CrunchBang Linux

cometa2k7

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2010-01-19

Posts: 26

External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

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If a door can be ajar, why can a jar not be adoor?

FiniteStateMachine

Part of the Machine

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2009-06-29

Posts: 1,489

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

I don't know what they mean by an EXT.PORT.

If the external harddrive is in an enclosure, it'll either go through USB,  eSATA or Firewire.
I believe all are supported, i can personally say i've had nothing but good experience with USB, and a mostly good experience with eSATA (though that was at 8.10, no doubt eSATA support is better now, even then i could do everything short of boot off the eSATA drive, and that was more of a BIOS problem).

achristoffersen

#! Junkie

Registered: 2009-03-23

Posts: 354

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

Don't know if this helps. BUT - I would be very suprised to find any harddrives that does not work with linux. However - some harddrives come preformattpet with NFTS for example. Then it will not natively work on linux (you need to install nfts). I just format with FAT - which all systems read.

E.g. my wd passport external harddrives come with crypto-functionality and other 'goodies' that extend the mere harddrive cabability. This is windows only and will not work on linux (or mac). It is installed on a hidden partition that is undeleteable. And so I loose a fev hundred megs - for a feature that only works in win.

But you can always save and read files.

cheers

FiniteStateMachine

Part of the Machine

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2009-06-29

Posts: 1,489

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

cometa2k7

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2010-01-19

Posts: 26

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

Thanks for the speedy replies.

I think that in the question that I quoted the "EXT.PORT" simply was a contracted version of external portable; the question does make sense when read like that.

I did think that there shouldn't be any problems with it, but I also thought that sites selling computer parts and accessories should know something about it.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

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If a door can be ajar, why can a jar not be adoor?

achristoffersen

#! Junkie

Registered: 2009-03-23

Posts: 354

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

^^I am sure you are right, blackbinary

Anyways - according to the cardboard box my harddisk come in - only win and mac is supported - which of cause is BS - from one point of view.On the other hand - if crypto is essential, then it will not work on linux. I guess the ext.port is a simialr situation -but I dont know?

and since I dont know - i will now keep quiet. :-)

Last edited by achristoffersen (2010-03-22 22:08:22)

pvsage

Internal Affairs

From: North Carolina

Registered: 2009-10-18

Posts: 13,970

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

I think the only time you have to be worried about Linux compatibility with USB devices is when it comes to firmware, like the built-in operating systems on certain media players (and then it's usually a matter of having software to build an ODBC file).  If it's just a storage device there should be no issues.

extraspecialbitter

#! Junkie

From: Cochituate, MA

Registered: 2009-01-21

Posts: 395

Website

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

Perhaps I'm just wreckless, but I have Iomega, Passport and Lacie external USB drives - none of which guaranteed to work with Linux - and was nonetheless able to use all of them without issues after formatting with fdisk and running mkfs.ext3 to create a Linux filesystem.

Chetamonye

#! Member

From: California

Registered: 2009-07-23

Posts: 65

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

I believe the Seagates DID have a problem with Linux.  They would spin down.  Windows and the mac would send a command that would spin them back up.  Linux did not do this.  You had to contact Seagate and they gave you a utility(don't know if it was a firmware patch) that would disable their power management.

Chet

vrkalak

#! Die Hard

From: Las Vegas > US

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 1,647

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

My PC has a 1Tb internal hard-drive . . .

I also, use 2 different external hard-drives (both @ 1Tb each)
One Maxtor (a Seagate off-shoot) and the new one is a H-P external hard-drive

I've had the Maxtor (Seagate) for almost 2 years, first used it with Windows and now with Linux (Debian-testing)  I've done no re-formating when switching from Windows to Linux.
And the H-P ... I've only used with Linux.  When, I bought the H-P external hard-drive, I read and re-read the box and it never even mentioned GNU/Linux, so I wasn't sure if it would work?

Frankly I've not had any problems with either of my external hard-drives.
Most hardware ... like external hard-drives or high-end storage devices, have a 3 to 7 day return policy.  I'd say buy it, try it ... return it if necessary.

Last edited by vrkalak (2010-03-23 03:52:45)

stopie

#! Die Hard

Registered: 2009-02-02

Posts: 547

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

I have a western digital external HD - formated it as NTFS so I could use it all (instead of 1/2 the space) and it is now being shared over the network via my ubuntu computer (soon to be #!-statler-rc) as a samba drive   No issues here

Zen:Core

#! CrunchBanger

From: Bleeding Kansas

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 195

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux

I have a Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 500GB and it's worked fine with any distro I've used it with. The box and manual don't say anything about Linux compatibility, but it's always worked.

Chetamonye

#! Member

From: California

Registered: 2009-07-23

Posts: 65

Re: External Harddrives - They claim not to be supported by Linux