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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Consumer Hardware & Components > LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Disk

LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Disk
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Dell Switcher
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Mar 1, 2008, 12:17 PM
 
I am interested in mobile hard drive to backup my iMac 24 and MacBook. Should I buy the LaCie rugged all-terrain hard disk that is only USB2 or get the one which will allow firewire 800 & 400 and USB-2.

At my last visit to the Apple Store genius bar, this is the hard drive they were using.

But, I read on one forum that sometimes the firewire does not work as well as USB.
Switcher and damn glad...with iMac and PB who would not be happy!
     
Cold Warrior
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Mar 1, 2008, 12:20 PM
 
Firewire 400 has a slower theoretical max throughput than USB 2.0, but it's actual sustained throughput is better than USB. Firewire 800 is a lot faster.

If you have a lot of data to backup, and you backup often, then you'll be more satisfied with the Firewire 800 experience.
     
angelmb
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Mar 1, 2008, 01:50 PM
 
I have a d2 LaCie FireWire 400 and a LaCie brick USB2. The FireWire hard disk is easily faster than the USB2 hard disk for any given task, and I am not even talking about FW800…

Please note: If you have in mind to use it as a boot device avoid the USB2 at any cost, it is slower than a Rolls Royce depreciation…
     
mduell
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Mar 1, 2008, 09:45 PM
 
USB2 is good for 20-25MBps, FW400 for 30-35MBps, and FW800 for 75-80MBps.

That said, I recommend against LaCie; it's overpriced garbage. Buy an Icy Dock enclosure and an internal hard drive.
     
OreoCookie
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Mar 2, 2008, 01:27 PM
 
I strongly disagree. I have a bought a few Icy Box enclosures and I own a LaCie d2 -- Lacie is worlds better than Icy. There are so many small things wrong with it. One big beef is that only my Lacie drive can spin down the harddrive. Sounds like a small thing, but it's really a biggie for me.

There is no equivalent for the Lacie's Rugged Enclosure. I've seen a similar enclosure a friend bought in Japan, but other than that, I haven't seen such an enclosure from Icy or any other manufacturer. Icy is cheap and works, but overall, they're meh. If I had the option to buy empty Lacie enclosures …
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
   
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