LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB FireWire 800/ FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 301371 by Lacie
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Digital camera reviews of LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB FireWire 800/ FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 301371
Digital camera Review: Drive: F - Customer Support: A+
Summary: 2 Stars
I study photography at an art school and almost every student on campus owns one (if not several) of these drives. Staff and faculty suggest them because of their low fail rate and the "rugged" nature of the product (since students are often not the gentlest with their equipment). I bought one, even though one can find cheaper alternatives out there, because of their reputation and because I needed a great portable drive for daily use.
The first month of use was fantastic. These drives are great looking and compact. The option of choosing between firewire800, firewire400 and USB depending on the computer you're working on is wonderful!
Unfortunately I, like so many others according to these reviews, have experienced the notorious firewire800 failure. Even out of the box the port seemed loose (you could easily wiggle the cable around from side-to-side). I'd been advised by some techie friends that it might be worthwhile to invest in a higher-quality firewire800 cable from another brand as LaCie's version wasn't known for being the best. So I did. Same result.
I'm working on a new iMac at home and, unfortunately, there is no firewire400 port. So when the drive began mounting and dismounting at random, I was left hanging out to dry. USB is just impossibly slow (and it takes up two ports) and firewire400 wasn't an option for me, so the best I could do was to try to transfer as much data as possible before the drive would randomly unmount, then wait for my computer to recognize it again and try the same thing. Awful. When I checked the reviews section on Amazon and discovered that this problem was a common one, I was hugely disappointed. I paid $110 for this drive and you can find 500gb drives from other brands for even half that cost.
What also made me wary were the reviews of LaCie's customer service department. Apparently some people have encountered apathy when trying to solve their problems with customer service reps. Happily, however, I did not have the same experience. I may be fortunate because my drive failed pretty shortly after I bought it. But I called customer support and spoke with Patty who was lovely and very helpful. She arranged to have a replacement drive shipped to me in a week and is sending me a firewire400 to firewire800 cable at no cost to get me through the waiting period! At zero cost to me. That, in my book, is FANTASTIC service!
That said, I'm nervous that I'll be going through the same thing with the new drive, but hopefully I just had a defective unit and this replacement drive will fix the issue.
Digital camera Review: Easy to travel with....
Summary: 5 Stars
Couple of months ago I had to get an external drive and I stumbled upon this one.
Love the size, look and its functionality!
This is the second one I purchase....
Great product!
Digital camera Review: Easy to use extra storage
Summary: 5 Stars
We have purchased two of these now of varying capacities and have found to be great and reliable - at least so far! With the fast Firewire 800 connection I have found it ideal for storing my music library. The set-up of the drive was easy and the portability is great. Not having an extra power cord compared to the drives we had previously helps clean up the clutter too! We have also successfully used this with our Time Capsule successfully as extra back-up capacity an a network drive.Digital camera Review: Excelente producto
Summary: 5 Stars
Una excelente inversión si necesitas llevar tus respaldos a todas partes. Es cómodo, ergonómico y con un excelente diseño. Me ha funcionado muy bienDigital camera Review: Excellent
Summary: 4 Stars
Although the package itself does not come with any form of enclosed box/storage unit for the drive, so far it is excellent to use. Lightweight, compatible and uses only one cord, this is an essential asset if you are backing up your work.