Adding an External HD- what are the considerations?

[hiwayman]

While my laptop HD has decent storage at 250 Gb, video projects seem to eat up storage like popcorn.

I happened on a comment (on another forum) about giant externals interfering with one another- something about naming conventions- that made it impossible for this guy to offload/transfer directly from a mid-sized external to a Terabyte-sized HD, without first copying it to the computer itself. Time consuming!

This is the kinda stuff I'd like advice on- is there a brand or brands that work best with VSx4?
How much difference will USB3 make?
Given video's heavy demands, is an ext. powered unit a better choice?
Are there formatting considerations that would make speed improvements?
How would you organize the folders themselves?

What did I forget to ask?

Thanks in advance!

[skier-hughes]

I've moved files from a 250gb ext hdd to a 2tb ext hdd without problems using both XP and Win 7.
I only use my ext hdd's for storage, I always have all my working files on my internal hdd, but then I do have 3 hdd's for the operating systems, and a pair of 1tb raid hdd's for working files.

[hiwayman]

Thanks, Graham- that's quite a nice list of vid software at your website!