External HD's

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mindido

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• Sep 1, 2005

• #1

Hey,

Does anyone know anything about, or have any experience with, the LaCie external HD? My roommate has just started some type of video editing class and they require her to have a large external for the class. I have an 80 GB Maxtor which has been just great but the 250 GB that she apparently needs is now about $600 at CompUSA. The LaCie is about $200.

Anybody have any experience with these?

 

Cman

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• Sep 1, 2005

• #2

I don't have much experience with external drives, but the one thing I do know is you want the connection to be as fast as possible.

Firewire would probably be the fastest and USB 2.0 if not. (avoid USB 1.1 or any slower port)

 

Preferred User

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• Sep 1, 2005

• #3

Sorry Mindido. I've used the Maxtor one several times, and have a little 40 Gig Apricorn that's small enough to fit in my bag. I'm with Cman on the ports though. If it's an old computer with USB 1.1, I will try everything else before I use a USB ext drive.

In my experience there's not a lot to know. They install and work just like a flash drive in many respects. $600 is way too much for a 250 Gig anything drive. I don't know how you can get hurt with the $200 LaCie.

 

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mindido

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• Sep 1, 2005

• #4

She just bought this thing yesterday and asked me about it last night. It apparently has 3 interfaces (USB 2.0 and apparently 2 types of Firewire ports; one 6 pin and a 9 pin). I'm doing a google search on it right now and reviews seem to be all over the spectrum. Some places really like it and others saying that many of these are dead right out of the box. One guy was just livid. He apparently hooked it up, backed up everything from his Mac to the drive, formatted the Mac and reinstalled OS X, then went to reinstall his files from the drive, and it went Poof! Oh man! I'd go right through the roof. This thing has me a bit worried.

Whereas the 80 GB Maxtor external I have has been just fine. I think I spent about $150 on it a year or two ago and thats OK. But $600 for a 250 GB Maxtor? That sounds rediculous.

Thats why I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with the LaCie.

 

Preferred User

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• Sep 1, 2005

• #5

I see. I'm careful when I do a Google and get several people saying things like that. You're right, it's not just the money. I've never heard of those maxtors failing. I'm sure it happens but it's popular enough that we all would have heard of the trend if that were the case.

 

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mindido

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• Sep 1, 2005

• #6

Hey Preferred,

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way, which is why I was asking around here. And I think my roommate may have been snookered as the CompUSA website lists the 300 GB Maxtor at $220. A bit odd. Anyway, we'll see, but I think we'll probably be returning this LaCie.

 

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mindido

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• Sep 2, 2005

• #7

OK, one last twist to throw into the mix. I think I know the answer but I'll probably need a Mac person to confirm this.

It turns out that my roommates computers are primarily Macs at school but she has a PC at home. The LaCie and Maxtor drives both work with PC's and Macs but I'm wondering about the formatting of the drive. Unless something has changed very recently, the two formats are not compatable. So even if I was to partition the drive into two parts, one Mac and the other NTFS, the PC could still not read the Mac partition and vice versa. Basically meaning that when she works on the Mac at school she'll have to copy it to the Mac partition. And when she gets home to the PC, that machine won't be able to see the Mac partition. Is that still correct?

Or, could she copy the file from a Mac at school to the NTFS partition and vice versa?

 

Preferred User

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• Sep 2, 2005

• #8

CompUSA is my least favorite retailer in the world. They couldn't possibly make it harder to buy. Everything is under lock and key, no one to unlock it, and when you do finally get someone's help, he says it has to be that way.

Sorry Min, don't know your MAC formatting answer. Might PM Conman, he's pretty good on those questions.

 

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mindido

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• Sep 2, 2005

• #9

Hey Preferred,

I'm not a big fan of CompUSA either but they're very close to where we live and my roommate is still learning about these infernal machines.

I'll follow your advice with Conman. Thanks.

 

stu2906

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• Feb 18, 2006

• #10

My latest toy is a Toshiba 320Gb external hardrive. It rocks. I'm using it for my music and video files as well as archiving games and work stuff.

# Toshiba PX1223E-1G32
# 320GB 3.5" External USB Hard Drive
# 8MB Buffer Cache
# 7200rpm High Speed
# High Speed USB 2.0 Interface
# Horizontal or Vertical Placement
# Optimised for Digital Video, Pics&Music
# Fanless Design for Near Silent Operation
# Power Requirement: +5VDC (+/-5%) + 12VDC
# Start up Current (MAX AO:2.0) (12V)

Retails at about £199.99 ($345US) but i got mine for £115.00 ($200US) in a sale.

 

H

hoppi

• Feb 18, 2006

• #11

i've got a 160 gb external drive.its from medion.
it was pretty cheap,regarding its value back then(nearly a year) and its technology(usb 2.0-slot,firewire-slot(actually 2,if the cable must be used or plugged in the other way)).it was about 120 $ if this calculator is correct.
i'd recommend this brand every time again...but if your roommate is into a famous well-known trademarks,disregard my post.

 

A

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• Mar 25, 2006

• #12

mindido said:

Hey,

Does anyone know anything about, or have any experience with, the LaCie external HD? My roommate has just started some type of video editing class and they require her to have a large external for the class. I have an 80 GB Maxtor which has been just great but the 250 GB that she apparently needs is now about $600 at CompUSA. The LaCie is about $200.

Anybody have any experience with these?

Click to expand...

I've got a 280GB External Lacie

Small, quiet, fast, no software to run, and works immediately. Would not hesitate to buy another one.

 

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Blurrz

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• Mar 25, 2006

• #13

Why are you guys getting an external drive? Just buy an internal drive and a $20 external enclosure. All of the enclosures will have USB or FireWire ports. I got a 160gb that was $50 total, including the enclosure. If I had bought it as an external, it would have cost $100.

The same goes for DVD burners--just buy an internal and get an enclosure. Save your money!

 

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mindido

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• May 31, 2006

• #14

One last addendum to the LaCie external drive. We returned it this morning, it was a real piece of junk. The problems? There were two big ones.

First, the thing ran really hot. The case is so tight that there is no room for air to move around it.

Second, the connector on the power cable is a type with four or five pins and the pins were constantly bending and then breaking (she was moving the thing back and forth to school all the time).

So we took it back and followed Blurrz advice. I wouldn't touch one of those LaCie's again.

 

Captain Feathersword

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• Jun 15, 2006

• #15

I know this is a little late but I work in a computer rental company. It is amazing how many people request these. I thought Lacie sucked but after using them alot they are pretty good. I my self own a 500GB. I only use it for music and honestly that is the only reason to own one. Of course you do get a lemon once in a while. They are actually not that expensive anymore. You can get a 500 Lacie for $300 but of course you save more cash by building it yourself. I'm tooo lazy for that.

 

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mindido

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• Jun 15, 2006

• #16

Captain,

I mentioned above the reasons we got rid of her LaCie. They were engineering problems, meaning that all LaCie's with the same case and connector would experience the same difficulties. I guess if you rarely or never moved it, that would take care of the poor power connector problem. But your still stuck with the heat problem. And HD's are noted for not liking excessive heat, they have a tendency of frying out.

And after putting together the external, I'd highly recommend it. The case was only about $50 and you can choose whatever HD you want to put in it. We put in a 300 MB Western Digital for about $130. And I think it took a grand total of about a half hour. Pretty simple.

 

Captain Feathersword

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• Jun 15, 2006

• #17

That is true they hate excessive heat. But I constently move mine around and I haven't experienced any issues. But I do agree building your own ( HD, Computer or basically anything it is always better,easier and cheaper.)

 

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mindido

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• Jun 15, 2006

• #18

Captain Feathersword said:

But I constently move mine around and I haven't experienced any issues.

Click to expand...

Captain,

I would just be careful with it then (the LaCie). Take a look at those four pins inside the power cable connector. They're really delicate and once bent, can't be straightened, they break right off. Granted, my roommate is a bit of a klutz, so it probably was knocked over a few times, but I've found that the single pin on most power connectors works alot better and is much more difficult to destroy.

 

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• Jun 15, 2006

• #19

mindido said:

Take a look at those four pins inside the power cable connector.

Click to expand...

Min I'm just curious, any idea why there are four pins? There aren't different volatages going to a hard drive are there? Is it for bi-directional communication?

 

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mindido

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• Jun 15, 2006

• #20

Preferred,

You know, I have no idea why they need four pins. Looking at my Maxtor, it has only one pin with two contact surfaces (presumably + and -) and its the same with my roommates. And I can't think of a reason for bi-directionality in the power cable, that would be taken care of through the USB or firewire cables.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that they designed it that way so it would break more often.