Internal or External HD Storage?
 

I currently have a 80GB internal HD on my computer which is about 30% used up. I want to keep my OS/regular apps and my multimedia/video editing stuff separate, but I'm not sure which way to go. Which is better for video editing? I would think external would be a little more reliable, but then again if something happens to it, it can go bye-bye, and possibly slower than internal HD? I am probably going to get a 80-120GB HD if I do internal.

It *should* not be slower, but it can ofcourse. Depends on the
specs and what bus you are using (if USB make sure everything
is USB 2.0 **including** your USB controller on your computer).

Whether to go internal or external is a matter of money (external
drives tend to be twice as expensive as internal ones, so you
can get a bigger internal harddrive for the same amount of money,
see what you find more important), size and whether you are
going to want to take stuff with you.

I edit mostly on my laptop so I didn't really have a choice then
to go external. But besides that I also liked the thought to be
able to take everything with me to my music/audio friend for
example.

First decide how much money to spend. Then see how much
space you want at a minimum. With those two set it might not
even be possible to get an external drive. If it is, then you must
weigh if you want to go with more space or have portability.

Internal drives are cheaper, faster, and more reliable. External drives are more portable. Internal drives are better for editing.

If you want to keep your OS/apps seperate then you could just leave it in the 80GB internal and keep all your video on the second drive. You could also partition your hard drive so that your OS+apps stay in one place and don't fragment the video partition of it.

...firewire
 

I'm not sure how you are capturing to your computer, but if you're using Firewire, an external $40 Oxford 911 chipset firewire drive chassis would probably suit your needs. I have one with about 300GB worth the storage between two drives, and I haven't had a problem yet.

Also, if I remember my computer tech correctly, if you have a firewire card with its own bus mastering, I believe you can move data directly from your camcorder to your drive over the firewire bus without a CPU hit, so your system shouldn't slow down.