Review - Nexto DI Extreme ND-2700 Portable Storage (long term)

There are plenty of reviews available online for this little device, but I wanted to do a quick write-up after having owned one for well over a year.  If you don't know what you're looking at, this is basically a Portable Storage Device, digital backup, CF or SD card reader, etc.  It allows you to backup your Compact Flash (CF) or Secure Digital (SD) cards to a hard drive or SSD in the unit.  It's meant to be used as a backup device in case you destroy/lose your CF/SD cards or somehow the data becomes corrupt.


I bought the Nexto ND-2700 back in October 2008.  I initially installed a 320GB drive, but once I began using it for other than backing up my CF cards, I ended up replacing the drive with a 500GB.  I use the device as an external drive for sharing files as well as my photo backup device in the field.


I mainly use the USB 2.0 interface, although it also has a eSata connection available.  The device only has one button, which is used in different ways (short, long, double) to communicate functions to the device.  The tiny LCD screen is just enough to see what you are doing.  You can also browse your files (file structure) using the screen, but it's a royal pain when using the one button.  I've never really had to do this though.  Once you insert a card, the device will prompt you if you'd like to 'move' or copy the files.  I always 'copy', since I'd hate to have a disaster happen during a 'move' and lose some or all of my data.  Once all files are copied, you're prompted to remove the card and the device turns itself off.  If you insert the same card again, but with additional photos/files, it will prompt you to just move the additional data, or all of it again.  This is a nice feature, since you can backup a card midway during usage.  There have been plenty of times where I had some time between shooting and I removed the card from my camera, backed up all the data to the Nexto and then used the same card to shoot more images.  Also, one key thing is to keep your photos on both, the CF/SD cards as well as on the Nexto until you get home and back them up to your home system.  That way if anything goes wrong with either the cards or the Nexto/Harddrive, you're covered.


I've yet to have a problem with this device after owning it for well over a year.  The battery still runs strong.  I just ran a test with a full 8GB card (raw NEF files) and was able to copy it a full 6 times (each running about 8min 10sec).  On the 7th time it failed after about 3min 35sec.  That's well over 48GB on a full battery charge (of a 1 year old device).  Not too bad in my opinion.


I originally went with Nexto, because it was one of the most reasonable devices available and without the frills and thrills that raise the price of a device, drain batteries, or usually end up breaking anyway.  I'm glad I ended up with this device.  The only thing I don't understand is the color.  Metallic gold?  Oh well, can't have it all I guess.  :)