LaCie 301825U d2 Quadra 500 GB eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 External Hard Disk
by Lacie
|
List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of LaCie 301825U d2 Quadra 500 GB eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 External Hard Disk
Customer Review: lots to think abuot
Summary: 4 Stars
Had my LaCie for three weeks now- no problems. I shopped on line and bought this sight un seen. I realize with the turndown that you can buy this size drive for less, or more to the point, one twice the size for pennies on the dollar. But I have peaked at a lot of the low end (price wise) stuff out there. Wow is mine sweet. Who ever this Neil Poulton guy is- I give him my $20. Those eBooks look like total explative. Maybe they are the same under the hood- but looks count man. Have some pride you geeks. I always want a cheap alternative - but this is cheap enough. I digress.
Software- don't think you are going to plug this or any hard drive and just back up. Like all the geeks are out there telling you. This is complex. Stratagies and software options. New technologies and changing(aging) formats. The LaCie comes with at least 3 options - I chose Retrospect- for Mac. Its powerful to be sure. But not for the over 60 , just getting into email crowd, (hey I'm only 59) Do you do Snapshots or Archiving- Duplicating and should you daisy chain more drives. How do you practice a Restore? Just a word to the wise. Any one who says its simple- here's how I do it- OK if its simple would you mind just showing me this once?
But I was wondering something about the drive and put out a support question, it was handled well- appropriately. Albeit in typical "e" format. Not that I want someone to call me on my home phone mind you. Hey I'm just thankful its not in Chinese with the funny pictures they use.
Observations? Terrabit is the next megabit. I like the idea of 500 because these things will bite the dust in maybe 4years- so split things up on successfully newer equipment over time. but if you shoot SLR - D in raw or shoot video- better start with terra, for all your big cars you Americans really miss the point of memory and bandwith. Multiplication tells alot.
So the tough call is 500 or terra really- the outer case- well that's no contest.
Its not all that quiet bytheway. Its equivalent to my G5 iMac (PPC)-you might want it off the desktop in a drawer or something.They say its better to keep it running- but if you only access it occasionally? - your call. I store my photos- (all of them, to free up my limited (75) gig hard drive) in iPhoto libraries so I need it more than occasionally. And if you separate your music and video libraries- you get the picture.
I give it another half point but not 5 because it is metal gray - should be white- sorry Neil.
Customer Review: Exceptionally easy
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm in shock.
Having just moved from Windows to Mac (OS X 10.5.2) I'm used to long, involved nightmare hardware installations. Between OS X and the utilities supplied by LaCie on this drive, the whole business was up and running in about ten minutes. It took me longer to figure out which was the FireWare 800 cable than it did to finish the rest of the installation!
I have a new iMac with both FireWire 400 and 800 ports, and I'm using the LaCie as my Time Machine drive, so I opted to use the fastest interface available, the FireWire 800. The installation had four steps:
1. Physically attach the footplate to the drive so it could sit on its thin side, as in the photo with this review. Tools: included Allen wrench. Time: 60 sec
2. Attach the FW800 cable and the power supply. Plug in same. Tools: none. Time: 60 sec.
3. Turn on the drive. Tools: finger. Time: 15 sec.
4. Click through the installation program that pops up on the screen. The last click is to inform OS X that this will be my TimeMachine drive. Tools: mouse, finger. Time: 5 min.
Total time: 7.25 min. (It took me about 2.5 minutes to figure out which cable to use.)
The FireWire interface is so fast, it did the initial TimeMachine 30GB backup in about 30 minutes.
The drive is quiet, it's fast, and it has a cool blue light on the front. It also has an auto power switch that detects when the iMac is seeking from the drive and switches on drive power.
What's not to like?
Customer Review: Nice while it lasted - horrible customer service
Summary: 3 Stars
This was SO easy to hook up with my iMac, just took literally a few minutes. And it worked perfectly; the noise when it was backing up wasn't bad at all. I really liked the blue light in front because, well, just because it looks cool. :)
However, I bought it only about six weeks ago, it was on sale as I recall, however it unfortunately died tonight. VERY loud clicking noises and my Mac froze up, which is beyond rare. Darn. All those backups lost since they'll have to refurbish it or replace it, which I'd of course prefer. Since they are closed the next two days, I don't know exactly how they will handle it.
Added: Once I finally got hold of customer service, after being on hold for an hour, the rep was not very responsive. The capper is that I have to pay for shipping (not a light unit) back at my cost, with stipulations as to how to send (3" bubble wrap - like I just have that sitting around). No refund unless they can't fix it. If I had it to do over again, I'd give it one star. If the returned unit (no ETA on when that might be) also fails, I WILL get a refund. You know when you call tech support and your 21st in line - AND there is no toll free number - it's time to prepare for the worst.
Of course, all my backups are gone either way. Please read their warranty VERY carefully before considering this unit.
Customer Review: Great, quiet drive - perfect for Mac Time Machine
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this review after my Western Digital MyBook hard drive bit the dust and I was dissatisfied with their customer service. (I wonder if part of the problem was that the WD drive is always on. This drive, by contrast has an on/auto/off switch. I prefer to leave the drive off unless I want to do a backup since I'm not a constant user of my computer.) Anyway, this drive is whisper quiet - a top priority for me - since the design doesn't require a fan. It's quick, unobtrusive, and perfect for backing up my iMac with Apple's Time Machine automatic backup program.
When you first plug in and power up the drive, it creates a program on your screen that gives you options of formatting for Mac or Windows, and it has some other software as well. It includes Retrospect Express backup and a one-touch feature to use with Retrospect Express, but since I prefer using Time Machine I just dragged out these folders from the drive and saved them on my computer's drive in case I might want to use them someday.
The triple interface option is good for me - I prefer backing up over FireWire and leaving my USB ports for other purposes.
Anyway, I've used the drive for several days now and am 100% satisfied. I used to own a LaCie hard drive years ago and I remember that that was a quality unit as well.
Customer Review: works for me, so far
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this external drive as an iMac "Time Machine" disc. Installation was extremely quick and painless. So far (after a few weeks {edit: now 1 year and still working}) everything seems to be working fine. It is quiet and it is nice looking.
As everyone undoubtedly knows, one can buy 500GB external USB drives for about $100, so why would anyone pay a 50% price premium? In my case, the answer is that I know that the vast majority of disc drives out there are junk. I have been burned twice by early life failures, and there are plenty of DOAs from most vendors. I am just desperate for reliable hardware, and am willing to pay the premium. Now, I've been told that LaCie buys their drives from major OEMs, so maybe this is a futile effort, but I am willing to try.
Normally, i wouldn't have bothered writing a review for this. After all, it's not like it's a television or something. You buy it. It either works or it doesn't. It either lasts or it doesn't. But I figured that disc drives have gotten so bad that we consumers need to band together and publish our results, and hopefully drive the worst suppliers out.
So, for me and LaCie, so far, so good. Better than my last 2 hard drives.
Update: After a year, still working.