A lot of you are already using hard drives for long term data (image) storage.  Let's look at some of the costs and how to save some cash.  After all, spending money on storage isn't sexy.

An external hard drive (enclosure) is a container for a bare (or internal) hard drive that uses a "bridge chip" to allow conversion from the native drive format (currently SATA) to Firewire 400, 800 or USB.  In addition to paying for the storage on the drive, you are also buying the design, marketing, packaging, shipping, metal or plastic shell, power supply and often an assortment of clutter cables.