Installing external (usb) hard drive on Jaunty machine

[jakeyboy]

Okay, I fully intend purchasing an external hard drive for storage/backup purposes. My problem is that I don't have any recommendations as to which make/model of drive would be compatible with Kubuntu, and don't want to end up wasting money. Also, I intend to buy upwards of 500 gb, is there anything I should know about formatting etc, before I go ahead? Bear in mind that I am in the UK, and intend buying online from the UK! Any help or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance....................

[josefko]

Re: Installing external (usb) hard drive on Jaunty machine

I have IOmega 2,5" 250 GB with NTFS and WD Passport 2,5" 160 GB with two partitions Ext2.

I think all sizes of usb external drives will be ok with kubuntu jaunty, but I didn't prove it.
You can use drive formatted with NTFS, if you do not need it for backup the whole system.
You can make more partitions with different file systems.
You must decide if you want 2.5" (smaller, without power box) or 3,5" (cheaper).
For 2,5" i would recommend type with two sockets.
Updated:
Its not like web cameras, you do not need to chose something special, I think all USB disks are suitable for Linux.

[rodh]

Re: Installing external (usb) hard drive on Jaunty machine

I have a WD 320g sata in a BYTE external case, works and have never had a problem mounting it even through all the upgrades and re-installs. 6.06 to 9.04

[The Liquidator]

Re: Installing external (usb) hard drive on Jaunty machine

I have an Iomega 500Gb USB drive which I have carved up into 2 partitions (Ext3 and FAT) so my Windows-using offspring can use it too.

I think that it's pretty likely that a disk would have to be fairly exotic nowadays for it not to be detected by 'buntu.

[Telengard]

Re: Installing external (usb) hard drive on Jaunty machine

Any USB hard disk should work with Kubuntu.

I have a Seagate 500 GB drive that has been working great for over a year. Most Seagate drives come with a 5 year warranty, so that was the selling point for me.

The drive you buy will probably be formatted with one large NTFS partition. It will probably come with some Windows backup software you don't need (Kubuntu has Keep.) The owners manual will probably be in a PDF file on the drive itself. You may want to make a copy of the manual somewhere else.

You can keep the single large NTFS partition, or resize it, or replace it with one or more Linux native partitions. EXT3 is a good choice, but you can (theoretically) get better performance by making several smaller EXT2 partitions. My drive has three NTFS partitions and one EXT3 partition.

If you decide to make multiple partitions you should think carefully about how they will be used. Disk contention becomes an issue when moving multi-gigabyte files from one filesystem to another on the same physical disk.

[jakeyboy]

Re: Installing external (usb) hard drive on Jaunty machine[Solved]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll go ahead and select a drive now that I feel a little more confident. Thanks to all!!.....