External USB hard drive enclosure [Mandrake]

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From: Jim on 21 Feb 2006 21:11

Doing Google research regarding external hard drive enclosures.

Seems they have some form of controller that can be
problematic with various OS's. I was under the impression
these were simply boxes with wiring adapters like the
removable RAID adapters sold a few years back. At Newegg I
see many that specify either MS or MAC, only one said Linux
compatible.

I'm using Mandriva 2006 with an AMD-64 MSI motherboard. Is
there a compatability concern or might this be a non-issue?

Finally, any basic recommendations on what to look for or to
avoid?

From: Cliff Hewitt on 21 Feb 2006 22:30

Jim wrote:
> Doing Google research regarding external hard drive enclosures.
>
> Seems they have some form of controller that can be problematic with
> various OS's. I was under the impression these were simply boxes with
> wiring adapters like the removable RAID adapters sold a few years back.
> At Newegg I see many that specify either MS or MAC, only one said Linux
> compatible.
>
> I'm using Mandriva 2006 with an AMD-64 MSI motherboard. Is there a
> compatability concern or might this be a non-issue?
>
> Finally, any basic recommendations on what to look for or to avoid?
>
>

Hey Jim,

I have had experience with several different external enclosures. So
far, I haven't noticed any problems with specific operating systems.
Instead, what I've found is that the enclosure's hardware tells the
motherboard what its device is, and ideally the settings are transferred
to the motherboard with the enclosure simply acting as a proxy.

That being said, I will tell you that I have tried a variety of
enclosures for hard disks and DVD burners with varying degrees of
success. The most successful one I've used to date is my Kingwin 5.25"
enclosure, and at $36 it's relatively inexpensive. I've also had good
results with my Adaptec 3.5" hard disk enclosure that I had to buy at
Best Buy because of a "need it right away" type request. At $63, I wish
I could have waited, but whatever, it works properly.

When the settings of the hard disk are not transferred properly are when
things always got interesting for me. I had a Syba external 3.5" drive
enclosure that would tell whatever BIOS the device was plugged into that
the hard disk was 2 TB in size. The hard disk said 300 GB, so I knew
something wasn't quite right with the device. The 5.25" Syba external
enclosure worked perfectly, however. I opened the two to compare the
internals, and sure enough the major chipset was different.
Unfortunately, I don't remember the two manufacturers. For that hard
disk, the key was to have the drive partitioned using the 5.25"
enclosure, and then put the drive into the 3.5" enclosure. Every
computer I plugged the enclosure into reported 2 TB total, but since it
was partitioned properly, the remaining 1.7 GB didn't affect what I
needed to do with the hard disk.

Other differences among the enclosures is how they are powered, and
otherwise how the drive sits in the enclosure. I have to admit, I
really liked the way the Syba enclosures held the drives -- no screws,
very easy to set up, and quite secure, too. All of the external
enclosures I have bought had a dedicated power supply, too (except the
Firelite external hard drives, which are also very nice except for their
hard disk sizes). On the other hand, some of the enclosures require two
USB ports of your computer. One port will be used for power and data
transfer, and the other is just an extra required power source. USB
slots are a valuable commodity for me, so I prefer external power adapters.

Hope that helps,

Cliff Hewitt

P.S. I just bought another external enclosure today -- another Kingwin,
from zipzoomfly.com. I like free 2nd day delivery.

From: Dave Farrance on 22 Feb 2006 03:50

Jim <chief_jim(a)go.com> wrote:

>Seems they have some form of controller that can be
>problematic with various OS's. I was under the impression
>these were simply boxes with wiring adapters like the
>removable RAID adapters sold a few years back. At Newegg I
>see many that specify either MS or MAC, only one said Linux
>compatible.

The mass-storage specification for USB is one of the few aspects of USB
that seems consistent from one manufacturer to another. All of those
that implement the mass-storage spec correctly and don't have faults
should work with Linux.

They can be problematic with pre-2000 Windows or Mac operating systems
that don't have native support for the USB mass-storage and so in those
cases the manufacturers will provide drivers of varying quality. In the
case of Linux, it's easier to upgrade the OS.

You'll rarely see any device marked as Linux compatible, even if it is.

--
Dave Farrance

From: Jim on 22 Feb 2006 09:00

Dave Farrance wrote:
> Jim <chief_jim(a)go.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Seems they have some form of controller that can be problematic
>> with various OS's. I was under the impression these were simply
>> boxes with wiring adapters like the removable RAID adapters sold a
>> few years back. At Newegg I see many that specify either MS or
>> MAC, only one said Linux compatible.
>
>
> The mass-storage specification for USB is one of the few aspects of
> USB that seems consistent from one manufacturer to another. All of
> those that implement the mass-storage spec correctly and don't have
> faults should work with Linux.
>
> They can be problematic with pre-2000 Windows or Mac operating
> systems that don't have native support for the USB mass-storage and
> so in those cases the manufacturers will provide drivers of varying
> quality. In the case of Linux, it's easier to upgrade the OS.
>
> You'll rarely see any device marked as Linux compatible, even if it
> is.
>

Reading between the lines can I assume that my Mandriva 2006 shouldn't
have any difficulty?

--
ACC USN ret
NKX BIKF NAB CV-63 NIR
67-69 69-71 71-74 77-80 80-85
&
74-77

founder of newgroup - RAMN

From: Donald Tees on 22 Feb 2006 09:13

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