USB harddisks: reliable?

[Jeffrey Ross]

Colin Brace wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I had a USB drive go offline this morning with a bunch of these errors
> in the kernel log:
>
> [...]
> localhost kernel:     Additional sense: Logical unit not ready, cause
> not reportable
> localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 12375
> [...]
>
> After trying in vain to umount/remount the disk in terminal, I ended
> up powering the disk down and then turning it back on again. It was
> automatically remounted without problem and *appears* normal (I have
> yet to run fsck on it).
>
> This and some weirdness I was having with another USB drive earlier
> this fall have me wondering whether this interface is really robust
> enough for continual use. (I have used up the four internal SATA
> interfaces in my box which is why I am using an USB drive.)
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
Is this a drive that pulls power from the USB buss or from a separate 
power supply?  I have had problems with the buss powered drives.  I 
found that although they pull power from the USB port, not all systems 
supply enough power or might be at the limit of the power available and 
may be intermittent.


Jeff