[mythtv-users] Using firewire or usb external drives

[Jim Reith]

>I haven't used firewire with MythTV or Linux.

I've been primarily using them with my Macs but I bought them in
order to have the flexibility of moving from one system/OS to
another. In the past I did this with SCSI but the Macs have moved on
from there.
>
>I did however buy a firewire Maxtor 250GB firewire drive from Fry's
>about a year ago. It was FAT formatted and I didn't bother to change
>it. (Which was, perhaps, a mistake). It was reasonably fast, but
>hugely flaky, and within about six months, it crashed, taking all my
>data with it. (I had been using it as a backup and a storage place
>for ripped game CDs.)

I've always bought bare drives and an enclosure and had no problems
currently. And while my wife used to work for Quantum which became
Maxtor, and I buy their drives, if you read the  complaints on
various lists, Maxtor is low on the list of drives to buy.
Personally, I had the same problem with a series of Fujitsu drives.
YMMV


>
>Now, a single report, by itself, should not necessarily sway one for
>or against any particular product. But I went back to Fry's a year
>later (which was, also, perhaps, a mistake, although I didn't buy
>anything<s>) and they had a huge display of these Maxtor
>drives--same models, same prices, but EVERY SINGLE ONE WAS A RETURN.
>
>So, instead, I bought a 250GB Seagate (internal) and a NAS kit. Works well.

I like the enclosure kits and tend to buy combo USB/Firewire cases.

As for Fry's, I bought a 200gb Maxtor from them on thursday in order
to recover my Mythbox this weekend, paid for it to be overnighted and
Airborne has fumbled it and even though they said it would come today
and they were sorry it got screwed up, it's now after 5pm and won't
get to me before monday when it will have to be rerouted to my work
address. (sorry, I needed to vent)