Ubuntu Laptop System USB complication

[ilyan.thomas at virgin.net]

Hi John Graddy <jwgraddy at valornet.com>

There seem no subsequent comments to your item 7 in  Vol 66, Issue 145.

I have the same problem, not wanting to make any contribution to
Microsoft.  But I am wondering if a USB stick could by made to act as  a  
hard drive that will boot on any USB bootable computer and be able to use  
whatever device is there to connect to the web.

I have a USB 8GB OCZ Zee that came from a Windows user, and is not  
recognised as usable by my Ubuntu machine.  It is fully seen by Windows  
machines. (I ended up having to reformat a hard  drive after a dual boot  
Windows Linux conflict, so a bit cautious about trying to put Ubuntu on  
this).

I have an old USB stick that has had its format changed, perhaps twice,  
but it no longer works.

I have another stick that loads with Pdfs on a windows machine and happily  
unloads them into my Ubuntu box.

A reply to "It lists Explora 16 as compatible with Microsoft.  Won't it  
work with a 64 bit Linux?  Ubuntu?" is awaited from Novatech who seem to  
be a UK source for computers without Microsoft windows.
Ilyan