External USB Drives

[R. G. Newbury]

>> >  On Wed, 2010-01-13 at 16:46 +0000, Jonathan Allen wrote:
>>> >>  Hi All,
>>> >>
>>> >>  I'd like to buy a 1.5Tb (or so) external USB disc drive to use for backup
>>> >>  from my main file server. ?Most of the ones I see around seem to say that
>>> >>  they want Wondiws something - is that necessary or meaningful? ?Should I
>>> >>  just be able to plug it in and use it? ?Do I need to partition and format
>>> >>  it, or will it just work?

If you are still looking for an external case, you should consider 
getting one that does eSATA as well as USB. You may or may not have a 
computer with an eSATA port, but you might in your next upgrade. And 
eSATA is MUCH faster than  plain USB 2.

Of course the NAS type box provides a lot more flexibility as it can 
live somewhere at the end of a network cable well away from your 
desktop. Nice if you want to hide your backup solution under the stairs 
or in a cupboard.
Geoff