external drive
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From: user on 30 Mar 2008 15:39 Greetings I'm looking into a purchasing an external USB drive to put PCLinux OS on it and the use it with a different computer to boot from it. Should that be powered by USB or direct power is better ? What brand/model would you recommend ? Will I have troubles using it in Europe where power is 220V ? TIA Andy
From: Aragorn on 30 Mar 2008 20:25 user wrote: > Greetings > > I'm looking into a purchasing an external USB drive > to put PCLinux OS on it and the use it with a different computer > to boot from it. > Should that be powered by USB or direct power is better ? In theory, if the PSU in your system is adequate enough, this shouldn't really matter, but the ones I know of all do come with their own power supply. The advantage of having the device use a dedicated power supply means less strain on your computer's power supply during boot-up. > What brand/model would you recommend ? Most of them will do just fine, but I would recommend one that has two disks in RAID 1 configuration. It may be a little more expensive than a single disk unit, but at least your data are safe(r). I believe LaCie, among others, has such external storage systems. Some of those units also have drive swap bays and thermal monitors - much like on the better NAS units - that take regular SATA disks, which makes it easier to replace a broken disk and rebuild the array. > Will I have troubles using it in Europe where power is 220V ? I'm in Europe myself and all of the devices I know of, even the entry-level LaCie "Lego Brick" USB drive that I bought for my ex-fiancée - and she lives in South Africa, which also has ~220V - come with EU-approved power supplies, with the proper wall socket plug for your country. There will of course still and always be devices - for whatever the broader term of the word "devices" might be, ranging from cellphones to automobiles and beyond - that are available to the US market only and are thus geared to being used inside the US only, but thankfully manufacturers outside of the USA are aware of the existence of the rest of the world. ;-) -- Aragorn (registered GNU/Linux user #223157)
From: John Thompson on 30 Mar 2008 20:41 On 2008-03-30, user <unknown(a)unknown.com> wrote: > I'm looking into a purchasing an external USB drive > to put PCLinux OS on it and the use it with a different computer > to boot from it. > Should that be powered by USB or direct power is better ? Unless your host power supply has plenty of extra capacity I'd go with self-powered. The only compelling reason to go with bus-powered is if you have to use it where there is no access to line power, e.g. a laptop. But be aware that running a bus-powered drive from your laptop on battery power will discharge your laptop battery more rapidly. > What brand/model would you recommend ? I'd just buy a case and a hard drive and assemble it myself. It's generally cheaper that way, and the only things you miss out on are having the drive preformatted as NTFS and any bundled software. Neither of these are likely to be useful with linux -- you'd want a native linux filesystem instead of NTFS and the bundled software is likely Windows-only. > Will I have troubles using it in Europe where power is 220V ? If you're a North American planning on using it for occaissional trips overseas, just buy a power adapter. If you're a European planning on using it in Europe, just get the proper power supply for your locale in the first place. -- John (john(a)os2.dhs.org)
From: user on 1 Apr 2008 20:44 Thank you very much On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:41:19 -0500, John Thompson wrote: > On 2008-03-30, user <unknown(a)unknown.com> wrote: > >> I'm looking into a purchasing an external USB drive to put PCLinux OS >> on it and the use it with a different computer to boot from it. >> Should that be powered by USB or direct power is better ? > > Unless your host power supply has plenty of extra capacity I'd go with > self-powered. > > The only compelling reason to go with bus-powered is if you have to use > it where there is no access to line power, e.g. a laptop. But be aware > that running a bus-powered drive from your laptop on battery power will > discharge your laptop battery more rapidly. > >> What brand/model would you recommend ? > > I'd just buy a case and a hard drive and assemble it myself. It's > generally cheaper that way, and the only things you miss out on are > having the drive preformatted as NTFS and any bundled software. Neither > of these are likely to be useful with linux -- you'd want a native linux > filesystem instead of NTFS and the bundled software is likely > Windows-only. > >> Will I have troubles using it in Europe where power is 220V ? > > If you're a North American planning on using it for occaissional trips > overseas, just buy a power adapter. If you're a European planning on > using it in Europe, just get the proper power supply for your locale in > the first place.
From: user on 1 Apr 2008 20:47 On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:25:23 +0200, Aragorn wrote: > user wrote: > >> Greetings >> >> I'm looking into a purchasing an external USB drive to put PCLinux OS >> on it and the use it with a different computer to boot from it. >> Should that be powered by USB or direct power is better ? > > In theory, if the PSU in your system is adequate enough, this shouldn't > really matter, but the ones I know of all do come with their own power > supply. The advantage of having the device use a dedicated power supply > means less strain on your computer's power supply during boot-up. > Thank you Aragorn, glad to see you back here ! Take care Andy
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