I have just bought a Seagate Firecuda Gaming Hard Drive and after receiving it I was shocked by learning that the documentation has explicit instructions for different OSes, Chromebooks included, but no Linux distros are included.

Troubleshooting includes a reference to "supported OS".

Seagate support said that normally it should work once formatted to right file system type, but they could not promise anything based on the fact that the data sheet for that model did not mention any testing or support for Linux, which confused me even more given the possibility of using it under Chrome OS.

I do not care for the Seagate software for backups or funny RGG lightning and I want ext4.

Any opinion or counsel will be much appreciated.

You don't say what model, and there seems to be several Firecuda options on Seagates website, including this one that specifically mentions Linux:
https://www.seagate.com/products/gam...ecuda-530-ssd/

Seems to be just an SSD; should show up as /dev/sd<SOMETHING> and be able to format it to whatever you want. I've yet to see a 'normal' drive that can't just be formatted on Linux to be whatever filesystem you'd like. Have you tried it?

1 members found this post helpful.

I second TBOne's advice. Over the years I have bought several used hard drives and SSD's that came with vendor software included. The vendor software is always operating system specific but a drive is a drive. I just format a new to me drive in ext4 wiping out the vendor software in the process.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks guys for useful advice

It is called "Firecuda Gaming Hard Drive" as in https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/produc...l-hard-drives/

It seems to have a special design and features (gimmicks?) for gamers and sells as "Works with ChromeBook".

I wonder if it can be considered a "normal" hdd!

The special software is optional and comes in different versions for Windows and Mac, not available for Chromebooks.

I agree that it looks like a regular hard drive in a fancy case with RGB lights. Should work with linux regardless of its filesystem. Have you tried seeing if you can format the drive?

Ah...have you tried just plugging it in, and formatting it??? Looks like it's just a big USB drive, formatted with exFAT now.

1 members found this post helpful.

That is what I hope is the case, but I haven't dared to open the package yet.

Would it be too much to ask for an opinion on the content of the Seagate's page for this model (https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/produc...l-hard-drives/)?

Why??? Why not 'dare'?? It's not going to break, and if it does (and it's new), return it as non-working. Zero risk at all...asking if it'll work without even taking it out of the box and trying anything is fairly pointless.

Asking others to read the product page for you isn't a good thing; again, it looks like a USB drive; either plug it in and do something with it, or return it if you're that scared.

1 members found this post helpful.

I've yet to meet an external hdd, ssd, thumb drive that didn't work with Linux. Should be able to format it and use it just fine. However you probably won't have control over the LED 'lighting' feature of the drive. That is the only 'gotcha' I see.

1 members found this post helpful.

Yes, I understood it after posting, I could have copied-pasted the few critic points, sorry for that.

But any way, you guys have now given me the courage to try. I was worried about the consumer protection rules here in Sweden - in some cases you loose some rights if you open the package,and I can't afford that.

But now my initial expectations have been vigorously reinforced and I will proceed.

Thanks a lot !

That was exactly the kind of confirmation I was expecting to find. As I have posted before I don't care for the LEDs, I bought this model because it was offered at a very nice price. Thank you so much for that.