[Cap]

External Storage Devices:

There's an explosion of advances in terms of portable storage size, modularity and interconnection techniques. Where to begin?

Consider first, what you already have for a laptop computer and what connections are available to you.
Are you going to use your home computer to rip and transfer? What connections are available to you on that machine?
USB? USB 1 or 2.
Firewire? A or B.
SCSI? I or II or III
PCMCIA? USB or Firewire or SCSI.
What size enclsoure? 3.5" drive capable or 2.5" drive capable.
How is it powered? Direct AC cable or an in-line transformer.
Size of the drive? 80-120-200-300gb
Rotational speed of the drive? 4200-5400-7200-10,000 rpm.
Data access time of the drive? 10ms-8ms-6ms-4ms.
BIOS restrictions? Can your machines recognize greater than xxx sized drives?

Whew, lots to think about. Have I missed anything, Rick?

For ripping (CD or vinyl or tape conversion to .wav files) I use AudioCatalyst 2.1. For .wav editing and conversion to .mp3, my tool choice is Adobe Audition 1.5 (formerly Syntrillium's Cool Edit Pro)