A blog reader recommended this to me as a possible external storage solution and I must say I am thrilled about it. This is much different than the normal Passport 2.0 external hard drives, and if you are on a Mac Book Pro, its the only way to go. Its a little more expensive at $220, but it is built in a solid metal housing and plugs into your Firewire port, NOT your USB hubs. Portable USB port external hard drives can be a real problem if they do not have external power, at least the Western Digital Passport USB 2.0 couldnt consistently work on my system which is why I started looking for one of these.

Something I have just started to do is “retire” external hard drives, meaning that once they are filled with valuable files I dont intend to access anytime soon, I unplug them and put them into storage. I have back ups on disks and no externals, at least 2 copies of everything. Ive also seen 1 TB drives at unbelievable prices- so another option is to transfer all your files to a home drive like this, keeping your portable ones empty, and then retiring that when needed.