[Tfug] USB drives

[Bexley Hall]

--- On Fri, 5/15/09, John Gruenenfelder <johng at as.arizona.edu> wrote:

> >I have a temporary need for a sizable archive (to store
> >snapshots of a large database during development).
> >Seems like 3.5" drives max out around 500G - 750G.
> >Anything bigger than that goes to 2.5" laptop drives (?).
> 
> Are you sure you don't have that backwards?  The
> larger drives should always be the 3.5" not 2.5", right?

No.  It's yet another of those wonky issues that are common
in this industry.  Apparently, manufacturers have seen the
market move to smaller (physical size) drives -- some desktop
machines even use "laptop" drives -- yet the demand for
capacity has increased.  So, the larger capacity drives are 
being produced in the smaller form factors.

And, the physics (thermo?) involved are wacky, too.  Granted, as
platter size shrinks, the magnetic domains must also shrink.
But, some of the heat related factors get better (less mass to
spin, less thermal expansion of the media, etc.).

> >What sort of experience have folks had with these
> >external "portable" USB drives?  Assuming I physically
> >protect the drive (i.e., so it doesn't get bumped off
> >the table!), have they been proven reliable?  Are
> >there shortcomings on throughput imposed by the USB
> >interface *or* increased rotational delays?
> >
> >Recommendations on particular models?  I'm probably looking
> >for 1-2TB total.  Note that my need is actually only
> >temporary so I'll need to repurpose the drive(s) later
> >(media server?).  As such, this plays a possible role
> >in selecting the device(s) to use.
> 
> Personally, I've not used any of the ready-made external
> drives.  Normally, I
> just purchase an enclosure that will hold what I need and
> has the sort of
> connector I want.  On a machine at work I've got a
> 160GB drive in a small
> enclosure.  The box supports both USB2 and
> Firewire.  I would prefer to use
> Firewire, but when I do, Linux always treats it as disk #1,
> even over the internal HDDs.  So it's using USB2.  I can't
> complain, though.  It's been plenty fast and I haven't had any issues.

Yes, I have a 100G "laptop drive" in an external USB2/FW case.
But, I've only used it as a "giant thumb drive", never as
true online storage.  As such, I never was concerned with
how fast access was (laptop drives seem to spin slower than
some of the 15K drives I use).  Rather, I was just "loading it
up" once and then unplugging and transporting it.

> In the next few weeks I'll be replacing it with a 1TB drive
> in an enclosure
> which supports eSATA.  But, as I don't have it yet, I
> can't comment on it.