I actually bought an Archos mini Gmini 400 as a MP3/movie player which has a compact flash card reader built in (now I just use it as portbale hard drive for photos). Only problem was once when I filled the hard drive up to full capacity a few files got corrupted. There are cheaper alternatives but the idea is a good one especially if you are going on a trip, you can transfer files on the hoof as well.

Unless you have pocket fulls of 2 GB cards and obviously a laptop and CD/DVD burner is safer but a darn site more bulky.

I would recommend something with a colour screen so you can see if the files are really there, if you could move the files about that would be good as the screen won't show you any faults but you will get an idea of how the thumbnail is going to look.

I have a cheap portable storage device (PSD).  It has two buttons (on/off and copy).  The screen only tells battery status, HD remaining and shows status of the copy. 

It is very handy when travelling but I am always scared that the photos ahven't copied (never happened though).

It is a 40gig version and I have used it up to 10gig a on a couple of trips.  I only have 1 1g card (and a small backup) so I just copy the card each night and go out with a new card in the morning. It takes about 10 minutes but I shower for twice as loong as this normally so it is never an issue for me, though if I filled a card within a day, I would have to go have a coffee while it did its job.  I would never use it while moving as the HD is spinning, there would be a chance of corruption.

At the time I bought, it was the cost of a 1gig card so I though it was more effective than buying lots of compact flash.

Not sure if any of these new fangled devices takes AA batteries or equilavent (I doubt it), the best you can hope for is to buy one of their batteries. I know most portbable MP3 players with hard drives have theri own Li-Ion battery which is sealed inside the unit which is susceptible to the memory effect (less power each time you charge) and really useful where you are in the middle of nowhere with no power sockets about.

A colour LCD will eat the batteries but obviously writing to a hard disc won't help.

So where are you going on your grand trip? How long for? Who will look after the forum in your absence?

I read good reviews for the hyperdrive when I was looking as it is very quick (2min per gig compared to my 8min per gig).  I couldn 't find it in teh UK though so when for an easier option.

Leaf Did you ever get a portable hard drive for your photos? As I may need one of these myself.

I quite liked the sound of the Wolverine 60GB for $350 though I noticed from the specs if you wrote 20GB to the harddrive it would drain the battery in one go so sounds like you better be plugged in at the end of the day for file transfers.