AFPhoto Loc: Jamestown, RI, USA

So I am really cashing in on the several comments that I have heard here that there is no such thing as a dumb question. I am heading to South East Asia in February and do not want to take a computer with me. I do have a 1T remote hard drive with a USB 3 connector. My question is: can I connect that drive directly to the USB port on my Olympus OM-D 4/3 camera and back up my SD card directly from the camera. Current plans call for bringing 25 32Gig SD cards and using a different one each day. Thanks for what I know will be great advice.

DaveMM Loc: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

I have not been able to find a way, and don't think there it, but am interested in the answers.

AFPhoto Loc: Jamestown, RI, USA

Thanks Dave, That is what I was afraid of

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

There is actually a device that works that way, but not a regular USB drive. I haven't looked in a long time, but I know I have seen the advertisements.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Not a far as I know. There are external storage devices/drives that will accomplish what you want (with an SD card slot), but not a regular USB-connected hard drive. While the USB interface has the necessary hardware protocols to handle the bus connection, neither device (camera or drive) has the ability to initiate and manage the transfer.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

There's not a direct camera-to-disk drive option that I am aware of.
The options depend on how much you wish to spend -

The RAVPower FileHub is used to make backups of photos to a flash drive. The FileHub is essentially a wifi hot spot with a built in file server that accommodates an SD card and another USB drive, and is controllable from a smart phone.

Remove SD card from camera and insert install into the FileHub
Insert USB drive into Filehub
Log in to FileHub from SmartPhone and direct it to copy files from SD card to USB drive.
It's not an elegant solution but it gets the job done without a laptop.
https://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html

Other options are Memory Card Back-up Devices which are more pricey -
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1077909-REG/digital_foci_p30_051_picture_porter_advanced.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1191265-REG/sanho_shdcsudma3500_500gb_colorspace_udma_3.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1061096-REG/nexto_di_nese_nd2901500g_nd2901_with_500gb_hdd.html

There are probably other options available but these are only ones I'm aware of...

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

Western Digital sells the My Passport Wireless and Pro version, both of which have SD card slots that allow direct backup without a computer. There may be other brands available, but this is the one I'm aware of. Note that I have considered the purchase of one, but have not as yet done so.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You can't run a USB client device (hard drive) off of another USB client device (camera). You'll need a host device.

I don't like to take my computer either. Last year I purchased one of these - RavPower FileHub WD03:

https://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-rp-wd01-filehub-3000mah-power-bank.html

But there are several configurations, one of which offers USB 3 - my WD03 is only USB 2.

Anyway, it is the answer to your prayers. If you already have an external 1 TB hard drive, you'll be in business with just the FileHub. If you need to buy a hard drive, then I would suggest 256gb thumb drives. You can bring as many as you think you'll need - label them as backup 1 and backup 2. This way you have redundant backups. All of this easily fits into your shirt pocket, and it works like a charm. The WD03 does a nice job as a local router - plug it into an ethernet wired network and you can have wireless in your room. Lastly, the 6000mah battery will charge an iPhone from dead to full charge at least 2-3 times. Indispensable device, and it's only $40 at Amazon. The USB3 enabled one is not a router, but it is even smaller and will still charge a phone at least once. I never leave home without mine. Retail purchased (as opposed to built) external drives are notoriously unreliable. and much more sensitive to vibration, shock and temperature extremes than the thumb drives are.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Alternately, if you have an ipad or other small tablet or laptop, you can get an SD to USB or Thunderbolt adapter and download to the tablet or laptop, which also has the advantage of reviewing your day's work and perhaps allowing you to upload to the cloud (depending on wifi access). Ipads have a camera and SD card adapter available, but the native aps only manage JPEGs as far as I know, and they may not have adequate memory unless you can move them to the cloud. there may be aps to import raw files to IPads, but I haven't looked. A Laptop would allow much more flexibility and storage capacity if you have access to one.

AFPhoto Loc: Jamestown, RI, USA

Thanks all, I knew that I would get great advice here. I ordered the RavPower WD06 and I think that it will do exactly what I want. Some of the locations we will be staying at have spotty electrical service so the 6000mah may come in handy.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

That is a pretty cool little device - thanks for sharing the info.

blackest Loc: Ireland

This is an awkward one, you need a usb host device in order to connect usb devices to it. I have thought about it a while and I think you might find a rooted android tv box may meet your needs. They cost around $30 upwards.

These generally have a 2 amp 5volt psu a hdmi output 2 to 4 usb ports and a microsd or sd sized card slot. Device itself can be as small as around 4 inches square. So these will support your Sdcard either directly or via a card reader and a 2.5" hdd which it should be able to power from the android TV box.

If you can get one of these and hook it up to a TV with hdmi it becomes fairly straight forward to transfer files from sd to the hard drive.

Now we get into the issues to resolve there are a few.
File system support

http://superuser.com/questions/891020/problems-with-using-an-external-usb-harddrive-on-android

now the good news is that fat32 can be used on up to 2 TB drives. So you can use a fat32 formatted hard drive, The android TV should be able to power a 2.5" hdd. Most other Android devices will be very much limited on usb power, e.g my tablet would give 90mA.

The way round that power limitation would be to connect a powered USB hub.

Other File Systems.
For NTFS support you and HFS+ support you have to be using ideally an android version below version 5,
With version 5 that becomes tricky since now you have to transfer via the boxes internal storage. With version 6 you cannot use ntfs at all.

One plus point is that the versions of android tv boxes with 4.x on are generally the cheapest to buy I can find ads locally for boxes for €30-40 euro
Android TV's with version 5 are around €50 plus. So your looking at $40 for the box.

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-hfs-android/index.html
This appears to be free and gives hfs+ and NTFS support. (also exFAT but it says that is for developers).

Ok so we have a hdd with a supported file system next we need to hook up the sdcard or camera, with an android box with an sdcard slot that will not be a bother. A camera will probably show up as a mass storage device, some will even allow tethered shooting. Mostly Canon and Nikon Models.

So this works if you have a TV handy but what if you don't?
There are a few possible ways round this and these are open questions for me so far.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapps.serversultimate&hl=en
This is a free app but the pro version is about €9 euro.
Now there is a couple of possible options
If you have an existing lan you could configure the AndroidTV box as a Nas Server that should be relatively straight forward, you could use a phone / mac laptop / pc to remotely operate the android tv box.

A more complicated option would be for the android tv to run a dhcp server and set up it's own lan and then connect to that lan with your phone / computer.
The android TV boxes have ethernet and wifi networking, you might even use your phone as an internet access point for the Android TV box.

Anyway it should be possible to download files from the android TV box to your phone and upload them via a 3g or 4g connection.

So there are a few interesting possibilities, most people only use Android tv boxes to stream film and tv from the internet but there is no reason why
they can't be used for more. Once you can get the android TV running headless , setting up its own lan or joining an existing lan actually that is really easy to do set your phone as a wifi hotspot and your Android Tv box can automatically join your phones wifi network :)

with that connection in place you can access shares on the android tv box from your phone and do the transfers via your phone.

What about if you are off the grid?
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Fast-Speed-Samsung-Tablet-12-Volt-In-Car-Vehicle-Adapter-USB-Charger-2-AMP-/221293217272?hash=item33861a85f8:g:dsUAAOxyu~lSThcY

This would allow you to power the box by a car cigarette lighter. Other options might be a small inverter (i actually carry one in my car usually for laptop use).

My interest has been piqued and i will give a shot at putting this concept together over the next couple of days.

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

I have the same camera but I dont think your idea would be possible.
My method to this is to use a EyeFi sd card, when the photograph is taken the image is transferred to my phone or tablet more or instantly
You can transfer your shots as you take them or at the end of the day in one batch, I prefer the first method as this inserts location data into the Exif.
My Olympus has wifi built in so this can used as an alternative.
If your phone or tablet has enough space, you could use that for storage, actually I use both and they have 64gb sd cards installed and I find that's ample space for hundreds of photographs.

digitalhank

I found the following on Amazon Transcend USB 3.0 Super Speed Multi-Card Reader for SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/CF Cards (TS-RDF8W)

Several years ago I took a cruise to Alaska and used a similar device with no problems.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I travel with a Vosonic Portable Media Storage, VP 8360. It has a 500 GB hard drive and automatically uploads SD or CF card to its hard drive. However it is not available as Vosonic went out of business. However, there are many other models made by other manufacturers. Here is a link to many via B & H Photo.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Stand-Alone-Data-Storage/ci/3369/N/4291085496 The Digital Foci Picture Porter Advanced: Portable Digital Photo Manager (500GB HDD) is affordable. ($179.95)
Mark