External hard drive question

[NJOK]

I have a pretty basic laptop that is currently holding about 30GB of songs and movies. Not sure of the laptop's memory capacity but, if I download new content, I sometimes get the error message that the computer is running low on disk space. Are these songs etc likely to be slowing my laptop down? Would it be worth getting an external hard drive?
Also, I connect my ipod to the laptop's one USB port. Is that the same port I'd connect the external drive to? If so, how would I get music from my external drive onto the ipod?

[neg213]

You can buy a USB splitter that will give you more USB ports, and buy an external hard drive to keep all your documents on, leaving your laptop free from clutter and run better and faster.

[Nemesis9]

Curious. If you have the knowledge to check the size of your songs and movies folders, how come you don't know how to check how much memory space is left on your laptop? Not a criticism, but its easier to ascertain that, then it is the former.
Just click 'my computer', and then move your mouse cursor over 'Boot (C) - your hard drive, it will tell you how much space you've used, and how much remains. Alternatively, right click and check properties.
If you opt for an external hard drive, simply transfer the songs over, and when using itunes add this drive to your library. As long as its connected you can plug your ipod into your laptop and transfer music to it.

[fo3nix]

It does sound like you need more room.

As neg said, you can buy cheap USB "hubs" that turn one port into 4 or 5.

The songs themselves won't slow the computer down so much, but if you're really running short of hard drive space, and you haven't got an endless quantity of RAM, it will run slow because windows won't be able to create an adequate swap file.