I don't think I'm tech-savvy enough to build something of my own, no matter what the price, so I'd be looking at something that I can just plug in. I hadn't thought about the USB powered idea (was just thinking of something I could plug in at a hotel or airline club to move programs from the external drive to the laptop if I was out of programs to watch, or wanted to just watch something on the external drive instead). Lots of ideas here. I'll look around and see what products out there might fit my needs. 160gig is probably lots more than I need to take on the road with me. The 80gig $100 model was just the first one I looked at, and I'm sure there's something out there better price wise. I can't see that I'd need more than that.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. I think I'll try to get another year's use out of the laptop and get the external drive as a short term workaround.

The laptops I've been looking at with 80gig hard drives and 14 inch displays or less have all been over $1,100. I can see getting something down the line on sale with a smaller hard drive if I'm happy with the external drive to hold the TIVO programs.