Firewire lets you do things like [link|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583|Target Disk Mode]. I don't think you can do that with USB2.

I'd probably get a [link|http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010090092&Submit=ENE&Subcategory=92&Description=firewire+external&Ntk=all|Firewire external enclosure] and install my own choice of hard drive. Choose carefullly. :-)

On the software side, [link|http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html|Carbon Copy Cloner] is something that I'm trying to use with out Ti G4 Powerbook and G5. It's not yet a Universal binary for Macintelitoshes, but that's only an issue in trying to get the OS backed up between PPC and Intel. It apparently runs fine in Rosetta.

HTH a bit. Note that I haven't yet done what you want to do, so sprinkle liberally with NaCl...

Cheers,
Scott.
(Who recently got an 80 GB disk for this purpose, but a USB2 enclosure...)

[link|http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html|MacTips] talks about the issues in backing up OS X. MacOS has soft links and resource forks that are different from Unix. A colleague at work has some experience with OS X Server and talked about [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=216172|various problems with it] (that I assume have been fixed by now), so I wouldn't assume that it's trivial to use Linux as a Max OS file server (though it should be by now).

(I understand what you're proposing - using Linux as the server and backing that up rather than the Macs. I'm just trying to illustrate that there are issues in the native Mac files that need to be considered.)

It's probably safest to back up the Mac machines separately with a Tiger-capable software package. But, people apparently are doing it with Debian and Netatalk - e.g. [link|http://viebrock.ca/article/22/file-sharing-from-linux-to-os-x-a-quick-guide|Viebrock.ca]. I don't know if it handles everything, but it might be worth a look.

Maybe drop Todd a line. :-)

Oh, on the Maxtor box - I'd probably pass myself. I'd worry that OS updates would break the software and/or that I could do better with an assemble-it-myself system.

Good luck. Let us know what you come up with.

Cheers,
Scott.