External Hard Drive Backup (IEEE 1394), Max Backups?

[TwistedLincoln]

On page 84 of the HVX200 user manual, there is a statement reading "you can carry out copying up to 15 times to one HDD." Does this mean one can only copy a P2 card (or a series of cards) to the same hard drive 15 times before needing a different drive, even if space remains on the drive?

The ability to use an external firewire enclosure to dump the contents of the P2 card would make the small capacity the cards provide no big deal to me. But the way I understand it, the camera creates a new partition each time you copy a card. So if the card isn't completely full when you start the copy, and you're limited to 15 times per drive... then it seems like the enclosure wouldn't be that useful. At the very least, it makes the 8gb cards seem more compelling...

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

[Barry_Green]

No, you've pretty much got all the light. That's how it works. It allocates a new partition per card, with a max of 15 partitions possible. So if you're using 4GB cards, that means that the camera can control and allocate a max of 60 gigs. If you're using 8gb cards, it could control and allocate 120 gigs.

But if you go through USB On The Go, you could use the entire contents of the drive. I just haven't found a really fast USB-OTG enclosure yet.

 

[bgundu]

hmmm. That probably explains why the P2 Store is only 60GB. That's too bad about the partition limitation. How hard would it be for Pana to improve on this in the future?