Product Description

LaCie has teamed up with the renowned design agency Porsche Design to create this family of hard drives. With these drives now you've got a stylish place to put all of your music, videos and data. Set up is quick and easy. Within seconds, the LaCie Hard Drive is ready to start sharing on either PC or Mac.

Product Details

• Brand: LaCie
• Model: 301103U
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 3.80 pounds
• Hard Disk: 500GB

Features

• A simple and stylish way to store and transport your files, music, video, photos and more
• Nearly effortless setup: ready to use just seconds after removing it from the box
• Fast USB 2.0 interface transfer rate: up to 480 Mbits/s
• Includes USB cable, AC adapter, and backup software
• Stackable design for more expansion with additional drives; 2-year limited warranty

From the manufacturer
LaCie has teamed up with the renowned design agency Porsche Design GmbH to create this family of hard drives. Now you’ve got a stylish place to put all of your photos, music, videos and data. Setup is quick and easy. Within seconds, the LaCie Hard Drive is ready to start sharing and storing on either PC or Mac.

User Benefits

• Save your files, photos, MP3s and videos
• Fast interface transfer rate: up to 480 Mbps
• Simple setup; easy-to-use
• Lightweight, durable and stackable

Customer Reviews

Reliable
This is my 4th LaCie external drive. I've been running the 160GB and two 250s for 4+ and 2+ years, respectively. I use one as a primary shared repository for files on the home network, including the TiVo. The others are backups. The share drive has been on 24/7 for 2 years. The other drives are only turned on when I need them.

I've seen mixed reviews for these drives, but my experience has been very positive. With the usage outlined above, I have had reliable, fast, and zero-maintenance operation.

Great drive in Firewire version
OK, this is the USB version, but I bought the Firewire version. It was a hard choice, but the Firewire is reported to be faster in the real world (even though the technical specs put them close: check out the debate on USB 2 vs Firewire 400).

I had previously bought the smaller version LaCie Porsche Design drive (about 120 GB), and filled it in short order with simple, manual clicking and dragging. Not so the 500 GB. I used SuperDuper to image my MacBook Pro 111 GB drive to it. I only have about 80 GB on it. It took a bit to copy it completely (and do the file checking along the way) and make a bootable image. I want to say more than an hour -- less than two. I then did something radical: I plugged it in as the start-up drive on my iMac at work, and it ran smoothly and without incident. I wasn't sure if the MacBook Pro bootable would run the iMac, but there was no problem.

The drive runs very quietly; I do not hear whirring or otherwise. It's warm to the touch. My previous smaller one did not require an external supply and ran much cooler. This one does require external power. Compared to the elegance of the drive, the power supply is bulky and awkward. The Firewire version was about $170 from LaCIe, but the USB 2 version is substantially cheaper from Amazon. You decide what interface suits you. There is no mention on the LaCie website of a potential Firewire 800 which I would have preferred to purchase.

By the way, I now do SmartUpdate (in SuperDuper) from the MacBook Pro to the LaCie drive and it takes about 20-30 minutes to completely update all the files. I also checked the drive afterwards with disk utility software and found no corrupt files or bad blocks. Although it took me awhile to do this, it did give me peace of mind that the LaCie product (like its predecessor) is a quality drive.

What a deal. 500 GB.

PS: More recent weekly SmartUpdates take under 13 minutes. It must be getting smarter.

Great drive for the money
I now have about 8 Lacie external USB drives and they have all been great.

This one is fast, quiet, well designed and easy to install and use. Unlike the 250 GB drives, this one does have a fan, but it is whisper quiet. I acutally did not know it was there until I noticed the vents and put my finger there and could feel the air flow. Then I listened carefully and could hear it (up close). But you will never notice it in normal use.

Easy to install, very cool design, fast, works good. Sounds like a five to me. ;)