External Hard Drives?
 

Can anyone recommend a reliable external hard drive so that I can store all of the P2 files that have taken up all the space on my computers. My head hurts with all that is out there, but is really good and reliable? Thanks!!!

Chris Vaglio
Grey Sky Films

The same disks you use internally, only connected with eSATA. My favorite is the Samsung Spinpoint F1. If you have hot swappable bays in your system, you only need a disk and a diskframe. Insert the disk, copy your files, take it out and store on a shelf.

Use an enclosure that provides adequate cooling (most are lousy). This one looks like it should cool the drive okay (I just got one, but I haven't used it yet):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173042

Whatever you do, don't buy Western Digital, especially the My book editions. I had one of them dying on me this week after one year use and I can assure you...it's not a pleasant feeling

MacGurus Burly Bay: MacGurus:Burly Port Multiplier SATA Enclosures

I would recommend the 5-bay tray-less tower but the do have a single bay unit as well. Your need for storage is only going to continue to increase which is why I recommend the 5-day tray-less drive: pop in a new bare bones drive or load an older drive as needed. I have also found their pricing on drives to be competitive, especially considering these are RETAIL drives and not OEM versions. Keep in mind that the tray-less Burly bay is a SATA only connection to the computer. Tray type bays are available with a Firewire connection.

Mike

I bought a couple of enclosures and then just ran the sata cable through the holes in the back of the case and plugged them straight onto the motherboard. So they're as good as internal drives, but housed outside the case and still portable when I need them to be.