only one firewire port - how to capture to external HD?

[zydubion]

I have an Alienware Laptop.
Specs:

Built-In Microphone
TV-Out Port with S-Video
1 Type II PCMCIA Slots
3 USB 2.0 Ports & 1 IEEE-1394 Port (4 PIN)
Smart Bay Drive with Dual HDD Support
3-In-1 Media Card Reader
Dual Infrared Ports with Remote Control

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB w/ 512KB Cache

Motherboard: SiS648FX + SiS963L AGP8X Chipset

Memory: 1024MB DDR PC-3200 - 2x512 SO-DIMMs

Video Card: Area-51m NVIDIA GeForce™ FX Go5600 Module with 128MB DDR

Sound Card: Sound-Blaster Pro Compatible 3D Audio

Hard Drive: Hitachi 40GB 7200 RPM ATA100 with 8MB Cache

Smart Bay One: 4x2x8x DVD+RW / 16x10x24x CD-RW Combo w/Software

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

Maxtor External 250gig 7200rpm

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The sole purpose of this laptop is for editing and DVD burning.
I am using Premiere Pro. Before I do my very 1st capture,
I want to be sure I do it right.

The laptop came with only one Firewire port, and thus my problem:

As it is best to capture to a drive separate from the main (C drive,
I want to capture to my External Maxtor.

Do I attach a firewire hub into my solitary firewire port, so that I
can plug in my camera AND my Ext HD?

or

Do I forget about the hub, and plug the camera to the FW port, and capture
out to the EXt HB via USB 2.0?

What are the pros & cons of each?

Thanks.

[redwudz]

Most external HD's on Firewire have a passthrough, at least two of mine do. If you don't a hub of some sort should work. Firewire is powered, so be careful not to pull any power unnecessarily from your laptop. You can try USB2.0 with your external HD, may be OK with DV, but USB2.0 can be a problem with higher data rates.

[zydubion]

Firewire is powered, so be careful not to pull any power unnecessarily from your laptop.

How would I know if I am doing this?

Thanks for your advice.