Getting a second HD from Apple will be fine. It should give you better
performance than a firewire drive, though less portability.

You can also just order an ATA drive from CDW after you get the Mac and
install it yourself if you want. Apple's prices on an 80GB or 160GB
drive might not be the best. They are pretty easy to install.

The drive should be formatted and partitioned with the Apple Disk
Utility, so no special software is required. It should be included with
the OS. Turn journalling off when formatting the drive.

NB: If you buy a drive (firewire or whatever) from somewhere, remember
to format it with the Apple utility. Most drives will come PC formatted
which initially works OK with the Mac but will show strange amounts of
storage space and potentially give stability issues with your data
eventually.

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq


adaM wrote:
hi, i'm about to order a dual g5 and i know you need a 2nd hard drive
to record the audio files for pro tools. will just getting a 2nd
internal hard drive that comes with g5 be alright (the stock one: 160GB
Serial ATA - 7200rpm), or are you supposed to get one of those hard
drives that connect via firewire, audiowire, etc? sorry if this is a
stupid question, i'm not the biggest hardware guru if you haven't
already noticed! also, will i need to buy partition software for this
or can that be done through formating?

thanks,
adam