Backing up iphoto to LaCie External Drive

I'm a newbie on a G5mac, just got an LaCie 1TB external drive and want to transfer 2500 photos and some home videos to it. No instructions on the unit. Did the install and formatted the new drive, but now I just stare at the blue light. How does one transfer a folder/file/individual document/ whatever to an external drive? Do you drag and drop to the icon on the desktop? I have no clue, sorta savy but when in the dark, get to nervous to experiment. There's Wuala on-line offr to join and Intego Backup software
. Is that what I need to open to start things going? I think LaCie must have network programmers as their default end customers. Can you get me going in some direction as a newer Mac guy coming over from a corporate PC user where backups etc were handled by staffers? Thanks in advance, Possum.