schwartz wrote:
I'm thinking of buying an external USB hard drive for my Linux desktop. I'm concerned that these USB drives might be non-generic, somehow dependent on XP/Vesta or have fixed file systems ( NTFS or FAT36 ) or just slow. Are any of the above an issue, or do they do a reasonable job. I just want to use one for storage, not to run an OS on. Best Buy has a SimpleTech 1 TB for $150. Future Shop has Comstar One-touch 1 TB for $150. I don't think my BIOS can handle 1 TB drives but for that price I'm temped anyway. Any information would be most appreciated.
I'm going to agree with the others at this point. I have two external drives. One on the PC (formatted with three partitions) and one on the Mac. The older one has held up for at least two and a half years with no problems. It takes at most 20 minutes to set up a blank unit.
There is additional information in addition to my saying "Me too". I went out and picked up the box separate from the drive. The box is around $50 depending on what type of drive you're planning to put in it and where you pick it up. It may have dropped in price since I last picked one up. This approach has the advantage of being able to put in a stable drive.
So at this point one has to ask the questions... What drives are stable at the moment? How are the current larger capacity drives (> 1TB)? If the drive is to sit at home... Would a NAS setup suit you better?
Later Mike