[Durham] Compatibility of PAYG broadband dongles and portable hard drives (ubuntu)

[Dougie Nisbet]

Hi all,

I've been setting up the laptop I bought from Richard. Running Ubuntu 
9.04 and looking good.

I want to get a portable hard drive. Richard was that a Freecomm one you 
had at the meeting? I could probably get by on 250GB but 320GB would be 
better, and 500GB wouldn't be a bad thing.

Googling around it seems that most of them are pretty straightforward 
apart from some gotchas about preinstalled software and encryption.

I've been looking at

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149400 (Maxtor Basics 500GB)
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164447 (LG 320GB)
and
http://www.amazon.co.uk/500GB-drive-HITACHI-External-Portable/dp/B001UHOUC6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
looks nice.

Big worry is compatibility. Does anyone recommend a 'safe bet' for 
working with ubuntu on my laptop?

Also been looking at PAYG broadband. It'd be nice to have for 
emergencies although I don't think I'd need it much, so PAYG appeals. I 
thought
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband-devices/usb-modem-stick-topup-and-go
from Vodafone looked good. Perhaps a bit pricey for start-up but 
straightforward and seems people have found it ok with linux. Does 
anyone use anything similar?

thanks

Dougie