If you caught the most recent PPS Roundtable (Episode 34) you may remember the gasps I received from my fellow roundtable peers when I mentioned that I was not backing up my digital images immediately after filling a card during a wedding or photo shoot. PPS writer Jarrod mentioned a product from Wolverine that he uses to back up his images. I took his suggestion and have been using mine for about a month now. Here is my review of the unit I purchased.
I purchased the Wolverine 120GB FlashPac 7000, 7-in-1 Portable Data Storage Device & Media Reader. I went with the largest hard drive size, 120GB with the idea of being able to immediately back up an entire season’s worth of weddings and sessions on the spot… My first impression right out of the box: simple, just as Jarrod described it on the show. Small on “flash” and big on functionality. First thing I had to do is plug it in to charge the battery which takes four hours for the first charge. Once it was charged I started to back up my images. I am a Nikon shooter so I primarily use the CF reader slot and the SD card slot. The CF card reader slot is located directly on the top of the device. There is a rubber stopper that covers the opening. This is nice for keeping dust and debris out but the moment I removed it to insert a CF card, I wondered how fast I was going to lose it.
Once the card was inserted, I pushed the power button to turn it on. It takes a few seconds for the disc to spin up and become ready. The monochromatic display then tells you what kind of card you have inserted, the amount of battery life and free hard drive space remaining. Below all that it says “Press Copy.” That’s really all there is to it. The files are then copied into a folder on the device’s hard drive. To give you an idea on how fast the files are transfered, it takes about 16 minutes to transfer 100 RAW images shot with the Nikon D200. Every time you insert a card, even it is just the same card you just copied, it makes a new folder of transfered images. This prevents image files from being written over.
Once the files have been copied, the LCD lets you know how many files were just transfered and that it went ok. The device shuts off after about a minute of sitting idol. This is nice because it lets you toss in a card and let it copy and shutdown so you don’t have to worry about draining the battery. Speaking of battery life, the manual says it can transfer up to 6GB on a single charge. This means if you are one of those digital photographers who shoots with a lead finger, you’ll definitely want to bring the power adapter along. It also comes with a very nice carrying case which has a loop in the back if you want to wear it on your belt.
So far I really like this product. I will absolutely love it if the day ever comes when I have to rely on the backed up images due to an issue with the original files. This is really one of those products that is great to have but you hope to never have to use it. It is perfect for photographers who do not own a laptop or for those who are tired of lugging a laptop along at weddings or long day shoots. One thing I wish it had is a back lit LCD so you could read the screen in the dark. There are much fancier devices out there that come complete with beautiful color displays but they also come with fancier price tags.
If you are looking for something simple, portable, and functional to safely store and back up your important images soon after capture, I would recommend this product.
Dennis “Dz”
Hi Dennis, I use a similar product. Don’t have it in front of me so I forget the name but think it is called data-pac. I will have to check. I bought it because I was going to Paris for a week and didn’t want to bring the laptop along (it was vacation, family and all, so didn’t want to be tempted!). Anyway, the item I have works similar to the wolverine, BUT, it is basically the workings, case, etc… you have to put in a laptop hard drive. I liked this because I could put in any size I wanted AND could look for deals. The device was about $35 and with the 120 GB drive I put in, I saved about $50. THe interface is similar, but the downside is when it goes into sleep mode and is complete, it doesn’t tell you if everything downloaded ok and it is difficult to go through the directories to see what downloaded. WIth that said, it was fantastic to have on teh trip and worked flawlessly. I am sure the wolverine works even nicer. I have used it on other shoots where I was out in the “woods” and couldn’t carry the laptop and worked great there too… I don’t have too many CF cards so it saves me on that too, but of course, if I overwrite then I don’t have a backup on the card. Keep up the good work… John
Very cool John. Thanks for sharing your backing up stories with a device similar to this. Devices like this can be compared to a fire extinguisher, it’s good to own one but you hope you never have to use it. Thanks for the encouraging words, much appreciated! Dz
I purchased a Wolverine FlashPac 7010, which is the 100GB version. It’s been working out well. I have noticed that if you use higher capacity memory cards (so there’s less swapping), the battery will carry you through more than 6gb; maybe 8 to 10. Speed isn’t stunning, but convenience is. I like its understated approach; if you don’t need a feature, you can bet the feature isn’t included. 😉 Small, convenient, easy to use. What more do you need?
I plan on using it on my coming vacation to the Philippines. My wife will be there nearly a month, and I’ll be there for about half that time. We shoot raw, so we will undoubtedly use up our 12.5GB worth of SD cards. The device will be very helpful in this regard.
Thanks for the review. I used to back up my CF files the same way (with an Epson 4000). I stopped using it and returned it because during transfer some of the files were getting corrupted. My class instrcutor told me that that is the reason he doesn’t use these types of products because of corruption issues. Has anyone expereinced this same type of problem? Have you Dennis with the Wolverine? Also, is there a way to verify that the files were successfully transferred?
Thanks for the feedback Derek. When you say the files were getting corrupted, do you mean the original files on the card or the new copy of the file on the Epson drive? If the original files were becoming corrupted, that is not good at all. How often do you format your CF cards just out of curiosity?
Aside from the Wolverine device telling me that the files were transferred successfully, I really have no real way of knowing. What I then do to check from time to time is connect the device to my Mac, go into a folder and pick a couple of random files and open them up in Photoshop. I have filled nearly 50 Gigs on my Wolverine FlashPac and everything is so far, so good!
😎 I’ve 40gb FlashPac for 2 years, and made 5 trips… Worth every cent… Last trip (2 w in Swiss) I filled up 30 gb…(cr2+jpeg, AVI).. Pictures (not video) I download twice (just for case)…
Device is excellent and very simple to use: in my trips I just shoot pictures, and work on them at home.
Now I want to replace HD from 40 to 100, is there anyone that knows how? Which 2.5” disk to buy?
I just hooked up my new wolverine 100 GB flash pak today to our PC and when the battery power ran down I plugged in the wall plug power supply I use to recharge the batteries. That resulted in everything going blank and I thought..Ok Now I cooked this thing. But after a reboot, all was well. I’m pretty sure I just didn’t use the correct hook up sequence but for now will just keep recharging the batteries and use it to download that way. I have a e-mail into wolverine co to ask how to do it as their instruction book dosen’t seem clear on this. Perhaps some one of you can clear this up.. Ok or not to run this off the plug in power supply/ And if yes…what is the correct sequence to get it going? Thanks..shad123
Hey Wolverine fans, I just got off the phone with “Ricco” the Wolverine Rep and he was really a nice and very helpful guy. I told him my Wolverine 7100 model would download every card I have except the new San Disk Ultra ll 2 GB cards we bought on vacation. He told me that I can go to the Wolverine site and download an update changing the setting that flashes on the unit window when you first turn it on and the green light comes up. You need to read fast as it goes away quickly. Mine says ( 1.16) and the update to look for is ( 1.18) This will inable the new cards to work. I also dropped San Disk a line thinking that they might appreciate knowing about this fix but all I got back was a convoluted go here, type in ID code, etc and etc. Personally I’ll stick with my other flash cards…I have some older San Disk cards that work as well as Trancend, Lexar, A- Data and a few more , all of which work perfectly with the Wolverine! Thanks to Ricco..He was great and said, anytime there is any question , give him a buzz. Regards, Shad123
Can someone tell me if Wolverine works with the new high density cards, i.e., 4 GB SDHC or 8GB SDHC? TIA
I have a Wolverine FlashPac 7000 Series G0 gig unit and I can not get the plug and play to recognise the unit, I can’t get the unit to show up on the computer in anyway. Has anyone else had this problem and is there a fix, or do I have to send it back to Wolverine?
Thanks
Joe
Try reformatting it. Also run a disk utility of some kind. Usually as long as the drive still goes it just needs some directory repair.
If you need more help you can ask over on the PPS forums
Thanks prophotoshow, but if the hardware doesn’t show up on the computer, how do you reformat it? I e-mailed Wolverine but haven’t heard back from them yet….I will try the PPS forums like you suggested.
I’m heading to Peru for a month using Nikon D300 and D80 with 8Gb CF and SD cards. Dave was asking about how well the Wolverine processes those. I havn’t pruchased one yet, but am seriously looking at it as those cameras eat memory, and I will be up in the mountains for weeks at a time. Has any body been using that large a card file and can you get the whole thing downloaded?
Jeb
Same question as Jeb. I am going to Africa next month and I also use a D300, with 4 Gb Extreme IV cards. I am seriously thinking of buying the Wolverine unit for daily downloads and backups. Any comments out there? Any experience with the fast transfer CF cards?
Steve.
Will this wolverine flashpac 7000 work properly with windows xp ntfs operating system
I’ve just returned from a week in Ireland using by D200 and 2gb CF cards and backing up to my Wolverine 120GB. I’m experiencing major .jpg file corruption, like almost 20-30% of my images. when I try to transfer to my Mac I’m getting Error Code -36, although the wolverine is showing me a complete thumbnail of the corrupted images. Anyone else had this happen? How did you fix it? What disk utility would you try? thanks for any help.
P.S. I have used this drive on one other trip and experienced 3 or 4 corrupted images. I’ve never had one when just downloading my CF cards to the computer. I’m VERY LEERY of this drive now… not sure I’ll ever fully trust it again.
vic