the low down on external hard drives

[taytho]

I need to get to the bottom of some questions i have about external hard drives. I know next to nothing about them other than i feel as though i could get use out of one and am thinking about buying one once i learn some about them. I have a ibook G4 with and 80 gig hd which has about 15 gigs left right now.

I have recently purchased a canon 350d and will be doing all my photo work on digital now and will need a place to store many many many photos. I figure a external hd would work well for that. am i correct?

can i move my entire iphoto and itunes library over also?
or just back them up there?
what does it mean to have a bootable hard drive?
should i get firewire over usb?
what is the going rate for, say...... 160gigs? (US)
Are they easy to use?
What should i know about these before making my decison.

Thanks in advance


tt

 

[GoCubsGo]

I figure a external hd would work well for that. am i correct?

yes

can i move my entire iphoto and itunes library over also?
or just back them up there?
what does it mean to have a bootable hard drive?
should i get firewire over usb?
what is the going rate for, say...... 160gigs? (US)
Are they easy to use?
What should i know about these before making my decison.

yes you can move your iphoto and itunes lib over. I have and it works well. That is another great thing about OSX. It seems to understand basic human motion.
Bootable hard drive means you have an OS on that drive and you can use it to boot if ever in the need.
Firewire would be best, but USB 2.0 is not so bad. I have both, but the USB is having problems being recognized so I am switching to a Firewire this week.
I just bought a 320 western digital at best buy for $149 as a gift. I would do that and get a firewire enclosure at say compusa or fry's electronics (outpost.com). Lacie has a 250 usb for $150 and a 250 firewire for $179 I believe. Lacie to me is a decent drive, but mine isn't super quiet...I've gotten used to it though. You may find that you get way more space by going internal and buying the enclosure. 200 gig seagate at best buy $100 (internal) $50 firewire enclosure (nothing super fancy, but nothing super cheese looking either). Best buy only seems to have like three enclosures and they're all USB (suck).

Go to www.outpost.com and shop then price match to newegg.com and see what tickels your fancy. Best bet, if you think you want 160 gig you should get more. I made that mistake myself and filled 160 with my photography and movies and such and then filled my 80 gig internal, my 80 gig external and now I'm either going to get a 250 or a 320 soon.