Anyone know if I can just plug and play with a bus-powered hard-drive to the USB spot on the screen in my car?... is it just that simple or is there more to it.

Depends on the vehicle. What are you driving?

usb hard drives are pretty finicky. Some drives will work with car usb inputs, some will not. Usually because the usb port doesn't put out quite enough power for the portable drive to spool up. I've had much better luck with flash drives. Given that you can get 16gb for around $30, they are clearly the better choice for me than screwing around trying to get a much bigger 2.5" portable drive to work.

I have a 2000 Honda Prelude (after market headunit) <BR> <BR>I have no problem hardwiring a power inverter to a larger drive if power is the only issue... I saw some 64 gig flash drives but those were $$$ <BR> <BR> <BR>I was hoping to just keep all my music and vids in the glove box and out of the way

$1 per gig here: <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&amp;item=120532201664&amp;r vr_id=&amp;crlp=1_263602_263622&amp;UA=WXF%3F&amp; GUID=7a7940551090a0674836e2f3ff7a7390&amp;itemid=1 20532201664&amp;ff4=263602_263622" target="_blank">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&amp;item=120532201664&amp;r vr_id=&amp;crlp=1_263602_263622&amp;UA=WXF%3F&amp; GUID=7a7940551090a0674836e2f3ff7a7390&amp;itemid=1 20532201664&amp;ff4=263602_263622</a>