On Sun August 7 2005 7:21 pm, Charles E. "Rick" Taylor, IV wrote: > On Sun, 2005-08-07 at 22:41 +0100, J.Underwood wrote: > > I am considering purchasing a USB hard drive to use with a FC4 system. I > > am currently considering one of the Lacie 80 GB models, and was > > wondering if anyone had any comments on how well supported these types > > of devices are with FC4? > > If it is one of the many drives that are just "plug and go" under > Windows and Mac, it ought to work fine. > > Using an 80 GB Maxtor external 80GB hard drive here. Works great with > Fedora. In fact, I'm copying some files to it as I write this message. > In my view, most of the USB externals now being marketed, were designed by grads from fashion schools, NOT engineers. We have had multiple failures of these devices during this time, numbering over 10 at this point. There are two main culprits: Maxtor, and heat. All the USB externals that I know of are being warrantied for one year. There's a reason for that. We have dissected many of these cases and have found the insides to be brownish/black. These things have been put out with silence/styling as their selling points and this is problematic. They literally bake themselves to death. We have been on an odyssey of late, looking for alternatives; there are a number of aftermarket cases out there that recognize this problem and have cooling fans. That would be my first suggestion. Secondly, when you assemble the device, choose Seagate, which still sells drives with 5-year warranties. LaCie suffers from both of the above issues. The cases are heat traps, not sinks, and the drives inside are Maxtor - caveat emptor. I just took a LaCie apart two weeks ago - the ribbon cable, and all the pc parts were literally covered with a brownish/blackish veneer - the guy in support 'couldn't understand it' and assured me that the warranty has just expired, two months earlier. The drive was a Maxtor 200 GB. -- Claude Jones Bluemont, VA, USA
