Anyone had any experience with this hardware?

I'm running Ubuntu Server 8.10, the system has an entire 80 GB HDD dedicated to the NOS, and a 4 disk RAID5 array built from identical 250 GB drives, dedicated entirely to the data. The total data space is approximately 700 GB. I figure that a 750 GB HDD will backup the whole thing, and they're economically reasonable. So, I'm looking at some options.

I'd PREFER an external enclosure that can house an easily removable/swappable HDD, and of course a HDD that will hold all the data. Also, when the time comes to grow the RAID, I'll have enough of the bigger drives to grow without expense (except for what will become the new backup drives!)

Here's what I've found:

External Enclosure

External Enclosure's Mfgr's spec page

HDD

I'm certain that the drive will be fine because I've got the same HDD (in 250 GB versions) working in my server.

But I'm wondering if the enclosure will work with Linux. The specs say "OS Compatible Windows Vista / XP / 2003 / 2000 / NT / 98 / 95 Mac 10.3 and later" which obviously doesn't address Linux. But, I'm thinking the thing will be recognized as "USB STORAGE DEVICE" or maybe E-SATA (tho I haven't had any experience in this).

There is another enclosure that is less expensive, but won't support up to 1.5 TB (only up to 1.0 TB):

Enclosure

Mfgr's spec page

I've got my server up & running, with all the data on it (currently about 260 GB). I've got my original data, but it's on 3 HDDs spread among 2 desktop machines, and I don't want to wipe out the old drives until I have a good backup in place.

And, I want to wipe out the old drives because I'm needing to build a computer for our 7 year old daughter (Ubuntu desktop), as well as wanting another box for me to play with in terms of maybe learning something new like Apache (big boy toys)!

Any experience, thoughts, reservations, questions, etc., will be GREATLY appreciated.

Well, most of the USB enclosures I've found (and off-the-shelf USB hard drives), work great with Linux. I believe Western Digital makes one that has some 'smarts' on it, which prevents it from playing nicely with Linux. There are workarounds, but it's more trouble than it's worth.

I'd steer clear of USB, and go with either a NAS device (you can mount it with either NFS or smbclient), or Firewire. My $0.02 worth, is that a NAS is a better way to go...you can upgrade it/change it more easily. You can even get an old beater PC you have hanging around, and shove a ton of disk in it, load Linux on it, and make your own. Upgrade it as you see fit. The off-the-shelf NAS devices work well too...

I'd agree about the USB. It's slow unless you won't care about slow backups. Depending on how much data you'll be backing up daily or weekly, etc, that is.