<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> On 07/17/2009 03:10 AM, Mike Cloaked wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:24531835.post@talk.nabble.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap=""> Dr. Michael J. Chudobiak wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On 07/16/2009 09:58 AM, Tim wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Now I'm wondering what can be trusted as a medium for removable backups. I much prefer the notion of something like a drive that carries uncompressed copies of files, for direct access to a backup. Rather than serial access tapes, or terribly slow multi-DVD collections. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">I found USB drives to be hugely unreliable. I ended up removing the disks from their enclosures and using them inside the main computer chassis, like a normal drive. I think something is buggy with the USB drive implementation, though I don't know what exactly (kernel driver, enclosure electronics, who knows...) </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> I have been using a Seagate FreeAgent Go external usb drive for this purpose for some time and has worked flawlessly. When I got the drive I simply re-partitioned it with ext3 from scratch, and removed all trace of the Windows one-touch backup system in the process. Plugging in to F10 and F11 based systems under Gnome works just fine and I run backups based on rsync (and rdiff-backup). The drive is physically small and neat and the only minor issue is the short usb lead that comes with the drive. </pre> </blockquote> Hi Mike, If you don't mind, I would appreciate a little more detail on how you reformatted the drive. I have been trying to get a 500g Segate FreeAgent Go to work, and so far, I have had no success. When I can get the box to recognize it, I keep getting write errors, and frequently the drive will not be recognized at all. Thanks in advance. <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- ---------------------------------------------------------------- cheers, Paul - VA7NT - email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:va7nt@telus.net">va7nt@telus.net</a> "Those who hear not the music, think the dancers mad." “Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” - Thomas Mann "That state which separates it's warriors from it's scholars will have it's thinking done by cowards and fighting done by fools" - Thucydides - The Pelopenisia "The Malice of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous." - Churchill </pre> </body> </html>