Can't copy files to backup disk

Got my new iMac core duo a couple days ago. First noticed I couldn't get it to copy files from my old G4 laptop via FireWire. Today I wanted to backup from the new coomputer to my external backup drive, but if the backup was large enough for the progress bar to show up, it would hang. Wouldn't let me cancel or anything, and I had to shut down the external drive. Kept trying to copy items one at a time but still would get this problem. Sometimes the progress bar won't go away even if I power down the ext. drive, and I have to do a restart. Extremely annoying!
Also, on occasion, when the computer goes to sleep it will forget I have a wireless trackball (Logitech).
Other than that, I love it!

Well it turns out there was a bad firewire port on the external drive. Now if I can just keep it from losing contact with my trackball when it sleeps.
Some people say to never let the Mac sleep, but others say you have to leave it on at night so it can do some Unix maintenance. Anybody know what the answer is?

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