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Fortress Portable Hard Drive |
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Protection for the Road Warrior!
It's been a killer week of shooting! I have over 141GB of images edited, filed, numbered (using DigitalPro of course) and ready to be added to my digital library back on the network. Up until this trip, I've used a couple of methods to cma to make sure my images got back to the office safely. While only "backups," still, if I ever had to access them because the main files were lost, damaged or stolen, the back up would be worthless if not done right. And how I dreaded the day I would ever have to hassle dealing with my make shift backups, getting their valuable contents onto the network. I'm glad that's now all in the past! My Dell (knock on wood) has never failed me, it has always gotten all my images back to the office safely. I worry more about things like my notebook being dropped at airport security or stolen from my hotel room and my hard earned images disappearing that way. I've always protected myself by backing up my files back onto the CompactFlash cards I shoot with. But lately, I've not had enough cards for all of my images. That's why when my good friend Vincent introduced me to the Fortress at our DLWS, I was instantly hooked. I couldn't wait to have one! What is the Fortress?The Fortress is a external, portable, secure hard drive incased inside a impenetrable casing that can sustain an impact from being dropped from 6 FEET! The way the Fortress was introduced to me was by Vincent acting like he was handing it to me, and then dropping it, on purpose, onto the floor. He then picked it up and dropped it again. He then offered to go outside and drop it on the sidewalk just in case I wasn't getting his point. I got the point! The outer shell of the Fortress is constructed of Aluminum Alloy 6061-T6 (aircraft grade) that is milled out to house the hard drive. To quote Duncan, the creator and manufacture of the Fortress, "Shock Dampening: Patented Visco-Elastic Dynamic Dampening System Shock Resistance: Drive assembly will withstand a non-operating impact from a drop-height of 72.00 inches (1.83 meters) onto concrete." Why the Fortress?Why is this really important, having a hard drive you can drop? If for a moment you consider how vulnerable external hard drives really are (just look at Microdrives), you quickly see why having one you can drop is important. As you read on and see how I use my Fortress, you'll see why it's a necessity. Everyone doesn't shoot as many images as I do on project, nor travel through airports, take their notebooks camping or up to the Arctic in winter. Be that as it may, if you've got just one digital image that is important to you, you need to make sure it gets back safely no matter the cost. There are many options for getting images back home safely, why go with the Fortress? One of the most common ways I see folks backing up their images is by burning CDs. Even worse, many photographers have to make room on their hard drives for more images they've captured by moving edited image off onto CDs. (I've seen many a photographer madly deleting music MP3 files and other "non-essential" programs just to make room for additional images. That's no way to go to work!) Your basic CD-r holds only 700MB or 538 images (FINE mode, avg 1.3MB pr image). When returning with 8461 images, that's 16 CDs. The real torquer is getting back and having to load your images from those 16 CDs onto the network. I don't know about you, but I don't have much patience and even less time to be messing with such things! The smallest Fortress, is 20GB, or can hold over 15000 images! How the Fortress Saves TimeThe Fortress has become for me not just a means of getting my images back to the office safely, but part of my workflow! Typically, I travel back from a shot with the "original" digital files on the notebook hard drive with a "back up" on CompactFlash cards (using DigitalPro). When I get back to the office and the network, I hardwire the notebook into the network and start transferring images. To make sure there is no possibility of my screwing up the transfer process, I don't use either the workstation or notebook. While this safeguards my system, it kills my ability of multi tasking using the computers. That sucks! The Fortress though has really helped here because I can plug it directly into the network using the firewire and transfer the images without involving the notebook. Working this way, the notebook's "original" files now become the back up incase anything happens while transferring files from the Fortress to the network. But more importantly to me, the notebook is free for me to continue working. This safety net for my images only works in my mind if the notebook and Fortress do not travel back together. As I mentioned, my biggest fear is not the notebook crashing on me causing the loss of images, but rather, the notebook being damaged or stolen by the careless act of others. For this reason, I don't carry the Fortress in my briefcase with my notebook. I carry the Fortress right in my MP-1 bag. The Fortress fits perfectly right next to the barrel of the 600f4 where it rides all the time (cords are in the briefcase).
Being a Dell notebook owner, making use of firewire products is tenuous at best. For some reason, Dell decided to only install only a 4-pin firewire socket. This means there is no power flowing through the firewire cable to power the firwire device. To further complicate using firewire products, there is no power going through the PCMCIA socket either. You're dependant on the device having its own power some how in order to take advantage of firewire speed. Getting to my point, Fortress recognizes this problem and has not one, but three answers to the problem! (Darn cool!) You have a couple options of powering the Fortress when you have this firewire problem. The Fortress can be powered by plugging it into the wall using its AC adapter. Realizing this limitation to complete portability, Fortress incorporated other options. The Fortress comes with a custom power cord, one end plugging into the Fortress and the other end having a Y connector. You have the option of plugging one of the Y ends into either a USB or PS2 port to power the Fortress. This is so way cool! You can take advantage of firewire speed and the portability of the Fortress without requiring 120v to power the Fortress! You actually have another way of powering the Fortress and that's simply connecting the Fortress via USB 2.0 (of course if you have 6-pin firewire, you have power as well). The Fortress provides you dual connectivity, Firewire and USB 2.0, just another example of how well thought out the Fortress really is. To demonstrate more, here are some of it's specs:
Even the black rubber that looks like it's mere cosmetics is a special rubber product. It's an anti-skid material so you can't accidentally knock the Fortress off a surface (as if that would hurt it). You might think it would help keep the Fortress from vibrating off a surface, but the Fortress is vibration free which not only prevents it from walking on its own, but preserves the longevity of the drive! Even the sockets on the back of the Fortress are recessed so they can't get damaged or get in the way when traveling. I mean man &.this is one heck of a great, well thought out product! Not just for Backups!I've begun to use the Fortress for everyday business. How? Thanks for asking! More and more of my adventures require me to be gone from my office for longer and longer periods of time. Even though I'm out shooting, some business must continue on and does via email and the internet. Up to this point, easily taking on the road my files I've already captured and have safely on the network wasn't feasible. The Fortress with it's 60GB capacity permits me to take files with me on the road so I can continue to do business. Having a portion of my image library along permits me to be able to continue to make submissions, tapping into my image library when I'm not in the office. While this isn't important to all photographers, I know some who have been looking for this same ability. For the traveling business photographer, this is an easy way to bring your files with you! When you're ready to safeguard your new images, you can simply format the Fortress and load them up. It's a done deal!I had a participant once make the comment that he thought I was pretty stupid not "backing up" my files when I'm out shooting. Knowing computers and how they do tend to have a mind of their own, I was just asking for problems. What he didn't know was I was backing up my files, I just didn't make it public. Since I was constantly trying to solve the problem for myself, I never until now, had a clean, simple, efficient, safe and productive way of safe guarding my files to tell folks. Now it's easy to explain. I connect the Fortress, I open up DigitalPro and using the Travel & Return feature, copy all of my images to the Fortress. Just that simply, I'm following Webster's definition of a Fortress - a fortified place, to protect valuable interior with strengthened exterior. To buy your own or learn even more, head to www.4tress.com Fortress Technical Specs
Fortress reserves the right to change/modify any specification at any time. Product shot note: The photo at the top of the page is a composite of 3 photos. Two are obvious product shots of the Fortress that I took. The third is a single shot captured using a SB-80DX set to strobographic to captured the Fortress falling. The Fortress was dropped from a height of five feet over and over again to capture the perfect "dropped" sequence. And yes, the Fortress was loaded with images and after all the shots, the Fortress and its images were just fine! |
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Fortress - a fortified
place, to protect valuable interior with strengthened exterior.
So well thought out