Hi Peter,
I've been using an external USB 2.0 drive for a while and like it. Mine
looks like this
http://www.nanosys1.com/usb-hd-320u2.html
and is a model ME-320, specifically ME-320U2,  made in China, don't see a
brand name, but excellent and very economical.
Make sure all the computers are USB 2.0, or it will take hours (literally)
to copy a lot of files using USB 1.1. This housing will hold IDE, CD's, &
DVD's. I put a Samsung hard drive in mine and it is super good. It has it's
own PS/transformer. Just plug the USB cable into the already running
computer, turn on the drive case power switch and you have another hard
drive. Run the resident software to make sure everything is OK before you
pull out the USB cord and power down the unit. Very easy. I've been using
it on my W98SE machine (with a USB 2.0 card). I'm reluctant to also use it
with my new XPPro NTFS puter for fear the files won't be compatible with
the Fat32 machine. A smaller one would, of course, be handier but this has
been flawless.  Bob


>I am considering getting a USB hard drive to transport data between several
>computers. Two computers are rack mounted and have no CDROM or even a floppy
>- all I/O is via network. The USB drive seems like a good idea for these,
>but I don't have any experience with such devices. What I am considering in
>particular is a 30GB pocket drive called a Cooldisk that I found on e-bay.
>Looks like a 2.5 inch hard drive in a small case. Any feedback or
>recommendations would be appreciated.
>
>Peter