Don't Buy LaCie

[surfmadison]

So in the past we have had discussions about LaCie drives. Despite some fellow members warning about their drives, I bought one. The drive enclosure is sold as "hot swappable". However, they won't sell you the drive trays alone. So when you fill up your RAID you have to buy overpriced drives from them. In fact, removing the old drives from the trays voids their warranty.

I don't think this is normal, as I am always free to buy whatever hard drives I want with other hot swappable systems. If I am wrong, let me know. Otherwise, I stand by not recommending LaCie to anyone.

[cmcbridejr]

I'm happy with the few Lacies that I have.

[Gymnut]

They are rather pricey and there are reports of users experiencing a higher percentage of failure in comparison to others. I have 3 FA Porsche's, one which went with me to Iraq and made it back, and one d2 which I use as a scratch disk. I don't leave them on whenever they're not in use, so perhaps that extends their lifespan with the reduction in heat *shrug*.

[surfmadison]

I am not complaining about price or quality. My complaint is that LaCie will not sell me hard drive trays unless I buy an overpriced hard drive from them. I purchased a RAID that has "hot swappable" drive trays. I just want to buy trays from them and purchase my own hard drives. I purchased 1 TB drives yesterday for $109. They want to sell me the same exact drive with trays for $219. There is no way that trays should cost $110.

In fact, they say that their warranty is void if I remove their hard drives from the trays. They put a little sticky void sticker over one hard drive tray screw. This we all know is not legal. It is like a computer company putting a void sticker on the case, so you can't replace your own hard drive or video card without voiding their warranty. Remember in the 90's this was common with computer companies, but isn't anymore. Imagine voiding your warranty if you upgrade your own RAM. Basically this is bull, and just an illegal tactic to get you to buy overpriced drives from them.

This is the reason I am not recommending these drives. I was also wondering if anyone else has a RAID from a different company and has run into this problem. The reason I bought the RAID was that I figured it would easy to go buy hard drives when mine were full and just replace them without having to buy and pay for all the extra casing, etc. that comes with external hard drive enclosures.

[RedTomato]

Isn't the warranty on pre-assembled enclosures only about 1 year anyway?

(yes on naked HDDs it's 3-5years)

If you bought it some time ago, you're probably coming up to the end of the warranty now. So just go ahead and open the sled and change the disks.

[decksnap]

So why shouldn't I buy LaCie? I like 'em. I don't need hot-swappy thingamajigs either. The d2s have always been solid.

[bigbossbmb]

This we all know is not legal.

Yes it is legal.

Next time find an enclosure manufacturer that sells it's trays a la carte...

[surfmadison]

Well it may be legal to refuse selling trays ala carte, it probably isn't smart as far as customer loyalty goes. Would you all be happy if you voided your Mac Pro warranty by putting in third party RAM? You would be, and would pissed off if you had to pay double for Apple RAM, as opposed to buying third party.

My drives are actually fairly new, only a couple months, and I guess I did void the supposed warranty. Sure for those who don't need to replace drives, I guess you don't really care.

However, I am going to my best to let people know about their bad business policies, and recommend to all I know to never buy a LaCie drive or enclosure.

[dpaanlka]

I have multiple LaCies that have given me years of satisfactory service. But honestly, there are frankly so many competitors that you have essentially unlimited choices other than LaCie, in every category.

[CaptainChunk]

I am not complaining about price or quality. My complaint is that LaCie will not sell me hard drive trays unless I buy an overpriced hard drive from them. I purchased a RAID that has "hot swappable" drive trays. I just want to buy trays from them and purchase my own hard drives. I purchased 1 TB drives yesterday for $109. They want to sell me the same exact drive with trays for $219. There is no way that trays should cost $110.

In fact, they say that their warranty is void if I remove their hard drives from the trays. They put a little sticky void sticker over one hard drive tray screw. This we all know is not legal. It is like a computer company putting a void sticker on the case, so you can't replace your own hard drive or video card without voiding their warranty. Remember in the 90's this was common with computer companies, but isn't anymore. Imagine voiding your warranty if you upgrade your own RAM. Basically this is bull, and just an illegal tactic to get you to buy overpriced drives from them.

This is the reason I am not recommending these drives. I was also wondering if anyone else has a RAID from a different company and has run into this problem. The reason I bought the RAID was that I figured it would easy to go buy hard drives when mine were full and just replace them without having to buy and pay for all the extra casing, etc. that comes with external hard drive enclosures.

On what planet is that not legal? All manufacturers have different policies regarding what you can and cannot do to their product without voiding its warranty. Sure, Apple lets you install your own RAM in their machines, but they won't cover defects caused by the third-party RAM under AppleCare. In the case of LaCie, they don't consider the internal hard drives to be user-serviceable parts (as in dismantling the drives from their trays)...

You're acting as if LaCie is the only manufacturer that does this. CalDigit and G-Tech, just to name a couple, practice the same policy on their hard drive trays. If you don't like this, there's a handful of companies out there that sell bare RAID enclosures that you can add your own hard drives to.

[surfmadison]

Oh, they may say the warranty is void, but in the strict sense of the law it is illegal and they would lose the case if taken to court. Just because a company has a policy it doesn't mean it is legal.

If I in fact damaged the RAID myself I would be glad to forgo having the warranty. But I am installing the exact same drives at half the price that they sell them for.

I no that none of you would buy a MAC if you couldn't upgrade your own RAM, video card or hard drives. Apple doesn't void the warranty if you replace one of those items.

The RAID is sold as hot swappable and removing a hard drive from the trays SHOULD not void the warranty. I could easily damage a hard drive while it is in the tray and request a RMA. Had I know that this was their policy I would have never purchased from them. I will never buy from them again, nor recommend anyone buys from them. That will be my mantra if anyone asks about hard drives or RAID's.

Will I hurt their bottom line? Maybe not, but who knows, maybe these posts will end up on Google and anyone wanting to buy one will see my dilemma and decide not buy from them. That is my hope. Karma comes back to bite you and I don't do business with *******s. Life is too short, and there are too many nice people and good honest companies out there. So I am adding LaCie to the bad company list.

I hope to never treat my customers with stupid policies and poor customer support like LaCie does.

[marioman38]

However, I am going to my best to let people know about their bad business policies, and recommend to all I know to never buy a LaCie drive or enclosure.

Goodluck with that.

/Thread

[JeffTL]

I recently replaced my older LaCie drive that was beginning to act up with a FireWire 800 Icy Dock for just this reason. I was able to install the high-reliability disk of my choice, and if it or the drive dies, I can just go on New Egg and buy a replacement part.

[BJNY]

By the way,
which brand drives do LaCie use in their RAIDs?
I'm guessing Seagate, but I wonder if they are the ES enterprise series.
Thanks.

[RedTomato]

I understand your annoyance. You got caught out by something that you should have checked before buying.

Happens to millions of other people in many other industry sectors. (Razor blades, inkjet supplies, car parts etc.) I've made the same expensive mistake myself with respect to some other computer widget.

Put this one down to experience, and move on. Or try eBay. This thread is starting to score quite highly in Google now, so you may be having an effect. (thought of creating a website for this?)

[VanMac]

As always, the consumer should do their research on products they are considering to purchase.

I have a LaCie Big Disk Extreme. Very happy with this drive, and highly recommended. Running well over 2 years now without burping. :D

[MacBoobsPro]

As always, the consumer should do their research on products they are considering to purchase.

I have a LaCie Big Disk Extreme. Very happy with this drive, and highly recommended. Running well over 2 years now without burping. :D

I had a bigdisk. Within 2 months it died. Lacie would not replace it unless I paid them to transfer the old data off it.

So I got someone else to transfer the stuff off it and then went to Amazon who gave me a full refund (including shipping - twice).

Every company I have worked for has had major problems with Lacie drives. I thought it was coincidence, so i bought the big disk. Now I think they are just crap drives along with crap customer service.

I avoid Lacie at all costs as does everybody I know.

[surfmadison]

In my brand new LaCie 2 Big, LaCie shipped Samsung HD103UJ's. These are 1 TB, 7200 RPM units.

I believe these are in fact about the cheapest drive out there. Especially since these were the least exspensive OEM drives that Fry's sold at $109.99. Again, LaCie sells these same drives, with the trays (a small amount of metal that can't really add up to more then $5) for the amazing outrageous price of $219.99.

Again, my recommendation is to never buy LaCie hard drives, LaCie RAIDs, or other LaCie products. Their technial support is horrible. When you call LaCie the hold time for support is often over an hour. If you call back for sales, you get someone in less then a minute.

Maybe I will buy www.laciesucks.com??

[Digital Skunk]

Next time find an enclosure manufacturer that sells it's trays a la carte...

This is truly a case where research would have paid off. It's not LaCie's fault that you didn't know.

As for the poor manufacturing, Pro users must not do too much research either. The Big disk wasn't touted as being LaCie's best. If you have one that works fine all the better. But the d2 drives (single HDD) and the new 2Big Triple's are the best ones on the market for price and performance. The 2Big triple I have has two 1TB Seagate drives in them, been working flawlessly.

The two rugged drives that I own have been work horses for editing HD on the go and the 160GB drive has been working effortlessly for four years straight.

There is nothing wrong with LaCie drives, maybe the people that are buying them without research, but definitely not the drives.

I also use G-Technology drives, and their warranty is better than LaCie's, but you will pay for it and their design.

There are too many options for hard drives to pick on one company, and to think there are only four options to choose from.

[dswan]

Well it may be legal to refuse selling trays ala carte, it probably isn't smart as far as customer loyalty goes. Would you all be happy if you voided your Mac Pro warranty by putting in third party RAM? You would be, and would pissed off if you had to pay double for Apple RAM, as opposed to buying third party.



Actually,

We service and sell apple products and they are totally willing (on occassion) to say that they cant diagnose the problem with kingston RAM in there. WE have several times had to put the original apple RAM in there again to appease apple

[RedTomato]

Hmm.

I've just bought a LaCie "Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton" 1TB. The black 2001 monolith one.

Crap name, yes, but I liked the eSATA, FireWire 400 & USB triple interface, and I needed a 1TB FW HD the same day for a videoproject, and it was the only one with a decent price and FW on Tottenham court road. £120 if I remember right, and the other options were round about £150+ (not counting the thousands of USB /eSATA HDDS for around £100)

It's been working fine so far, hope it carries on. I thought LaCie's gold block HDD design was utterly *****, but credit to them for trying out different HD enclosure designs.

[Turmoil]

I've ben very happy with the Lacie products I own. I'll keep buying them.

[weckart]

But the d2 drives (single HDD) and the new 2Big Triple's are the best ones on the market for price and performance.

There is nothing wrong with LaCie drives, maybe the people that are buying them without research, but definitely not the drives.


This has not been my experience. Poor case design leads to overheating and failure. The d2 drive I had was a prime example of this. I wrote that one off to experience.

I did buy a LaCie Poulton mini disk recently. Cheap looking thing. I ripped out the Samsung disk inside and put it in my Macbook Pro. Samsung give a 3 year guarantee on the drive and it was cheaper than buying it bare. I tossed the case away. Wouldn't want to trust my data with it.

[Digital Skunk]

This has not been my experience. Poor case design leads to overheating and failure. The d2 drive I had was a prime example of this. I wrote that one off to experience.

I did buy a LaCie Poulton mini disk recently. Cheap looking thing. I ripped out the Samsung disk inside and put it in my Macbook Pro. Samsung give a 3 year guarantee on the drive and it was cheaper than buying it bare. I tossed the case away. Wouldn't want to trust my data with it.

Such is life.

You win some you loose some.

[surfmadison]

I just noticed that Walmart is now selling LaCie drives. This will be the downfall of LaCie's quality. When you sell to Walmart you have to agree to an "open books" policy. What happens is that Walmart becomes your biggest account. You think everything is great, selling lots of stuff, and then they audit your books. They tell you that instead of making 15% on each item, you need to lower the price and only make 13%. (Or something to this effect). At first you bite the bullet, but it doesn't stop.

Walmarts slogan "Always rolling back prices". Soon they ask to lower it again. At this point you either have to stop selling to Walmart, or make your product cheaper. So first you source from a cheap Chinese factory, or you use lower quality materials. In the end, the product isn't as good was it was before. Sure the customer gets a product for less, but the quality isn't the same.

I don't know about you guys, but I need my RAID's not to fail. I have 100's of hours of video on hard drives that I am working on. I don't want a cheapo product. I want a good quality product at a fair price. I also don't want to get screwed by customer support or some crappy void warranty issue.

So, I still repeat myself. I will never buy a LaCie hard drive again. I will never recommend for anyone to buy a LaCie RAID or any other LaCie product. Not to mention I don't need to send my money to a foreign company. Maybe I will start with USA companies first next time.

[Courtaj]

I thought LaCie's gold block HDD design was utterly *****, but credit to them for trying out different HD enclosure designs.Le Coq, anyone?

[cmcbridejr]

Not to mention I don't need to send my money to a foreign company. Maybe I will start with USA companies first next time.

You're a true American, surfmadison.

Oh, by the way, LaCie originated (and is still headquartered) in Oregon, USA.

[surfmadison]

LaCie might have offices and manufacturing in Oregon but they are not a US company. Do a little digging on their website and you will notice that they are publicly traded on the EuroNext Exchange and their revenue is stated in Euros. Their main headquarters are in Paris, France and they were founded by Philippe and Pierre. LaCie = French Company.

I really doubt an Oregon based company would trade on the EuroNext and state revenue in Euros!

So, once again my mantra continues. Don't buy LaCie hard drives, don't buy LaCie RAID enclosures. Plus as a video professional I am not interested in a product that sells at Walmart. I could be mistaken but I doubt your typical video pro is used to buying their video equipment at Walmart. It raises serious questions in my mind about their quality and customer service. Which is very sad, because other then the first DOA RAID, a poorly designed eSata Express Card I had to return, and them trying to screw me on RMA credits to my credit card, I was happy with my RAID. I use my drive, with its voided warranty everyday and it works great. Too bad I know have to flame them everyday. I gave them every chance to be nice to me.

[cmcbridejr]

they were founded by Philippe and Pierre. LaCie = French Company.

Dude, I'm glad you finally did a little research on something, but LaCie was not founded by Phillippe and Pierre. Joel Kamerman, an American, started The Company in Oregon.

Phillippe and Pierre (French) started a company called electronique d2, which later acquired LaCie for the purpose of having a strategic distribution channel across North America.

I know that you said you were a video "professional", but many other video and graphics professionals that have been working on the Mac for years are quite familiar with LaCie and very comfortable recommending their products.

LaCie has been supporting the Mac community for a long time, and Apple has favored LaCie for many years due to their innovation from R&D and elegant designs that complement Macs.

When the Apple Stores first started opening, LaCie was the only hard drive manufacturer you could find there.

Anyway, I have used many LaCie hard drives over the years without problems (and I do video, audio, and graphic work).

I am sorry that your life is now so full of anger and hate over a bad experience with a hard drive.

[synth3tik]

You're a true American, surfmadison.

Oh, by the way, LaCie originated (and is still headquartered) in Oregon, USA.


How un-American:D

Country of origin has almost nothing to do with quality. Like others here I find Lacie's case designs to be flawed. At one point I had 3 Lacie drives, all failed. If just the interface would fail that would be one thing, but having the interface burn out and my drives getting fried is just too much. Like every drive, so people have never had issues were others have had enough to stay away.

[AlaskaMoose]

I'm happy with the few Lacies that I have.

Me too. I have never had any problem with these drives, and customer service has been excellent. I am still using a very old LaCie CD burner that I used years ago with a Mac 7300. Connected this burner to my iMac (first generation, PPC 1.8 MHz (17" screen), and worked flawlessly.

[LethalWolfe]

Different people have different experiences, but I run into very few video pros that use or recommend LaCie. The case designs don't seem to cool the drives enough (leading to early drive failure) and they seem to have an unusually high amount of bridge failures (the hardware that marries the HDD and FW/USB/eSATA interfaces). At least if the bridge fails you can still pop the HDD into another enclosure and get your data back. I have a 2-3 year old LaCie that I use as a system back-up drive and since it stays off 99% of the time I don't worry about heat being an issue. I have also had 4 LaCies at work, which get used much more, die on me in the past 8 months and the drives were 12-18 months old.


Lethal

[surfmadison]

Since I have so much data already on my new drives, I should consider getting a new enclosure. By the end of next week I should have four hard drives full of data. Anyone have recommendations for a good dependable and well designed RAID enclosure that allows me to use whatever hard drives I want.

I have over 100 hours of video that I am working on getting on DVD and converted to FLV's for the web, and I do need reliability.

[Digital Skunk]

Different people have different experiences, but I run into very few video pros that use or recommend LaCie. The case designs don't seem to cool the drives enough (leading to early drive failure) and they seem to have an unusually high amount of bridge failures (the hardware that marries the HDD and FW/USB/eSATA interfaces). At least if the bridge fails you can still pop the HDD into another enclosure and get your data back. I have a 2-3 year old LaCie that I use as a system back-up drive and since it stays off 99% of the time I don't worry about heat being an issue. I have also had 4 LaCies at work, which get used much more, die on me in the past 8 months and the drives were 12-18 months old.


Lethal

The truth of the matter is which drives they are using.

LaCie does make plenty of high end RAID5 enclosures and cases that do have cooling systems.

When you compare those enclosures to the consumer ones you will notice a performance and lifespan difference. IMHO, if a video pro is using the drive for anything other than backup, they should be looking for an enclosure that is RAID5 from LaCie, G-Tech, Buffalo, or home built.

And they should be using Fibre channel connections or eSata. Anything other than that and they just aren't doing anything important enough to warrant a complaint.

To the OP, I know you asked for LW opinion, but any enclosure that does RAID5 will be your best bet for reliability, speed, performance. Give NewEgg a shot.

[RedTomato]

Skunk I'm almost certainly looking in the wrong place, but as far as I can see, NewEgg does not sell any mac-compatible RAID5 enclosures.

They have two RAID5 enclosures, and both state that the RAID5 function is Windows only.

[CaptainChunk]

Oh, they may say the warranty is void, but in the strict sense of the law it is illegal and they would lose the case if taken to court. Just because a company has a policy it doesn't mean it is legal.

If I in fact damaged the RAID myself I would be glad to forgo having the warranty. But I am installing the exact same drives at half the price that they sell them for.

I no that none of you would buy a MAC if you couldn't upgrade your own RAM, video card or hard drives. Apple doesn't void the warranty if you replace one of those items.

The RAID is sold as hot swappable and removing a hard drive from the trays SHOULD not void the warranty. I could easily damage a hard drive while it is in the tray and request a RMA. Had I know that this was their policy I would have never purchased from them. I will never buy from them again, nor recommend anyone buys from them. That will be my mantra if anyone asks about hard drives or RAID's.

Yes, LaCie advertises that disks are swappable, provided you purchase their disk modules (I own 2 2Big Triples and this is clearly stated in the manual). Again, this practice is no different than similar models from competitors like G-Tech and CalDigit. Based on your logic, you wouldn't buy drives from those companies either by principle. All I can really say is research before you buy.

Any facts to back up your claims of "strict sense of law?" If LaCie states in their documentation that the drives are to be interchanged using LaCie modules, I don't know how well your argument would actually hold up in court. Comparing the policies of an external hard drive manufacturer to those of a computer manufacturer is pointless. The Mac Pro manual says it's okay to add third-party hard drives, RAM and expansion cards without voiding the warranty (though those parts would not be covered under AppleCare) and they even show you how to do it. Turn-key external hard drive manufacturers apparently view this differently.

If you're so concerned about paying inflated prices for additional drive modules, you should just buy a bare RAID enclosure because I honestly don't know of a single turnkey external hard drive manufacturer that has a policy that caters to your needs. What you're doing right now is singling out a manufacturer after you failed to read the fine print.

[RedTomato]

I no that none of you would buy a MAC if you couldn't upgrade your own RAM, video card or hard drives. Apple doesn't void the warranty if you replace one of those items.

Many Apple mac models are non-upgradable. The Mac Mini is a desktop computer with nothing that can be upgraded without breaking the warranty - not RAM, video nor HDD.

The iBooks had non-upgradeable HDDs, and so did many other apple mac models. It's not just Apple, many other computer companies have at some point sold various models that you could not upgrade yourself without breaking the warranty.

I won't even mention the mainframes that were sold with only permission to use half the installed computing capacity. If you wanted more power, you had to pay Sun or IBM a big wodge of money, and they would send over an engineer, who would flick a single small switch, activating the second mainboard or the second bank of memory, and then bugger off back home. The whole process took less than 30 seconds but it cost an arm and a leg.

[Digital Skunk]

Skunk I'm almost certainly looking in the wrong place, but as far as I can see, NewEgg does not sell any mac-compatible RAID5 enclosures.

They have two RAID5 enclosures, and both state that the RAID5 function is Windows only.

I did a quick search at NewEgg, and found about three that just stated that they work with Mac OS X. One was a ten bay RAID 5 that was $4000 that I wouldn't spend the cash on IMO.

For most enclosures, you may have to get an eSATA card, or if you are going to be doing some high end work go to a company that will be guaranteed to work with Mac OS X, and even provide either the eSATA card or Fibre Channel card as well.

[cineapple]

In thinking about purchasing a 2big Triple Drive, is it possible to buy your own internal drives say a Seagate, and unscrew/take-off the metal tray that Lacie has installed on the 2 big Triple Drives, move it to the new drive, and use them inside the 2 Big Triple?

I don't care about voiding the warranty, just want to make sure I can upgrade the size of the RAID without having to get the overpriced drives from Lacie.

[surfmadison]

That was what started my whole rant against LaCie. I have the 2Big, I just wanted eSata since it is faster then FW800. I filled my 2TB RAID and figured I would go buy two new 1 TB drives and put them in. I also figured I would order some new trays so I didn't have to unscrew the four screws on each drive each time I want to switch back.

So, since LaCie sucks and won't sell me trays, unless I pay outgrageous prices for theirs, I removed the warranty sticker and used my new drives. I just unscrew the four screws from each drive and swap out the drives when I need to switch. Yeah, it is a pain in the ass, but it works.

Go ahead and buy from LaCie if you really want to, but I again must recommend that you don't. The only reason I don't is because they won't sell trays, or their replacement drives with trays at a good price. If they would have agreed to sell me new drives with trays at a decent price that didn't have a 100% markup, I would have bought from them. But no, they wanted $219 for a drive with tray for the same tray I bought at Fry's for $109. That is a total ripout on LaCie's part and I will have none of it. So I will continue to bash LaCie for as long as I can.

[cineapple]

So, since LaCie sucks and won't sell me trays, unless I pay outgrageous prices for theirs, I removed the warranty sticker and used my new drives. I just unscrew the four screws from each drive and swap out the drives when I need to switch. Yeah, it is a pain in the ass, but it works.


But, don't you realize that they all do this? All RAID manufacturers I have experienced, since I am looking to get a RAID system, have their own drives that they sell for their own RAID systems. Overpriced, yes, (if you are talking about pricing a third party drive from places like Newegg), but I understand the reasoning why using a third party drive will void any warranty.
The shouldn't be responsible for using a drive in their product that is from another manufacturer.

[surfmadison]

I didn't realize "all" companies have this stupid ploy of forcing you to buy their overpriced drives with trays. My experience was with hot swappable drives for servers. In the computer hardware side of the biz you could buy any hard drive you wanted.

What reasoning is there that a third party drive would void the warranty? All hard drives are made to the same general specs. If you purchase a Samsung, WD, Seagate, etc. you can be assured that it will fit in your system and work.

I am not asking them the warrant my hard drives. We all know they fail. Putting in a third party hard drive, especially when I purchase the same exact one they sell should not void the warranty.

So, besides not recommending LaCie to anyone, I would not recommend that anyone purchases a RAID from any company that doesn't sell drive trays. If all the companies are this way, then fine. When we all start buying "DIY" RAIDs maybe they will get the hint.

For the time being I will continue to use my LaCie RAID screwing and unscrewing drives each day until the new MacPro's come out. Then I will either make my own RAID or SAN with a company that understands that their customers should be able to easily purchase new drives and not have to get screwed buying overpriced drives from them.

[cineapple]

What reasoning is there that a third party drive would void the warranty? All hard drives are made to the same general specs. If you purchase a Samsung, WD, Seagate, etc. you can be assured that it will fit in your system and work.


Well, just playing the devil's advocate here, but I assume they only want to warranty their RAIDs with a Hard drives they approve, to limit the variables that could cause problems. I HAVEN'T seen a RAID system that doesn't have a voided warranty for this. I was even looking at CALDIGIT, one of the most respected RAID manufacturers out there, and they too have the same warranty limitations.

Also, if its any consolation, I know that you can find the Lacie drives that are refurbished for a pretty big discount.

[bigbossbmb]

and also to keep all of the drives the same make/model... you don't want to create a RAID with different types of drives.

[LethalWolfe]

Check out Wiebetech (http://www.wiebetech.com/home.php). You can buy just bare enclosures from them and use any drives you want. They also offer some tray-less enclosures that allow you to just pop drives in and out.


Lethal

[Digital Skunk]

....

You do know that LaCie is on the consumer end of RAID drives right?

Not recommending them to most people because they don't sell the trays is much like not recommending a Mac to anyone (anyone at all) because they don't have any desktop computers besides the Mac Pro.

And yes Lethal, I completely forgot about Wiebetech.

[accacc57]

If you do have a problem with a Lacie drive, don't expect to get any kind of service from them. I tried online and on the 800 number (on which I could only leave a message) when the drive I bought had a power supply problem right out of the box. It's been 2 weeks now and I still have not heard from them... from technical support or customer service. Thank God MacMall let me return the drive for refund. My company has been using Lacie drives for many years, but it seems every time we buy a new one it lasts a shorter time than the previous one. And then after this customer service fiasco... no more Lacie drives for me.

[Keebler]

surfmadison, I hear you, but I disagree with you being ticked off. Ultimately, it's your right, but i think you shouldn't be mad at them.

I do agree that their policy may not be the smartest by making you buy the HDs, but it's buyer beware. Honestly, it's your fault for not checking into it. You did the same thing I did when I bought an esata enclosure from addonics.

It works fantastic. I don't have trays, but at the time, I only bought 2 esata cables from addonics thinking that if i needed more, I would add them later from a local store.

Well, I was wrong - only their cables work for some reason. I can't figure it out, but it's definitely proprietary (or at least, I haven't found an esata cable to work with it other than the included ones).

My own fault for not checking into b/c I assumed I knew what i needed to do.

I might have missed it, but have you tried calling lacie and explaining your situation? maybe they can cut you a deal for this time?

either that, or sell it on ebay or something.

cheers and good luck,
keebler

[ChrisA]

.....This we all know is not legal.

No, we don't all know this.

wettter it is legal or not depends on where you live. Laws are not the same world wide nor are they the same between states in the US.

[surfmadison]

Thanks for keeping the post alive, but it is time for this thread to die. I still hate LaCie and will never buy from them or recommend them under any circumstances. Had I known that I couldn't buy trays but had to buy their overpriced drives to get them I would have never bought them. I have learned my lesson. I now use a FirmTek enclosure http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-5pm/ and they sell drive trays. FirmTek has received high marks from the Arizona Mac Users Group and my enclosure has been running nearly non stop since I got it. There is very little fan noise and it seems to run very cool.

But since we all now know that we should avoid LaCie and other brands that force you to buy overpriced drives we should stop posting to this thread.

[drlunanerd]

and also to keep all of the drives the same make/model... you don't want to create a RAID with different types of drives.

Apparently this isn't necessary anymore. I configured a HP server with a couple of RAID arrays. HP sent two different makes of drives, and initially I was going to send them back. Until I read a great big warning notice that said not to send differing makes of drives back, as HP warranted them for use in RAID arrays and there would be no problem as they'd tested them to work together.

Fast forward about a year and those arrays are singing along with no problems.

[Digital Skunk]

Thanks for keeping the post alive, but it is time for this thread to die. I still hate LaCie and will never buy from them or recommend them under any circumstances. Had I known that I couldn't buy trays but had to buy their overpriced drives to get them I would have never bought them. I have learned my lesson. I now use a FirmTek enclosure http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-5pm/ and they sell drive trays. FirmTek has received high marks from the Arizona Mac Users Group and my enclosure has been running nearly non stop since I got it. There is very little fan noise and it seems to run very cool.

But since we all now know that we should avoid LaCie and other brands that force you to buy overpriced drives we should stop posting to this thread.

Eww! The Arizona Mac Users Group recommended the FirmTek drives! I will never buy FirmTek since one of the drives the AMUG recommended crashed on me therefore the AMUG recommends bad drives and since they recommend FirmTek they also must have bad drives.

:)

[Foxglove9]

I had a Lacie CD Burner many years ago. It was pretty junky for the money I paid for it. I wouldn't trust them again after that.

[smiles78]

In thinking about purchasing a 2big Triple Drive, is it possible to buy your own internal drives say a Seagate, and unscrew/take-off the metal tray that Lacie has installed on the 2 big Triple Drives, move it to the new drive, and use them inside the 2 Big Triple?

I don't care about voiding the warranty, just want to make sure I can upgrade the size of the RAID without having to get the overpriced drives from Lacie.

I too own a 2BIG triple and wanna upgrade the drive from 1.5TB(2x750GB) to a 3TB(2x1.5TB).
Does anybody know if I can just replace the drives with bigger ones?
I already replaced one of the 750Gig drives once that died on me (it was a cheap Samsung btw) with the same drive.
Now I want to upgrade to 2x 1.5TB (i.e. Seagates- would never pay the outrageous prices at LaCie either). Does anybody know if that's possible?

thanks,

alex

[Sesshi]

Apparently this isn't necessary anymore. I configured a HP server with a couple of RAID arrays. HP sent two different makes of drives, and initially I was going to send them back. Until I read a great big warning notice that said not to send differing makes of drives back, as HP warranted them for use in RAID arrays and there would be no problem as they'd tested them to work together.

Fast forward about a year and those arrays are singing along with no problems.

It's not a case of 'not necessary anymore' as modern drives getting far quieter so most of them are far less affected by issues of phasing, etc when dissimilar drives are mixed. It's partially why devices like Drobo can now exist without caveats plastered all over the place.

It is still a possibility though, especially with high-rotational-speed drives (10K+) and it does make sense not to mix drives for the most part - unless, as you say, it has been tested.

[dave12345]

my lacie little disk lasted 3 months - the flimsy built in USB cable broke - I ended up pulling the samsung disk out of it and putting it in a more reliable sata to usb case... I will never buy lacie again.

[Digital Skunk]

I too own a 2BIG triple and wanna upgrade the drive from 1.5TB(2x750GB) to a 3TB(2x1.5TB).
Does anybody know if I can just replace the drives with bigger ones?
I already replaced one of the 750Gig drives once that died on me (it was a cheap Samsung btw) with the same drive.
Now I want to upgrade to 2x 1.5TB (i.e. Seagates- would never pay the outrageous prices at LaCie either). Does anybody know if that's possible?

thanks,

alex

I personally don't see why not. I don't know if Lacie put any hardware restrictions on the chipset, but if you replaced your 750 already then I would assume that you can just unscrew the drive from the tray and put a new one in.

I will also be upgrading my 2big triple to 4TB when the 2TB drives become available. My current 2big is getting filled with GBs upon GBs of HD footage backup. Soon after I got the 2big though, I started eyeing the 4big.

[djkirsten]

We just ordered 10 of these in the 1TB variation....

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11026

....for FCP media managed files. The show is always 50-55 minutes per episode in the DVCPro HD 1080i 29.97 codec so the media managed files usually total around 180 gigs per episode.

So to back up two seasons worth of episodes (70+ episodes) they ordered 10 of these because they are so cheap right now.

So my question is this....how screwed are we?

[smiles78]

I personally don't see why not. I don't know if Lacie put any hardware restrictions on the chipset, but if you replaced your 750 already then I would assume that you can just unscrew the drive from the tray and put a new one in.

I will also be upgrading my 2big triple to 4TB when the 2TB drives become available. My current 2big is getting filled with GBs upon GBs of HD footage backup. Soon after I got the 2big though, I started eyeing the 4big.

thanks!
I'll pick up two tomorrow then and let you know how it went.
Any idea which ones work best for external drives?
I've been looking at the WD greenpoint with variable speed that save some Watts..

[Digital Skunk]

We just ordered 10 of these in the 1TB variation....

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11026

....for FCP media managed files. The show is always 50-55 minutes per episode in the DVCPro HD 1080i 29.97 codec so the media managed files usually total around 180 gigs per episode.

So to back up two seasons worth of episodes (70+ episodes) they ordered 10 of these because they are so cheap right now.

So my question is this....how screwed are we?

Very screwed.

That is the poorest backup solution I have ever seen in MY LIFE. Worse even then the IT department at my newspaper. Nothing against you personally, just that particular method of backing up GBs of valuable data.

You are better off returning them and getting an 8 bay enclosure. If money is an issue then I am sorry to say that the show spent the money in the wrong places.

Promise us you won't come back screaming about how crappy LaCie is if you don't return them and look for a more stable solution for backup.

thanks!
I'll pick up two tomorrow then and let you know how it went.
Any idea which ones work best for external drives?
I've been looking at the WD greenpoint with variable speed that save some Watts..

Let us know for sure. I think any server class drive would work beautifully in an external enclosure. Depending on your application, any drive would do fine.

[smiles78]

We just ordered 10 of these in the 1TB variation....

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11026

....for FCP media managed files. The show is always 50-55 minutes per episode in the DVCPro HD 1080i 29.97 codec so the media managed files usually total around 180 gigs per episode.

So to back up two seasons worth of episodes (70+ episodes) they ordered 10 of these because they are so cheap right now.

So my question is this....how screwed are we?


I have two of them. One worked fine for about two years until today.
The other died after a year and a half. It got fixed with the warranty.
I also have similar ones with lower capacities that run with no problems. One for six years almost every day.
If you dont let them run 24/7 you'll be fine.
Harddrive failures happen to all kind of HDs. You always take your chances.

[djkirsten]

Very screwed.

That is the poorest backup solution I have ever seen in MY LIFE. Worse even then the IT department at my newspaper. Nothing against you personally, just that particular method of backing up GBs of valuable data.

You are better off returning them and getting an 8 bay enclosure. If money is an issue then I am sorry to say that the show spent the money in the wrong places.

Promise us you won't come back screaming about how crappy LaCie is if you don't return them and look for a more stable solution for backup.

You know how it goes...it's not my choice. The executive producer (the guy who looks at money first and foremost) makes a decision to back up everything (mostly because our current LTO system eats up too much edit time) and asks an engineer what the CHEAPEST option is and the engineer says, "here, look, 1tb external drives for $115 a piece...we'll just get you 10!"...and me being just a lowly editor says "sure!"... so having no say, i just wanted to know how much of a problem this will be...

Also...

I have two of them. One worked fine for about two years until today.
The other died after a year and a half. It got fixed with the warranty.
I also have similar ones with lower capacities that run with no problems. One for six years almost every day.
If you dont let them run 24/7 you'll be fine.
Harddrive failures happen to all kind of HDs. You always take your chances.

...we wont be using them on a daily basis. We will back up all the episodes, and then they will sit on a shelf until they are needed. They'll only be plugged in when we back up to them and when we resurrect media from them.

This is really only supposed to serve as a second, more usable, backup system. Every piece of media will go to these drives as well as off to LTO's....it just always takes too long to pull around 200ish gigs off an LTO, just to find out that the executive producer doesn't want to re-air the segment we pulled.

[smiles78]

Very screwed.

That is the poorest backup solution I have ever seen in MY LIFE. Worse even then the IT department at my newspaper. Nothing against you personally, just that particular method of backing up GBs of valuable data.

You are better off returning them and getting an 8 bay enclosure. If money is an issue then I am sorry to say that the show spent the money in the wrong places.

Promise us you won't come back screaming about how crappy LaCie is if you don't return them and look for a more stable solution for backup.



From what I understood, you just wanna back the files up and put the drives in a shelve, right?
I personally back up my files by mirroring them from one large drive to a second every night using a backup program.
This way I dont have to rely on RAID sytems and controllers - because when THEY fail- you're really screwed.
I'd check all disks before using them with analytic software and you'll be ok in my opinion.

[bigbossbmb]

What format do you use to deliver the show?

If your finished sequence is DVCProHD, then rent a deck and output the show to DVCPro tape. That'll be cheaper than 10 1TB drives.

[Digital Skunk]

You know how it goes...it's not my choice. The executive producer (the guy who looks at money first and foremost) makes a decision to back up everything (mostly because our current LTO system eats up too much edit time) and asks an engineer what the CHEAPEST option is and the engineer says, "here, look, 1tb external drives for $115 a piece...we'll just get you 10!"...and me being just a lowly editor says "sure!"... so having no say, i just wanted to know how much of a problem this will be...

I can truly understand. Many times, the people in charge fail to get an understanding of those that are at the front (doing the work) before making decisions.

From what I understood, you just wanna back the files up and put the drives in a shelve, right?
I personally back up my files by mirroring them from one large drive to a second every night using a backup program.
This way I dont have to rely on RAID sytems and controllers - because when THEY fail- you're really screwed.
I'd check all disks before using them with analytic software and you'll be ok in my opinion.

True, but from what Bigbossbmb said, I can't truly say what his choice should be since I don't fully know what he/she needs.... until I just read it, in which case BBB would have the better solution. I offered the RAID solution since I am sold on mirroring the drives, backing up and moving one of the hotswappables offsite.

What format do you use to deliver the show?

If your finished sequence is DVCProHD, then rent a deck and output the show to DVCPro tape. That'll be cheaper than 10 1TB drives.

Very true.

[djkirsten]

What format do you use to deliver the show?

If your finished sequence is DVCProHD, then rent a deck and output the show to DVCPro tape. That'll be cheaper than 10 1TB drives.

Thats the best part...our post house is "tapeless" so they won't let us back up to tape....crazy huh!?! We have like 20 FCP's connected to over 200 TB's through an X-San....and the big man (the executive producer's boss) says we have to remain tapeless and back stuff up to hard drives or go with LTO's. No tape back up because if everyone did it....it would be "far too expensive".

We've had too many problems with the way the system is managed (stuff airs - stuff sits and waits for the librarian to put it onto the LTO - editsan gets full - files get corrupted - files THEN get put onto LTO months later - we go to use said stuff - it takes a long time and we learn stuff is corrupted) so the executive producer is trying to go around the problem for just our show - not everyone's. This way, as soon as a show airs I can back it up IMMEDIATELY.....if you want something done right, do it yourself...

By no means is it a problem to lay off to tape (we are a large post house with every deck format imaginable) but it's just a little too political.

We deliver finished shows in "flattened" quicktimes that are the said codec, not to tape.....so they figure we should back things up similarly.

Does that make any sense?

Probly not ;)

[Digital Skunk]

Thats the best part...our post house is "tapeless" so they won't let us back up to tape....crazy huh!?! We have like 20 FCP's connected to over 200 TB's through an X-San....and the big man (the executive producer's boss) says we have to remain tapeless and back stuff up to hard drives or go with LTO's. No tape back up because if everyone did it....it would be "far too expensive".

We've had too many problems with the way the system is managed (stuff airs - stuff sits and waits for the librarian to put it onto the LTO - editsan gets full - files get corrupted - files THEN get put onto LTO months later - we go to use said stuff - it takes a long time and we learn stuff is corrupted) so the executive producer is trying to go around the problem for just our show - not everyone's. This way, as soon as a show airs I can back it up IMMEDIATELY.....if you want something done right, do it yourself...

By no means is it a problem to lay off to tape (we are a large post house with every deck format imaginable) but it's just a little too political.

We deliver finished shows in "flattened" quicktimes that are the said codec, not to tape.....so they figure we should back things up similarly.

Does that make any sense?

Probly not ;)

It doesn't on your boss's end, but that's understandable for a person in such a position at times.

I would definitely go the RAID option in that case simply because you get a faster transfer time, and you can mirror your drives and pull one out to put off site, rotating them as needed. AND you can cut off the drives when needed.

[smiles78]

I too own a 2BIG triple and wanna upgrade the drive from 1.5TB(2x750GB) to a 3TB(2x1.5TB).
Does anybody know if I can just replace the drives with bigger ones?
I already replaced one of the 750Gig drives once that died on me (it was a cheap Samsung btw) with the same drive.
Now I want to upgrade to 2x 1.5TB (i.e. Seagates- would never pay the outrageous prices at LaCie either). Does anybody know if that's possible?

thanks,

alex

today I got 2x 1.5TB Seagate drives to replace the two 750Gigs in my 2BIG dual.

Until now.. NO LUCK!

Whatever mode I put it in, it just shows me a single 750GB drive (even though there're two 1.5TB in the back now..
:mad:

any ideas??

alex

[smiles78]

today I got 2x 1.5TB Seagate drives to replace the two 750Gigs in my 2BIG dual.

Until now.. NO LUCK!

Whatever mode I put it in, it just shows me a single 750GB drive (even though there're two 1.5TB in the back now..
:mad:

any ideas??

alex

UPDATE:

tried everything.. didn't work.

Obviously the chipsets aren't designed for bigger capacities than out of the the box.

[surfmadison]

When I switch out drives I have to push the reset button on the back of my POS LaCie. This works with my MBP. First, switch the hard drives out (no power or cords connected to drive). Plug power in and turn on. After it is on, push the reset button. Turn drive off. Turn drive to auto. Attach cable (eSata in my case) and attach to MBP. My MBP will now see the drive. I am doing a stripped RAID.

[smiles78]

When I switch out drives I have to push the reset button on the back of my POS LaCie. This works with my MBP. First, switch the hard drives out (no power or cords connected to drive). Plug power in and turn on. After it is on, push the reset button. Turn drive off. Turn drive to auto. Attach cable (eSata in my case) and attach to MBP. My MBP will now see the drive. I am doing a stripped RAID.

did you also go to bigger capacity when you did that?
and if, to which?

I think I did exactly what you said.

thanks,

alex

[Digital Skunk]

Obviously the chipsets aren't designed for bigger capacities than out of the the box.

If this is true than this sucks. Don't have the funds for it now, but was hoping to double capacity on my 2Big.

[smiles78]

If this is true than this sucks. Don't have the funds for it now, but was hoping to double capacity on my 2Big.

I actually got a phone number of LaCie from the retailer here in Berlin.
I called them and the explained that the older "2BIG dual" (which I have)
for sure doesn't handle the capacity.
For the newer 2BIG quadra he wasn't sure - they advice against it (of course) since they run tests on certain drive types on which the chipsets will work with.
Also they said that they changed the chipset on the newer quadra.

If you have the older dual- dont waste your time! (I already have)

[Digital Skunk]

I actually got a phone number of LaCie from the retailer here in Berlin.
I called them and the explained that the older "2BIG dual" (which I have)
for sure doesn't handle the capacity.
For the newer 2BIG quadra he wasn't sure - they advice against it (of course) since they run tests on certain drive types on which the chipsets will work with.
Also they said that they changed the chipset on the newer quadra.

If you have the older dual- dont waste your time! (I already have)

Good to know.

I know now that I will just save my cash for now and head over to a custom tower or the 4big.

[badboomer73]

crack open a LaCie and inside you will find a crappy 3rd rate hard drive that they didn't make. I know this from experience.

They are over priced. All you have to do is grab yourself a western digital or even better a seagate and a good case. External drives are simple to put together and you'll have the top of the line hard drive for about 65% the price of a crap box LaCie.

[Digital Skunk]

crack open a LaCie and inside you will find a crappy 3rd rate hard drive that they didn't make. I know this from experience.

They are over priced. All you have to do is grab yourself a western digital or even better a seagate and a good case. External drives are simple to put together and you'll have the top of the line hard drive for about 65% the price of a crap box LaCie.

LaCie is cheaper than G-Tech, whose the defacto video professional's standard. Many have cracked open their LaCie drives and have found Seagate Barracudas, Western Digital Caviars, and (back in the day) Maxtor's (who I do think is crappy)

Out of the four LaCie drives i have, two of them have Western Digital HDDs the 2Big has Seagates, and the old d2 has Maxtor.

All of my G-Techs have Hitachi's.... because that's all they use.

[LethalWolfe]

crack open a LaCie and inside you will find a crappy 3rd rate hard drive that they didn't make. I know this from experience.
Not to state the obvious but nobody makes HDDs except for the HDD makers (WD, Hitachi, Seagate, etc.,). LaCie, G-tech, CalDigit, etc., make enclosures, not HDDs.


Lethal

[smiles78]

crack open a LaCie and inside you will find a crappy 3rd rate hard drive that they didn't make. I know this from experience.

They are over priced. All you have to do is grab yourself a western digital or even better a seagate and a good case. External drives are simple to put together and you'll have the top of the line hard drive for about 65% the price of a crap box LaCie.

If anybody can tell me about a reasonably priced solution for
two 3TB standalone drives..
they shouldn't be more than 2bay arrays. ( idont wnat 8 drives humming on my desk..
All the ones I know can only take 2x 1TB drives max...
(it'll always just tell you in the small print)

Anybody seen a box for bigger ones? except for the LaCie 3TB?

[Digital Skunk]

If anybody can tell me about a reasonably priced solution for
two 3TB standalone drives..
they shouldn't be more than 2bay arrays. ( idont wnat 8 drives humming on my desk..
All the ones I know can only take 2x 1TB drives max...
(it'll always just tell you in the small print)

Anybody seen a box for bigger ones? except for the LaCie 3TB?

There's the G-Tech G-RAID3, which is the same concept of the LaCie 2big but non-configurable. Then there's just about any two bay enclosure with two 1.5TB drives inside.

Next stop is four bay and five bay enclosures.

[smiles78]

There's the G-Tech G-RAID3, which is the same concept of the LaCie 2big but non-configurable. Then there's just about any two bay enclosure with two 1.5TB drives inside.

Next stop is four bay and five bay enclosures.

thanks for the hint! will check it out...

[mpsrig]

Hello all -
Just thought I'd add my 2 cents about LaCie - The one and only 500gb drive I have from them is working fine, and has been for about a year now. It's on for about 8 hours a day. No problems.

[RedTomato]

Next stop is four bay and five bay enclosures.

I find it hard to understand the reasons for buying large enclosures like that. Once you get to that level, that price, to me the best thing is just to get a mini-tower or tower PC, and slap it full of HDDs and run it as a dedicated fileserver.

It's cheap, doesn't need to have the latest mobo or processor. It's easily upgradable, you can add extra network ports, cards, wifi, printer server, swap out drives, upgrade capacity, roll your own RAID, add further drives externally once it's full etc. It'll be able to serve at far higher speeds than enclosures which are well known for struggling to actually achieve gigabit network speeds.

After that, you're into rackmount territory.

[RedTomato]

...we wont be using them on a daily basis. We will back up all the episodes, and then they will sit on a shelf until they are needed. They'll only be plugged in when we back up to them and when we resurrect media from them.

New post as different topic. ISTR reading somewhere that drives tend to die if left unused too long - a year or two or more. The bearings seize up etc. Modern drives don't have bearings, but they can fail in other ways.

Just a heads up. I don't know how true this is. But circuits do tend to fail over time, even if left unused. Check out tin whiskers for one (of many) example of an unforeseen electrical failure mode.

[LethalWolfe]

I find it hard to understand the reasons for buying large enclosures like that. Once you get to that level, that price, to me the best thing is just to get a mini-tower or tower PC, and slap it full of HDDs and run it as a dedicated fileserver.
Not everyone wants to roll their own storage from the ground up and be their own tech support.


Lethal

[RedTomato]

Not everyone wants to roll their own storage from the ground up and be their own tech support.

Fair enough. PS Many thanks for your advice to me in another thread :)

[kdum8]

I don't know much about the merits of LaCie or otherwise, but these people are using LaCie Rugged drives on Mount Everest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-NeSzIRpTY&feature=channel_page

[jaysmith]

Our program at school told us we needed lacie drives, just because they knew they would be compatible with all the systems we use. I had 3 die on me in 2 years, and then I switched to G-drives, and they're amazing.

[kdum8]

Well despite the various negative opinions expressed here I just ordered the LaCie 500GB Rugged Hard Disk (FireWire 800).

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11085

We will see how I get on. Frankly I don't expect any problems but I will post here if I encounter any.

[joaoferro37]

Not to state the obvious but nobody makes HDDs except for the HDD makers (WD, Hitachi, Seagate, etc.,). LaCie, G-tech, CalDigit, etc.
, make enclosures, not HDDs.
Lethal

They don't make enclosures, they have factories in China make the enclosures.
Theses companies maybe design the look of the enclosures and do marketing here in the States.

Caldigit HDPro
http://www.caldigit.com/ImageBank/HDPro2U_01.png

is as same as Maxtronic

http://www.maxtronic.com.tw/index.php/pcietosataii-raidproductsmenu/sa-4378s-raidproductsmenu-130


=================
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-safe.cfm

is as same as Stardom SR3610-2S-WBC

http://www.stardom.com.tw/sohoraid_feature.htm

[UltraNEO*]

So in the past we have had discussions about LaCie drives. Despite some fellow members warning about their drives, I bought one. The drive enclosure is sold as "hot swappable". However, they won't sell you the drive trays alone. So when you fill up your RAID you have to buy overpriced drives from them. In fact, removing the old drives from the trays voids their warranty.

I don't think this is normal, as I am always free to buy whatever hard drives I want with other hot swappable systems. If I am wrong, let me know. Otherwise, I stand by not recommending LaCie to anyone.

Ain't had any issues with LaCie drives or their customer service. Infact from my experience, they're been really good! Just wish they choose another mechanism instead of DeathStars. Though in their Little Big Drive they did use WD's - was kinda impressed.

[iPhoneNYC]

I go thru alot of drives with various FCP projects. I was using gRaids for a while but their switches went bad and the LaCies turned out to be more reliable. Drives are cheap compared to all the effort and expense of shooting. So I digitize and back-up. One the project is over one drive is kept and one is re-used. But I have noticed that over time all drives seem to have problems so don't expect a drive sitting of the shelf for years to always be there for you.

[Don Saar]

I have a 3+ year, out of warranty, LaCie Photon 19 Vision monitor which has screen streaking and visual distortions. After much contact with these people out in Oregon, LaCie neither provides repair service nor do they indicated from where any replacement part(s) may be obtained! Therefore, do not buy LaCie monitors. Period. End of this discussion. Don Saar, drdonzi@crocker.com

[niuniu]

I have a 1TB Neil Poulton LaCie.. gf got it for my bday pressie last Sept.. it's great so far..

don't know anything about swappable stuff though, so maybe this is redundant..

[LeonO]

Something I ran into when asking for warranty (http://www.lacie.com/us/legal/warranty.htm) from LaCie :

Warranty is valid from LaCie’s date of original shipment. So even if you buy an item from an authorised reseller, the warrantyperiod starts on the date LaCie shipped it to the reseller/dealer.

In my case LaCie does not want to repair my drive, even though I bought it less than two years ago, because they claim they shipped it out much earlier!

[Jerkfish]

I've only used a handful of LaCies when editing shorts for fellow classmates, but every single time I've seen first-hand just how low quality their drives are.

The first one has a super sensitive plug. I'm talking a slight nudge and it would disconnect. Tried it on multiple computers so it wasn't on the computers end, and we even tried multiple cables. It had to be the plug on the drives end.

The second one just always took forever to be recognized by any computer. I'm talking 5+ minutes most times.

Third one had a crappy power brick. Started making this ticking noise just a few months in and then just outright died. First power brick I've even seen fail in my life.

In the three years or so I've had my two Western Digital externals (500gb and 300gb, which still run perfectly) I've seen three LaCies come and go.

[auero]

My experience with LaCie was hell. I purchased a 500GB drive I had connected to my G5 at the time at all times via firewire 800. I eventually started shutting down my computer and noticed my drive stopped turning on. It would flicker on but it wouldn't mount and I wouldn't hear the drive clicking.

After talking to LaCie they replaced the PSU cable and it fixed it till it happened two more times! The drive ticks a lot now and also grinds so I just use it as a dump for unimportant temporary files. I wouldn't buy another drive again from them after reading around that this is something that frequently happens.

They're SOLID drives and the enclosure was great, speed, support but there was a design flaw somewhere and I won't risk losing my data by purchasing one again.

[thebigo]

I hey put a little sticky void sticker over one hard drive tray screw. This we all know is not legal. It is like a computer company putting a void sticker on the case, so you can't replace your own hard drive or video card without voiding their warranty.

Apple does this. It's entirely legal. Please read the EULA before accepting it.

[mperkins37]

I have had a few & I can say that my experience was less than stellar.
got about 2 years before it died. wife got one for her claassroom in Nov last year & It clicks & grinds already,
Told her to buy an enclosure & a seagate, but what do I know......

[dfs]

A while ago I bought a LaCie Ethernet drive which I used for networked backups. All went well until we had a thunderstorm which managed, I'm pretty sure, to scramble the directory. The maintenance software that came with the disk was not able to reformat it, and the LaCie tech support was obviously clueless (and just as obviously not particularly interested in helping me solve my problem). So now I'm the proud owner of a brick. There are a couple of lessons to be learned from my experience. First, if you are shopping for a networked h. d. you need to pay attention to the quality of the maintenance/repair software that comes with it, since you can't fall back on utilities like Disk Repair you use for a normal h. d. And I wish the people who write reviews of networked disks would grasp this, they almost always don't, which makes purchasing one of these units a good deal harder than it should be. Second, if you think you might ever need tech support help, you had better shop for another brand, because, to be blunt about it, theirs is pretty godawful.

[Mr.Bullitt]

Hi guys!


Sorry to awaken this thread, but it had me worried as I was thinking of buying one of the 2 HD RAID solutions from Lacie.

Now I am looking at empty OWC enclosures - anyone have experience with them???

[KeriJane]

No experience with OWC here....

But I do have a LaCie 2BigTriple which is similar to the current 2BigQuadra.
It's been a great drive so far.

The housing, power supply, cables and controller are very good. The RAID selector switch is recessed and intentionally hard to operate because changing the position will destroy all data. The selector switch seems weak but really only needs to be set once.

It has a thermostatically controlled fan that shuts off when not needed and varies speed as needed. The "Auto" feature allows the drive to shut down when you shut down or sleep the computer.

The only thing I dislike about the 2BigTriple (and my D2 Quadra) is the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 drives they came with. These drives were hot-running and very noisy. WD Green Power 1TB drives made things a lot cooler, quieter and bigger.

So, for comparison's sake you might want to find out:
Does OWC have auto fan control?
An "Auto" feature?
Appropriate, cool running and quiet drives? Or, are you allowed to specify which drives or no drives?
Any spare parts or Drive holders available?

LaCie isn't perfect but they make pretty good enclosures. I probably would have gone with G-tech if I had known about the hot and noisy 7200.10s.

Have Fun,
Keri

[DoFoT9]

hey all. seems to be alot of hate for LaCie, but i am sort of stuck atm.

i am looking at purchasing the LaCie 1TB D2 Network Drive for storage and first level backups. the LaCie will be connected to a switch which then connects to each computer.

i would like to know if Norton Ghost is able to connect to this drive and save a computer image, or if there are any problems that any knows?

thanks in advance ;D

[dfs]

Let me repeat something I said a long time ago on this thread. I bought a LaCie network h. d., and it worked great until we had a thunderstorm which corrupted the directory. Were this an ordinary h. d. I'd have all sort of diagnostic and repair tools, beginning with Apples Disk Utility, so I'd have been up and runningi no time at all. But none of these resourceswork with network disks. All I had was LaCie's own software utility, which was totally inadequate to fix the job, and their tech support was both unhelpful and very obviously uninterested in my problem. So be warned, it's not just a matter of choosing a piece of hardware, you have to evaluate the quality of the associated software, because if get in trouble that's all you're going to have to bail you out. Or not. Based on my own experience, I would recommend you NEVER entrust valuable data to a LaCie network h. d. and I'd certainly not use it as a backup device.

[DoFoT9]

Let me repeat something I said a long time ago on this thread. I bought a LaCie network h. d., and it worked great until we had a thunderstorm which corrupted the directory. Were this an ordinary h. d. I'd have all sort of diagnostic and repair tools, beginning with Apples Disk Utility, so I'd have been up and runningi no time at all. But none of these resourceswork with network disks. All I had was LaCie's own software utility, which was totally inadequate to fix the job, and their tech support was both unhelpful and very obviously uninterested in my problem. So be warned, it's not just a matter of choosing a piece of hardware, you have to evaluate the quality of the associated software, because if get in trouble that's all you're going to have to bail you out. Or not. Based on my own experience, I would recommend you NEVER entrust valuable data to a LaCie network h. d. and I'd certainly not use it as a backup device.

some very strong words in there. two things.
1. what would you say if the networked drive was the #1 backup device, which was constantly backed-up to another hard drive?

2. what do you recommend for a NAS? (especially one that will work with Norton etc).

[HBOC]

I've had a LaCie drive for about a year (500GB external with 2 FW 800, FW400, USB, ESATA) and it has been great for me. No HD is going to be perfect, I mean WD has horrible reviews, as does Maxtor, Seagate, etc...

[dfs]

Have a second disk that mirrors your primary backup device? That’s better, I guess, but your considering doing this suggests that you don’t really trust your primary backup drive. Having had my bad experience, if I needed a networked drive here’s what I’d do: buy a regular hard disk with USB connectivity and network it by attaching it to Apple’s Airport Express (which can be used as an ethernet router, if you prefer a hard-wired network). That way, if the disk ever needed to be repaired, I could attach it directly to my Mac and use my regular diagnostic and repair tools to fix it, which I couldn’t do with a specialized NAS disk. Note: almost all reviewers who write about NAS disks fail to consider the quality of the bundled software, they just can’t get it though their heads that this is crucial information for evaluating these disks. If you ignore this, sooner or later you may be in for a world of woe (and find yourself the owner of a very expensive paperweight, that’s my own sad story).

[DoFoT9]

Have a second disk that mirrors your primary backup device? That’s better, I guess, but your considering doing this suggests that you don’t really trust your primary backup drive. Having had my bad experience, if I needed a networked drive here’s what I’d do: buy a regular hard disk with USB connectivity and network it by attaching it to Apple’s Airport Express (which can be used as an ethernet router, if you prefer a hard-wired network). That way, if the disk ever needed to be repaired, I could attach it directly to my Mac and use my regular diagnostic and repair tools to fix it, which I couldn’t do with a specialized NAS disk. Note: almost all reviewers who write about NAS disks fail to consider the quality of the bundled software, they just can’t get it though their heads that this is crucial information for evaluating these disks. If you ignore this, sooner or later you may be in for a world of woe (and find yourself the owner of a very expensive paperweight, that’s my own sad story).

thanks for your nice reply dfs :D im sorry to hear about your bad experience :(

this network is for a PC environment, i would rather not implement a Mac solution (even though i would love to).

my plans are this:

attach LaCie D2 Network drive to switch via ethernet, which then goes to all computers. the drive will be used to house the files that are edited (as opposed to storing them on the local computers). every week (or night, depending on the chances of loss of data) an external USB HDD will be connected to the NAS and data will be copied over.

also, every month i will perform a clone backup of each drive - and save the image file to the LaCie D2 Network drive. this backup wont be as important as the weekly (or daily) backups as there wont really be any important data on these computers, as long as the programs can be retrieved to their prior settings (no settings change, the clone will cover all aspects of this) then its fine.

i think this is a pretty fail-proof method. provided that the weekly (or daily) backups are continued then i dont have a problem going with the LaCie D2.

[Jim Campbell]

Just had two LaCies die within a week of each other, one at least had the decency to start making chugging, clunking noises and mounting intermittently, so I was able to stop using it and I'm hopeful of getting the data off it. The other -- the storage drive for our media centre Mini -- just stopped. No warning, it went from seemingly fine to brick overnight. Luckily, I have the music library duplicated on another machine, but I'm not looking forward to re-ripping 150 DVDs, frankly.

So, no more LaCies for me.

Cheers

Jim

[Bezbozny]

Just had two LaCies die within a week of each other, one at least had the decency to start making chugging, clunking noises and mounting intermittently, so I was able to stop using it and I'm hopeful of getting the data off it. The other -- the storage drive for our media centre Mini -- just stopped. No warning, it went from seemingly fine to brick overnight. Luckily, I have the music library duplicated on another machine, but I'm not looking forward to re-ripping 150 DVDs, frankly.

So, no more LaCies for me.

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim,

have a look at my post here if you want:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8914134#post8914134

the problem that you experience with the first drive looks identical to mine so i hope that reading the post will help.

Best regards,

Bezbozny.

[surfmadison]

It is funny how this thread just won't die. As the starter to this thread I only have one thing to say. Never buy LaCie. I hate them, hate them, hate them.

I do still like my FirmTek by SeriTek enclosure. Still running great, and if I want to swap drives, no problem and no warranty issue.

Why buy a Raid enclosure if you can't swap drives with a drive you can buy anywhere. That is why I hate LaCie. They force you to buy overpriced off the rack cheap drives that they sell.

Never buy LaCie. And end this thread once and for all.:confused:

[eRondeau]

Hey gang, I just had to chime in... I've owned three Lacie external "d2" HD's in four years and two of them are toast. It's not the drive mechanisms, it's the interface electronics that fail. Use caution.

[anthemus]

I've owned 5 Lacie D2's, 3 OWC and 6 Acomdata. Over the few years I've had them. 1 Lacie died and 1 Acomdata, reason, heat. Best solution, buy one of the cheap $10 fans. If your editing for a long period or time or doing a massive transfer turn the fan on. The OWC's have been solid since they have a good fan for cooling.

Granted from time to time hard drive makers can make some lemons... luck of the draw....

[djkirsten]

I've owned 5 Lacie D2's, 3 OWC and 6 Acomdata. Over the few years I've had them. 1 Lacie died and 1 Acomdata, reason, heat. Best solution, buy one of the cheap $10 fans. If your editing for a long period or time or doing a massive transfer turn the fan on. The OWC's have been solid since they have a good fan for cooling.

Granted from time to time hard drive makers can make some lemons... luck of the draw....

Our lame Engineer gave us these as an archive solution. Something about them being cheap....I dont know.

[joaoferro37]

On what planet is that not legal? All manufacturers have different policies regarding what you can and cannot do to their product without voiding its warranty. Sure, Apple lets you install your own RAM in their machines, but they won't cover defects caused by the third-party RAM under AppleCare. In the case of LaCie, they don't consider the internal hard drives to be user-serviceable parts (as in dismantling the drives from their trays)...

You're acting as if LaCie is the only manufacturer that does this. CalDigit and G-Tech, just to name a couple, practice the same policy on their hard drive trays. If you don't like this, there's a handful of companies out there that sell bare RAID enclosures that you can add your own hard drives to.

The question is would you like to pay for someone just pop in 6 screws and rip you off like CalDigit. Their 2TB drive module $249 (1 year warranty) for the same drive you pay $135(5 year warranty) from newegg.
Or save the money for some other better products.
BTW, Hitachi owns G-Tech which I am sure they will honor the warranty and the company will be running after your warranty is gone.
CalDigit, anyone knows their real back ground?

[DoFoT9]

Our lame Engineer gave us these as an archive solution. Something about them being cheap....I dont know.

thats a bit silly!

[iMetalG5]

My experience? I still own a 2005 LaCie d2 160GB Triple that works flawless.

Last fall I bought a LaCie d2 1TB Quadra and it had issues from the start. It would not mount sometimes and it failed within 10 days. I exchanged it for another one. Again the new one failed to mount a bunch of times and this one had a very faint clicking/knock sound and I got paranoid and returned it. The mac genius at the time said a lot of people were returning the LaCie.

I bought a G-Tech 2TB G-Drive and i've been using it with Time Machine and all this other stuff (vid editing/photoshop/etc) and never a problem. I have a good friend who has 2 of the 500GB versions and has had them over a year without fail.

[joaoferro37]

I just noticed that Walmart is now selling LaCie drives. This will be the downfall of LaCie's quality. When you sell to Walmart you have to agree to an "open books" policy. What happens is that Walmart becomes your biggest account. You think everything is great, selling lots of stuff, and then they audit your books. They tell you that instead of making 15% on each item, you need to lower the price and only make 13%. (Or something to this effect). At first you bite the bullet, but it doesn't stop.

Walmarts slogan "Always rolling back prices". Soon they ask to lower it again. At this point you either have to stop selling to Walmart, or make your product cheaper. So first you source from a cheap Chinese factory, or you use lower quality materials. In the end, the product isn't as good was it was before. Sure the customer gets a product for less, but the quality isn't the same.

I don't know about you guys, but I need my RAID's not to fail. I have 100's of hours of video on hard drives that I am working on. I don't want a cheapo product. I want a good quality product at a fair price. I also don't want to get screwed by customer support or some crappy void warranty issue.

So, I still repeat myself. I will never buy a LaCie hard drive again. I will never recommend for anyone to buy a LaCie RAID or any other LaCie product. Not to mention I don't need to send my money to a foreign company. Maybe I will start with USA companies first next time.

I would not be surprised to see their product on Wal-Mart, or maybe Home Depot or at your local gas station.

A reliable RAID costs a little bit of money and my suggestion is using an ATTO card with multiple drives setup at RAID level 0+1 or if possible, 2 *- RAID 5 mirrored.

My experience with other RAID providers like High Point, CalDigit are as bad as LaCie.
Not only have these companies phased out products too fast they exaggerate their performance and reliability.

[Abraxsis]

For what it's worth, I've seen MANY Pro Photogs who religiously use the Lacie ruggedized triple interface portable hard drives for shooting in the field. Im actually planning on procuring one next week for just this reason.

As for the rest, Lacie can keep their stuff. The only thing I have ever have good performance out of was a 2TB NAS that I ordered/setup for my previous employer to backup our massive 355GB workplace file structure, along with an additional 275GB photo backup (it was a toy company). However, the only usable orifice that the NAS has was it's Gigabit connection which was, for some reason, faster than a direct FW800 connection.

Their LCDs, however, are very nice albeit overpriced.

[huddie]

I have a D2 and a Triple interface BIG disk working nicely. Extremely sturdy metal cases, I can't imagine anything overheating in there. Been using them for years now.

Their pricing seems ok to me too. I want to buy a network attached drive now, and find the Network Space 2 (2TB version) to be one of the cheapest out there.

The only thing that's bothering me is the noise the D2 and BIG make.

[niuniu]

Just to add that my La Cie 1TB HD is still going really well after being dropped twice recently, once was minor the other was one of those heart wrenching oh *** moments.

I pretty much leave it on 24/7 for months because I simply forget about it and then turn it off for a day or so until I want to use it again. I've had it since Sept 2008, so it'll be nearing it's 2 year mark of heavy use.. not bad for the price.

Just wish it was wireless. I might look at the Apple solution, though the reviews on those are Really mixed and the 1TB is expensive to just 'take a punt'.

[reel2reel]

All drives fail. Doesn't help when the world is full of people who plug firewire 400 ports in upside-down (which fries the board) then blame the drive.

Ah, humans...:rolleyes:

[DoFoT9]

All drives fail. Doesn't help when the world is full of people who plug firewire 400 ports in upside-down (which fries the board) then blame the drive.

Ah, humans...:rolleyes:

Is that even possible physically lol?

[max.osxpert]

I run a little mac support business and in the last year i've had three customer ask me to fix there broken external HDDs, all of which where laCies. iv'e had two of my own fail on me. Thing is of the 7 total drives that iv'e seen fail only two of them were definitely the LaCie hardware that failed. the others all had WD HDDs that were the problem. plus the last two internal HDDs I recovered data from were both WDs.

www.osxpert.co.uk