External Hard Drive question.

I'm currently using 4 drives on my system. c: system drive @ 80 gig E / F are partitioned 320 Gig used for audio on E and bulk sample storage on F. G is an IDE 80 gig drive that has a single image of my system drive for rescue and back-up. I use my fire wire port for the FA-66. I'm looking to get Ivory Italian Grand which Synthology recommends a separate firewire drive for sample streaming. My internal firewire has 2 ports but I'm unclear if there would be an interrupt issue if I used the second port to drive the external drive for the Italian grand. I would also like to use a large external drive for bulk storage and back up and free up the F partician for project audio. Would it be smart to buy a second pci to firewire or e sata card and a large drive to partition into storage and sample streaming? or.... hell's that why I'm asking here, any recommendations?

I'm currently using 4 drives on my system. c: system drive @ 80 gig E / F are partitioned 320 Gig used for audio on E and bulk sample storage on F. G is an IDE 80 gig drive that has a single image of my system drive for rescue and back-up. I use my fire wire port for the FA-66. I'm looking to get Ivory Italian Grand which Synthology recommends a separate firewire drive for sample streaming. My internal firewire has 2 ports but I'm unclear if there would be an interrupt issue if I used the second port to drive the external drive for the Italian grand. I would also like to use a large external drive for bulk storage and back up and free up the F partician for project audio. Would it be smart to buy a second pci to firewire or e sata card and a large drive to partition into storage and sample streaming? or.... hell's that why I'm asking here, any recommendations?

1. Avoid add on controller cards if possible. (Opens the door to all kinds of glitch related problems)
2. eSATA is significantly faster than 1394a or 1394b (assuming you're using a fast HD)

If you're out of internal IDE/SATA ports, I'd opt for a couple larger/faster internal HDs.
Dedicate one of those to Ivory.
If you still need more storage space, use an external HD (1394 or USB) for files where speed is less of an issue.

If you have a free internal SATA port, you can get a plate that connects to it and provides an eSATA connection out the back of the case.

I love the fact that I can use external drives. I do remote recordings on the laptop and can bring that drive back to the house and connect it to the desktop. I have not partitioned any of the external drives (too much trouble to locate projects). I keep all my projects in their own folders, so I can access all that info. I think I have a total of 5 external drives now with various projects on them. Eventually, I may transfer those projects (cues and all) to CD's. I prefer 7200 rpm drives and WD in particular. I do have a Seagate external which works fine also.