External HD for Mac / USB vs Firewire

Factual Questions
1

I currently have an imac G4 (the pedestal kind) and my brother is giving me his old mac mini. They both have USB and firewire ports. I need to get an external hard drive, either 1TB or 2TB. I’m assuming the firewire port will have the fastest access but I’d like to be sure. I know both USB and firewire come in different flavours (speeds) and I’m not really sure which speed of USB and firewire the mac has. So

  1. Is firewire universally faster, and more specifically is it faster on the mac mini?
  2. Are all externals mac compatible (if not out of the box than after reformatting)
  3. I’ve heard that certain formats are needed to copy files greater than a certain size - is this a consideration for buying or just for formatting?
  4. What are the total specs I need to look for, and given those specs, is there any reason not to get the cheapest one I can find?
  5. What’s the best place to find the drive with the specs I need for the cheapest price, preferably online (I realize this last one may steer into IMHO territory)

Thanks!

2

I would double check the specs on the mini you are picking up. All minis have had USB 2.0 ports (nominally 480Mbps). But they switched from Firewire 400 to Firewire 800 somewhere along the line.

USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 are pretty close in actual speed. With Firewire being about 20-50% faster. But Firewire 800 is about 300% faster than USB in actual tests. So if you have Firewire 800 you may want to opt that way. Otherwise it is pretty much a wash.

I would double check the physical connections on both boxes as well. Both USB and Firewire have several different types of connectors. While the “A” plug on USB is nearly universal. The odds are pretty high that if the mini has Firewire 800 you will need an “alpha” plug on your iMac and a “beta” style plug on the mini. If the mini has only Firewire 400, you’ll likely have an “alpha” plug on both.

I’m not an expert on Macs so I’ll leave the other questions to those more knowledgable than me.

3

Just make sure that you reformat your new drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. This will save you all kinds of grief down the road. The only reason not to do this would be if you planned on sharing this drive with Windows machines.

I always buy empty cases on ebay, then stick bare drives into them - seems to save a lot of money.