Is it advisable? Transfer from CF card straight to an external HD?
 

Hi,

recently, a photographer friend of mine pointed that it is not advisable to transfer files from
CF card, straight to an external hard drive.

Is this true?Or is this method advisable?

I transfer all of my RED 8gb cf cards directly to an external hard drive - kind of... it's a Colorspace Hyperdrive. It does verification of transfer at the same time.

When I get back from a shoot the first thing I do is copy files from CF card or SDHC card (7D and T2i cameras) to two different 2 TB external drives. After verifying as best I can that the files are viewable with VLC, then I start reviewing and renaming (to something that will mean something to me in the editing process) the files, while doing this the original files are still left on the cards. When finished with review and renaming I then copy those from one of the externals to the C: drive where I will begin the editing process.

The two 2TB external drives insure I have copies of the camera files in two different places once I reformat the camera media cards.

I transfer directly from the 16 gig CF card to an external hard drive. Then I play each clip from the hard drive and junk those that are not wanted. I don't want any of these to clutter my PC hard drive. Then I format the card. About once a month I back up to another external hard drive, but should do it weekly. I've been doing this with large photo files for years without a problem.