I would also consider the possibility of buying an internal HD and a separate external case. I have three of these setups: These days you can get a 250 Gb Seagate for $60 if you keep track of the prices [try TigerDirect]. There are many manufacturers of cases, but mine are all $30 compusa cases. Installing the drive in the case is 5 minute operation, there are no drivers to load, and it's completely plug and play. I have two machines and leave the USB cables plugged into both and simply swap drives when I want to transfer data from one machine to the other. These setups have been far less problematic than the much pricier option that I also have, which is a Maxtor One Touch II. No problems with the drive itself [I use it strictly for backups], but it can be a pain in terms of the drive "disappearing" from time to time. The data is fine, but periodically I must reinstall the drivers to access it.

Hope this helps.

dg

One add'l comment regarding what KirkD wrote:

>>Speed is not as critical as some think, as the measured speed in benchmarks is seldom seen in real world applications. If you demand better speed, in order of fastest to slowest: eSATA, Firewire, USB.

This is accurate, but in "real world" applications I have found there to be no difference whatsoever between accessing data on my boot drive vs any of my USB 2 external drives. We're in blink of an eye territory in terms of such differences.

Good luck.

dg

That is a good deal.

I'm more comfortable with Seagate's track record and this one is available now:

Seagate 250GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive from $87 shipped

The Seagate 250GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, model no. ST3250824U2RK, costs $106.95 with free shipping at Buy.com. Already the lowest no-rebate price we've seen, pay via Google Checkout and it drops further to $86.95. This 7200 rpm drive features an 8MB cache.

http://dealmac.com/deals/Seagate-250-GB-USB-2-0-External-Hard-Drive-from-87-shipped/143097.html

dg