Which External Hard Drive ?

[hsilver]

I also favor OWC drives. I have 3 chained right now both FW800 and FW400. My partner has 7 chained together. They are everything that everyone else has said. Also if you go and do something stupid like turn a drive off or unplug its FW cable without 1st ejecting it on the desktop, OWC has a 2 or 3 year warranty. Send it back and they'll give you a new enclosure and/or drive if you need it. Tech support is very good.

 

[Penman]

I know that my experience is technically "unscientific", I was playing on penman's words. But, as I stated before, I would rather trust feedback from many many people I know as well as my own (personal experience). If people are only looking for "scientific" info, then why the hell are they asking for opinions on macrumors? They will probably only get 15-20 responses at most- I certainly know I've made excellent decisions from this site on what to purchase from just a few responses to my posts (my OWC drives, my Powerbook, waiting for a new 23" HD display etc.). The replies I got that I didn't feel were enough to make a decision prompted me to investigate further, both by doing my own research and asking my friends who have lots of experience.

p.s. why does one writer's review (cnet, pcmag etc.) count when a consumer's review doesn't? I explained in my reply to penman my logic for formulating my opinion on Lacie drives.

p.p.s. and no, I didin't miss the point of penman's post. He was essentially saying that I had an abnormal experience with Lacie drives adn being a disgruntled consumer, I was generalizing about their products. I am saying that even if I did get a few abnormal duds, I know many others who have as well, and that I thought that the original poster should know that. We all know that there are plenty of functioning iBook g3's out there, but would you take the risk to buy one?

p.p.p.s.- type in "Lacie unreliable" into Google and see what happens.

I appear to have missed all the fun.

1) I do not, and will never, work for LaCie
2) My comments were aimed at your argument, not at you. I wasn't referring to you personally as talking 'garbage' but criticizing my impression of your reasoning. If that was unclear I apoligize.
3) That the general perception that LaCie drives are unreliable (among a sector of consumers) is widely spread does not make it any more valid. In America there was once a popular myth that Audi's accelerated of their own accord (they didn't) but many people believe that to this day. In Europe Hondas are seen as very average cars - not bad, but not special - in California many people think they're the mose reliable vehicles on the planet. It's just perception but deeply ingrained.

Point it that ideas have momentum and when someone's looking for advice you have to ignore the momentum in favor of the facts. Telling someone that your ideas are supported by other disgruntled consumers doesn't make those complaints more meaningful without a scientifically sound frame of reference. Peoples ability to imagine patterns in things they see is the reason we employ double blind testing whenever results are important. These forums are very useful but primarily hersay.

If MS produced product as crappy as people here would have you believe 90% of the worlds computers wouldn't be useful for anything at all - crashing every five minutes and laden with viruses. Based on Mac Rumors forums putting an XP box in your living room is slightly less wise than dousing the carpet in gas and setting fire to the curtains. That impression is a result of unscientific gossip of the type we're all involved in here.

To claim that it's 'fact' that LaCie drives are unreliable is meaningless and indefensible without data. It's pure speculation and a very poor basis for a decision.

Yourcomment about iBook G3's is not equivalent. Apple admitted a manufacturing flaw. LaCie sell drives every day. If they were getting massive returns they'd be compelled to change. Given they're in every Apple store, every pro computer store I've ever seen, and on the Apple website it's naieve to assume they could be shipping flaky product and not know it. If they are you have to wonder why Apple and others continue to support and reccomend them? Moreover why not fic the flaws and make everyones life easier? They're a premium, not discount, item.

Hard drives are highly complex pieces of moving machinery. My clockwork Omega keeps poorer time than the display on my microwave and is more prone to breakage. Anything fragile, as hard drives are, is going to break down. Assuming that, because some breakages are discussed publicly, the company making that product is worse than others is wrongheaded and biased.

I have another (500GB Extreme) LaCie drive on order currently (they stack nicely and are very quiet which is important to me). I have previously posted in another thread that I do not reccomend their 'Porsche' design as it's simply too loud for me.

People don't say 'Did you read that on the Internet?' for nothing.

 

[Bhennies]

I appear to have missed all the fun.

1) I do not, and will never, work for LaCie
2) My comments were aimed at your argument, not at you. I wasn't referring to you personally as talking 'garbage' but criticizing my impression of your reasoning. If that was unclear I apoligize.

That's a perfectly logical way to look at it. I guess we just disagree on what's important when researching products. All good, no need for apology!

 

[Penman]

That's a perfectly logical way to look at it. I guess we just disagree on what's important when researching products. All good, no need for apology!

I know you know something - those RME convertors are delicious. I've not used Pro Tools (I know...) what do you think of it relative to Logic? I'm a year old switcher who ran SAW back in the day and then Cubase audio. I hear that Pro Tools isn't a great midi tool though.

This is off topic I guess so message me or we can build another thread.

 

[Bhennies]

I know you know something - those RME convertors are delicious. I've not used Pro Tools (I know...) what do you think of it relative to Logic? I'm a year old switcher who ran SAW back in the day and then Cubase audio. I hear that Pro Tools isn't a great midi tool though.

This is off topic I guess so message me or we can build another thread.

I don't use much MIDI, so Pro Tools is my favorite- the audio editing tools are very intuiive and I love the mixing board layout- sends and automation are great. Pro Tools is the best for compatibilty (every studio has at least one Pro Tools rig) and really is the best for audio (live instruments, vox etc.). I have also done some loop-based stuff in Pro Tools; it's certainly possible.

From what i understand, Logic is much better than Pro Tools for MIDI and loops, but not as intuitive regading audio. I can attest to the fact that Pro Tools' MIDI capability is pretty weak compared to others...but it's still quite usable. What a few people seem to do is record and edit their MIDI in Logic (Pro Tools hardware will finally work with other DAW's) and then export it into Pro Tools. If I had my choice, I'd honestly probably get Nuendo- I love Steinberg hardware (my RME/Nuendo 8 i/o sounds SOOO good) and Nuendo is a great workstation. However, the software alone is 1200 bucks...thats the price of a Digi 002 rack! I'll take the rack (in fact I just got one). Hope that helps!

p.s. to keep it on topic, check out this thing (FW800 drive)---A SEVEN YEAR WARRANTY!

http://www.storcase.com/DataSilo/ds321.asp

 

[JLaFrance]

my HD

Ive got an Iomega 80gig, FW 400 external and ive never had a problem. It was not very expensive either.