Need advice on what to look for when buying an external HD

Hello iBook enthusiasts,
I want to buy an external HD for backing up my important documents, and for having a way of booting up just in case the iBook should fail. I have searched some of the old posts, but I am still a bit confused.
So far, it seems that the most important criterion is that the drive have FireWire in order to be bootable.
I don't want to spend a ton of money. Somehow, I get these emails from Buy.com, advertising their specials. For example, they had a 250G one for $100 (although that particular deal is now expired). This seems like a good deal to me. Is that right? Should I try to buy the largest or smallest one that's in my price range? If iBook does die, I would like to still be able to use the HD with whatever replacement I get.
Also, is there any particular brand that I should either look for or avoid? How do I know these things?
Anyway, sorry these questions are so vague. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Anna
Ibook G3 500 MHz Mac OS X (10.3.9) 14 GB HD, 640 MB RAM

Anna:
Yes, rule no. 1, Firewire or FW/USB
2. Largest HDD you can afford (having more space than you need it not a problem; needing more space than you have, is.)
3. 7200 rpms. (Most of them are, but not all)
Here is a list of some of the best buys already sorted for 200-300 GB.
Different folks like different manufacturers. I have had my LaCie for 2 years. No problems. I like it for it's compact size and elegance.
Here are some good hints from Dr. Smoke on Backup and Recovery. Instead of Retropect, which I could never quite figure out, I use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.
Post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

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