External hard drive question

[keeverw]

Hello,
My name is Wayne, and I am considering buying my wife an ipad to replace her laptop.
There is only one thing that she routinely likes to do on her laptop, that I am not certain the ipad can do, which is why I came here.

She has an SLR digital camera that she takes a million pictures of our kids with, and then she will copy them from the SDcard to our external hard drive to store them, and also she will upload them to shutterfly.com as a backup storage and also so she can purchase prints when she wants to.

How would she get the pictures from the SD card to the external hard drive only using her iPad and no computers?
And then how would she get them uploaded to shutterfly?
It would be nice if there was a way to send them straight from the sdcard to the hard drive without storing them on the ipad, because sometimes these files are going to be large, and the ipad's memory is limited.
And then it would be nice if there was a way to upload them directly from the hard drive to shutterfly using the ipad.


Thanks in advance!

 

[AQ_OC]

Is there a reason you can't just keep the old laptop? It is certainly cost effective.

 

[giradman]

Hi Wayne - welcome to the forum!

I'll try to address a few of your questions - first, if you have an external HD that has only a USB connection, then this device cannot be attached to a 'stock' iPad (a 'jailbroken' one is another question - mine is not so cannot comment). Second, the CCK (camera connection kit) will accept a SD card, attach to the iPad, and import images from the card. Finally, using a 'cloud storage' option & Wi-Fi (e.g. iCloud, Dropbox, PhotoSync, etc.) will permit transfer of images to & from the iPad.

Now w/o a computer, your question concerning transfer of images from the SD card to your current HD is not easily answered; as stated, you can get images onto the iPad w/ the CCK and then using Wi-Fi store the pics 'in the cloud', but you would need a Wi-Fi enabled HD, such as the Seagate GoFlex to retrieve the images - I'll stop here now and hope others may offer suggestions - good luck!

 

[Gabriel1]

Hi Wayne - welcome to the forum!

I'll try to address a few of your questions - first, if you have an external HD that has only a USB connection, then this device cannot be attached to a 'stock' iPad (a 'jailbroken' one is another question - mine is not so cannot comment). Second, the CCK (camera connection kit) will accept a SD card, attach to the iPad, and import images from the card. Finally, using a 'cloud storage' option & Wi-Fi (e.g. iCloud, Dropbox, PhotoSync, etc.) will permit transfer of images to & from the iPad.

Now w/o a computer, your question concerning transfer of images from the SD card to your current HD is not easily answered; as stated, you can get images onto the iPad w/ the CCK and then using Wi-Fi store the pics 'in the cloud', but you would need a Wi-Fi enabled HD, such as the Seagate GoFlex to retrieve the images - I'll stop here now and hope others may offer suggestions - good luck!

Just to add, there is a product called CloudFTP (I think it's name has been changed to CloudUSB but it's the same device) which will allow you to connect a USB HD wirelessly......and although I haven't tried it, I understand that if your camera has a USB lead you can connect directly to it with an iPad using CloudFTP.

The Archangel

 

[keeverw]

Ok, thanks for the responses!

The reason I am getting the ipad is because my wife's laptop is about 7 years old and it's on it's last leg. And she is not going to want to use a pad and a laptop.
I will just buy her a new laptop if I have to, but I was hoping an ipad would do the job. The only thing she does with the laptop is email, facebook, and uploading pictures to shutterfly.
So if I can figure out a way to make that last item work, I think she would prefer an ipad over a new laptop.

I am not against buying a wifi hard drive, or a hard drive with ethernet that I could plug into my router.
I'd rather not have to do that, but I will if necessary.

My current hard drive is just usb.
And it's fairly new.

I will always have a laptop, because I use mine for stuff that no tablet can currently do.
So if I have to I can get a network harddrive, and just load the files from her SDcard to the network drive with my laptop.

But the question is, from a network harddrive can she access those file from her ipad via wifi, and more than just view the pictures, can she actually upload those pictures via a shutterfly app or whatever, directly from the network drive, without having to move them to the ipad first?

 

[Gabriel1]

Ok, thanks for the responses!

The reason I am getting the ipad is because my wife's laptop is about 7 years old and it's on it's last leg. And she is not going to want to use a pad and a laptop.
I will just buy her a new laptop if I have to, but I was hoping an ipad would do the job. The only thing she does with the laptop is email, facebook, and uploading pictures to shutterfly.
So if I can figure out a way to make that last item work, I think she would prefer an ipad over a new laptop.

I am not against buying a wifi hard drive, or a hard drive with ethernet that I could plug into my router.
I'd rather not have to do that, but I will if necessary.

My current hard drive is just usb.
And it's fairly new.

I will always have a laptop, because I use mine for stuff that no tablet can currently do.
So if I have to I can get a network harddrive, and just load the files from her SDcard to the network drive with my laptop.

But the question is, from a network harddrive can she access those file from her ipad via wifi, and more than just view the pictures, can she actually upload those pictures via a shutterfly app or whatever, directly from the network drive, without having to move them to the ipad first?

I'm not sure if this helps but I have a NAS Drive which I can upload and download photos with over wifi. Reading the Shutterfly App details it says that you can upload and download so it appears that you can do what you want. I believe Airstash will allow you to connect your SD card wirelessly but this isn't something that I have so others would need to chime in here.....

The Archangel

 

[keeverw]

I'm not sure if this helps but I have a NAS Drive which I can upload and download photos with over wifi. Reading the Shutterfly App details it says that you can upload and download so it appears that you can do what you want. I believe Airstash will allow you to connect your SD card wirelessly but this isn't something that I have so others would need to chime in here.....

The Archangel

Thanks.

Getting an SD card connected to the ipad isn't really a problem, a coworker of mine showed me this adapter he had that works perfectly for that.
But let's say I've got 25GB of pictures on an SD card and I want to transfer them all to my network drive. I can't copy them to the iPad and then to the network drive, because there probably won't be enough room on the ipad, to even temporarily store them.

I know the shutterfly app can upload pictures stored on the iPad, but can it upload pictures stored on a network drive connected to the same network as the ipad?

 

[Gabriel1]

Thanks.

Getting an SD card connected to the ipad isn't really a problem, a coworker of mine showed me this adapter he had that works perfectly for that.
But let's say I've got 25GB of pictures on an SD card and I want to transfer them all to my network drive. I can't copy them to the iPad and then to the network drive, because there probably won't be enough room on the ipad, to even temporarily store them.

I know the shutterfly app can upload pictures stored on the iPad, but can it upload pictures stored on a network drive connected to the same network as the ipad?

I can't help with that I'm afraid but.....hopefully someone else can or there is an email address in the App description which might help......



The Archangel

 

[keeverw]

Thanks for the email address. I just emailed them.
I'll see what they say. You're right that they would probably be the ones to ask.

 

[AQ_OC]

I'm not sure if this helps but I have a NAS Drive which I can upload and download photos with over wifi. Reading the Shutterfly App details it says that you can upload and download so it appears that you can do what you want. I believe Airstash will allow you to connect your SD card wirelessly but this isn't something that I have so others would need to chime in here.....

The Archangel

I can't address it either since I don't know what the Shutterfly app can do. These are a set of very tight specs and thus without directly knowledge it will be hard to recommend anything.

 

[Gabriel1]

Thanks for the email address. I just emailed them.
I'll see what they say. You're right that they would probably be the ones to ask.

Let us know what the answer is as I'm sure it will be useful to others and also I'm interested to know if you can find the solution that you are looking for.

The Archangel

 

[AQ_OC]

Thanks.

Getting an SD card connected to the ipad isn't really a problem, a coworker of mine showed me this adapter he had that works perfectly for that.
But let's say I've got 25GB of pictures on an SD card and I want to transfer them all to my network drive. I can't copy them to the iPad and then to the network drive, because there probably won't be enough room on the ipad, to even temporarily store them.

I know the shutterfly app can upload pictures stored on the iPad, but can it upload pictures stored on a network drive connected to the same network as the ipad?

There can be space if you want there to be space. Get the 64GB model and keep space open on the device to bring in photos. Then, get something like Airstash, Goflex, etc,. The airstash will let you insert an SD card...then the AirStash app will let you bring those in to iPad and store in the camera roll....then you can use the Shutterfly app to upload to the site from the camera roll. I tested this for two photos stored on my Air Stash and it worked file, I'm not sure how it works for bulk uploads, since I really don't want to do that. So, it will work, but how well it works on 25GB of photos is another story. That is a lot of files to move around.

 

[keeverw]

There can be space if you want there to be space. Get the 64GB model and keep space open on the device to bring in photos. Then, get something like Airstash, Goflex, etc,. The airstash will let you insert an SD card...then the AirStash app will let you bring those in to iPad and store in the camera roll....then you can use the Shutterfly app to upload to the site from the camera roll. I tested this for two photos stored on my Air Stash and it worked file, I'm not sure how it works for bulk uploads, since I really don't want to do that. So, it will work, but how well it works on 25GB of photos is another story. That is a lot of files to move around.

Shutterfly replied to my email, but their answer was generic, and didn't answer my question. I emailed them back. We'll see what they say.


If I understand you correctly, Airstash basically converts your SDcard to a wifi drive you can access from the ipad, right?
If so, I don't have a need for that. My coworker showed me an adapter he is using, like the one shown here:
Amazon.com: 2 in 1 Camera Connection Kit for Apple iPad - USB Adapter & SD Card Reader: ElectronicsSo getting picture files from my camera to my ipad is not really the issue.
Even if I go the route you are talking about, I can't permanently store them on my ipad. She already has about 150Gb of pictures and videos. And I'd like to have them backed up on a hard drive.
They will be uploaded to shutterfly as well, so that takes care of having them backed up online and also on a physical drive.

25Gb was an exaggeration. The most she would ever copy at one time and upload would be about 5 or 6 Gb.
But even so, if I take my adapter which I linked above, and copy 6Gb of pictures and videos to her ipad. Then I would have to have a wifi hard drive as well, and connect to it, and copy the pix there for backup purposes.
Then upload them from the ipad to shutterfly. Then delete them from the ipad to free up room for next time. If she wants to look at her pictures on the ipad, she can connect to the wifi hard drive or just open the shutterfly app, and look at them from there.

That is a pain. Much moreso than how she is doing it now.
I'm not sure she'll go for that. Which means I won't have an ipad to play with when she's not using it. :-(

Right now, she plugs the SDcard into the laptop (the external hard drive is always plugged in), and copies the files directly from the SD to the external HD.
Then she opens her Shutterfly upload program, and selects the new pix, and hits start. Boom, she's done.
It sux that it can't be that simple on an iPad. And I'm not picking on iPad, because it's probably not any easier on other tablets.

 

[Somerled]

Why not look at a MacBook Air or lower end MacBook Pro?

 

[AQ_OC]

Shutterfly replied to my email, but their answer was generic, and didn't answer my question. I emailed them back. We'll see what they say.


If I understand you correctly, Airstash basically converts your SDcard to a wifi drive you can access from the ipad, right?
If so, I don't have a need for that. My coworker showed me an adapter he is using, like the one shown here:
Amazon.com: 2 in 1 Camera Connection Kit for Apple iPad - USB Adapter & SD Card Reader: ElectronicsSo getting picture files from my camera to my ipad is not really the issue.
Even if I go the route you are talking about, I can't permanently store them on my ipad. She already has about 150Gb of pictures and videos. And I'd like to have them backed up on a hard drive.
They will be uploaded to shutterfly as well, so that takes care of having them backed up online and also on a physical drive.

25Gb was an exaggeration. The most she would ever copy at one time and upload would be about 5 or 6 Gb.
But even so, if I take my adapter which I linked above, and copy 6Gb of pictures and videos to her ipad. Then I would have to have a wifi hard drive as well, and connect to it, and copy the pix there for backup purposes.
Then upload them from the ipad to shutterfly. Then delete them from the ipad to free up room for next time. If she wants to look at her pictures on the ipad, she can connect to the wifi hard drive or just open the shutterfly app, and look at them from there.

That is a pain. Much moreso than how she is doing it now.
I'm not sure she'll go for that. Which means I won't have an ipad to play with when she's not using it. :-(

Right now, she plugs the SDcard into the laptop (the external hard drive is always plugged in), and copies the files directly from the SD to the external HD.
Then she opens her Shutterfly upload program, and selects the new pix, and hits start. Boom, she's done.
It sux that it can't be that simple on an iPad. And I'm not picking on iPad, because it's probably not any easier on other tablets.

I have an Android tablet that I can plug an external hard drive into. It has a usb port that supports hard drives. I don't know if the shutterfly app is on Android, though. The point it it can be done on a tablet.

That 2-in-1 connector only works for 30 pin connectors...that is about to be history...you'll need either an iPad 2 or a refurb ipad 3 to use it, after about yesterday. But I don't think this option makes sense for you.