Which external usb hdd to buy for use with Puppy?

[erikson]

My laptop is a bit tight on disk space and I plan to buy an external usb hard disk drive (500 MB or so).

I'll use it for experimenting with various puplets and other Linux distro's, for general data storage, and for backing up my internal hdd (WinXP ntfs partition). So I should be able to partition and format the drive with some vfat partitions and some linux partitions (TBD).

Questions (to users of external usb hdd's):
- which pitfalls to avoid?
- experiences about problems in setup & usage?
- suggestions re. reliable brands and models?

[erikson]

I took what was available off the shelf in the nearest computer shop.

So it's a 500 GB Seagate FreeAgent Desktop, which comes with one ntfs partition filling the whole disk and with some disk management software for Windows and for Mac.

I found some reports on the web that this unit is not quite Linux-friendly. In particular the drive goes into sleep mode after 15 minutes inactivity, and it's reported not to wake up cleanly under Linux. However it's possible to switch off inactivity sleep mode, and that's what I did.

Speed tests reveal that it's slightly faster than my laptop's internal hdd (hdparm -t reports 22.9 MB/s resp. 26.6 MB/s for internal hdd resp. new usb external hdd)(average of 5 tests each).

I repartitioned (with Gparted) as follows

Code: Select all

sda1  293G  ntfs (WinXP data and backup)
sda2   10G  fat32 (Linux/WinXP data share)
sda3   41G  extended
  sda5    1G  linux-swap
  sda6   25G  ext2 (boot partition; grub, various Puppies and other small distro's)
  sda7   15G  ext2 (spare for "fat" Linux distro TBD)
sda4  121G ext2 (spare for Linux downloads and bulk storage)

My next activities are to install grub, to transfer the Puppy setups from my usb pendrive onto the new external hdd, and to update my WinXP backup schemes.

[mwestlund]

I'm asking this same question. But I'm not sure what was figured out! I am considering Seagate Free agent or the Verbatim. Any suggestions or experience with these of others I can get at bog box stores? Much appreciated. -Mark

[Flash]

I've used probably 5 different brands of external hard disk drive, They all worked fine in Puppy.

If you're going to use the external hard disk drive with a laptop then it ought to be one of the ones that gets its power from the USB port. I.e., that uses the 2.5" laptop disks. All external hard disk drives that use 3.5" disks require a separate power supply "brick" that plugs into the wall socket. Kind of restricts their use with a laptop.

Oddly, my newest motherboard stopped recognizing the small hard disk drives, in either Windows or Puppy, but still recognizes the big external ones.

[mwestlund]

Thanks Flash. I feel better about getting one. -Mark

[sunburnt]

As with internal HDs, the first primary partition being vfat allows Weeners to use it also.
Probably one of the main things is to be sure it doesn`t have DRM protection (WD drives).
Seagate has always been my favorite drive, they`re top of the industry as far as I`m concerned.
Also lappy drives 2"-2.5" are 5400 rpm, that`s why most 3.5" drives are faster at 7200 rpm.

[Sylvander]

I use 3 methods to backup the contents of partitions on the internal HDD to a folder on a partition on the external HDD, as follows:

1. Make image backups of unmounted [not in use] partitions using either Pudd, or a 3rd party program like "Image for DOS" or "Acronis True Image".
This method is likely to have no problems if it copies cluster-for-cluster.
I always keep data files on their own partitions, and off the OS partition[s] and make separate backups of these.

2. Use "X File Explorer" [Xfe] run within some Puppy.
This is REALLY easy to use; you just "copy to..." from one file display pane to the other. [There are 2 plus a folder hierarchy pane]
I've never had problems when the partition is VFAT [FAT32], but did have problems when attempting to copy from NTFS to NTFS.
The cause may have been due to a non-destructive shrink of the partition using GParted.
Having copied the partition contents...
If you delete the contents of the source partition, then copy the contents back from the destination...
The source contents will then be PERFECTLY DEFRAGMENTED.
Also, it's better to non-destructively SHRINK a partition whilst it is EMPTY.

3. Use the FREE version of [the BRILLIANT!] SyncBack->under WINE]->within a Puppy...
To Backup/restore/sync between a "source" [partition?] and a "destination" [folder on a partition][on an external HDD?]
The "differences" between the "source" and "destination" are displayed in a list.
You can then work on the list to do various things to chosen items, such as "Exclude from future comparisons", or "Delete", or "Ignore".
It can be very useful/interesting or perhaps VITAL to know what changes are taking place on a partition.
Particularly if that partition holds operating system and program folders/files.