[rambling]

I just ordered the LaCie Big Disk Extreme 500GB with every intention of using it for movie and music and of course as a powerbook backup... Now I'm reading terrible reviews and I am afraid I may have made a bad purchase....

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL....1.1.1.2.1.0.1

Is there anyone here who will speak in defense of the Big Disk Extreme 500GB? DO you use yours as a data backup device or to you load it up with iTunes music and ripped DVDs?

Please Help!

Avery

[budster101]

I know a few people that use them and love them.

I find it alarming, the negative reviews I have seen elswhere as well after doing some more searching. Most of 'them' are PC users (windows). Like that should matter...but it looks like a Windows trend more than Mac.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...78266?v=glance


I've used LaCie before at production jobs and they were fine.

[B Gallagher]

Let me summarize the reviews of the LaCie 500GB Extreme for you...

As with any piece of hardware, there are random manufacturing problems. Replacing the drive in warrenty doesn't seem too hard. Once it's out of warrenty however, you're on your own. And it seems like quite a few people have had problems with the drive out of warrenty.

On the otherhand, within that year, it seems to be good,easy to install and use, fast, and quiet.

Up to you I guess.. my summary's no doubt oversimplifying it, but yeah.

They look pretty damn solid.. but I'd be a little bit sceptical about using one for more than a year... hmmm.....

That probably didn't help you much, or make you feel much better about buying the drive... sorry. This might then -

Those who post reviews tend to be those who have problems. If something works fine, you have nothing to complain about, so why spend your time to go and post to let others know how much you love it? Human nature I guess... we seem to have a tendancy to look on the dark side of things.

You really think that Apple.com have only sold 15 of these things? No, I'm sure they haven't either. I'd like to find out how many they have sold, and compare that to the 10 or so bad reviews. I'm sure the 10 or so bad reviews count for a shockingly small percentage of total number of drives sold.

[MaxPower2k3]

One of the problems inherent to those drives is the fact that they're really a striped RAID1 array (two drives working together as one volume). This means that, if either drive fails, you lose all of your data. This isn't really a problem with LaCie drives in particular, they just are meant for speed over reliability. They're fine for working off of, but it would be wise to back up to a more reliable medium after the project is done.

[inkhead]

I don't understand why anyone would buy it, just buy a normal disk drive from a real disk company like WD, IBM, Fujistu or anybody else, it's such an overpriced "geared" toward "mac suckers" solution. It's not even really a 500gb drive, there should be a suit against them for the false advertisement.

Get a real drive from a company that's been making drives for a long time.


Lacie is seriously misinforming people. The average JOE looking to store movies and video files should stay VERY FAR away from raid arrrays, they are buggy and problematic for all OSes. Shame on Lacie.

[inkhead]

Hitachi drive that ISN'T a RAID array, has double the cache as the lacie disk for only $330:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Hitac...0/search=500gb

[budster101]

Thank goodness we have you to show us the way.

[leethomson]

I received this very drive last week, and am sorry to say I haven't been able to get it working at all. Something within the drive is causing constant resets to the Firewire bus on my Powerbook, meaning that any drive activity I begin cannot be relied upon to finish.

Hopefully I won't have a problem getting it replaced or refunded, and this may be an isolated case, certainly my 160gig LaCie has worked with no problems for two years, so I certainly have nothing against them as a company. But my experience over the last week has been frustrating, to say the least.

If you should have any problems when you receive yours, be sure to check the system logs for resets.

[inkhead]

Raid = bad idea. Why not get a drive that COSTS LESS, HAS BETTER PERFORMANCE, BETTER WARRANTY, and WON'T DESTROY ALL YOUR DATA IF A SMALL ERROR OCCURS...?

There is no reason to buy this drive unless you really really think that the name LaCie makes you look cool. Which it doesn't, it's just a sign that your a sucker for overpriced, overhyped, poorly performing products.