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I need a solution preferable mobile (or very compact) to duplicate or copy the entire contents of an memory card (as many formats as possible).

The ideal solution would be a portable HD that can except multiple formats that has a single button to copy all data to the HD.

Here is my original blog post with some background.

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In addition to warren's concerns about guest queueing, at what point in the proceedings will you be copying photos?

People will be snapping photos every few minutes, so unless you want to do a full copy just before each camera-weilding guest leaves you may need to keep a record of what was on the card previously and what is on it now, then doing a copy of anything new.

This could solve the problem of copying old content if guests check-in with your system as they arrive. During check-in just take a file listing, then the guests can update whenever they feel like it, and you won't need to worry about copying their nude / holiday / trainspotting photos.

This approach could introduce the problem of too many visits, but would establish an 'almost-live' sort of feel if you're going with the one-the-day slideshow idea.

On the whole, I'm not sure if the software exists to manage the process fromm start to finish - but it sounds like a good idea to write it.

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You can find things like this to use. That one is discontinued but I know some are still around. They are really expensive, though, and you probably can't automate using the photos in a slideshow or that sort of thing. You could have a notebook or desktop with card reader, and a program that will prompt the user to click a button to download the photos and then tell them when to remove the card. I'm sure iPhoto or Picasa can be used in such a way. If a person connects their card multiple times, you may have duplicates depending on the software. Of course the software has to support all formats, including video, that you want to be able to transfer.

As for the projector idea in the linked-to blog, I have no idea how you could do that without constantly looking through the pictures.

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The only problem I see with your question is that determining the proper order for photos could be difficult - certainly the native import of iPhoto or Picasa or similar will put them in chronological order, but that will depend on the time of the camera.

If you just wanted to image the card from one to another, I'd've said to use dd for a block-by-block perfect copy.

Also consider that some folks (myself included) don't always delete pictures from our SD cards. I have photos on there going back a couple years in some cases - and you wouldn't want to grab those in addition to the ones you want.

How many cameras will there be at the wedding? If it's more than a handful, just queueing the guests to copy the 100 memory cards is going to be a drag. Maybe it would be easier to ask that all of the guests please email the photos to you afterwards? Or to create an online album with Flickr or Picasa or somewhere that the guests can add photos to?

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I'd suggest using a netbook, and picking up a usb card reader adapter if the netbook lacks built in card reading. It won't be one touch, but drag and drop isn't that much harder. It also might not be that hard to create a script that will automatically do the copy and keep things unique by creating a directory based on the time.

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