I need more space to edit video...
I have one 4-pin firewire port and two usb2.0 port on my laptop.

1. I wonder if its possible to connect my Dv camvorder directly to the external hard drive instead of connecting both devices to the laptop ? (And eventually how that works... if someone have experience ?)

2. How is it posible to check out what transfer rate I'm able to get with my existing 4-pin firewireport (can I get 800 not only 400 ?).

3. Is there any relation between number of pins (4 pins, 6 pins, 9 pins) and transfer rate ?

4. Any recommendation for an external hard drive in the range 180-250 Gb...such as Maxtor, Western Digital for the purpose of video capturing/editing ?

Thanks for any feedback !

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Hawk774