Epson P2000 harddrive upgrade and another portable storage device
 

I have an Epson P2000 with a 40gb harddrive. I ran out of space (used all 40gb) on my trip to Bots in 2005 and I didn't want that to happen when I went to Rwanda/Kenya so I was trying to figure out what to do for photo storage. I had heard about people replacing the harddrive in the Epson with a bigger one. I don't know anything about computers/harddrives but I wanted to find out how to do it anyway. I did an internet search and found detailed instructions here http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...558&page=1

There are 7 pages to this thread and I read them all. The instructions are on the first page and the additional pages have questions/answers/followups. Then I asked my brother to read them to see if he could replace the harddrive. He read it (I made him read all the pages) and said he could do it. Easy. So I ordered a new 120gb harddrive (from newegg.com). I crossed my fingers and sent the new harddrive and the Epson home with my brother. It took him a few days and he ended up needing to buy the software that is referred to in the dpreview post telling you how to do it. (the Ghost software, I believe)

Anyway, he brought the Epson back to me the day before I was leaving for Rwanda/Kenya and we tested it and it worked. Whew! Talk about waiting until the last minute (my fault, not his).

So now my Epson P2000 has a 120gb harddrive. The new harddrive was ~$125, the labor was free.

I didn't take my laptop this trip so I also needed a second backup. I bought a Nexto case and another 120gb harddrive. My brother put the drive in the case and said it took about 5 minutes. He showed me how to do it and it was easy. The Nexto case was appx $150 and the harddrive was the same as the other one I bought ($125). This device has a slot to insert a CF or SD card. It works very simply and very, very quickly. It doesn't have a screen to view the pictures but I didn't need two devices with screens. I guess I don't "need" any devices with screens but it is nice to have.

So if you have an Epson P2000 and want a bigger harddrive, it can be done. Follow the directions on the link to dpreview.

If you need a storage device, consider the Nexto case and your own harddrive. http://www.nexusamerica.com/Portable...rage-Case.html

I have no interest in either of these companies. I'm just sharing what I've learned.

Cindy, welcome back and I am hoping to see some gorilla pictures and hear a report about how you and Sandy fared on your recent trip!

Along the lines of your suggestion, I have a similar device called the Hyperdrive HD Space (www.hyperdrive.com) that has a replaceable hard drive in it, so you can upgrade to a bigger one later if you want. I have the 100GB version, and I think Sandy told me she got the 160GB version. Mine has been reliable so far, and it is very fast (copies a 4GB Extreme III card in 4 minutes).

So where is the trip report and the pictures?!

Chris

Welcome home ladies, sure you had a great trip. Looking forward to hearing about it.
120GB, huh, that's about 20,000 photos, should keep you busy until your next safari !!!! And thanks for sharing your experience in replacing the hard drive and making the new unit. I've done same and it's not too difficult but you do need some experience in fooling around with computer bits and pieces.
regards - tom

I did a similar upgrade to a 100GB drive about a year ago, and I love having the extra hard drive space for longer safaris where I eat up a ton of disk space!

Thanks for the welcome backs. Chris, Sandy said she would start the trip report so put a bug in her ear.

Tom, 120gb was total overkill but it is big enough for forever! (No matter how big the files get.)

Andy, you are the first person I know of that upgraded their Epson harddrive. The idiot proof directions at dpreview made me brave enough to let my brother work on my $500 device!

While still in Africa, I moved some of the gorilla pics to an "album" on the Epson. I wanted to have a couple of the better pics in one place so if someone wanted to see them they didn't have to sort thru hundreds to see a few. That album is the only thing I have downloaded. I haven't even looked at any of the other pics from the trip. Those few gorilla pics are here
http://www.pbase.com/cjw/gorillas_in_rwanda_2007

Wow Cindy, great gorilla photos. You had good sun light and did a great job. If this is a first sample, you have a lot of very nice ones.
The silver back with the eyes in the shadows, I played with it some. Here it is - http://tinyurl.com/yowqsp
regards - tom

Cindy, your Hirwa pictures are really excellent. Congratulations, that is really a set of pictures that captures the personality of the gorillas. I will leave a comment on your Pbase gallery, but wanted to tell you here as well. I can't wait to see the rest and to see what Sandy got too!

I will definitely bug Sandy about the trip report. Keep posting links as you get pictures posted, you have an eager audience among the members of this forum.

Chris

Cindy - Welcome back! Wonderful, fabulous photos. You do have the touch, girl! Looking forward to hearing about the trip.

Sharon

If your thinking of doing this to your P2000, there has just been posted on the web site DPReview some fresh instructions. Including a video with audio showing/explaining how to install a new HD. It is at - http://tinyurl.com/2ztk5u. Neat.
regards - tom

Thanks for the nice comments!

Tom, how did you do that? I love it! I'm not very good with photoshop.

Now that memory cards are so inexpensive you do you still think it necessary to take a portable storage device with you. For under $100.00 you can get more memory than I think anyone could use on one trip. Is it because you want to see the quality of the pictures or is there another reason?

Cindy-
I tried to “bring up’ the eyes but I suspect they are hidden behind his brows since he may be looking down, no? So what can be done?
This brings up a fundamentally more interesting question. But first, the answer is, yes Photoshop was used but no, the eyes are not from that picture. The eyes are from the photo “Eating the bamboo”. In Photoshop, lasso the eyes from this photo, make them smaller and rotate to match the desired photo. Drop the new eyes in place in first photo. Really took no more than that to do. But I’m not 100% happy with the result, needs some more playing, though not sure what, maybe obscured some at the top by the brow. Also, in the original he is probably looking down at the leaves, now he is looking at us. (If you want more info on exactly how to replace the eyes, let me know and I’ll go through it in detail).
Now, I hope we will have some discussion about this, is this a “legitimate” thing to do in nature photography? The replacement eyes are his, yes? What if one-fifth of a second later you had taken another photo at 2-3 stops more exposure, same body pose and his eyes were visible, maybe even looking at you. Could you then say that there are two identical photos and thus let us merge the best of both? (This is done in landscape photography for high dynamic (exposure) range scenes). Is this any different than using Photoshop to, in the original photo, isolate the eyes and lighten them?
Regards – tom

Interesting question about using more camera cards for storage. The cards prices have been dropping fast due too oversupply of the type of memory used in the cards. Wouldn't surprise me to see prices drop another 50% within 6 months. Now Cindy had two backups, P2000 and Nexto. So I would also like two backups, but, one of them could be the original camera cards. That is, the camera cards and a P2000 perhaps. The cards also have an advantage of being very small. Especially compared to a PC :-)
Also, not sure how many gig Cindy used/photos, but 20 gig worth of cards (at about $20 per gig?) would get you a backup hard drive.
regards - tom