neddie Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 (edited) I've got a dual-boot laptop and so I've got a mixture of partitions on my internal hard drive - NTFS for the XP and ext3 for the Mandriva side. Plus I've got a small FAT32 partition so that I can transfer stuff from one to the other etc. Now I'm thinking of getting an external hard drive to get more storage space, to use for backups and store stuff from CDs. The question is, should I do the same with the partitions, make it mostly ext3 and then just provide a smaller, Windows-accessible partition so that I can hook it up to a Windows machine if need be? I'm guessing FAT32 for that. Or is there a better way? The other question then arises, would it be possible to boot off one of the partitions on this external drive, or would that require too much mucking about? I'm thinking that with all that extra space it might be nice to just install another test distro on this drive, so that I can play with it and see how it works without having to repartition my internal hard drive. Would it be tricky to persuade my lilo to boot from this external drive, and would lilo then complain when I boot without the external drive being attached? Also, how tricky would it be to persuade a Windows-only PC to then boot from this external drive (without installing a bootloader), is that even supported normally or would you maybe have to boot from a live CD and then tell it to mount the external drive and boot from that? Is that even possible? Edited April 25, 2007 by neddie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 It's easy to boot from a USB drive, as long as the computers BIOS supports it. It's treated no differently than booting from a CD or hard drive, you just have to setup the BIOS properly. Also note that Windows will not boot from a USB device, but Linux won't complain one bit. You will need a boot loader installed on the USB drive, but you won't need a boot loader on the machine, as long as you can access the BIOS or the BIOS is already set up to detect USB drives and allow you to boot from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 Any ideas on brands to look out for / avoid? Some names appearing here include "Vantec NexStar", "LaCie" and "Mevis", but none of those mean anything to me. There seems to be a large range in prices but I'm not sure if the more expensive ones are actually better quality or just come with unnecessary extra features (like multi-Firewire interfaces, super-duper-access times, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 I have a Vantec and an Apricorn branded external drive, both have run well (the Vantec is just an enclosure, it does not include a hard drive - you have to buy it separately. What for this). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scythe Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 You could always try ntfs-3g if you don't want to use up space with the FAT32 partition. If I were you, I'd probably buy an enclosure and a hard drive separate. That way you can control the quality of drive you choose for the external (personally I prefer Seagates - newer models have a 5 year warranty). Check Newegg. You can read reviews for the enclosures and whatnot. If you do go this route, make sure you get an enclosure with the right connectors (eg. if you get a SATA drive, get a SATA enclosure). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 Also make sure it's the right size drive for the enclosure (3.5 in. vs. whatever the laptop size drive is) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 I just went to the shop to ask their advice, and they basically said that they can't guarantee that any of the drives they sell will work with Linux (I never even thought it would be an issue) and that if it didn't work and I brought it back to them, they'd have to deduct some fee for returning opened goods. So basically I need to do a bit of searching around for compatibility first. Weird, I thought a USB drive was just a USB drive. The guy even said that one particular brand, LaCie, is "guaranteed, 100% not to work in Linux". He also suggested buying a separate enclosure and drive, and then make sure the enclosure is compatible with Linux, and make sure the drive is compatible with the enclosure. Sigh. PS/ Don't care what the size of the laptop drive is, my laptop drive is staying internal anyway - I just want an external drive and don't much care whether it's 2.5 or 3.5 inches. I'd much prefer no extra power supply though - just USB cable. PPS/ Yes these Vantec things have definitely got drives inside, well they quote GB and rpm and access times so I'm pretty sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mhn Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 The guy even said that one particular brand, LaCie, is "guaranteed, 100% not to work in Linux".My dad have a 100GB LaCie that works out-of-the-box with linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 I just went to the shop to ask their advice, and they basically said that they can't guarantee that any of the drives they sell will work with Linux (I never even thought it would be an issue) and that if it didn't work and I brought it back to them, they'd have to deduct some fee for returning opened goods.This is standard practice with anything regarding Linux at most computer shops. They don't want to support it, so they give you some crap about "we can't guarantee anything". I have never heard of a USB drive that didn't work with Linux. That being said, there could be the odd drive that doesn't work, but I highly doubt it. PS/ Don't care what the size of the laptop drive is, my laptop drive is staying internal anyway - I just want an external drive and don't much care whether it's 2.5 or 3.5 inches. I'd much prefer no extra power supply though - just USB cable.I only advised that if you decide to go the route of buying an enclosure and then purchasing you're own drive. PPS/ Yes these Vantec things have definitely got drives inside, well they quote GB and rpm and access times so I'm pretty sure!Some do, some don't. Mine didn't (I purposely purchased an enclosure with no drive). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scythe Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 If you want an external that doesn't need anything but a USB cord, you might try this one. My friend has one similar (I think it might be 60GB) and it works fine. He doesn't run Linux, but I can see no reason that it wouldnt' work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 My dad has a 100GB LaCie that works out-of-the-box with linux.Aha, so the guarantee isn't quite 100% then! Thanks for all the advice, I'll have a look out for that WesternDigital one in the shops here, otherwise I'm tempted by the Vantec ones, as the reviews of the enclosures sound reassuring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 LaCie is well known being Linux friendly, and even actively sponsoring a major Linux project- namely K3B. Other than that, "the guy" was pretty accurate in his description... :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scythe Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 You'll be hard pressed to find a better price for an external than on Newegg. Of course, with the shipping to Zurich, maybe it is cheaper getting it at a store; I don't know. Maybe off-topic, but you ever notice how most workers at computer stores know next to nothing about Linux? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neddie Posted April 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 Maybe, but: Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico. Maybe off-topic, but you ever notice how most workers at computer stores know next to nothing about Linux?Well this guy certainly seemed to know what Linux was and that the chipset of the enclosure has to be Linux compatible, maybe he was misguided with his conclusions about LaCie but he was the one who asked me whether I had Windows or not, rather than just assuming that I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironfighter Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 I think this chap can answer all your questions and tell you how to do it - http://biohackery.com/node/4#howto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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