Mac mini's best choice of external hard drive?

What would be the best way to back up a Mac mini; using a G-Tech,Lacie,Iomega, or something else?

Buy from a reputable vendor and try to keep to brand names that have a good reputation as well. I've been pleased with the Western Digital external drives as well as Seagate's. Maxtor has had some issues in the last 18 months and I'm not sure those have been resolved yet. For backing up FireWire is slightly more preferable because it tends to have better sustained write/read speeds than USB2 but heck, my backup is done in the background and doesn't affect my ability to surf or write so I really don't care one way or the other.

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    1. Do I need to disconnect it (pull out the cable from my iMac) every time I Shutdown - and reconnect on Startup? Or can I leave it it and pretty much just forget about it?
    What I do is shut down my Mac, leaving it connected to the mains: the external HD, external speakers and other peripherals are all connected to a mains switch and I turn these off. There's no need to disconnect the cable: some disks spin down when the computer is shut down, some don't. It probably wouldn't hurt to leave it spinning anyway, though I prefer to shut it off at the mains. Incidentally I shouldn't disconnect the computer from the mains when you shut down: doing this will run down the PRAM battery and hasten the day it needs replacing, which is expensive.
    2. Can I turn it 'on' and 'off' any number of times (using the on/off switch on the back) when working on the iMac? I might like to switch it off if I'm not using it for an extended period of time while still working on the computer. Is this okay?
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    4. I understand it's best to disconnect when 'Repairing Permissions?' Can this be confirmed?
    I've never heard this, and I can't see that there's any neccesity: the repairing process will be confined to the disk you have nominated to work on in any case.

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