> Yeah I was thinking of getting a huge external hard drive, connecting it to
> backup all my data, and then disconnecting it and keeping it someplace safe
> until I want to modify it. So is an external drive basically a regular EIDE
> hard drive but in a special enclosure that connects through USB? It seems like
> it's cheaper to buy the HD and enclosure separately...


Yes, that's how I built mine - bought drive and enclosure seperately. Make sure you get USB2 or firewire... or one with both... USB1 is WAAAAYYYY too slow.