Mailing List Archive: Gentoo: AMD64

External USB HD

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dts at dagey

Jul 9, 2013, 10:02 AM

Post #1 of 6 (102 views)
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External USB HD

Hello Gurus:

We have an office Gentoo server that I want to configure to run backups on
an external USB drive. I've attempted this in the past and ended up
purchasing one that was not compatible (I don't recall the name, started
with a B I believe). The issue was lack of Linux drivers/support, only
Windows. So I thought it prudent to see if you guys had an experience with
external drives that work well with Gentoo. Plug and play of course, as the
drive will be moved to a fire safe when not in engaging backup, but I doubt
that will be an issue with USB connectivity. It doesn't need any bells and
whistles like some of the secure drive have, but we would consider any such
benefits. We would need at least 1-2TB, price isn't as much of a concern as
it is for a business client. It is a 64-bit machine, so 32-bit only is out,
not sure if that's as big of a concern anymore.

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

--

Ryan

markknecht at gmail

Jul 9, 2013, 4:33 PM

Post #2 of 6 (95 views)
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Re: External USB HD [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Ryan Dagey <dts [at] dagey> wrote:
> Hello Gurus:
>
>
>
> We have an office Gentoo server that I want to configure to run backups on
> an external USB drive. Iā€™ve attempted this in the past and ended up
> purchasing one that was not compatible (I donā€™t recall the name, started
> with a B I believe). The issue was lack of Linux drivers/support, only
> Windows. So I thought it prudent to see if you guys had an experience with
> external drives that work well with Gentoo. Plug and play of course, as the
> drive will be moved to a fire safe when not in engaging backup, but I doubt
> that will be an issue with USB connectivity. It doesnā€™t need any bells and
> whistles like some of the secure drive have, but we would consider any such
> benefits. We would need at least 1-2TB, price isnā€™t as much of a concern as
> it is for a business client. It is a 64-bit machine, so 32-bit only is out,
> not sure if thatā€™s as big of a concern anymore.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Ryan

I haven't had any problem with the 5 external USB drives I have. They
are either off-the-shelf Buffalo 500GB USB drives or I've purchased 3
NexStar 3 cases and put WD 1TB drives in them. Choose a file system
that allows labeling and if you're lucky like me you likely won't have
any problems.

Good luck,
Mark

lie.1296 at gmail

Jul 9, 2013, 4:48 PM

Post #3 of 6 (96 views)
Permalink

Re: External USB HD [In reply to]

If it uses standard USB mass storage, then the kernel would support it.

If the drive has non-standard bells and whistles, then it is possible that
some whistles may not work; unless it is really niche hardware, it is
likely the kernel would have some support for it, but you would want to
check first.

On 10 July 2013 09:33, Mark Knecht <markknecht [at] gmail> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Ryan Dagey <dts [at] dagey> wrote:
> > Hello Gurus:
> >
> >
> >
> > We have an office Gentoo server that I want to configure to run backups
> on
> > an external USB drive. I’ve attempted this in the past and ended up
> > purchasing one that was not compatible (I don’t recall the name, started
> > with a B I believe). The issue was lack of Linux drivers/support, only
> > Windows. So I thought it prudent to see if you guys had an experience
> with
> > external drives that work well with Gentoo. Plug and play of course, as
> the
> > drive will be moved to a fire safe when not in engaging backup, but I
> doubt
> > that will be an issue with USB connectivity. It doesn’t need any bells
> and
> > whistles like some of the secure drive have, but we would consider any
> such
> > benefits. We would need at least 1-2TB, price isn’t as much of a
> concern as
> > it is for a business client. It is a 64-bit machine, so 32-bit only is
> out,
> > not sure if that’s as big of a concern anymore.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Ryan
>
> I haven't had any problem with the 5 external USB drives I have. They
> are either off-the-shelf Buffalo 500GB USB drives or I've purchased 3
> NexStar 3 cases and put WD 1TB drives in them. Choose a file system
> that allows labeling and if you're lucky like me you likely won't have
> any problems.
>
> Good luck,
> Mark
>
>

bleszynski at gmail

Jul 9, 2013, 7:03 PM

Post #4 of 6 (91 views)
Permalink

Re: External USB HD [In reply to]

lsusb should list all attached USB devices. Whether the device filesystem
is auto-mounted is another issue.

emerge usbutils
lsusb

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 4:48 PM, Lie Ryan <lie.1296 [at] gmail> wrote:

> If it uses standard USB mass storage, then the kernel would support it.
>
> If the drive has non-standard bells and whistles, then it is possible that
> some whistles may not work; unless it is really niche hardware, it is
> likely the kernel would have some support for it, but you would want to
> check first.
>
>
> On 10 July 2013 09:33, Mark Knecht <markknecht [at] gmail> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Ryan Dagey <dts [at] dagey> wrote:
>> > Hello Gurus:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > We have an office Gentoo server that I want to configure to run backups
>> on
>> > an external USB drive. I’ve attempted this in the past and ended up
>> > purchasing one that was not compatible (I don’t recall the name, started
>> > with a B I believe). The issue was lack of Linux drivers/support, only
>> > Windows. So I thought it prudent to see if you guys had an experience
>> with
>> > external drives that work well with Gentoo. Plug and play of course,
>> as the
>> > drive will be moved to a fire safe when not in engaging backup, but I
>> doubt
>> > that will be an issue with USB connectivity. It doesn’t need any bells
>> and
>> > whistles like some of the secure drive have, but we would consider any
>> such
>> > benefits. We would need at least 1-2TB, price isn’t as much of a
>> concern as
>> > it is for a business client. It is a 64-bit machine, so 32-bit only is
>> out,
>> > not sure if that’s as big of a concern anymore.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > Ryan
>>
>> I haven't had any problem with the 5 external USB drives I have. They
>> are either off-the-shelf Buffalo 500GB USB drives or I've purchased 3
>> NexStar 3 cases and put WD 1TB drives in them. Choose a file system
>> that allows labeling and if you're lucky like me you likely won't have
>> any problems.
>>
>> Good luck,
>> Mark
>>
>>
>

me at junc

Jul 10, 2013, 5:30 PM

Post #5 of 6 (86 views)
Permalink

Re: External USB HD [In reply to]

Ryan Dagey skrev den 2013-07-09 19:02:

> We have an office Gentoo server that I want to configure to run
> backups on an external USB drive.
[snip]

well most problems comes from bad hardware usb bridges, drop bridges
that dont support 4TB sata, and if you need good sata drives use some
that is designed for nas disk usage, dont use desktop harddisks for
backups

well here i have qnap ts-419p+ where 2 of the 4 drives went mad in one
week, i am still in progress to move all data from raid6 to another 2
3TB disks in a xyxel nas 325

so if you make backup on regulary weekly on multiple disks its not on
concern if one disk dies with the backup

but if backup should be safe are amazon-s3 considered ?, can be done
with amanda, i just not have checked this yet, or regulary use
flexbackup

usb bridges works well if you just remember to get usb 3.0 compatibel
ones, and keep away from the one that only support upto 2TB harddisks

my zyxel nas, and qnap all use software raid just like gentoo so even
if my nas boxes dies, i can access content on the drives just with
gentoo, all i need is raidtab file to get it restored with gentoo

32bit vs 64bit is not relevant for mdadm :)

my qnap is arm based it even have mc

frank.peters at comcast

Jul 10, 2013, 8:01 PM

Post #6 of 6 (86 views)
Permalink

Re: External USB HD [In reply to]

On Tue, 9 Jul 2013 13:02:50 -0400
"Ryan Dagey" <dts [at] dagey> wrote:

I can only describe my own experience which should not be considered
definitive.

I use Western Digital USB HDD's, 2 TB capacity, with great success
on my Linux system. For this, one needs usb mass storage enabled
in the kernel. Also, the USB drive needs to be partitioned and formatted
as with any other HDD. The standard Linux tools will do these tasks.

My only problem was with USB drives that were USB 3.0. A Seagte USB
HDD (2TB) did not function as USB 2.0 on my Linux machine even though
the specification says that it should. For this reason I switched to
the WD drives which are USB 2.0 only. I have yet to gain experience with
USB 3.0 drives on a capable motherboard using the Linux USB 3.0 driver.

At first, I wanted to use USB HDD as a long term storage and archival medium,
but I decided that Blu-Ray disks would be a better solution. At 128 Gb,
BR 4-layer can be very useful. Even BR single layer, at 25 Gb is suitable
for many kinds of data. Now my USB HDD's are used for long term but easy
access storage, while Blu-Ray disks are kept in the back closet for archival
purposes.

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