WiebeTech's FireWire DriveDock and Super DriveDock allow you to create the geekiest external IEEE-1394 storage solutions yet seen. Just a bare drive, sitting there on the table, with a FireWire adapter plugged into the back. They're not too expensive, they come with some good software, they're easy to use and they work well.

_I_ still managed to make something go horribly wrong, of course.