Yeah, best would be a 5"14 box with universal USB2 + Firewire to IDE device, then it even would be possible to use CD/DVD read/write devices.

BTW new ipods are no more Firewire compatible
and it's a mess to connect it using USB as there is a first partition using a special format and only then the FAT32 (if pc formatted) drive... I still can't see the content of my iPod mini....which is FW compatible.