[Macworld]

Post your comments for LaCie d2 Quadra USB 3.0 offers impressive speed here

[stevenoz]

Too bad LaCie has such a bad reputation for failed power-supplies. I'll never buy another LaCie hard drive because it is almost as if they want the drive to die after a year or two.

I've had to buy new enclosures from another manufacturer after the LaCie drive died.

The hard disk inside (not made by LaCie) is generally fine.

[hayesk]

 stevenoz, on 18 January 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

Too bad LaCie has such a bad reputation for failed power-supplies. I'll never buy another LaCie hard drive because it is almost as if they want the drive to die after a year or two.

I've had to buy new enclosures from another manufacturer after the LaCie drive died.

The hard disk inside (not made by LaCie) is generally fine.

A reputation is not always representative of the facts. I do believe they had a bad run once, but I've had only one power supply (which they replaced at no charge) from LaCie go bad. And I've been using LaCie drives since the early '90s.

[g4cube]

 hayesk, on 18 January 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

A reputation is not always representative of the facts. I do believe they had a bad run once, but I've had only one power supply (which they replaced at no charge) from LaCie go bad. And I've been using LaCie drives since the early '90s.

Ditto...

Also a happy LaCie user, with 10+ drives over the years. Also have Seagate, WD, and G-Tech. I like that there are choices, and that the LaCie is available from several sources.

To other user, did LaCie fail to replace defective power supply, or not make them available? That is what a warranty is for. Granted, a failure is unacceptable, but not impossible. Let's hear from drive manufacturer that never has a failure...

As for the review, a single drive is not going to benefit much from USB3 or even Thunderbolt. In order to take advantage of interface speeds, 2 or more drives striped in a RAID-0 or 4 or more in a RAID-5/6 array would be required. The limitation is the thru-put of the actual drive mechanism.

Nice to see a comprehensive review.

[Paul67ht]

Indeed LaCie power supply problems have been all too common. I have had two different LaCie drives suffer 3 failures between them. Only one failure occurred during the warranty period and got a free replacement power supply.
I am now an ex-customer of LaCie.

[stevenoz]

 g4cube, on 18 January 2012 - 09:54 AM, said:

 hayesk, on 18 January 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

A reputation is not always representative of the facts. I do believe they had a bad run once, but I've had only one power supply (which they replaced at no charge) from LaCie go bad. And I've been using LaCie drives since the early '90s.

To other user, did LaCie fail to replace defective power supply, or not make them available? That is what a warranty is for. Granted, a failure is unacceptable, but not impossible. Let's hear from drive manufacturer that never has a failure...
.

In my techno-travels, when Mac users have had an external drive power supply problem from a major manufacturer, it has either been a LaCie drive, or a G-Tech external drive before Hitachi bought the company. The couple years before the Hitachi take-over in February of 2009, G-Tech's power supplies for single drive units often failed within a couple years if in continuous use, in my experience (and I have some).

LaCie has a two-year warranty on drives now, but I didn't want to send the drive back to them. Buying another non-LaCie enclosure, I knew the data would be safe and I would be up more quickly. I'm sure many know that if you send in a defective or broken drive on warranty, often you just get back a new unit (drive and enclosure), sans your data.

[TigerMO]

With Apple now implementing the Thunderbolt port standard on the new computers, I doubt they will ever use USB 3.0. That means you're likely to be purchasing a USB 3.0 card to install. Oh, except my iMac won't let me install any cards. So USB 3.0 for me, not an option.

[Xenu]

I have this drive. A word of warning: If you plan to connect via Firewire, update the firmware on this drive (via the link on LaCie's site) to disable "ECO mode" BEFORE you use the drive or you will have lots of problems.

[criduchat]

I too have had two La Cie drives fail early. Also, one Western Digital failed very early. I will probably look for other brands next time.

[JanLevine]

I had one of these in August, before that firmware update. I had to return it, and got an OWC instead. The drive would go to sleep - and the mfr. had no solution at that time. Perhaps the firmware update fixes the problem, but it could not be defeated when I had the drive. It would also not wake up when connected by Firewire 800 if put to sleep by the laptop's power management.

[psichel]

I've enjoyed my LaCie D2's, but now consider alternatives.

http://sustworks.blo...ackup-disk.html

The Macally case is fanless which make it very quiet unless the drive is active.

I like that it includes both Firewire 800 and Firewire 400 on the back.

The power supply is a standard 12v wall wart instead of a separate dual voltage unit (12v and 5v) that sits on your floor or desk and uses a custom DIN connector. LaCie had a run of bad power supplies, so I like that the power supply is such a standard part.

The internal design is simpler.

By choosing a separate case, you can pick any specific hard drive (and warranty) you like, and deal directly with the drive manufacturer for any warranty issues.

Enjoy!

[stevenoz]

 psichel, on 23 January 2012 - 07:15 AM, said:

By choosing a separate case, you can pick any specific hard drive (and warranty) you like, and deal directly with the drive manufacturer for any warranty issues.

I agree. By choosing a well-made enclosure and a well-rated hard disk (size and spin rate, your decision)... and putting them together yourself... you get the best possible scenario.

My current favorite enclosure is Wiebetech's Toughtech Q drive.

[RUDYRX]

Its seems strange to me that I keep hearing about "LaCie's bad reputation" but have used their hard drives for the last 5 years without a problem. The Lacie d2 Quadra has been an excellent back up hard drive for my Mac desktop, a 24" iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core Duo and 4 GB of RAM and I am using a Lacie Rugged XL 1 TB hard drive for my Macbook Pro, 2.8 Ghz Intel Core i7 and 8 GB RAM again with no problems. Granted both of these are hard drives are relatively new in age ( 2 years old or less) since I replaced the older LaCie hard drives with one with more storage. But hey I for one will certainly not argue with anyone who has had their backup drive fail, because it has happened to me before and it's no fun, these were not with a LaCie hard drive. That is the reason I switched to LaCie. I guess I have been lucky is all I can say, since I have heard others complain about LaCie hard drive problems. But then again, we all probably have stories about hard drive failures, because it is something we don't easily forget, about this brand or that. I'm sure all hard drive manufactures have someone out there with a bad taste left in their mouths by a particular brand hard drive failure and its reason enough for anyone not to use that brand of backup drive ever again once you are burned. Thanks for the article.
RUDYRX

[Cortimetrix]

Regarding the reliability of LaCie products, I will say that although I have not owned one of their hard drives, I have one of their 52X DVD writers. It hasn't been a happy experience. The original failed after several months use. It was replaced THREE times--each time with a refurbished unit--before I finally got one that is still working. Each time the process was protracted and frustrating with the same troubleshooting questions and suggestions by technical support over and over again. Naturally, I'd be reluctant to buy another LaCie product.