Need External Drive Info

I am about to purchase a new iMac. I also realize that it is about time to get an external drive to back up all my photos and important documents. I am at a complete loss as to what I need to look for (with regard to external back-up). Any guidance about what would be compatible with the iMac and tips on how to use an external drive would be most welcome.
I know that this question is vague - but I'm not even sure what to ask. I've played with fire for years by not backing up my work, partially because I didn't know where to start. I've decided it is time to dive in.
Thanks!

Any external drive will do however like all things to look for are features and quality. I tend to buy better drives for backup because if my backup drive fails I'm sunk if I need it. Like most people I keep my memories there so I want them as secure as possible. If you intend on using the drive for Time Machine (I'm assuming you know what that is) the drive should be 2-3x the size as the amount of data you have on your HD to cover for growth. Because new iMacs come with 1 & 2TB HD's that doesn't mean you need a drive 2-3x that size just the information stored on the drive. I currently have about 500GB of data I need backed up, my 1.5TB external drive works just fine.
Like many others I also keep a bootable clone (Google it) of my internal drive to safeguard against my internal drive crashing. If the internal drive crashes I can boot from my clone and be up and running in minutes. Here is a good article that discusses backup strategies from Macworld.
As far as specific drives I recommend these three:
OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro series
Lacie Quadra D2 series
G-Tech G series
All are high quality, similar feature set and price points. You can get them in a variety of capacities.
Roger

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    Message was edited by: KluZz (oops, premature submission)

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