cheap usb 8gb on ebay EDIT external hd portable

[fr0zenmon]

can anyone reccomend a cheap usb on ebay. they are all cheap, but which one works or doesnt well? that also plays mp3 and fm radio as well as holding docs.

[rek]

Be wary of buying flash mass storage on eBay (be it in memory card, USB stick, or MP3 player form) and be very sure you're looking at a reputable seller. Cheapest is most always not best in this case!

That killer deal may well be hosted by one of the significant number of dodgy sellers, who sell items with 'fake' capacities. e.g. their "8GB" music player may actually be a 2GB unit that is formatted to look like it has 8GB. It will copy 8GB on there, but only the first 2GB will be readable...

This was definitely the case a year or so back, and I have absolutely no faith that the situation has improved since.

[fr0zenmon]

thanks for heads up. i felt it was to good to be true.

[fr0zenmon]

external hard drives look like a better deal. are there any that i can put linux on? in a cnet review it said that "Backup software can't create bootable backup of OS; CD/DVD burning utility for Windows users only." does that mean you cant put linux on it. and what would be a good capacity to hold progams, files and backups?

[rek]

I assume you'd be able to boot off a USB hard disk, like you can a USB CD drive etc. As for capacity I guess it's dependent on what it is you're storing, and how much history you want to archive on the disk.

Don't know about SimpleTech stuff, they don't sell it here. Usually for little gadgets like this I buy at www.dealextreme.com. Their site has user reviews of their items, and are much better than a lot of the eBay sellers of the same stuff as they have free shipping! They have a wide range of external HD cases, but I don't think (m)any of them come preinstalled with a hard disk.