Author: Stephen Davies Date: To: hampshire Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Use of 4 Gb USB data stick for backup
Beware INTEGRAL USB Sticks
I was given two of these (2Gb) as a Christmas Prezzie( and a BOGO
offer). Works fine on XP etc but always pops up TWO windows. One holds a
windows executable that is used tp password protect the other partition.
I tried them on Ubuntu, Fedora, Centos and SUSE and one of them worked
OOTB but the other refused to mount even manually. It had a slightly
different partition table (And 64Kb less storage!) that completely
giggered Linux.
Also it someone does (for a lark maybe) mount the stick on Windows and
enable password protection, you are up sh1t creek without a paddled when
it comes to Linux. You can say good bye to your data forever.
Also there are problems (in a blog somewhere) trying to reformat
INTEGRAL sticks under Linux. You are stuck with FAT32.
I don't know about doing this to other sticks but from what I can
remember, trying to reformat them made them totally useless.
Caveat Emptor and all that.
Perdonally, I would not trust any backup storage to Usb sticks. I use
them simply as a transfer device. Portable HDD's are so cheap these days
and are (IMHO) more reliable.
