Questions about using an external hard drive....any help is appriciated!!!

Dear Friends,
This is My first Post here...I want to buy an external hardrive from any where around 100 GB to 250 GB....I want to use it all throughout the day but I have never used any external harddrive before.....I have a few questions regalding this...any help will be greatly appriciated:

1) Can I keep My hard drive on for 10 hours every day?? I have heard that they heat up really qiuck hence can not be kept on always.

2) Can I save data from a Peer to Peer sharing network, directly to my external hard drive?

3) What are cooling cases for external Hard drives?? What is their function?

4) Can any body please suggest good brand, sites, links, deals to buy an external hard Drive?

THANK YOU

 

1. I personally have a 160GB Western digital external HD and i leave it on almost all the time. I have yet to have a problem.

2. Sure, all you have to do is configure the program to save all the downloaded files on your external drive.

3. I would imagine cooling cases are nothing more than a hard drive enclosure that has a fan or 2 to keep things cool within the case.

4. I would go with either a Western Digital or a Seagate external hard drive, as i have used both and have never had a problem with either. The best place to look would be locally (best buy, circuit city, compUSA, etc.) or on http://www.newegg.com or http://www.zipzoomfly.com . I have also used googles "froogle" to price certain items.

In my experience i would find that it would make more sense to first choose the features you want (some come with one-touch backup) and then choose the size and then choose the manufacturer. I would also find a model that spiked your interest and then look for reviews for it and see what other people are saying about it.

cheers!

 

Thanx mtrivs....