is admittedly the weakness in my current system. I also do not offload the cards but I recently lost an SSD card somewhere (it was already copied) on a recent trip. If you're using both SSD's in the Inateck enclosures then where does the colorspace fit in, and what's inside of it? I'm considering the colorspace, or something similar with an SSD and a second SSD as backup.

Side note - right now I'm testing the Samsung T1 which is super fast and super tiny but it requires a specific driver be installed so if your computer dies you can't just plug it into another computer without first downloading and installing a driver. Considering sending it back for that reason. It's in the same price range as a standard 2.5" form factor SSD with enclosure (around $370).
Greg, the unique thing about Colorspace is that is does not require a computer to download the cards to. You simply put the card in the slot and hit the 'backup' option. In a pinch you can also view the images on its LCD screen. My device was bought 'blank' and you can thus put in any drive in it, SSD or regular. 

The other feature of Colorspace which is indispensable is that it is the only device I know of that will recognize a card that my disk utility does not. So if  a card is corrupted, CS will still be able to read it and recover all the images from it, even if you've formatted the card before (as long as the actual data is not overwritten). 

However, apparently the software recovery program 'Wondershare' is able to do this too as per someone on another forum. Have not tried it myself though.

My backup strategy is to first offload the card onto Colorspace, then use my laptop to copy it on to two separate SSDs. I then just put the card away after enabling write protect (only possible with SD cards as we know). I usually carry enough cards to last the entire trip. 

So this way I have four places where the images reside, and I keep all of them with me in my carry-on when I fly. 

The other thing I do is I keep either the Colorspace or one of the SSDs with me on my person (usually in the camera bag or the photo-vest). I do this especially when we are staying at a hotel in an urban area or when we travel and need to use the restrooms while leaving the gear in the car. I've heard too many stories about the gear bag being stolen and people losing all their images.

I know this is all overkill and I am just being paranoid. But for me, more important than the gear is the images which cannot be duplicated. Can never have enough backup copies either.

Pradeep

PS.

I just looked up the Samsung T1 - it looks great. There is a guy on Amazon (William Grose) who has written detailed instructions on how to remove the Samsung kext and other files so that in the end you have a simple SSD. And it looks very small and sleek. Will probably go for this if I ever need another external SSD.
 

by Greg Downing on Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:09 am
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Thanks Pradeep - yes I am familiar with the colorspace and how it works but was wondering what type of drive you have installed inside of it since you stated you're using the SSD's as stand alone drives. I would personally put an SSD in the colorspace. Does the color space recognize duplicate files? My workflow is to offload my cards each day but continue to use them until they are full thus they go back and forth until they are full (using 128GB cards) thus I need duplicate file recognition so as not to download the same file twice. I use Lightroom that has this function.

Thanks too for the tip about the T1 on amazon - I'll check that out!

Greg
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by Greg Downing on Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:28 am
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Pradeep,

I can confirm that I am able to remove the pesky software and get the T-1 to be recognized without the need for a driver.

I'm pasting the info below:

Guide to making the Samsung T1 SSD work on your Mac (and subsequently ANY Mac) without any software running - assuming you're not setting a password on the disk:

1.) Plug in your new T1 to your Mac (after marveling at how adorable it is).
2.) Install the Samsung application.
3.) Now your drive should show up fine to read from and write files to.
4.) Open up Terminal (quick way to get to it is hit Command+Space Bar, and then type "Terminal", and hit "Enter")
5.) Type or copy the following, one line at a time. (you can also manually do this in Finder if you have the know-how):

sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions/SATSMARTDriver.kext
sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions/SATSMARTLib.plugin

(This removes two of the three unnecessary files that Samsung installs)

6.) Remove the Samsung Application and folder from within ~/Library/Application Support/

You can achieve this this by doing the following:

a.) Open Finder.
b.) In Finder, press CMD+Shift+G.
c.) Paste the following: ~/Library/Application Support/
d.) Remove the "PortableSSD" folder. This folder should contain only the Samsung application, so the folder is safe to delete in this case.
e.) Reboot.

7.) You're done!

I've tested this by connecting the drive to another Mac and it comes up without any drivers needed.

EDIT: I am required to enter my admin password now when using the drive - still trying to find a work-around for that....

EDIT 2: Solved - just reformat the drive using Disk Utility then it acts normally.


Thanks again for that! :)

Greg
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by photoman4343 on Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:55 am
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These are great comments great comments. Thanks. 
I will add that I use the Colorspace udma 2  1tb as part of my backup workflow. I have a friend who uses the nexto di, a similar device. His is a 2tb version. He added the 2tb drive himself. He shoots with a Sony that has very large files. I just saw that Colorspace has announced the umda 3 which will replace the 2 version. 

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by Primus on Sat Nov 28, 2015 1:04 pm
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Greg Downing wrote:Thanks Pradeep - yes I am familiar with the colorspace and how it works but was wondering what type of drive you have installed inside of it since you stated you're using the SSD's as stand alone drives. I would personally put an SSD in the colorspace. Does the color space recognize duplicate files? My workflow is to offload my cards each day but continue to use them until they are full thus they go back and forth until they are full (using 128GB cards) thus I need duplicate file recognition so as not to download the same file twice. I use Lightroom that has this function.

Thanks too for the tip about the T1 on amazon - I'll check that out!

Greg
Greg, I think I have a regular HD in my colorspace. It does not matter because the interface with the computer is still USB2.0 so an SSD will not improve matters much except perhaps offer more stability against knocks and such. The card reading speed esp with SD cards is also too slow but it's all worth it for the value you get. 

No the CS does not offer duplicate file recognition like LR does. It is simply a 'dump', i.e you put in a card, press 'backup' on the options and it will create a brand new directory each time.  I just use it as a simple back up device, comfortable in the knowledge that it is a mirror of the cards if I ever have to reuse the cards again. 

My workflow is the same, use the card until it is almost full. The only problem with that I realized is that with the higher capacity cards (I have a few 128GB ones), you may actually end up using the same card for several sessions and if that goes bad it's trouble. The sensible thing would be to stick with 32GB cards which is what I need to do now.

Since I do the file-renaming process on my laptop before importing into LR, the files on the card and Colorspace have the filename that comes out of the camera.

BTW, this OT, but I highly recommend 'Name Mangler', the best file-renaming utility I've ever used - it's gone up in price now to about $19 but it is still well worth the money. Allows you to create presets that with a simple click will rename the files in multiple steps. Very advanced and you can write scripts if you want to go that way too. It is so much better than anything LR can do. 

Pradeep
 

by NNL33543 on Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:03 pm
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Greg Downing wrote:
Primus wrote:I have two of the Samsung SSDs, each 1TB that I carry with me on any trip. Both are housed in  $15 enclosures from Inateck. I can get transfer rates around 400MB/sec with this on my 2012 Macbook Pro through a USB3 hub (or directly). The enclosure is important as the one I bought from another company (Anker) gave my 200MB/sec even though it claimed USB3 compatibility.

I store my LR catalog on one external drive and mirror it to the other one every day, so my laptop HD is not cluttered.

This is a great backup system, and along with the Colorspace UDMA makes it quite robust. I also take enough CF/SD cards so that I usually do not have to reuse them, they make a 3rd (or 4th) copy of my images if needed.

Pradeep
I'm using a similar system but not using the colorspace or other stand-alone device. It would be ideal to have a backup method of offloading in case a laptop dies which is admittedly the weakness in my current system. I also do not offload the cards but I recently lost an SSD card somewhere (it was already copied) on a recent trip. If you're using both SSD's in the Inateck enclosures then where does the colorspace fit in, and what's inside of it? I'm considering the colorspace, or something similar with an SSD and a second SSD as backup.

Side note - right now I'm testing the Samsung T1 which is super fast and super tiny but it requires a specific driver be installed so if your computer dies you can't just plug it into another computer without first downloading and installing a driver. Considering sending it back for that reason. It's in the same price range as a standard 2.5" form factor SSD with enclosure (around $370).
Caution with the Samsung T1. I installed it and its drivers in my MacBookpro which I had not backed up yet, and it wiped out all my firewire drives. I had to do a complete reinstall of the OS.
 

by LouBuonomo on Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:58 am
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The sports photo company I used shoot for gave up on colorspaces.. they became nothing but headaches after a time. Maybe they are better now, this was 2 years ago.
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by Greg Downing on Sun Nov 29, 2015 6:20 pm
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NNL33543 wrote:
Greg Downing wrote:
Primus wrote:I have two of the Samsung SSDs, each 1TB that I carry with me on any trip. Both are housed in  $15 enclosures from Inateck. I can get transfer rates around 400MB/sec with this on my 2012 Macbook Pro through a USB3 hub (or directly). The enclosure is important as the one I bought from another company (Anker) gave my 200MB/sec even though it claimed USB3 compatibility.

I store my LR catalog on one external drive and mirror it to the other one every day, so my laptop HD is not cluttered.

This is a great backup system, and along with the Colorspace UDMA makes it quite robust. I also take enough CF/SD cards so that I usually do not have to reuse them, they make a 3rd (or 4th) copy of my images if needed.

Pradeep
I'm using a similar system but not using the colorspace or other stand-alone device. It would be ideal to have a backup method of offloading in case a laptop dies which is admittedly the weakness in my current system. I also do not offload the cards but I recently lost an SSD card somewhere (it was already copied) on a recent trip. If you're using both SSD's in the Inateck enclosures then where does the colorspace fit in, and what's inside of it? I'm considering the colorspace, or something similar with an SSD and a second SSD as backup.

Side note - right now I'm testing the Samsung T1 which is super fast and super tiny but it requires a specific driver be installed so if your computer dies you can't just plug it into another computer without first downloading and installing a driver. Considering sending it back for that reason. It's in the same price range as a standard 2.5" form factor SSD with enclosure (around $370).
Caution with the Samsung T1. I installed it and its drivers in my MacBookpro which I had not backed up yet, and it wiped out all my firewire drives. I had to do a complete reinstall of the OS.
Wow that sucks! I had no such issue and removed the software so it now acts as a normal drive with no special driver needed.
Greg Downing
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by photoman4343 on Wed Dec 30, 2015 10:08 am
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Greg and others, I just got a 1tb Ssd from Samsung as a Christmas present. I want to use it on my win 7 laptop and desktop pcs to backup images and then transfer them to my desktop system. Will the Ssd work on two different pcs? Do I have to remove software like Greg outlined above for win. 7 use? Any other issues for win users.

Joe
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by photoman4343 on Wed Dec 30, 2015 11:48 am
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Greg and others, I just got a 1tb Ssd from Samsung as a Christmas present. I want to use it on my win 7 laptop and desktop pcs to backup images and then transfer them to my desktop system. Will the Ssd work on two different pcs? Do I have to remove software like Greg outlined above for win. 7 use? Any other issues for win users.

Joe
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by E.J. Peiker on Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:27 pm
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Joe, just plug the thing into your computer and do a quick format and then you will have no problems at all doing whatever you want.
 

by photoman4343 on Sun Feb 14, 2016 5:54 pm
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Here is what worked for me on a win 7 pc to inslall/reformat the T1 SSD.
.
EJ's suggestion did not work as a first step, but did work as a final step. .

I had to plug it in, pc recognized it, then I had to click on the windows OS program, ending in SSD.exe.
When that was launched, I had to name the drive, then add or decline a password. Then hit Finish.
That launched software to make the drive a 1 tb drive.

Once that was done, then I right clicked on the drive letter, chose format and NTFS, and quick format.
Mission accomplished.

When prices go down, these things will sell like hot cakes. Small light and fast.

Joe
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by photoman4343 on Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:22 pm
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Here is a followup on my SSD T1 experiences. Those of you that have more background on this might want to offer some additional comments or corrections. :
My experience with Win 7 Pro, service pack 1,  on a desktop that came with an internal SSD. .

 I attached the T1 drive to a fast USB 3 port on the back of my desktop. I then ran the SSD.exe file for a win machine to make the whole drive visible. Then I did a quick reformat and selected NTFS. 

Then I downloaded 602 GB of images to the T1 from my desktop. It took two hours. That seemed slow, so I took a 1TB USB 3 Western Digital, attached it to the same port with the same cable and downloaded the same 602 GB of images. That took three hours and 29 minutes. I still was not convinced that i was doing everything correctly

Research indicated that I needed to make sure the SSD T1 drive was properly set to enable write-caching. I went to Device Manager, selected the T1 drive, then clicked on Policies. “Quick removal” was checked. I changed it to “Better Performance”. Once this was done it allowed me to select “Enable write cahing for the SSDT1.

Once that was done, I deleted the 602 GB of images from the drive and recopied them to the SSD T1. Now it took only 1 hour 26 minutes with write caching enabled. 

Final comparisons: total minutes to download with SSD T1 with write cahing set—86 minutes. With WD 1TB USB 3--209 minutes. 86/209 = 41%.  

Does this look right to all of you? 

It might even be faster if I had win 10. I found this at the Samsung website in response to a question about a SSD T1 that was slow. “The T1 is designed to deliver the fastest data transfer speed (450MB/s) under USB 3.0 and USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) modes. If the PC is not equipped with these standards, transfer speeds may be slower. UASP is a protocol which supports USB and SCSI Command and enhances USB data transfer speeds.”

I have no idea if my version of win 7 Pro service pack 1 (or my motherboard, etc) has this or not.  

I also believe SATA III is required for proper Samsung SSD performance, and if you have a SATA II mainboard then you can expect much slower speeds. Basically, if your computer is old or has an older motherboard, functionality will go down. Keep this in mind when choosing an external SSD or when upgrading your internal drive to SSD – a point comes when upgrading the motherboard is also necessary for real improvements.

Joe 
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