LaCie 301425U 1.5TB d2 Quadra Hard Disk eSATA-FireWire800-FireWire400-USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 11:06
Binding : Electronics
ProductGroup : CE
Manufacturer : Lacie
Brand : LaCie
Label : Lacie
Publisher : Lacie
Model : 301425U
Studio : Lacie
Lowest New Price: USD $200.00
- Plug-and-play 1.5 TB external hard drive offers 4 interfaces, including eSATA connectivity
- Fast transfer rates up to 3 Gb/sec; daisy-chainable via Firewire
- Advanced cooling system for quiet operation
- Includes eSATA-to-eSATA cable, Firewire 800 (9-to-9 pin) cable, Firewire 400 (6-to-6 pin) cable, and USB 2.0 cable (USB 1.1 compatible)
- Measures 1.7 x 6.3 x 6.8 inches (WxHxD); weighs 3.31 pounds; 3-year limited warranty
The LaCie d2 Quadra External Hard Drive is fully loaded with all the best interfaces¿eSATA 3Gbits, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0¿this all-in-one professional hard disk offers universal connectivity for PC and Mac users. For easy setup, the LaCie Setup Assistant helps format your disk according to your needs. Perfect for digital content creation, audio/video editing, DVD authoring, Web animation, etc., the d2 Quadra can handle multiple demanding professional tasks. It can be daisy-chained via FireWire or connected to your DV camera and is even bootable in FireWire for Mac and in eSATA for Mac/PC. With the LaCie Shortcut Button***, you can easily launch any application in one push, such as the included Genie Backup Assistant software with data restore for Windows or Intego Backup Assistant software with data restore for Mac. The unique, fanless aluminum heat sink design with 60% more surface area for heat dissipation keeps it quiet and safe. Box Content: LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk, eSATA-to-eSATA cable, FireWire 800 (9-pin) cable, FireWire 400 (6-pin) cable, Hi-Speed USB 2.0 cable, Drive stand for upright use, External power supply, Utilities with User Manual (preloaded on the drive): LaCie Setup Assistant, Genie Backup Assistant software with data restore for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Intego Backup Assistant software with data restore for Mac OS X 10.4, Quick Install Guide.
Noisy and Drive Always Spins (2010-03-12)
I first hooked this drive up to my computer with the Firewire connection. For some reason that was very slow, it would have taken hours to transfer 9 GB of data. I switched to USB and the transfer completed in minutes. I'm not sure if the drive or my computer was at fault, I've never used the Firewire port before.
The drive occasionally made grinding noises. Once or twice, it disappeared from my list of drives on the control panel and I had to reboot. I also noticed that the drive platters were always spinning even after the computer had gone into sleep mode.
I concluded that the drive was not be trusted and sent it back.
Lots of interfaces- Cables Included! (2010-03-10)
The reason why to buy this drive is if you want to use Firewire 800- a much faster interface than USB 2.0. Macs come with firewire built in, and this way it doesn't occupy one of your USB ports. So, get this if you've got a mac or anything with firewire, instead of the less expensive 1Tb drives that only have USB 2.0. Or, if you want to stack them- that works too.
It was easy to hook up and works seamlessly with Apple's "time machine" backup software. I've only had it for 2 months, so I can't comment on long term reliability, but it has a sturdy aluminum case, runs fairly cool, an eerie blue light and lots of interfaces! It seems to me that no matter what drive you research, they all have posts on failures. The LaCie has been around a long time and, based on some internet research, seems to be one of the better companies, but these are complicated devices with lots of moving parts, so some percent will always fail.
The best part- it even comes with cables for each of those interfaces, so you're ready to go if you've got a USB2, Firewire 400 or Firewire 800. No complaints. It sits behind my mac and happily backs up everything. It fires up every now and then, backs up stuff through Time Machine, then spins down. Overall- it's very quiet. I don't know what's controlling it- I guess Time Machine?, but it seems to be doing the job for me.
Excellent Product... (2010-03-09)
This is the fifth LaCie HD I have owned. None have given me even a few seconds of trouble. Extremely reliable in my experience. Will continue to buy LaCie in the future as my storage needs dictate.
My Lacie works well with my MAC (2010-03-07)
I like it just fine. Tricky thing is I had to reformat my HDD by going to Mac's Disk Utility and selecting Mac OS Journaled. If I do it using Lacie's software, I have to agree to their terms, which (from what I remember) appears to suggest no liability in case my HDD fails or something. Anyway, it works fine other than that. I have another Lacie, which I got about a year and a half ago, and being satisfied with that HDD's performance, I decided to get this one as a backup. Hope it lives a long life!
Problems with two LaCie D2 Quadras (2010-03-04)
I purchased two of these drives at the same time several months ago. I rarely make the time to write product reviews, but I'm disappointed enough with these to make it worth writing this. Several weeks ago, the first drive died after dropping from its vertical position to its horizontal position (one edge of the drive was touching the table the whole time. The other edge fell about 4 inches.) The drive didn't stop working right away--it started clicking more and more over the next hour and finally stopped working altogether. I was really lucky to have the drive backed up, but it still cost a lot of time.
The other drive has made a cheap, noisy whirring sound about 30% of the time (silent otherwise) since I took it out of the box. I will be contacting LaCie for replacements of both drives soon. I've had no issues with the Western Digital and Iomega Firewire 800 externals I'm also using.
