[beverson]

I'm looking to buy an external HD that will not only compliment my Rev B. iMac, but I can also use at work and with any future Macs I buy. It would also be cool to be able to connect to friends' and family members' PCs. I'm quite attracted to the idea of having a drive with both USB and FireWire interface, and have found what appear to be quite comparable drives offered by both LaCie and VST. Can anyone give me insight into factors that might differentiate these types of drives made by these two manufacturers? Any reliability issues with either type? Small features one type has over the other? Input is appreciated.

Thanks.

[ibookuser2]

I have used both of these drives and found them both to be extremely reliable and easy to use. They are almost identical except for the casing, its pretty much which one is at a better price and the kind of casing you like.

[beverson]

I have a follow-up question too, for ibookuser or whomever would like to comment:

How well do either of these drives work with Windows PCs? Obviously, they'd have to be Win formatted, but do they require installation of any software, or are they truly plug and play? And would it be possible to partition one into a Win partition and a Mac partition and have the Win computer be able to use that partition? I'd be wary, I suppose, of formatting the whole darned thing in a Win format.

[Paulos]

I have a friend who has a usb external harddrive. He formatted his completely as dos and transfers files between Mac and PC, no problems. He had to install drivers for Windows 98 but i believe for Windows 2000 he didn't need to. Hope that helps.