Home > Consumer Reviews > LaCie 301138U Ethernet Disk Mini 500 GB Ethernet/USB 2.0 Network Attached Storage Hard Drive

I purchased this unit and it worked for awhile. It then began working intermittently after
I'd transferred some very important data to it and now eventhough I can see it on my network,
NOBODY at Lacie can seem to help me actually get into the hard drive. They recommend
re-installing and re-formatting... sure, so what about my data???

do yourself a favor, don't buy this!!

I've had this unit for a almost 2 months and it took me a long time to figure out how to get it to work. It wasn't handling data transfers over Ethernet or USB very quickly (I'm talking days and days to run -- incompletely -- and slowing down my computer throughout) and I couldn't back up multiple computers (one a PC and one a Mac) at the same time. I hunted around long and eventually decided to follow the one piece of advice to reformat the drive. Fearing that I'd only make my life more miserable, I had been quite hesitant to do this.

In the end, however, reformatting was the right move. Once done, the unit responded as advertised, although the Geni Backup Assistant software that came with it has never worked (doesn't recognize the share -- a trial version of Genie Home worked, FYI). I'm able to use the normal Vista Backup and the Intego Backup (free Mac version of Geni software) without problems, although the Intego wants to create "hardlinks" (which I don't understand) and kicks a nonfatal warning when it can't. Intego does work, though.

So far, so good, and I'd recommend that if you have any problems with transfer rates to try reformatting and see if it helps. Make sure you're not losing any data, which should be the case for a new drive. If this doesn't work, call LaCie. Good luck.

The drive worked fine over my Mac and PC network for a little over a year with no *big* problems, except that it was horribly slow at data transfers over the network. This week, it suddenly died. The drive is no longer recognized by either computer, and it's making some unusual noises. Disappointing.

After working for a few months, this miserable device suddenly disappeared from my network. It refused to reinstall. Likewise it would not install on a USB connection. LaCie's primitive software gave no indication of what the problem was, much less a solution.

As a busy professional I had limited time to deal with this unwarranted and inexcusable failure. Despite my request for urgent assistance, LaCie took their sweet time, responded in 2 days with a pro forma and totally useless response that provided ZERO solutions. They simply suggested a USB installation--but their USB driver would not even install--on 2 different computers.

By that time I had too many work deadlines to deal with LaCie's Mickey Mouse excuse for customer support. I simply have had no backup storage for months until I have time to deal with the mess LACIE and their junk equipment caused me.

LACIE IS NOT ONLY TOTALLY USELESS, BUT THEY ARE A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY AND A GREAT WASTE OF TIME. A TOTAL WASTE OF THE PRICE I PAID FOR THIS JUNK. AND THEIR MICKEY MOUSE "TROUBLESHOOTING" IS A TOTAL WASTE OF VALUABLE PROFESSIONAL TIME.

Don't trust them with a dime of your money!!!

It works with Vista well without any problems, but we needed to connected it to a Mac and XP machines, which proved quite difficult. The connection to the Mac was especially inconsistent, many times we could get no connection and once we had it, it would get lost soon after. The connections we did get across all the platforms was a very slow, and it took a great deal of time to transfer data. We returned the LaCie after two days and are still searching for a better solution to shared storage across platforms.