I thought this might be interesting for some of you …
There’s an article on PetaPixel about a DIY travel photo backup solution using a Raspberry Pi and a bash script. After booting the Pi, the script is run and waits for a source (camera or card reader) and a backup drive to be plugged into the USB ports. The it copies the files from the source over to the backup. If done, the Pi is shut down.
I had a similar idea in my mind for quite a while but never had the time to actually do it. I thought about even more features, such as a configurable redundancy (if the source is plugged in a second time, it would copy over old files only if the destination does not already hold the files, but only up to a certain number of copies) and source and destination tracking (e.g. having all files in a data base, with their redundancy count and additional metadata, and copies of the database on all destinations), optional checksum calculation, unique file identifiers that are fast to calculate (e.g. a metadata checksum) etc.
The Raspberry Pi Zero could have been the optimal device if it would feature 2 USB ports. Unfortunately, you need an additional USB hub, which increases power consumption and decreases speed.
You can find more information about the software here.
My camera has two SD card slots, which I shoot mirrored and use cards from different manufacturers. If I’m traveling abroad, I will have a laptop, which will hold a copy, and if there is internet, upload them.
When boarding a flight, I try to keep a copy in my carry on and a copy in my checked bag.
All of this is over kill, and I’ve never worn out a memory device that I only used in my camera, but memory is cheap now and I have less time than ever.
@paperdigits, I am doing about the same, trying to have a redundancy of at least 3 to 4 (the maximum is 2 backup drives plus notebook computer plus memory card). When I travel by car I leave one drive in the car and one I have with me, and the notebook stays in the hotel.
However, to copy all those files around every evening is extremely time consuming, and a proper RasPi solution sounds reasonable. Especially, my wife is not that amused about me taking the computer out of the bag every evening, and the RasPi I could just plug in and leave until it is done, maybe exchanging the drives from time to time.
The appliance like functionality is quite nice. The script linked is pretty simple (make sure you plug the camera card in first). Also that USB hat is great.
