LaCie D2 vs. Lacie Porsche

EJBasile said:

Hi everyone. I'm looking for an external hard drive (premade- I don't want to be putting parts together ), that costs under $200 and has preferibly 160gb of HD space. Also it has to have firewire. I love the look of the LaCies.

I have seen: (apple store)
LaCie D2 160gb 7200rpm 2mb (amazon says 8mb) buffer FW800/FW400/USB2.0: $179
LaCie Porsche 250gb 7200rpm 8mb buffer FW400: $169

Is there any quality difference between the two hard drives. Are the porsche models casing made out of plastic or metal?

Thanks,
Eric

Click to expand...

My experience is only anecdotal, but I've owned a d2 and a Porsche, both 160 gb.

The Porsche looked great, wonderfully sleek and compact, and worked wonderfully--for a week. One day I came home, and found the hd making beeping and grinding noises. It had failed, and my data was gone forever.

I called Lacie support, opted for a refund, and decided to try my chances with a refurbished, triple-interface d2. In the month I've had the d2, it has worked flawlessly, quietly, and very quickly.

A lot of people have had drive failures with the Porsche based off of reviews across the web. I'm sure the majority of Porsche enclosure drives work just fine, but this is my experience.

You can most likely find a much better deal on either drive from other retailers (Apple usually sells for MSRP, nothing less) using shopping.com, pricegrabber.com, froogle.com, etc.

Anyway, good luck with whichever model you decide on.

Refurb from Lacie

Whelp - more anecdotal comments here.

I just bought a refurb 500GB d2 directly from Lacie (I figure they can refurbish their own drives the best) for $300.

It's only been a couple of weeks, but so far it works great. It takes bootable clones just fine.

I'm a little concerned that the "smart fan" doesn't ever seem to turn on, even if the enclosure (which is metal, despite the plastic look in most pictures) gets hot enough to fry an egg.

But, we shall see.

Now, my trusty EZQuest hard drive I've had for years. Had it not been for the great Lacie refurb deal, I would have gone back in a second. The fan's more noticable, but it's built like a rock, has never failed, and is just beautiful. (The Lacie stays at work under my desk - the EZQ sits on my desk at home.) EZQ is a Mac-first company and deserves more credit than they get. Something to look into.

I have had a D2 for a year or so and have had 0 problems with it. Mine's 80 gigs and I think it cost more than what you're looking at.

Don't know anything about the porsche, but the D2 is super solid.

D2 all the way! I don't like the look of the porsche all that much.. I have a d2

I've heard about a lot of problems with the Porsches.


However, I've never had a problem with my d2, and the people I know who have d2 drives are happy with them as well.

I've got a 160gb Lacie Porsche and I love it. I've had it for a few months now and I haven't had any trouble with it. It is an all-metal design and its super quiet.
It can get a bit warm =, but I really don't worry about it. From what i can tell, there's only a change in design from the porsches and D series.

I have a bunch of d2's in different sizes and love them. But I've got to warn you, that frickin' power plug is a stupid design. Basically, you pull up on the plug (after inserting it) to start the drive. There is an arrow on the back of the drive that indicates this. Anyway, if the cord sags down under it's own weight, the drive will loose power. I don't know why the hell Lacie made a "on switch" this way. Basically, you jiggle the power plug to turn on the drive.

I've never lost data but it sure gives you a heart attack when it happens. If any one else wants to comment on this, I'd be glad to hear it. I still havn't found a solution that completely works. I've tried tying the cord up but every so often the drive looses power.

To try it yourself: have a d2 mounted and running as normal, then push down (away from the arrow) on the power plug where it plugs into the drive. The drive will loose power (at least the four I have do). It does not dismount properly from the desktop, so it messes everything up when it happens.