Home > Consumer Reviews > LaCie 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive, Design by Neil Poulton 301304U

I attached this 1-TB USB external drive to my 2.8 ghtz IMac. The setup was a snap, but the included utilities wanted to take the whole drive as a single partition. I used the Mac's disk utilities, and created two partitions. This way, one partition can now be used for Time Machine (which by the way, will keep backing up until the disk is full, then begins deleting the oldest files), and another partition that is used to back up my Linux server.

The rest of the setup was fast. The Mac found the drive quickly, and so did Time Machine. The Time Machine software asked me which partition I wanted to use, and once that was decided on, Time Machine took off, and has been backing up ever since. How simple is that?

Also, most of the specs I read on this drive show a cache of 16 mb, but the drive as delivered, much to my pleasant surprise, has a cache of 32 mb. Even with the USB connection (I think firewire, which is available on some other La Cie drives, is about 15% faster), I found the file transfer time more than acceptable. I have run video from the drive with no issues. Also, I often transfer rather large photo files, and graphic images to and from the drive, and again no issues.

All that being said, for the money, the drive is hard to beat.

This was purchased as external backup - it's quiet and lovely. The blue LED reflects off the surface (desktop) so you know when it's in use. Easy to use backup software included, but not robust enough for a power user or tech-geek (use cobian!).

The USB cable is kinda short, about 8", so if you're not planning on placing this directly next to or on the box you're backing up plan to purchase or use a different USB cable.

I have bought this drive over a month ago. The first item I have bought turned out to be DOA. I have called the customer service and could not be happier, they were lightning fast to take my call. If you have any problems, my suggestion would be to call them. However, since I bought the drive through Amazon, I decided to take advantage of their exchange offer which I thought would be faster. Second drive arrived very quickly. As of today, I have been running this drive 24/7 most of the time (most drives die within a few months if they have manufacturing problems - I wanted to initiate kind of a "burn" test to see if anything was wrong with it) and I have not had any problems with it.

With all this said, I am not a big fan of Samsung drives which this unit contains. And the fact that the first drive was DOA just made me a little more nervous. I can not rely on this as my sole back up drive. I keep my precious data on my 320gb Maxtor which has endured many 3-4 feet falls over the span of 5 years and this Lacie serves as a 2nd back up.

Unit runs relatively cool and quiet, just remember to put it on a solid surface because the bottom is responsible for heat dissipation. For example, if you put it on your bed, it will turn into a fireball pretty quickly.

Case looks very cool, and keep in mind that all external drives are more prone to failure than internal drives. I suggest you buy this through Amazon thus allowing you to exchange/return easily if you have any problems with it.

As for me, I wait before if this thing lasts a few trips in a luggage and runs 24/7 for another 3-4 months before I upgrade it to keep more important data.

I bought two of these (750GB) to replace a failing drive and to be more responsible about backups. I have some complaints, but overall I really like them.

Pros: great case, good size (a largish paperback; slightly narrower, lower and longer than my Mac Mini), on/off button, small adapter with a regular plug, no fan, relatively low light output from the front indicator.

Cons: louder than other fanless drives (compared to the Seagate eSATA 750), ambient light flickers with drive activity (I'd prefer a constant light).

Depends: only has USB.

In my opinion, online images make it look bigger than it is. Check the dimensions. The smooth black case lacks prominent logos. They can be stacked, but only two. I assume this is for heat dissipation reasons.

Why only 4 stars? Lacie's advertising claims it is "near-silent". Close, but not quite.

UPDATE:

1 of these drives has failed as of 4/2009. Neither has ever been used for anything but a backup drive, so it's not as though it failed from overuse. I'm somewhat disappointed. I doubt I'll buy Lacie again.

I purchased 2 Lacie Drives. One worked fine, while the other made loud clicking noises (sign of a bad hard drive near failure). I went through email support, where they had me jump through hoops for three weeks before having me call for "support". Support immediately said to send it in for service, but that I have to pay for my own shipping because the warranty doesn't cover that.

Basically, I've had to pay an extra $12 for a working external hard drive. I won't be buying another hard drive from a company that doesn't provide decent warranty support and regret my decision now.