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Lacie vs G-Technology
- Thread starter Riosch
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LaCie support is not what is used to be.
I had a 5big Thunderbolt Raid freak out and go inop. I paid LaCie for a tech support call, at the end of which, they told me the unit was dead and out of warranty so I would need to purchase a new unit.
It turned out to be a software issue which I resolved on my own. I asked for a refund on the tech support call but they said no way because I pay for the call, not a solution.
It was surprising to me how little these guys knew about their own product.
Anyway, g-tech might be the same, but I will give them a shot on my next purchase.
I had a 5big Thunderbolt Raid freak out and go inop. I paid LaCie for a tech support call, at the end of which, they told me the unit was dead and out of warranty so I would need to purchase a new unit.
It turned out to be a software issue which I resolved on my own. I asked for a refund on the tech support call but they said no way because I pay for the call, not a solution.
It was surprising to me how little these guys knew about their own product.
Anyway, g-tech might be the same, but I will give them a shot on my next purchase.
I'm a huge fan of G-Technology. I have 4 of their drives. Rock solid. Their design keeps the hard drives cool enough after prolonged usage. Quite enough.
I ran a video transfer business and have owned a plethora of different external brands and I won't ever buy anything other than G-Technology, for what it's worth.
Good luck!
I ran a video transfer business and have owned a plethora of different external brands and I won't ever buy anything other than G-Technology, for what it's worth.
Good luck!
I think what drives are used in the particular enclosure matter most. Seagate owns Lacie now, so I'm guessing Seagate drives are used in their enclosures. I think Western Digital owns G-Technology.
Backblaze uses a lot of hard drives and publishes their failure rates. I think it's pretty cool thing to do, and reference it when I'm about to buy storage. Their reports are here. https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html
Backblaze uses a lot of hard drives and publishes their failure rates. I think it's pretty cool thing to do, and reference it when I'm about to buy storage. Their reports are here. https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html
I must say, I had a very similar incident with a ThunderBolt2 5Big.
I was under warranty (3rd year) and it stopped being recognised by the Lacie Raid Manager software, although the drive would still work. Not an issue as the drive still worked OK, but considering the warranty was almost ending I phoned Lacie to get it sorted.
They had no idea what to do - at least that's the impression I got. Then wanted me to pay shipping and send it back (and its a heavy drive!!) for them to look at.
Solved it myself in the end by updating software and firmware etc.
Promptly sold the drive soon after and replaced with OWC External SSD RAID - although saying that, OWC support isn't much better. Lets hope I don't need to use them!!
Has LaCie fixed the heat issue with their cases? I bought several LaCie external drives and with the aluminum enclosures and no fans, the boards on all the cases eventually failed, although the drives were perfectly fine for awhile after. I've gone to IcyDock and a software RAID solution instead, given how much heat hard drives can generate. I'd rather have a potentially dusty drive case, then have the drive or controller card fail because of the heat generated within the enclosure.
I never had a problem with the D2 Quadra drives that had heatsinks, and we beat the hell out of them. I absolutely loved that case design. Super quiet and efficient.
The current D2 Thunderbolt line has neither heatsinks nor a fan. I bought 1 D2 Thunderbolt and it had a board failure. Not sure if heat related but I am done with that line.
Bring back the heatsinks.
G-tech all the way.
Haven’t had LaCie for over 10 years. I had a load of D2 at one point, terrible, high failure rate. Since 2008 I’ve been exclusively G-tech, variety of models, all brilliant and never failed. G-tech was, I’m not sure if it still is, the choice of the media creation industry. I was recommended the brand by many US based video editors, Hollywood types, documentary makers etc, never looked back.
Haven’t had LaCie for over 10 years. I had a load of D2 at one point, terrible, high failure rate. Since 2008 I’ve been exclusively G-tech, variety of models, all brilliant and never failed. G-tech was, I’m not sure if it still is, the choice of the media creation industry. I was recommended the brand by many US based video editors, Hollywood types, documentary makers etc, never looked back.