[Sussex] Additional "storage" ?

[Richie Jarvis]

John D. wrote:

>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 ??
>  
>
Hi John,

I guess it depends how much storage you need...  Personally, I use a 
Buffalo Terastation, which gives me RAID5 for additional redundancy.

Richie