[plug] USB drive

[garry]

I've been playing with a USB2 hdd carrier with a 40GB notebook drive..
Wondering if someone can expand my understanding a touch...  8^)===
First up - it works fine. No drama. Suse 9.2.
What I am trying to confirm, does the USB carrier abstract the 
filesystem to a generic USB storage device?

It _seems_ to.. The disk is available as /dev/sdaX, but it doesn't get 
listed as a mounted drive using "df".

Or have I missed something here?

If this is correct, the filesystem on the USB'd hdd [I'm using ext3] is 
handled by hardware..?
This would be very cool as it would make 'nix disks available to OSs 
which aren't otherwise aware.. But it raises the problem that if the 
hardware IS abstracting the filesystem, you'd need to be aware of the 
range of filesystems your model of carrier takes..

Just tried a "df -a".. It lists the devices and mount points [uses 
/media/usb-reallylong number], but the capacity, used and available are 
all zero... And there is no listing in /etc/fstab...

BUT... Going into "My Computer" [a front for Konqueror] gives you access 
using the device name, but jumps to the mount point - and properties 
once inside the folder gives the stats [capacity/used/available] for the 
volume...

==============

If [and I've sort of mostly convinced myself here] the OS is handling 
the pseudo mounting of the USB'd drive, how do you go on a Linux box 
that doesn't try to be so windows-like?

And if the OS is handling things, can you get 'nix filesystem capability 
into XP/2000/'98...?

Oh bugger, this'll mean an ext3 drive wouldn't be available to a MP3 
player with host capability..

===============

TIA

Garry