LaCie 2big - What is your experience with it and LaCie in general?

[AndrewMRiv]

I am trying to look for the best RAID Thunderbolt solution and I have narrowed it down to a LaCie 2big (4tb).

It is going to hold my recorded music from Logic and Garageband, iPhoto Library, iMovie Library, iTunes Library (will eventually daisy chain another one when my iTunes Library grows too large), all of my other documents, and pretty much everything that is not an Application or apart of the OS.

Many people on this forum seem to have said nice things about LaCie while others have swore by other products.

I had narrowed it down to G-Tech G-RAID vs this and I chose the LaCie because I heard that G-Tech's support has become horrid (especially when dealing with a failed hard drive) and because this gives me the option to put my own HDDs in.

What is your take on this? Will the LaCie 2big be good for me?

Thank you.

 

[g4cube]

LaCie: both drives in sleds, easily removed
G-Tech: dual drives in sealed case

Otherwise, go big; larger than what you think you need, unless limited by budget.

You can purchase extra drives for the LaCie. Also, Seagate has acquired LaCie. WD acquired HGST, and HGST acquired G-Tech.

I have both, and prefer the LaCie 2big because drives can be easily swapped.

Performance is the same.

 

[MCAsan]

Both the wife and I have 2Big 6TB running as 3TB RAID 1 (mirrored) since early 2012. Both of use are backed up to 3TB Time Capsules. Never any problem with the 2Bigs. We keep all our large libraries of photos, music, and documents on them, not on the internal SSD. The only noise from mine is when my rMBP wakes up in the morning hone I move the mouse. It sits beside my ATD and rMBP.

Based on our experience, I would highly recommend 2BIg 6TB.

 

[iamgalactic]

I have one refurbed LaCie 2 Big (bought from LaCie online outlet store) and one from ebay that came without drives that I stuck seagate barracudas in (the same as LaCie use)

I've been running the refurb for nearly a year with no problems and the second one a little less again with no problems. The 2 Bigs are daisy chained and running in RAID 0 and super fast.

I also have 2 USB LaCies that I've had for years with no issues (unlike my Western Digital myBooks, which I had loads of problems with over the years).

 

[calaverasgrande]

I am not a fan of La Cie. Their devices are very good looking, and not designed for heat exchange. So they look nice next to a Mac, but they have a habit of dying if you expect to copy large amounts of data at once.
Not that I havent had Seagate and WD external drives die on me as well. But the La Cie that come through here die faster.

 

[iamgalactic]

I am not a fan of La Cie. Their devices are very good looking, and not designed for heat exchange. So they look nice next to a Mac, but they have a habit of dying if you expect to copy large amounts of data at once.
Not that I havent had Seagate and WD external drives die on me as well. But the La Cie that come through here die faster.

My personal experience with LaCie 2Bigs and copying large amounts of data has never resulted in dying.

I also disagree with your 'heat exchange' comment.
Can you provide evidence that they are not designed for heat exchange? - they are big feck-off bits of aluminium-as-heat-sink (i.e. completely designed for heat exchange!)

 

[calaverasgrande]

My personal experience with LaCie 2Bigs and copying large amounts of data has never resulted in dying.

I also disagree with your 'heat exchange' comment.
Can you provide evidence that they are not designed for heat exchange? - they are big feck-off bits of aluminium-as-heat-sink (i.e. completely designed for heat exchange!)

Just look at other less designy drives by other manufacturers.
The ones designed for real heavy use all have vents or finned heat sinks.
Quite a lot of La Cie's stuff isn't even aluminum, like those goofy orange "rugged" models. Plastic.
As far as evidence? Well I got a shelf of dead drives.
2 WD mybooks, and the rest are La Cie ruggeds or those 2 disk models.
I think they work fine for light use. But if you hammer your drives with post work or batching photos they may not be amenable.

 

[Wankershim]

...and the rest are La Cie ruggeds or those 2 disk models.

I'm curious claverasgrande, which 2 disk models are you referring to? LaCie make several.

As for my own experience, I have LaCie drives that have outlasted every other external drive I've used. I have a 500GB pre-d2 FW800 drive that's still kicking, and it was used when I bought it, all it needed was an adapter. I also use more contemporary LaCie Drives; a thunderbolt Little Big Disk, and I used a FW800 Rugged drive as a daily backup with my 2010 MBP, never had any problems with either.

If I needed more storage right now, I'd certainly be looking at the 2Big.

 

[Prodo123]

LaCie sells many of the most reliable storage devices on the consumer market.
I have never had any of its products fail on me, not even my CooKey which is 3 years old now and has gone through pretty much full water submersion.

 

[iamgalactic]

Just look at other less designy drives by other manufacturers.
The ones designed for real heavy use all have vents or finned heat sinks.
Quite a lot of La Cie's stuff isn't even aluminum, like those goofy orange "rugged" models. Plastic.
As far as evidence? Well I got a shelf of dead drives.
2 WD mybooks, and the rest are La Cie ruggeds or those 2 disk models.
I think they work fine for light use. But if you hammer your drives with post work or batching photos they may not be amenable.

But we're specifically talking about the LaCie 2Bigs - which are designed for "real heavy use" and "have vents" and "finned heat sinks".

 

[Neal B]

Both the wife and I have 2big units. We have used them for the past 2 years with zero issues. She does volumes of photo work and I do 3D modeling. As far as heat issues we have experienced none. Both drives are left on 24/7.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Picked one of the early models when FW800 first came out and ran it into the ground (over some years) pushing around huge log files. When my needs changed to media + backup, I replaced it with a (gen 1) time capsule that died the first year. Sold the new replacement and got a well used 2big off eBay. It's never sounded healthy (weird thing with the fan) but runs like a champ (3 years and counting).

There's no substitute for quality platters inside a big metal/fanned box.

 

[calaverasgrande]

say what you like.
I work in broadcast and see dozens of drives a day.
The ruggeds die pretty often, followed by WD mybooks.
If you are not writing to them very hard they may last a while.

 

[AndrewMRiv]

Thank you for all of your responses. There have been many mixed opinions but this whole topic has been very very helpful.

 

[g4cube]

As Apple sells the 2big and several other LaCie models in both Their retail and online store, they must think the product is fine.

Not every product gets that seal of approval.