Home > Consumer Reviews > LaCie 301269U Ethernet Disk Mini Home Edition 500 GB Network Attached Storage Hard Drive

I bought this to serve as a network storage device for a multi-user homeoffice, all of which is running off a CAT6 gigabit network with all gigabit interfaces, routers etc. All PCs are XP.

Out of the box, I did have a problem getting the self-detection software to pick up the unit which was very weird. I am a competent network/systems engineer so I know what I am doing in terms of the firewall, router config etc, but if had me baffled for a while until I realized it didn't really matter since I could just map directly to it even though the SW couldn't see itself.

Since the software still can't see its own device on my network I cannot really comment on the automated backup software which comes bundled. This is not really important to my needs so please note that it doesn't really affect my rating of the product either.

Apart from that initial setup issue, the device is great. It's a shame that the files need to go into the pre-defined top-level directory structure (MyLibrary, MyBackup, FamilyLibrary etc) but it really isn't an issue since you can easily create your own mappings to folders under these top-levels and you would never know that the top-levels were even there.

The speed of the device is decent. On a single large 1GB file transfer to the device I get nice consistent 350MB/minute. (i.e. a little under 3 minutes to copy the file). Faster would be nice for a gigabit, but that's not too shabby. It should be noted that several hardware review sites show testing of this device running at around twice the speed I get here, but others show what I see. If I ever figure out why I'm getting worse results I'll post a comment. Compare that to a locally connected USB 2.0 drive which will get around 900MB/minute.

The nice additional feature which I wasn't really looking for is the web interface so I can share files with other people in my company at remote sites. I just set them up with accounts, send them a URL and they can then get files from the shared folder or upload their own. This works very well and is pretty easy to use. Thinking about if from a non-business perspective I can see this being great for sharing photos etc with family without having to keep emailing them one at a time. The nice thing is the ability to see graphic files in a little preview window in the browser without having to download the whole file first.

As at least one other reviewer noted, the download speeds from the device to a PC are for some reason slower than upload speeds. I'm not sure why that would be, since reads are normally far faster than writes, but its not a killer. Think 3.5 mins to download that 1GB file which took 3 mins to upload.

I should also note that of all the reviews for this device which were really bad - 1 star - it looks like they were all Mac reviewers. I guess this could mean that there is a Mac compatibility issue. That doesn't affect me but I will say it almost put me off buying one until I realized that was the case. Once I saw that all the bad reviews were Mac-related I ignored them.

Bottom line, this is a nice little product that could be faster, and apart from a quirky setup process with their own software detection, it has been working flawlessly for me since. I would definitely buy another if I needed more space.

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UPDATE April 2009:
Since I said I would check, it looks like the speed limitation I am seeing is just related to my 10/100/1000 onboard Intel network interface. Even simple tests using network tools max out around 340MBs, which is approx what I saw when copying to the NAS. I therefore suspect that using a faster motherboard or network card would produce better results copying to the NAS, more like the ones seen in some of the test sites that are out there.

Do you want a common storage device to share pictures, music, or other small files with a few friends via the internet - and no subscription service fee? This may be the only device for you.

If you need an external hard drive for back-up purposes, keep looking. The data transfer speed of this thing is going to frustrate you.

Even sitting on your desk 2" from you computer, data is transferred via your router / Ethernet connection to the hard-drive, so speed is poor. The Disk Mini Home's USB port is apparently not available to use as a "faster" connection to you computer. According to LaCie's website, it is for "backup on external USB hard drives."

This is a poor choice to use as an external hard drive.

However, as way to host files, for $99 and no subscription fees, where your friends can upload and download files via the internet, this may be the only option.

As far as installation; I was not able to use the automatic setup program via my Mac, but it did work using Windows XP - without a hitch. Many users have complained about set-up problems with Mac / XP / Vista, but I suspect that LaCie has worked out at least some of the XP setup issues over time.

My sister-in-law was browsing pictures via her phone in the USA that I had posted on my Ethernet Disk Mini Home in Europe within 30 minutes of me opening the LaCie box. That's impressive for $99.

see LaCie specs here: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10994

This drive makes a racket even when no one uses it. I'm not sure what it is busy doing, but I would think it should go into an idle mode most of the time. It does not appear to do that. I have only owned it for a month and have not figured out if there is a configuration step I missed.

Another detraction is that it requires a software install for another machine to look at the drive as a simple drive.

It works OK for streaming music to my Roku Soundbridge. Accessing files from work via the internet also works. However, the backup software included is weak and bare-bones. After reading the forums on the Axentra website (they make the HipServ software), it's clear this is a first generation product. I think I should have bought an NAS from Buffalo Technology instead.

Being an Information Technology Tech and my wife a programer we use this drive as our mini home network and it works great. We connected it to our wireless router and can access it from any where in the house. We use it to store all our pics and music.