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driven · Mar 7, 2006, 04:18 PM

I obtained one of these yesterday:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10468

The part that caught me off guard was the "Designed by F.A. Porsche" label on the box. (I didn't buy it because of that.)

I guess this is supposed to imply style or something. But check out the picture. I don't get it. It looks like a square box to me. If I designed a square box I doubt they'd slap my name on it and go "ooooo ... look at that!".

Am I missing something? (Other than my sanity)

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 7, 2006, 04:21 PM

yes Porsche designed them, and the designs suck.

Porsche designs lots or other products.

goMac · Mar 7, 2006, 04:22 PM

I hate to say it... but we had some of those in my last IT job.. they were the crappiest drives we ever had. We couldn't boot from them from any machine and no one knew why.

analogika · Mar 7, 2006, 04:23 PM

We use them at work as emergency/test boot drives, and they work fine.

However, I don't trust them with my data.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 7, 2006, 04:28 PM

I much prefer the designs of the in house LaCie Drives.

driven · Mar 7, 2006, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by I Bent My Wookiee

yes Porsche designed them, and the designs suck.

Porsche designs lots or other products.

How much did they pay for a "box" ??

I'm just using the drive to backup my notebook.

turtle777 · Mar 7, 2006, 04:40 PM

That's gotta be the ugliest Porsche design EVAR...

-t

Goldfinger · Mar 7, 2006, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by driven

How much did they pay for a "box" ??

I'm just using the drive to backup my notebook.

Well those Porsche Lacies used to be cheaper than the normal d2s once. Not sure if it's still like that.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 7, 2006, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by driven

How much did they pay for a "box" ??

I'm just using the drive to backup my notebook.

I don't want to know, prob a small fortune.

I kinda like the mobile drive that looks like a silver/gold brick though. The specs on it suck though.

hickey · Mar 7, 2006, 05:02 PM

Ive heard lots of bad things about the Porsche designed drives. Might explain why they're a lot cheaper than the regular Lacies.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 7, 2006, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by hickey

Ive heard lots of bad things about the Porsche designed drives. Might explain why they're a lot cheaper than the regular Lacies.

They weren't when they first came out.

I don't understand how the physical design would make the hardware suck more though.

OldManMac · Mar 7, 2006, 05:07 PM

I bought a 160GB "Porsche" drive almost two years ago, and it failed two months ago. They suck!

Kevin · Mar 7, 2006, 05:29 PM

I have the 250g Firewire version and it's been great so far.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10384

Had no problems booting with it.

driven · Mar 7, 2006, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by KarlG

I bought a 160GB "Porsche" drive almost two years ago, and it failed two months ago. They suck!

That's really not that bad. I have 3-4 hard drives fail PER YEAR. At least most of them are still under warrantee.

The ONLY drives that have not failed on me are the ones in my Macs. (Not sure why??)

I typically buy Western Digital, Maxtor or Seagate. Same problems with all of them. Both internal exclosures or internal.

Kevin · Mar 7, 2006, 05:38 PM

I've never had a drive fail on me for some reason.

I always run Diskwarrior twice a month. And applejack whenever I restart.

TETENAL · Mar 7, 2006, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin

I've never had a drive fail on me for some reason.

I always run Diskwarrior twice a month. And applejack whenever I restart.

I have neither and I always put on my left sock first.

driven · Mar 7, 2006, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin

I've never had a drive fail on me for some reason.

I always run Diskwarrior twice a month. And applejack whenever I restart.

I've always said that it's not "IF" a drive will fail, but "WHEN". You just messed that up for me.

Kevin · Mar 7, 2006, 06:18 PM

I have the 1gig drive my Performa came with that still works.

Same with every Mac that I have owned, or any hard drive I have had.

Maybe I just get "lucky"

I have a feeling my disk upkeep routine has something to do with it.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 7, 2006, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

I have neither and I always put on my left sock first.

Ya exactly. Running software utilities on a drive don't do **** to prevent hardware from failing unless it is severally fragmented or running like a madman.

Out of the 7 LaCies I have used one has failed (After a month).

Out of 5 Maxtors 4 failed between 1 month to 1 year.

So far my Seagate rocks.

Kevin · Mar 7, 2006, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by I Bent My Wookiee

Ya exactly. Running software utilities on a drive don't do **** to prevent hardware from failing unless it is severally fragmented or running like a madman.

Maintaining your hardrive's usability and error WILL INDEED prevent hardware from failing. If it's a crappy drive that has problems before you use it? No, but it will keep a good drive from crapping out early.

When a hardrive gets errors, and you do not correct those errors, bad things happen.

Out of the 7 LaCies I have used one has failed (After a month).

Out of 5 Maxtors 4 failed between 1 month to 1 year.

So far my Seagate rocks.

I've had/have Maxtors, LaCies, Seagates, IBM, etc. Still have them. All are working.

I guess I am just REALLY REALLY lucky eh?

Salty · Mar 7, 2006, 06:34 PM

I've had HDs screw up only ever had one truly fail on me, and that was probably the result of my PowerBook flying across the room... oh how I look forward to magsafe.

CharlesS · Mar 7, 2006, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin

Maintaining your hardrive's usability and error WILL INDEED prevent hardware from failing. If it's a crappy drive that has problems before you use it? No, but it will keep a good drive from crapping out early.

Um, no. Running DiskWarrior on the disk will repair the directories if they're damaged, sure. But those directories are software. Whatever the condition of software things on the drive, they are not going to affect one way or another whether the hardware will fail.

Oh, and repairing permissions will of course have absolutely no effect on anything.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 7, 2006, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Um, no. Running DiskWarrior on the disk will repair the directories if they're damaged, sure. But those directories are software. Whatever the condition of software things on the drive, they are not going to affect one way or another whether the hardware will fail.

Oh, and repairing permissions will of course have absolutely no effect on anything.

Defragging can HELP because it reduces head movement but with todays large ass drives and built in de-fragging tools it is pointless.

Diskwarrior will do NOTHING to help the longevity of the drive. It only optimizes the directory which is tiny.

analogika · Mar 8, 2006, 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by Goldfinger

Well those Porsche Lacies used to be cheaper than the normal d2s once. Not sure if it's still like that.

Still are.

You get what you pay for, IMO.

Kevin · Mar 8, 2006, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Um, no. Running DiskWarrior on the disk will repair the directories if they're damaged, sure. But those directories are software. Whatever the condition of software things on the drive, they are not going to affect one way or another whether the hardware will fail.

Oh, and repairing permissions will of course have absolutely no effect on anything.

Charles when the directory gets fragged and damaged, this can indeed prolong the life of your Hard-Drive.

Not only that

Hrdware failure presents a potential threat to your data. When a drive mechanism fails, the data on the drive can be lost, with an expensive data recovery service your only option to retrieve your data. DiskWarrior can be used to activate internal diagnostics that are built into disk devices to help determine if a drive is in danger of physical malfunction. If the potential for failure is indicated, DiskWarrior will notify you, giving you the opportunity to back up your data before the drive fails. These tests can be executed manually, or you can choose to have the tests run automatically every hour, day, or week. DiskWarrior also provides several notification options should the diagnostics report a problem.

It can save you from a hard-drive that is about to dump so you CAN back-up

It also

"Safely permits interruptions of any kind, including power outages"

Which ALSO protects your hard-drive from failing.

Busemann · Mar 8, 2006, 07:46 AM

No harddrive failures here either *knocks wood*

I don't use disk utilities on any of my drives btw.

euchomai · Mar 8, 2006, 10:27 AM

I'm assuming that Porsche designed the case so why would it fail more?

turtle777 · Mar 8, 2006, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by euchomai

I'm assuming that Porsche designed the case so why would it fail more?

That, my friend, is a good question.

I guess most people didn't think about it the wat that in most cases, the HD is failing, not the case.

Btw, I Bent My Wookiee, LaCie builds cases with OEM HDs in it, right ? Could have been MAxtor, Seagate, IBM...

-t

driven · Mar 8, 2006, 10:34 AM

Interesting question:

Bad cooling in my computer cases have caused components to fail. I wonder if the case actually DOES have something to do with it?

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 8, 2006, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

Btw, I Bent My Wookiee, LaCie builds cases with OEM HDs in it, right ? Could have been MAxtor, Seagate, IBM...

-t

As far as I know yes. From what I have read the biggest cause for drive failure is humidity which is interesting.

driven · Mar 8, 2006, 10:43 AM

... and I live in Atlanta ... where we have a tiny little bit of humidity

turtle777 · Mar 8, 2006, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by I Bent My Wookiee

As far as I know yes. From what I have read the biggest cause for drive failure is humidity which is interesting.

With drive, you mean the HD, not the case, right ?

-t

tooki · Mar 8, 2006, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by Kevin

Charles when the directory gets fragged and damaged, this can indeed prolong the life of your Hard-Drive.

Not only that

It can save you from a hard-drive that is about to dump so you CAN back-up

It also

"Safely permits interruptions of any kind, including power outages"

Which ALSO protects your hard-drive from failing.

Uhhh, wrong on all counts. Defragmenting and optimizing are not going to have any effect on drive life in any way.

DiskWarrior does two things: fixing directory corruption (which is 100% unrelated to hardware failure), and monitoring S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics. Disk Utility can also be used to check S.M.A.R.T. status.

DiskWarrior uses smart techniques that prevent data loss, should power be lost while DiskWarrior is optimizing the disk. (Many old utilities could leave the disk terribly corrupted if the optimization process was interrupted for any reason.) It does NOT prevent data loss at any other time! It's not somehow keeping the drive alive during power outages. Software can't do that. Also, power failures won't have any effect on drive longevity.

tooki

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 8, 2006, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

With drive, you mean the HD, not the case, right ?

-t

Ya of course Turtle.

goMac · Mar 8, 2006, 12:03 PM

Well I suppose if you mean having a damaged hard drive can cause the head to make more reads which shortens the life of your drive, you're right...

It's not going to cause any noticeable shortening of lifespan though.

turtle777 · Mar 8, 2006, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by I Bent My Wookiee

Ya of course Turtle.

Just wanted to make sure. So far, nobody cared to distinguish.
When they said my "external drive" failed, they refered to the whole package, not just the HD.

-t

CharlesS · Mar 8, 2006, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin

Hrdware failure presents a potential threat to your data. When a drive mechanism fails, the data on the drive can be lost, with an expensive data recovery service your only option to retrieve your data. DiskWarrior can be used to activate internal diagnostics that are built into disk devices to help determine if a drive is in danger of physical malfunction. If the potential for failure is indicated, DiskWarrior will notify you, giving you the opportunity to back up your data before the drive fails. These tests can be executed manually, or you can choose to have the tests run automatically every hour, day, or week. DiskWarrior also provides several notification options should the diagnostics report a problem.

It can save you from a hard-drive that is about to dump so you CAN back-up

Yes, it has diagnostics that can monitor the state of the drive and warn you when it's going to die so you can get your stuff off in time. That's very useful, but it's not going to prevent the hard drive from dying in the first place. It's just going to give you a warning ahead of time. It's like warning the residents of a city that a hurricane is coming, so they can gather their belongings and get out before it hits. It's a good idea for sure, but it won't prevent the hurricane from coming...

Paco500 · Mar 8, 2006, 04:18 PM

For the record, these cases, ugly laptops, cheap sunglasses and loads of Shaper Image crap designed by F.A. Porsche, a guy related to the founder of the car company, but he has no current design duties with them. He (or his company) just designs cheap, ugly stuff.

turtle777 · Mar 8, 2006, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by Paco500

For the record, these cases, ugly laptops, cheap sunglasses and loads of Shaper Image crap designed by F.A. Porsche, a guy related to the founder of the car company, but he has no current design duties with them. He (or his company) just designs cheap, ugly stuff.

That's not true. I have seen designs that weren't too bad. I liked the following:

coffe maker:

water kettle:

toaster:

These aren't cheap either. Go for EUR 100 - 130.

-t

Powerbook · Mar 8, 2006, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by Paco500

For the record, these cases, ugly laptops, cheap sunglasses and loads of Shaper Image crap designed by F.A. Porsche, a guy related to the founder of the car company, but he has no current design duties with them. He (or his company) just designs cheap, ugly stuff.

Not so true. In fact most products wearing the "designed by Porsche" label are rather high priced stuff in their respective categories. Not that I like all their designs but some are worth looking at. E.g. check out their watches:

PB.

Kevin · Mar 9, 2006, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by tooki

Uhhh, wrong on all counts. Defragmenting and optimizing are not going to have any effect on drive life in any way.

It has to move less when such things are done, therefore prolonging the life.

DiskWarrior does two things: fixing directory corruption (which is 100% unrelated to hardware failure), and monitoring S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics. Disk Utility can also be used to check S.M.A.R.T. status.

It also warns you if your drive is ABOUT to fail.

DiskWarrior uses smart techniques that prevent data loss, should power be lost while DiskWarrior is optimizing the disk. (Many old utilities could leave the disk terribly corrupted if the optimization process was interrupted for any reason.) It does NOT prevent data loss at any other time! It's not somehow keeping the drive alive during power outages. Software can't do that. Also, power failures won't have any effect on drive longevity.

tooki

I don't think I said otherwise...

But saying running disk software on your hard-disk wont make it last longer, or has no effect is a bit of a mis-truth.

Kevin · Mar 9, 2006, 06:33 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Yes, it has diagnostics that can monitor the state of the drive and warn you when it's going to die so you can get your stuff off in time. That's very useful, but it's not going to prevent the hard drive from dying in the first place.

No, of course not, if your hard-drive is dying DiskWarrior can't fix a MECHANICAL error. It can warn you before it happens.

It's just going to give you a warning ahead of time. It's like warning the residents of a city that a hurricane is coming, so they can gather their belongings and get out before it hits. It's a good idea for sure, but it won't prevent the hurricane from coming...

Using DW is like moving to the basement during said storm.

While the tornado might hit you still, you'll have a better chance of living through it.

Busemann · Mar 9, 2006, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by Kevin

It has to move less when such things are done, therefore prolonging the life.

The reader head will never get worn out no matter how fragmented the disk is.

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 06:42 AM

IIRC, "Porsche Design" and "F.A. Porsche" are two completely separate companies.
F.A. Porsche is an independent design company, whereas Porsche Design is actually attached to the car maker.

I may be wrong, but that's my understanding of it.

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 06:44 AM

Originally Posted by tooki

DiskWarrior does two things: fixing directory corruption (which is 100% unrelated to hardware failure), and monitoring S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics. Disk Utility can also be used to check S.M.A.R.T. status.

Just checking, but SMART doesn't work over FireWire?

analogika · Mar 9, 2006, 06:51 AM

Originally Posted by euchomai

I'm assuming that Porsche designed the case so why would it fail more?

That has more to do with the price than the design.

lower price == cheaper components in the bridge and power supply.

analogika · Mar 9, 2006, 06:54 AM

Originally Posted by Doofy

Just checking, but SMART doesn't work over FireWire?

Oh, it does - it just doesn't work over Apple's *implementation* of Firewire.

BTW, SMARTReporter is a cool early-warning tool.

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by analogika

Oh, it does - it just doesn't work over Apple's *implementation* of Firewire.

Thanks, good to know.

TETENAL · Mar 9, 2006, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by Doofy

IIRC, "Porsche Design" and "F.A. Porsche" are two completely separate companies.
F.A. Porsche is an independent design company, whereas Porsche Design is actually attached to the car maker.

Luckily there is always Wikipedia.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdina...xander_Porsche

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche "F. A. Porsche" is the founder of "Porsche Design GmbH".

He studied design at the university for design in Ulm, but had to leave after two semesters because they though he sucked. Following that he entered the design studio of the carmaker Porsche of which he eventually became director and designed the Porsche 911. After the Porsche family members were removed from important positions at the Porsche carmaker in 1972 he founded his own design company "Porsche Design". This company had nothing to do with the carmaker Porsche until the carmaker bought Porsche Design from F. A. Porsche in 2003.

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 07:18 AM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Luckily there is always Wikipedia.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdina...xander_Porsche

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche "F. A. Porsche" is the founder of "Porsche Design GmbH".

He studied design at the university for design in Ulm, but had to leave after two semesters because they though he sucked. Following that he entered the design studio of the carmaker Porsche of which he eventually became director and designed the Porsche 911. After the Porsche family members were removed from important positions at the Porsche carmaker in 1972 he founded his own design company "Porsche Design". This company had nothing to do with the carmaker Porsche until the carmaker bought Porsche Design from F. A. Porsche in 2003.

So there we go.

I guess I was sort of right about the division in that "designed by F.A. Porsche" doesn't mean it's designed by "Porsche Design".