Customer Reviews

LaCie 2big Quadra 2-Disk RAID Hard Drive

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this (2x500GB version) to use as a RAID-1 (mirrored) startup disk for a PowerPC Macintosh. Since I use the system as a server (including mail server), reliability is a must. This works exactly as I wanted with the mirroring completely transparent to the computer - it just appears as a single disk of the size of one of the drives and can be formatted and partitioned by Disk Utility the same as any other disk device. No RAID setup is required within OS X which means I can just take it to another system should the current system fail.

As for noise, it's quieter than some other external drives I have. Yes, when it's busy (such as when backups are running - the system is also my backup server), the fan speeds up and it gets a little noisier but most of the time, it has added almost no additional noise.

I love the Lacie 2big Quadra 3TB hard drive. I purchased this drive to store my iPhoto library which is currently over 300gb and growing (I'm scanning all the old family photos). I recently had a hard drive crash with my library and fortunately had it backed up--otherwise it would have been a disaster. This hard drive is a great solution. I set it to "SAFE" mode so my 3TB drive is actually running as a 1.5TB, with the two internal disks mirroring one another. If one crashes, the other is still safe. I will continue to back up on some other hard drives as well for good measure, but this gives me a lot of peace of mind. It was very easy to install and get up and running. I also purchased an eSata adaptor for my MacBook Pro and I was amazed at how fast I was able to transfer the 300 gb library! Love it, love it, love it! Other reviews have complained that this drive is noisy. I dont agree. Yes, you can hear it running, but it's quiet and does not interfere with TV viewing in the same room beside my chair. It runs cool. Others complained about not liking the big, blue light on the front. I dont know--I think it's kinda cool looking. The build is good, seems solid. Has nice rubber pads on the bottom that act as shock absorbers if it is knocked a bit. All in all, a very good drive and I highly recommend.

This Lacie can be used as a full backup drive or a RAID. I am a photographer and it backs up my portfolio. I am using it as a RAID and it just keeps working. If one drive goes down the other is exactly the same. The bad drive is replaceable. I am very pleased with my LaCie drives.LaCie 301431U 3TB 2big Quadra 2-Disk RAID Hard Drive

Lacie includes free, 1-year trial subscription to Carbonite's on-line backup. However, there are various obstacles:
- in 10 days only about 26Gb were backed up (over 1Mb upstream DSL)
- Carbonite does not keep the data if it does not see PC for two weeks
- if you do not connect to Carbonite servers for two weeks, your 1-year subscription is terminated without any kind of warning (in fact, even license terms on www.carbonite.com do not seem to mention any such restrictions)
- Carbonite's customer service is not good in my experience so far

Lacie's included manual is not very helpful when you run into drive rebuilds.

Other than that, drive is good.

This unit is louder than all of my other systems combined. The fan kicks on about once every five minutes... very annoying. Also, the drive is finnicky, and if it is not removed properly, it takes a lot of work to get the USB channel reset.

Other than that, works as expected.

Doesn't work with 64 bit Windows 7 and Lacie can't be bothered providinging a driver for it.