[Sussex] Additional "storage" ?

[John D.]

Wotcha list,

This last couple of weeks of "meddling" have thrown up some additional 
questions.

The main one currently, is how to make sure that I can preserve my /home stuff 
so that if I get bored/impatient/whatever with kanotix, I don't end up 
loosing all the music and other bits/bobs (like what happened when I moved to 
kanotix from kubuntu).

This means some additional storage (I think).

Now I do have an additional plug available inside the PC so I could just open 
it up and do minor surgery to add an additional hard drive - It's my 
understanding that this is probably the fastest way to get at the data etc, 
but speed isn't necessarily the main requirement (as any lengthy copying/file 
transfers can be done overnight).

I suspect that the best way is going to be the use of an external hard drive. 
Now my system is still using USB 1.1 so I won't benefit from any bonus that 
USB 2.0 might provide.

A quick shufty at PC Worlds site tells me that there is a plethora of such 
devices that might suit. I can sort of wade my way through some of the 
spurious selling points e.g. "special" software that makes backups etc "easy" 
it's the more general stuff that I'm not completely familiar with.

Ethernet connectivity would be best (I suspect that I could just plug it into 
my hub and then tell the data where I want it to go - might be wrong though). 
So whether the device blurb say linux or not, does it mean that I should be 
able to connect an external HDD via USB and should be able to mount/use it or 
is there any special abilities that I need to look out for? Or is a USB 
HDD "the answer to my dreams" so that I can just do complete backups of /home 
(which is the object of the exercise as it takes a hell of a long time to 
re-rip 15 to 20 gigs of music, not too mention any photos/images etc).

Any guidance you may have about this, is very much appreciated.

regards

John D.

p.s. erm, as it's "moot day" this week (31st), does that mean that we have BCF 
on Sunday (next) as well ??