On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 13:02:50 -0400 "Ryan Dagey" <[email protected]> wrote:
I can only describe my own experience which should not be considered definitive. I use Western Digital USB HDD's, 2 TB capacity, with great success on my Linux system. For this, one needs usb mass storage enabled in the kernel. Also, the USB drive needs to be partitioned and formatted as with any other HDD. The standard Linux tools will do these tasks. My only problem was with USB drives that were USB 3.0. A Seagte USB HDD (2TB) did not function as USB 2.0 on my Linux machine even though the specification says that it should. For this reason I switched to the WD drives which are USB 2.0 only. I have yet to gain experience with USB 3.0 drives on a capable motherboard using the Linux USB 3.0 driver. At first, I wanted to use USB HDD as a long term storage and archival medium, but I decided that Blu-Ray disks would be a better solution. At 128 Gb, BR 4-layer can be very useful. Even BR single layer, at 25 Gb is suitable for many kinds of data. Now my USB HDD's are used for long term but easy access storage, while Blu-Ray disks are kept in the back closet for archival purposes.
