LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 250 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/800 Portable External Hard Drive 301291
by Lacie
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 250 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/800 Portable External Hard Drive 301291
Customer Review: A fantastic external hard drive
Summary: 5 Stars
I received this external hard drive as a gift from my sister who knows that I'm always transferring things from my Mac Mini to my PC. This little hard drive gives me lots of options and a perfect way to go between platforms. I couldn't be more delighted with this gift.
I plugged this drive into my Mac first and it came up with formatting screen where I was able to format the drive into sections for the Mac and the PC or all Mac or all PC. I chose the larger section for the Mac since I have the master file for my iTunes music and most of my photo's on this computer. It was simple to drag the little box to allow more or less space on each partition and then just hit a button to format it. Nothing could be simpler. I use Windows XP and Mac OS X.
There are ports for FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB2.0 so you have your choice. My Mac has FireWire but my PC doesn't. I may end up adding one to the PC though, since it's so much faster to transfer files with it. I was able to back up all my music and photo files and transfer some of them to my PC without any problem and I'm not a real techie person, I'm a 60 year old woman. It's pretty simple to use. And 250 GB is just the right size for the files that I want to back up.
I love the looks of this thing with the orange band around it. I may order another one myself in another color so I can tell the drives apart. (The colored bands are removable and can be interchanged). It has a nice solid feel to it.
My sister was also nice enough to get me this Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black) that is the perfect size for the hard drive. I could get by without a case since the drive seems pretty sturdy, but it's nice when you want to throw it in a briefcase or backpack to have that little bit extra protection.
Customer Review: Horrible product for OS X users
Summary: 1 Stars
RUN AWAY!!! I've used LaCie's higher-end external drives for years as a video editor. I know that some of their low-end drives, like the Porsche series are dogs. As for this one, I don't know if my drive is defective or if this is just a terrible product, but here is my experience: If you need an external hard drive, you probably have a time-sensitive storage problem. You expect the drive to work, and quickly. I have been going back and forth with LaCie tech support for four days by e-mail-note that they have no telephone service or live chat-as they ignore my problem. It takes 12-24 hours to get a response for each question, as they tell me to redo things I've already told them I've tried. THIS DRIVE WON'T MOUNT IN OS X; it is native formatted for OS 9. Who has OS 9 anymore? It's 2009, come on guys. They provide a install wizard that is supposed to autodetect OS X users and reformat the drive for you. It doesn't work! Then the wizard refers you to use Mac's own Disk Utility to partition the drive. Disk utility can't even mount the external hard drive. Isn't that a pickle. I'm left with a product that won't mount to even be reformatted--USELESS! On top of that, this is advertised as bus powered, but with a Powerbook G4 I have to use the included USB power cable to get the drive to spin at all-no matter what port I am using, Firewire 400, 800 or USB 2.0. It may not even be getting enough power to mount through this attached cable-this may be the problem. And note that the USB power cable takes up your other USB port, which is massively inconvenient. An AC adapter would be preferable. I know they say you can run over this drive with a truck (when it's OFF-nobody says you can drop this thing while it's running, which is really the problem you worry about), but how often does that happen? Maybe I'll stick with less gimmicky products and try to find one that just plain and simple mounts.Customer Review: Would Not Function -- Proceed with CAUTION !
Summary: 1 Stars
I was so looking forward to this external hard drive. I wanted to believe all of the glowing remarks.
Results: either the folks who gave this item an A+ have better luck than I, or they are much
better at troubleshooting. Or, maybe my laptop is more screwed up than I thought.
After reading the (very brief) booklet, I was careful to follow the instructions. The first few seconds
went smoothly, until it all stopped -- some kind of "Error Code". The only bad thing is, once this
happens there is NO solution for home troubleshooting. Your ONLY choice is to spend time on
their web site trying to figure out how to download a Backup Assistant, which did not work anyway.
I also took time to test out the various (provided) connecting cords, with no luck.
Once you are on their site, they have been so thorough as to provide you with dozens of Q&A
"scenarios". I could not locate a scenario which gave a solution, in a clear manner. Who wrote the answers
to these questions? And why must we work this hard to make a "high-quality" item work ?? Aarrrggghh.
After an hour, and a some highly frustrating moments, I gave up!
Here is another warning: LaCie provides no Customer Service Phone #: so, you are stuck using e-mail,
in trying to communicate obtuse logic about why their product failed on *your* computer.
Good News: As always, the Customer Service at Amazon is excellent, and the rep provided empathy and
quick instructions / paperwork so that I could promptly return this item.
My Two Centavos: LaCie is not La-See. Rather I would call it La-Buzzing-Bee or perhaps La-Fallen-Tree
Customer Review: Perfect companion for the MacBook Pro
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using this model LaCie hard drive for almost a year and it is fabulous. My previous drive was a Westell USB drive that stopped working after a few months. I've been using the drive in a middle school environment and it can really take the shocks! I've been using it with my digital photography class to collect their projects from various computers so I can grade them. Back and forth to the lab every day. No failures.
In fact, I was so impressed I bought one of these drives for my personal use as well.
While the drive is a bit larger dimensions that some of the others on the market, it is sturdy and reliable and has numerous options for connecting to your laptop. FIREWIRE 400, FIREWIRE 800, and USB 2.0. Best of all: all the cords come with it! No need to purchase separate firewire cords. The drive is plug and play, but it also has a power cord just in case (I've never needed to use it). I love that I can take it from a firewire 400 computer to a computer with only firewire 800 and just switch connecting cords.
This is an outstanding drive at a great price. True value here!
Customer Review: Great product for the money!
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow is all I can say about this external hard drive. I was looking for one because my MacBook had just about 3GB of space left on the hard drive at one point. So I knew I needed an external hard drive. I bought this (320GB) for $109. Nothing! Absolutely nothing can beat that price, especially for 320GB! I purchased this external hard drive on Sunday January 17. I received it in the mail (without paying shipping) that wednesday January 21. I didn't pay anything for shipping and received this in 4 days. That is really nice. I would definitely recommend this external hard drive to anyone because there are different sizes (160GB 320GB 500GB) and it is built to withstand rough impacts. Buy this product. It is great!
Just for anyone who was wondering, this product does come with the orange casing. I was reading some reviews and one of them said you had to buy it separately. It does come with the orange rubber case. It also comes with a few different cords for firewire and usb 2.0
Buy this product it is defiantly worth it!