>>>> There are plenty of external USB hard drives out there that should
>>>> do the trick. But are they compatible with Linux?

I have a Seagate "FreeAgent".
It works with Linux

1) after running the Windoze-only configuration
that disables the auto-shutoff
(Linux gets upset when the drive powers down by itself)

2) repartitioning and formatting with a Linux file system
such as ext2/3 or resierfs (or others).


> A great solution is the Thermaltake BlacX,
> combined with one or more SATA drives.
> This box has USB and eSATA ports,
> both of which work well with recent Linux distributions.

That sounds great!
http://geeks.com/ sometimes has good deals
on such "barebones" kits.
I often use my minimalist kit with the power supply and
adapter/cable for quick backups and restores
from bare parallel-IDE drives to USB
since that's hot-swappable (no reboots, no re-scans!).

>Otherwise, I recommend that you find a generic hard drive enclosure
>(USB/Firewire/eSATA) and put your drives in that. Don't buy a unit that
>includes the drive -- with these you just seem to pay extra for the
>privilege of less flexibility.

I agree: the Seagate FreeAgent case does not seem to open at all
so I cannot re-use the case.