Ext. HD's: LaCie vs MyBook

[wallaby]

I have a video editing class coming up soon and I want to get an external hard drive to work with my MBP. I figure 500GB would be plenty. I'd like something better than USB to work with, since my MBP has firewire 400/800 and my PC has a 400 port. This My Book Pro seems to be a popular choice, but I'm also looking at this LaCie drive because it also has an eSATA port. I don't have any eSATA devices right now but I thought it might be worthwhile to future-proof. However, LaCie drives seem to be getting very poor reviews as of late.

Does anyone own either of these drives or one not listed? Opinions why you like yours? Have any certain brands failed on you more often?

 

[Oilbrnr]

I've got a couple of new Maxtors, 1TB and 320GB. They have firewire, and are very Mac friendly. Highly recommend.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I have the MyBook Pro, just brought it back from Ann Arbor, working amazing...

There was another thread that outlined both of these, so far no one that I know of has had a problem with a MyBook Pro.

 

[numbersyx]

I have a MyBook Pro. It is very fast (FW 800 if you have it) but also one of the noisier drives that I have come across.

 

[Veritas&Equitas]

I love my MyBook Pro. Triple interface, sexy looking, works like a charm...at the prices it's at, how can you beat it? (think I got mine for $150 shipped).

 

[rev316]

WD takes a tad bit longer to spin up. Thats about all the difference I found.

 

[MacDawg]

Never had a problem with my LaCie at all
Great investment

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[glennyboiwpg]

Don't buy the lacie. I got one and it was really nice until my mac froze and when I rebooted the drive wouldn't mount. Google it... lacie won't mount.

I got a 1Tb WD triple interface drive for the same price as the 500 gb lacie.


Love the WD.

Buy the WD.

 

[pengu]

i have the Lacie d2 Quadra (500gb, USB2, FW400, FW800, eSATA) hooked up to my G5 via FW800 and im very happy with it. it "sleeps" when my G5 sleeps, and it powers off when my G5 Powers off, automatically. the only downside is that it has an external power brick. if the WD has an internal (ie, requires just a normal A/C connection) i'd choose that one.

 

[Bow Rekk]

I have a WD 250gig my book pro. It is pretty noisy fanwise but the actual clicking of the hard drive seems really quiet. If you are going to use it for backing up too find some better software than the stuff that comes with it. I get the beachball of death a LOT when I try to use it - although it does work eventually.

By the way, I have 2 partitions and the bigger (200 gig) one is for audio. I haven't had any problems yet. It *seems* to work better than the internal HD (5400 rpm). I got a higher track count with it in Logic using FW800...

 

[cyclingplatypus]

I've got both a book and a Lacie, they both work great but the book has this annoying little quirk where it places he drive in a "standby or sleep" mode after it is idle for a bit and it takes a few seconds for it to respond, no way to turn this "feature" off, the Lacie on the other hand does have a little lag but not nearly as noticeable.

 

[wallaby]

I've got both a book and a Lacie, they both work great but the book has this annoying little quirk where it places he drive in a "standby or sleep" mode after it is idle for a bit and it takes a few seconds for it to respond, no way to turn this "feature" off, the Lacie on the other hand does have a little lag but not nearly as noticeable.

That sucks, but I'm tempted to go with the MyBook anyway since there's been so many reports of failing LaCie's.

I'm using this drive for video editing and for backup/storage, but I guess either would do well at that, wouldn't they?

 

[maestrokev]

I've had hard drive fails with all the brands. Check warranty, the WD MyBookPro 1TB has a 3yr warranty and is user serviceable, not sure about all their other models. That's an important consideration.