LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB FireWire 800/ FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 301371
by Lacie
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List Price: Our Price: $117.89 You Save: $14.99 (11%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB FireWire 800/ FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 301371
Customer Review: Excellent all around-so far
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terrific little external hard drive, but first things first while I take a little break in filling up the Lacie:
Dear, Amazon.com: No government and no business in any state ruled by same government have any business whatsoever curtailing dissemination of truth. That pertains as much in the United States as it does in China, though the latter doesn't claim to be a democracy. We do, and it's on all of us to maintain, especially in the face of government and its media stenos.
The Lacie is what I hoped for. I was keeping an eye out for an external drive with Firewire connection, preferably 800, at some reasonable price. (Why IS Firewire so much more expensive?) I spotted this Lacie 320 and went for it, partially based on reviews here.
Formatting is easy, though I'd use Lacie's little program first so as to get at the instructions to do more. (Lacie allows for quick formatting a FAT32 partition, if you need that.) I did more, creating just two partitions: one HFS Extended and the other NTFS. Easy to do if you've done it before.
I'm about done transferring 30-40 gigabytes of data to the NTFS partition through my Mac Pro's (single Quad-Core only) CD-ROM from CD-Rs (mostly) where I'd already stored lots of data, mostly Photoshop images ranging in size from 50 KB to 1 GB.
Speed via Firewire 800 is excellent, I think. From the CD-Rom, it takes about 7 minutes to transfer 1 GB of data, which isn't bad at all. From my computer's hard drive it takes about 30 seconds to transfer 1 GB of data. Can't complain about that.
I can't speak for USB, though speed will of course be slower, but I expect just as reliable. Same for Firewire 400. Lacie kindly provides three different cables along with a power cable to work with USB.
I did encounter a glitch, but I'm 99% certain--as usual--to do with Windows and not with the Lacie. Too often devices are blamed when Windows is almost always the culprit. (Which is why I got a Mac, where glitches are at least less irritating. Mac OS, however, isn't perfect either in any number of ways. But I shouldn't get started--maybe one day these makers of OSes will take customers about halfway seriously for the money we fork over, but I'm not holding my breath. I had no trouble doing some copying on the Snow Leopard side of my Mac to the HFS partition.)
Now, Amazon also pushes a Case Logic case for the Lacie. I went for it. Very nice case in which the drive fits badly. Another quarter-inch in size would make a serious difference. One can get the case zipped around the drive but the drive will not lie completely flat inside the case, which means that if one would like to keep connectors inside the case along with the drive, all gets pretty tight. The drive simply will not fit under the elastic band inside the case without just about tearing the band. I'm keeping the case out of laziness, but look out for it.
Customer Review: Sweeeeet!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have two of these little beauties - that I use with my MacBook Pro. They are small light and fast - I like the fact that they get their power from the same connection they use to transfer data. I also got a little Case Logic case for each one - the cases fit them perfectly. I've traveled across the US with them from Seattle to Martha's Vineyard numerous times over the past six months and I drag them with me every day to/from my office... so far they are working exactly as advertised.
One thing that has concerned me is their operating temperature. I come from an age which believed that heat is a sign of friction and friction causes wear...? I wanted to dump some of that heat somehow. Eventually - I went to a kitchen store and bought several heavy tile trivets (the kind you would use in the kitchen to put a hot pan or dish on) I place a tile under each LaCie drive and the cool tile mass acts as a heat sink - so now, even at the end of a long day their temperature seems considerably less. I bought a several tiles and leave two at home and two in the office...
Considering the cost, the size and the portability of these little drives: they are well worth the price of admission!
Customer Review: Reliable and Solid! This Drive Is Great!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is, by far, the most robust external hard disk I've ever owned. I bought it for backups and for travel. And I like it very much.
I can't think of anything bad to say about this device. I went for the 500GB size because I wanted to back up several smaller computers on it. And as I travel a lot it comes in really handy.
The aluminium case and shock-resistant rubber outside protect the hard drive from damaging. It's easy to use. It transfers data quickly and is quiet - you can't hear it spinning unless you place it close to your ear. It's cool - after one night of uninterrupted operation it was barely warmer than room temperature. It's got a very nice design, and I love that it has USB as well as FireWire. Plus Lacie gives 3-year warranty!
Based on what I read before purchasing and on my personal experience with other LaCie drives, this is a very solid product. I also know that the customer service at LaCie is the BEST and that they are 100% committed to quality.
I highly recommend this drive as a backup device for people who travel a lot and for everybody looking for a good, solid device that fully meets expectations.
Customer Review: Great Drive - But the recommended case didn't fit!
Summary: 5 Stars
The drive is exactly what I expected and works perfectly for my video projects on the Macs at school.
However - the Case Logic case that Amazon recommends DOES NOT FIT Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black). The case is too small. I returned it and ordered the LaCie case - LaCie Cozy 2.5-Inch Carrying Case for Rikiki, Rugged and other Portable Hard Drives 130900 (Black) - which fits like a glove, sleeve and all.
The only drawbacks:
- I'm not a fan of the orange bumper and ordered the set of 3 sleeves separately LaCie Set of 3 Sleeves for Rugged Hard Drives 130752. I wish you could just pick the preferred color OR order them individually.
- The supplied Firewire cables are only about 18", which just reaches the top of the Mac, but if you need longer lengths, plan ahead.
Customer Review: Perfect Performance and Speed
Summary: 5 Stars
This is by far the best portable external drive I've experienced. I work on a Mac PowerBook, and I tried a few external drives that claim to be Mac compatible and have discovered that there are few of them that are. Most will not operate off USB2 alone and require an external power cable to power the drive. These often supply an additional USB cable for power that is too short to be used effectively.
Yet this drive will operate from the firewire 800 port of the PowerBook with power! I plug it in and it works. I also must often work between my Mac and a PC. LaCie had this possibility in mind when designing the software. An additional portion of the drive can be formatted for the PC allowing the exchange of files between platforms.
In addition, this drive is fairly lightweight, very rugged, and quick. Using Firewire 800 this drive performs extremely fast. Transferring files in double the speed of USB2, which is wonderful when needing to transfer video files between the PowerBook and the PC.