Hi Jim,

>1) Can I make such a device shareable, thus accessible by other systems on the network?
Yup.
>
>2) Does it properly handle LOCKING, like a 'real' hard drive does?
AFAIK yes - but I use it for filecopy operations only. Reason: transferring data via USB has much more CPU cost. If you plan to use the external disk like a real hard drive, I'ld look more into firewire boxes if you REALLY need to. External SATA should be even better, but AFAIK not on the market in great numbers. If there is enough space in the computer, I'ld go for a pluggable/movable IDE or a SATA disk.

I often "move" gigabytes of data and love my 3 USB disks, but NOT for substituting as "real" disks.

my 0.02 EUR

thomas