Seagate snubs Linux
Submitted by srlinuxx on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 04:05.
SEAGATE'S latest batch of drives are not compatible with the Open Sauce operating system Linux.
It will shut shut the drive off after several minutes of inactivity and helpfully drop the USB connection. When the connection does come back it returns as USB1 which is apparently as useful as a chocolate teapot.
As our reader points out this is a, "fairly shit idea perfectly implemented, " unfortunately while Windows can handle it, Linux and Mac's can't cope.
There are a few work-arounds but Seagate Tech Support says they do not know what they are.
HDD technology and misunderstanding of NTFS ? Just files ?
HDD technology explained below.
HDD started with cylinders. tracks and sectors then LBA blocks to be handled by the limited space of FAT table. So, large hdd has a lot of wasted free space unabled to be accessed by fat address. Linus uses a file(ext2/3 or reiser4) as a partition. So, NTFS file becomes Linux partition without anything written to the zero track, zero sector. Boot into Linux kernels and the file system is recognized. Linux kernels are booted by lilo or grub(boot loaders).
HDD technology started with PDML data compression, then PRML for more advanced data compression. Since then heads use less and less line width, disk spin faster and faster to distinguish finer space of magnetic signals(GMR head for detection). Now SEAGATE has multilayered magnetic disks to use different bias frequency to read different depth of magnetic layers. So hardware is now more complex with DSP, including A/D, D/A, PWM, FPU and RISC all rolled in one DSP.
As far as Linux application goes; file systems will work perfectly on NTFS format. As long as one file is a partition and one file can write up all the free space with only two addresses in as many blocks you want. However, Linux does have to watch out for the way SEAGATE fragmentizes files, instead of setting a contiguous space for one continuous file. FSCK(too slow) has to be used more often if SEAGATE fragmentizes into small free spaces, instead of proportioning into largest free space for largest file.
Footnote:
USB hdds are the best and easiest for Linux. USB is emulated scsi of sda1 drive. You setup bios for usb boot. Then your Puppy Linux will boot fine, after loaded from livecd?
re: Seagate HD
Wow, a crappy overpriced USB external HD doesn't support Linux - Quick EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!!!