<p>Always turn off auto-sync on an ipod, its just a good idea…</p>
<p>They definately work as a harddrive (they simply show up as one when you plug them in).</p>
<p>Personally I have always disliked the creative players and their crappy internal software and external software. They can make some nice hardware usually but their usability engineers are total idiots. I prefer the new ipods to my creative player any day (just get better than the stock headphones).</p>
<p>As to the music monthly services, why on earth would you want to pay for a collection that you cant even keep if you stop paying. What guarantee do you have that they oneday wont dissapear with the company or become unplayable due to a billing error. If you dont think you will want to listen to the music you are getting NOW in a couple of years, what are you doing listening to it now? Find something better. CD’s are great, Itunes is great (and the files are much better than crappy wmas) and p2p still works pretty well.</p>