[TriLUG] [OT] External disk storage

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Fri, 6 Jan 2006, William Sutton wrote:

> A friend of mine is looking for some external hard disk 
> units (nothing as big as a snap server or nas, just a disk 
> in an external enclosure).  What brands/models do you 
> trust & reccommend?

This comes up a couple of times a year here.

I use the ME-720U2F firewire/usb enclosure, which I got 
through Dealsonic for about $40 (I have two and they take 
disks upto 400GBytes). The two halves of the unit snap 
together. With some judicious screwdriver-fu and remembering 
how they snap together, you can non-destructively separate 
the two halves to change disks (like when you need a bigger 
one). I leave one open to install files on a 2.5" disk for 
laptops (you'll need a 3.5" to 2.5" IDE adapter as well).

Be aware that you can't use smartmontools through a USB link 
(it doesn't support the neccessary scsi commands).

Other people here have said that they're happy with an 
enclosure from Intrex.

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml 
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