[mr breaker]

I am looking to get a new external drive, around 250GB with Firewire 400/800 and USB 2.0 connections.

Would I be better off getting an enclosure, and an internal drive, or something like this Lacie drive:

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/de...pno~605771.asp


If I were to get the Lacie external drive/enclosure, would it be possible to replace the drive with a larger one in the future?

Are these Lacie drives any good? Or is there another brand that has a better track record?

[hickey]

Lacie drives are kind of a shot in the dark, some batches are good and will last for a while, but the other have bad power supplies/bad drives.

Buy the enclosure and drive seperate, put it together yourself. Save money, get exactly what you want.

FW800 isnt that necessary, single external drives cant saturate the limit of FW 400.

Check newegg.com for good drives and enclosures. Either get a drive with a built in fan to cool the drive, or get an aluminum enclosure to help with cooling. As for drives, Seagat is the favorite due to its 5 year warranty, but I beleive Maxtors are getting pretty good too. Or it might be Western Digital, I forget who Seagate bought out.

[angelmb]

I have a previous LaCie d2 model with 'only' FireWire 400 connection. Never had problems with it. I have replaced the drive came with the LaCie enclosure with a different model but same GBs… it is not that difficult and I guess if I have placed a larger drive (more GBs that is) it would work OK.

I really like the Maxtor OneTouch III, it is a beauty, but also freaking expensive, and I have had bad experiences with (internal) Maxtor hard disks, a pity because that model is really beautiful. http://www.maxtoronetouchiii.com

[mduell]

I am not a fan of LaCie to put it mildly. As others have said, build your own.

I like this $90 Oxford-based enclosure. A 250GB Seagate drive (5 year warranty) is $101.

Originally Posted by hickey

FW800 isnt that necessary, single external drives cant saturate the limit of FW 400.

Even a 3 year old SATA drive can easily saturate FW400; the latest drives can push more data than the practical bandwidth of FW800.

[Dailyplanet]

I bought a 250Gb Seagate Baraccuda hard drive off of Tiger Direct for like $73. I put in a in a firewire/usb 2 enclosure. Formatted the drive, works like a charm!

[mr breaker]

thanks for the replies...I ended up ordering a macally firewire/usb enclosure and a 320GB western digital drive for a total of $180