I'm trying to gear up to edit some upcoming projects.
So far I have a MBP17 and adobe premiere CS4

I'm thinking of starting with 3 usb 320gb drives.
HDD A is the first storage drive for bpav and all the clips
HDD B is a backup of A
HDD C is a scratch disc where I can keep the project folders. Eventually I'll need a disc D to back up Drive C. Premiere will be the only thing on the MBP drive (7200rpm)

The edits will be 2 to 5 minutes and fairly simple; open and closing graphics, transitions, CC, naration and music track.

I'd like to get away with USB powered drives. I need to keep things compact and portable.

Looking for thoughts on my HDD media management ideas

Thnx

If your projects are small you might want to use the internal HDD for your scratch folder and projects as this will be quicker. Then when you finish export the project using media manager and then burn the project plus media to a BluRay disk or Dual Layer DVD.

2x USB drives should be fine for storage plus backup, but you will fill them up over time and it may just be easier in the future if you have one complete project on a single BluRay or DVD disk.

For better performance you might want to consider an esata express card adapter and use esata drives instead of USB. I use USB drives for my location editing and footage that requires occasional access, but I do notice the improved performance I get on the MacPro workstation when using my Raid array.

For better performance you might want to consider an esata express card adapter and use esata drives instead of USB.

Good advice. I agree 100%.
I don't edit too often on my MBP anymore, but when I travel, I use an eSATA express card adapter with my MBP with a G-tech drive that has dual eSATA connectors. It's the same drive I use with my Mac tower for most of my editing. I just take the drive off my main edit system, put it in a special Pelican case, and take it with me on the road when I'm in the middle of working in a project.

If eSATA isn't possible, I'd recommend at least going with Firewire 800 drives instead of USB.

USB is great for backups and archiving, but not recommended for editing.

The usb drives will slow you down, plus you have the power hassle. I use a growing boxful of the lacie rugged firewire drives (fw 400/800 and usb - 500 g for about $100.00), but the esata will be faster, have more capacity and are not much bigger.