I’ve been working towards getting a virtualized Windows installation running for those few things that can’t run under OS X, like Visio. Since it needs hard drive space just like a real OS, I decided to pick up an external drive instead of using up some of the internal space. External space also gives me extra storage and backup room, so it’ll be good for more than just running a virtual XP machine.

I went down to the Southlake Apple Store and picked up a 250G LaCie d2 Extreme external hard drive. One of the bigger reasons why I bought the 17″ MacBook Pro was because of the FireWire 800 port and the LaCie has a FireWire 800 port on it, so access speed isn’t an issue. I’ve got it installed, which amounted to putting the base on the unit’s body (a solid feeling aluminum case) and plugging in the power and FireWire cables. After turning it on and plugging it in I now have an extra 240 gigs of space to play with. The drive is fast. It took me about 3 minutes to copy 5 gigs over to it, so I’m not worried about access speed.