[pastusza]

I have a 2Ghz Core 2 Duo Mac Mini at home (Nvidia graphics) with an internal 120GB drive. I have 2 external 1 TB drives plugged into the Mac Mini that need to be plugged in. One is for extra storage and the other is for Time Machine backups.

Well, that's just way too many plugs for me. I'm thinking of doing the following, and I'd like other peolple's opinion:

1. Get an internal 1 TB laptop drive to replace the drive that's in the mac Mini
2. Purchase a bus powered 1 TB drive and use that for Time Machine backups.

Is a bus powered 2.5" drive able to deal with staying plugged into a mac Mini 24/7 and being used for Time Machine backups?

[Waragainstsleep]

A laptop drive should be as good as an off the shelf external desktop 1TB. Either will spin down when not required so you shouldn't notice much difference in theory.

Of course neither is really designed for sustained 24/7 use, thats why there are enterprise class drives but you can usually buy two or three desktop class drives (laptop class in this case) for the same money.