Hi-Speed USB 2.0 500GB Hard Drive, Design by Porsche

by LaCie

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• ASIN: B000H6CBA4
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (242 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 24, 2006

Product Description

From the manufacturer

LaCie has teamed up with the renowned design agency Porsche Design GmbH to create this family of hard drives. Now you’ve got a stylish place to put all of your photos, music, videos and data. Setup is quick and easy. Within seconds, the LaCie Hard Drive is ready to start sharing and storing on either PC or Mac.

User Benefits

• Save your files, photos, MP3s and videos
• Fast interface transfer rate: up to 480 Mbps
• Simple setup; easy-to-use
• Lightweight, durable and stackable

Product Description

LaCie has teamed up with the renowned design agency Porsche Design GmbH to create this family of hard drives. Now you?ve got a stylish place to put all of your photos, music, videos and data. This drive offers nearly effortless setup and is ready to use just seconds after removing it from the box with either Mac or PC. Secure rubber feet allow drives to be stacked, so you can get the most out of limited desktop space. Features: Save your files, photos, MP3s & videos Fast interface transfer rate: up to 480Mbits/s Package includes: Hi-Speed USB cable External AC power adapter LaCie Utilities CD-ROM including Silverlining Pro, SilverKeeper and LaCie 1-Click Backup software

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reliable, December 6, 2006

By 

Daniel Von Kohorn (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 500GB Hard Drive, Design by Porsche (Electronics)

This is my 4th LaCie external drive. I've been running the 160GB and two 250s for 4+ and 2+ years, respectively. I use one as a primary shared repository for files on the home network, including the TiVo. The others are backups. The share drive has been on 24/7 for 2 years. The other drives are only turned on when I need them.

I've seen mixed reviews for these drives, but my experience has been very positive. With the usage outlined above, I have had reliable, fast, and zero-maintenance operation.

90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great drive in Firewire version, May 31, 2007

By 

David M "professordavid" (Zionsville, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 500GB Hard Drive, Design by Porsche (Electronics)

OK, this is the USB version, but I bought the Firewire version. It was a hard choice, but the Firewire is reported to be faster in the real world (even though the technical specs put them close: check out the debate on USB 2 vs Firewire 400).

I had previously bought the smaller version LaCie Porsche Design drive (about 120 GB), and filled it in short order with simple, manual clicking and dragging. Not so the 500 GB. I used SuperDuper to image my MacBook Pro 111 GB drive to it. I only have about 80 GB on it. It took a bit to copy it completely (and do the file checking along the way) and make a bootable image. I want to say more than an hour -- less than two. I then did something radical: I plugged it in as the start-up drive on my iMac at work, and it ran smoothly and without incident. I wasn't sure if the MacBook Pro bootable would run the iMac, but there was no problem.

The drive runs very quietly; I do not hear whirring or otherwise. It's warm to the touch. My previous smaller one did not require an external supply and ran much cooler. This one does require external power. Compared to the elegance of the drive, the power supply is bulky and awkward. The Firewire version was about $170 from LaCIe, but the USB 2 version is substantially cheaper from Amazon. You decide what interface suits you. There is no mention on the LaCie website of a potential Firewire 800 which I would have preferred to purchase.

By the way, I now do SmartUpdate (in SuperDuper) from the MacBook Pro to the LaCie drive and it takes about 20-30 minutes to completely update all the files. I also checked the drive afterwards with disk utility software and found no corrupt files or bad blocks. Although it took me awhile to do this, it did give me peace of mind that the LaCie product (like its predecessor) is a quality drive.

What a deal. 500 GB.

PS: More recent weekly SmartUpdates take under 13 minutes. It must be getting smarter.

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great drive for the money, March 10, 2007

By 

Bron "Bron" (Mechanicsville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 500GB Hard Drive, Design by Porsche (Electronics)

I now have about 8 Lacie external USB drives and they have all been great.

This one is fast, quiet, well designed and easy to install and use. Unlike the 250 GB drives, this one does have a fan, but it is whisper quiet. I acutally did not know it was there until I noticed the vents and put my finger there and could feel the air flow. Then I listened carefully and could hear it (up close). But you will never notice it in normal use.

Easy to install, very cool design, fast, works good. Sounds like a five to me. ;)