Are Lacie desktop drives any good?

I am looking for another external hard drive for my MBP. I already have an Iomega 320GB with triple interface and I'm looking for a drive around 500GB with firewire. I have seen this drivehttp://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=11062

I can get it from Play.com for £99 free delivery. I wanted to know are Lacie drives reliable as I have heard there have been reliablity issues with Lacie drives but this may be unfounded. Does anyone have this drive or a Lacie drive and would you recommend them. I would happily take alternative suggestions for a hard drive.

I have 3 Lacie externals and one DVD burner. No problems with them. One is about to celebrate it's 2nd birthday here.

I have personally owned Western Digital and Samsung hard drives and had no issues.

I have a 160GB WD in my G4 Cube which has worked fine for almost 2 years, and two WD My Book Pro drives (just under 1 year old) which have been fine too. I have also recently purchased a 1TB My Book Studio.

I also have a Samsung 250GB hard drive in my MacBook Pro (which is almost 1 year old) and have recently purchased two 1TB Samsung desktop SATA hard drives which are very quiet.

I notice you are in the UK. You may be interested in the Samsung 1TB drive I have for sale here:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119330

It is in new condition, and for £105 delivered you will get the 1TB drive in a black IcyBox enclosure (also new condition) with USB 2.0 and eSATA connections.

randomfactor said:

I am looking for another external hard drive for my MBP. ... I wanted to know are Lacie drives reliable as I have heard there have been reliablity issues with Lacie drives. Does anyone have this drive or a Lacie drive and would you recommend them. I would happily take alternative suggestions for a hard drive.

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There's a lot of material on this and other forums about external hard drive issues, and the name LaCie crops up rather frequently. May I suggest that you look for a drive with an Oxford chipset, which has been shown to be the most reliable with Mac and firewire. Check OWC at http://www.macsales.com/ You'd need to import a suitable drive into the UK though. In the end it'll be the cost that will determine your choice.

If it's just USB you want to use, several brands will work fine. My personal preference is for Hitachi. I've seen Seagate and Western Digital recommended by others.

I have a lacie and its really good.

hughvane said:

There's a lot of material on this and other forums about external hard drive issues, and the name LaCie crops up rather frequently. May I suggest that you look for a drive with an Oxford chipset, which has been shown to be the most reliable with Mac and firewire. Check OWC at http://www.macsales.com/ You'd need to import a suitable drive into the UK though. In the end it'll be the cost that will determine your choice.

If it's just USB you want to use, several brands will work fine. My personal preference is for Hitachi. I've seen Seagate and Western Digital recommended by others.

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Ive looked on the net for Uk sellers of the OWC Mercury Elite but no luck. That would be my ideal drive. But Ive seen a Lacie v2 Quadra 500GB (3 Yr Warranty) for £119 or a Seagate 1TB Freeagent Pro (FW/USB/eSATA) for £105 (both from play). The Lacie drive is fast but expensive and Seagate drive is a little slower but have a lot more space and it comes with a 5 year guarantee. I know that Seagate do really good internal hard drves but not sure of external ne. But I work with a lot of video so extra speed would be great.

randomfactor said:

Ive looked on the net for Uk sellers of the OWC Mercury Elite but no luck. That would be my ideal drive. But Ive seen a Lacie v2 Quadra 500GB (3 Yr Warranty) for £119 or a Seagate 1TB Freeagent Pro (FW/USB/eSATA) for £105 (both from play). The Lacie drive is fast but expensive and Seagate drive is a little slower but have a lot more space and it comes with a 5 year guarantee. I know that Seagate do really good internal hard drives but not sure of external ones. But I work with a lot of video so extra speed would be great.

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This is a situation where it's very helpful to know someone across the Atlantic, or someone traveling to the US, who can purchase for, and then package and post equipment to you. I'm not familiar with Customs and excise duties in the UK. Maybe one of your Apple stores would get a Mercury enclosure for you because they'll have their import systems all set up.

With the Seagate drive, you're right, they do work well, but it's the firewire bridge that matters most. A significant number of people have reported problems with otherwise reputable external drives because the chipset is not fully Mac compatible. Weigh up whatever extra cost might be involved in sourcing an Oxford chipset combo USB-Firewire enclosure and then put a locally-sourced Seagate drive in it yourself. That's the way I'd go in your situation. Good luck.