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LaCie external hard drives

tech4all

tech4all

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 13, 2004
3,399
489
NorCal
I did a search on the forum and found good info regarding LaCie external hard drives. Got some questions:

1) I went to Fry's yesturday to see their selection of external hard drives. They had Western Digital, Maxtor, etc. However what is the point of installing the CD that comes with them? Can't you just plug it in/turn it on, and it'll mount like an iPod? I don't really want any other software to mess with, just want to "drag n drop" files into it.

2) Regarding iPod. I use it on my Mac for iTunes as well as an external hard drive. But I can't use iPod as an external hard drive on a PC, right? Is that the same with other external hard drives? (the LaCie to be more specific) And if it's just iPod that is not cross-platform, why can other external hard drives be written by a Mac and be read by a PC as well (and vise-versa)?

And just for a lil FYI here a link to a LaCie hard drive from an online student discount store. And if anybody has any opinions/comments on external hard drives they have used, that is welcomed as well.

Thanks for any info :)
 
James_C

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,817
1,822
Bristol, UK
tech4all said:
I did a search on the forum and found good info regarding LaCie external hard drives. Got some questions:

1) I went to Fry's yesturday to see their selection of external hard drives. They had Western Digital, Maxtor, etc. However what is the point of installing the CD that comes with them? Can't you just plug it in/turn it on, and it'll mount like an iPod? I don't really want any other software to mess with, just want to "drag n drop" files into it.

2) Regarding iPod. I use it on my Mac for iTunes as well as an external hard drive. But I can't use iPod as an external hard drive on a PC, right? Is that the same with other external hard drives? (the LaCie to be more specific) And if it's just iPod that is not cross-platform, why can other external hard drives be written by a Mac and be read by a PC as well (and vise-versa)?

And just for a lil FYI here a link to a LaCie hard drive from an online student discount store. And if anybody has any opinions/comments on external hard drives they have used, that is welcomed as well.

Thanks for any info :)
Click to expand...
 
jeremy.king

jeremy.king

macrumors 603
Jul 23, 2002
5,479
1
Holly Springs, NC
tech4all said:
I did a search on the forum and found good info regarding LaCie external hard drives. Got some questions:

1) I went to Fry's yesturday to see their selection of external hard drives. They had Western Digital, Maxtor, etc. However what is the point of installing the CD that comes with them? Can't you just plug it in/turn it on, and it'll mount like an iPod? I don't really want any other software to mess with, just want to "drag n drop" files into it.
Click to expand...

Usually the CDs that come with these drives include utilities for formatting, partitioning, etc and they are usually PC only. You won't need to install them if you do not want to.

tech4all said:
2) Regarding iPod. I use it on my Mac for iTunes as well as an external hard drive. But I can't use iPod as an external hard drive on a PC, right? Is that the same with other external hard drives? (the LaCie to be more specific) And if it's just iPod that is not cross-platform, why can other external hard drives be written by a Mac and be read by a PC as well (and vise-versa)?
Click to expand...

You will be able to use it as an external hard drive if you format for PC. No worries as it will still work as expected with iTunes on your Mac. This is how I utilize my iPod. The same can be said of external drives. If you format them with a windows filesystem (with exception of NTFS) your mac and PC will be able to read/write from/to the drive.
 
James_C

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,817
1,822
Bristol, UK
Oops sorry, pressed the wrong button, but it looks like kingjr3 has given you the right info, in any case. I have a 250GB D2 Extreme LaCie drive, that I think is excellent and I use it for video work with my Powerbook /Powermac, a very reliable well built drive. Highly recommended.
 
C

Champale

macrumors member
Jul 23, 2004
90
0
Chicago, USA
My experience

I have two LaCie external drives that I like quite a bit.

One is 250gb firewire/usb which I use for backup purposes and for editing video with.

The other is a portable one that's about 20gb. I forget the name.

At any rate, I have never had a problem with them. They come with Silverkeeper as a backup program. It's okay but I would recommend something more heavy duty as a backup program.
 
J

Jo-Kun

macrumors 6502a
Dec 20, 2003
677
0
Antwerp-Belgium
I have a LaCie D2 80GB, my brother has a LaCie D2 120GB and a friend has the LaCie D2 250GB we're all mac user and very happy with the drives

MAC= PLUG & PLAY
PC= BUG & PRAY

;-)

the cd's have silverlinging pro for OS9... OSX needs no installation (or just drive intialisation -> formatting, I don't remeber anymore)... Windows OFF COURSE needs installation (formatting etc.)
 
tech4all

tech4all

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 13, 2004
3,399
489
NorCal
Thanks for the replies :)

So if I got an external hard drive, the LaCie for example, is it preformatted for a Mac or PC? And it seems like a Mac will read/write either to a Mac or PC formatted disc, but a PC can only read/write to a PC formatted disc and not a Mac formatted disc. So if the hard drive was preformatted for a Mac and I wanted to use it on a PC also, it would have to be formatted for a PC to be read/write on both Mac and PC. But if the hard drive is formatted for a PC, then I can go either Mac or PC.

On a similar note, if this is true with Mac can read/write both formats, but PC can only read/write on PC format, then how does a PC go on a website that is hosted on a Mac? Like Apple.com?

Hope that makes sense and thanks again! :D
 
James_C

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,817
1,822
Bristol, UK
tech4all said:
Thanks for the replies :)

So if I got an external hard drive, the LaCie for example, is it preformatted for a Mac or PC? And it seems like a Mac will read/write either to a Mac or PC formatted disc, but a PC can only read/write to a PC formatted disc and not a Mac formatted disc. So if the hard drive was preformatted for a Mac and I wanted to use it on a PC also, it would have to be formatted for a PC to be read/write on both Mac and PC. But if the hard drive is formatted for a PC, then I can go either Mac or PC.

On a similar note, if this is true with Mac can read/write both formats, but PC can only read/write on PC format, then how does a PC go on a website that is hosted on a Mac? Like Apple.com?

Hope that makes sense and thanks again! :D
Click to expand...

LaCie are pre-formated for Mac, but you can reformat the drive for the PC, if you do that , you will be able to use the drive for Mac or PC, however I am not sure if the drive will take a performance hit when you use on the Mac if it is PC formatted.

As far as Websites are concerned it is the host computer handling the file requests, not the remote (PC) that it accessing the website through a browser or FTP software, many websites are maintained on Unix, Linux, Windows, or Apple Servers to name but a few, most users would never see the difference.
 
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