Reliability of LaCie EHDs

Hard to know where to place this question. Mods please move if inappropriate.

A well known US-based OnLine video & tutorial subscription service has an excellent tutorial on using Time Machine at the beginning of which, the CEO and presenter strongly advises anyone against using LaCie EHD products as a TM backup.

I wrote to him asking why as I have, over 7 years, bought around 20 such products and never, yet, had a failure. He emailed back to say that they have a propensity for overheating and, essentially, blowing up.

As this contradicts my experience, am I just lucky or have others had problems? My concern is that my entire backup structure is based on these products. Should I be concerned? I am UK based which might, I suppose, be relevant?

Thanks in advance for considering this unusual question.

Ian

We have had mixed reviews of LaCie products, however, I have not seen what the CEO and presenter has. LaCie does not produce their own drives, instead they use a variety of drives from other manufacturers in their products. Your LaCie drive may contain a Seagate, WD, Hitachi, and so on.

To answer your question.... I would not be concerned. Drive failures can occur with any drive regardless of who produces them. It's the nature of the beast. That's why we stress backups and redundancy in any backup strategy.

Thanks, Charlie. As, always, good advice.

I am comfortable that I have multiple backups with TM times 2, SuperDuper!, Dropbox, and separate EHDs containing, my Documents, and the libraries of iTunes, iPhoto & Aperture.

It just comes as wee bit of a surprise to hear the one particular brand I use so roundly condemned.

Again, your time and comments are much appreciated.

Ian

You pays your buck and takes your chances with electronics IWT. I do think that modern drives have a higher failure rate than say ten or so years ago. Only natural as they are pretty complex, faster beasts.

SSDs also fail have had a G.Skill Falcon DOA out of the box and a Kingston Now fail after one month. Main thing keep those backups up to date.

Thanks, Harry.

Oh I do keep my backups up to date. I'm a touch obsessive about backups. It would take multiple catastrophes to bring me down. Perhaps, I've overreacted to the press, or at least one leading pundit's view, on LaCie products. Even if they did start to fail or burn out as this gentleman alleges, the multiplicity of my backups and the fact that I copy them on to my backup iMac should protect me.

You and Charlie have both been very kind in reassuring this "ageing juvenile"!

Ian

Lol how 'old' is an aging juvenile may one ask? I consider myself a rejuvinating oldie!

An ageing juvenile? Well, in my case 3 years short of the biblical three score and ten.

I like the "rejuvenating oldie" tag. The feature of the ageing juvenile is that I/we have never quite given up the childlike faith in believing we understand things even when it's apparent that what we think we understand died out at least a generation ago.

As you are Australian, you probably got the BBC radio shows of yesteryear. The term "ageing juvenile" came from the "Beyond our Ken" and "Round the Horne" radio shows.

Ian

Laddie post me in another ten or so years when you catch me!

Alas I will still be that much older!!!

I have had two Lacies. The first one failed after a year. I returned it to Lacie and was sent a new one. Lots of hoops to jump through first though. It is now 3 years old and running fine. It was simple to set up. I read almost all of the sticky on which back up to purchase and still have some questions.

1. Is there a way to tell which hard drive is in "your" Lacie?

2. I'd like an external back up that has an a/c adapter, has 2.0/3.0 USB and Firewire. I almost bought the Seagate and then read the complaints about the software it has. I couldn't find a WD model that had the a/c adapter and firewire. I went to OWC and the backups are Toshiba which I read on the sticky to stay away from. I probably don't need over 750 GB but don't have a problem going to something bigger.

3. I know it is simple to reformat but mac formatted straight out of the box would be great.

Thanks.

I'd like an external back up that has an a/c adapter, has 2.0/3.0 USB and Firewire.

Click to expand...

Good luck in finding something like that. I have one external HD (iomega) that has USB 2, FW 400 and FW 800, however, I doubt you'll find a drive that has USB 2, 3, and FW. Most external hard drives nowadays are of the 2.5" variety and are not AC powered. You can still find some desktop external hard drives that are 3.5" and AC powered if you shop around on the net. Amazon, NewEgg, and Tiger Direct are good places to look.

nancyspeed said:

... ...
... ...
1. Is there a way to tell which hard drive is in "your" Lacie?

2. I'd like an external back up that has an a/c adapter, has 2.0/3.0 USB and Firewire. I almost bought the Seagate and then read the complaints about the software it has. I couldn't find a WD model that had the a/c adapter and firewire. I went to OWC and the backups are Toshiba which I read on the sticky to stay away from. I probably don't need over 750 GB but don't have a problem going to something bigger.

3. I know it is simple to reformat but mac formatted straight out of the box would be great.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

1. Just add the brand of the drive or volume, or an abbreviation to its name.

2. The newer tech Voyager Q/S3 comes pretty close to your requirements. I'm still using their Quad 4 but they don't seem to be making it any longer. Its got:
USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 / FireWire 400 / eSATA ports

NewerTech® : Storage : Voyager Q/S3
Voyager by NewerTech - Hard Drive Dock for 3.5" and 2.5" SATA Devices provides high-performance and flexibility

And for 3. OWC might just Mac format any drive you want if you ask.

PS: Isn't the OP's subject a bit of an oxymoron having Reliability and LaCie in the same phrase, but maybe things will get better since Seagate bought them out???

Lacie used to make some excellent products many, many years ago, like maybe the Apple PPC era.

Dear pm-r

"PS: Isn't the OP's subject a bit of an oxymoron having Reliability and LaCie in the same phrase, but maybe things will get better since Seagate bought them out???"

I'm the OP (or in the UK, perhaps OAP!)

It was not intended as an oxymoron although you may be spot on. My question arose from the fact that I have bought, used, reformatted over & again, and generally been very satisfied with around 20 LaCie EHDs over the last 7 years. I use them for all my Time Machine Backups (x1 on older iMac; x2 on newer iMac) and for backing up all my libraries (iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture) as well as my Documents.

Then, I come across a well known web site with an "expert" presenter who strongly advises against LaCie EHDs because he says they overheat and may "blow a fuse or blow up".

My concern was, is this universally acknowledged; have I just been lucky; should I purchase an alternative make of EHD?

Your response tends to answer my questions and I thank you, and all the others for giving up your free time.

It's never to late to learn, as they say.

Ian

Your experience with some older Lacie drives seems to be excellent, but that may not apply to the specific recent drive, and I think we all know the definition of some "experts"!!

How old is the article and is it just a wide generalized statement he makes? Some older Lacie drives did run hot, or at least their power supply did and they also had a lot of failures.

I'd do some Googling on the 'net for some other reviews as well as some users reviews and experiences at some of the Mac inline stores for some of the recent drives you're considering. I'd say that one "expert's" says may just be their opinion. I'd check the recent facts and also if they are TM compatible which I understand you'll be using them for.

From years ago: Expert: someone from out of town who has good slides.

Thanks. I didn't think of Tiger Direct. I don't know why I want one that is AC powered. Just old I guess.

chscag said:

Good luck in finding something like that. I have one external HD (iomega) that has USB 2, FW 400 and FW 800, however, I doubt you'll find a drive that has USB 2, 3, and FW. Most external hard drives nowadays are of the 2.5" variety and are not AC powered. You can still find some desktop external hard drives that are 3.5" and AC powered if you shop around on the net. Amazon, NewEgg, and Tiger Direct are good places to look.

Click to expand...

Correction: it was the Western Digital model with the software people didn't like.