Customer Reviews

LaCie 301369U Ethernet Disk Mini 1TB Ethernet/USB 2.0 Network Attached Storage Hard Drive

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Review of LaCie Ether Disk Mini 500GB (edmini)

Summary

This is really a little, special-purpose Linux box. The unit seems physically very sturdy, is reasonably small, and runs cools and quiet. It has a factory-installed version of Twonky, and as a media server accessed over wired Ethernet it functioned well - for instance it served HD video encoded at up to 25Mbps CBR (that is Constant Bit Rate HDV from a Sony cam) to my Ziova CS505 media player without any visible problems (3 1/2 stars for this). The edmini's performance when writing files to it via the Ethernet cable was IMO not great - its best write speed in my testing, using a crossover cable to a 3Com on-board gigabit Ethernet on PC, was about 640MB per minute (in contrast to a Maxtor SS II, which initially gave 800MB per minute write throughput through a Netgear switch, and that I've since optimized to over 990 MB per minute; and in other testing I've moved as much as 2600MB per minute over my home network). And I found the edmini's USB2 interface to computer not at all useful - it crashed my PC several times, and when it didn't its best write performance for me was 376MB per minute - that's right, it's unstable USB interface is much slower than its own Ethernet interface (zero stars for this), and for comparison about one-fourth of the performance of an Adaptec USB disk that I connected to the same USB2 port for testing. Thus my averaged rating of 1.75 stars, rounded to 2 stars.


Other Issues and Observations

When the power adapter is plugged in but the drive is disconnected from its cord the power adapter alone consumes just under 0.2A (110V AC) that is in the neighborhood of 15 watts. When the unit is running it uses about 0.9A, about 70 watts. There is no configuration setting for any kind of sleep mode, and I saw no indication that it had any reduced power mode. So, if left on, this device would cost me about $85 per year in electricity. For comparison, my Maxtor Shared Storage II uses about 0.6A when running, and can be set to spin down the drive when idle, cutting that to 0.3A; so the Maxtor should cost about $50 per year less for me to operate.

When I enabled DHCP on the LaCie device and rebooted it, it could not find my DHCP server (nothing else on my network has that problem), and it configured itself such that it disappeared from my network entirely - and it could no longer be seen even by the LaCie configuration utility. Getting out of THAT took some doing... a "hold the button down for 15 seconds then ... and then..." reset procedure that is not in the documentation or FAQ.

Most of the somewhat limited management of this device is done via a built-in web server. Mostly it seemed painfully slow to me - enough to wonder if it was working. For those who need to know this: it does allow enabling of "guest" account with no password (required by some media players).

Several times the device simply locked up completely - I could do nothing but UNPLUG it (the power button is soft). I think it is possible this was related to having the USB cable connected, I don't recall any lock-ups that happened when it wasn't.

Even when connected to the very same port on a gigabit switch, the LaCie seemed to choose 100 or 1000 Mb connection speed at random each time it booted - and there is no configuration setting for it.

The power button is also a big blue light that blinks twice every five seconds - making placement in the HT component rack intolerable (if the unit is visible).


About That USB2 interface

To use the USB2 interface to computer, you install a driver then connect the device to a USB2 port on your PC. The device does not mount as a Mass Storage Device (the normal device class for a USB2 disk drive); instead the LaCie driver emulates a network adapter and the disk can be found in your network neighborhood. BUT this emulation uses the same host name and workgroup as the one the Ethernet interface on the LaCie unit itself is already broadcasting - so if your PC can see the edmini on the ethernet, you CANNOT access the USB2 interface at all: the edmini does show up in Device Manager and Disconnect Devices tray icon, but the node in the network tree is already occupied by the ethernet interface to the same device. You may think this sounds so strange that I must have gotten it wrong; but no, it REALLY is like that.

To top it off, the LaCie-supplied driver for XP SP1 did not actually work, it saw and mapped the drive (as long as I disconnected either the PC or the LaCie from my ethernet), but every attempt I made to access the drive failed and the driver went into a loop spiking the CPU usage to 100% every few seconds, requiring a reboot of the PC.

There is another USB2 port, for a peripheral such as a printer or external disk drive. I did not test this at all.


OS Version Support

Before I bought the edmini I noted that LaCie's web page for the product explicitly listed WinXP SP1 as "supported". I needed that support, because I wanted to use it with a PC that is at SP1 and cannot be updated due to other dependencies. But as soon as I reported that in my testing the USB driver failure was isolated to XP SP1, LaCie support told me (and here I quote by copy-and-paste): "the devices are designed around connecting to XP SP2 or 2000, SP4. There won't be any support for issues that only present themselves in SP1".


My Conclusion

This product has some problems. With the so-so write throughput over Ethernet, the surprisingly much slower USB2 interface, and LaCie's refusal to honor their word about supported OS version, I found this device unusable for my purposes - I sent it back. But the problems may not apply to all users. Its media server worked well and the unit was cool, quiet, and performed tolerably well; and so I think reasonable person might make a different decision under different conditions. Just do not expect to use the "USB2 interface" to PC.


Footnotes

Case is significant, 10MB is "ten megabytes" but 10Mb is "ten megabits".

After I wrote the bulk of this review, and actually a number of hours AFTER I told LaCie that I had given up, repacked the edmini unit and was sending it back to the retailer, they told me that they had just tested one on XP SP1 and it worked for them. I can't prove that they didn't make that test with that result, but I do find the timing very suspicious.

If you're a techno-buff, read the other guy's review. If, on the other hand, you're looking to share your files simply across multiple home computers, buy this drive.

Setup was very simple for me. I followed the quick setup guide (which basically says, "Before plugging in the drive, run the software and follow the prompts") and within a few minutes I was up and running. I connected it directly to my laptop first to clear off the clutter, then connected it to my wireless-G router. Each time, the Mini Disk showed up as a network drive.

Now I have one set of "My Documents" across 2 PCs and a Laptop. All my music and videos are on the Mini Disk and they play directly on any of my computers without needing to be copied onto the local hard drive. I did notice a few seconds longer to launch the videos, but they play as though they were on the local drive.

I tried the backup software for kicks and it seems to work as described, but I'm not using my Mini Disk for backups, so I don't have much experience with it.

Maybe the drive isn't fast enough to edit these files across the network (according to some other reviews), but for less than $200 you can have a good amount of storage for your multimedia and personal files.

When you take the Ether Disk Mini out of the box, the first thing you will notice is that there is a fair amount of heft to this device. That is largely due to the metal case, which acts as a heat sink for the hard drive. In addition to that, the EDMini has a small fan. There should be no concerns about overheating even if it is left running 24x7.

On the back of the device, there is a 10 / 100 / 1000 (wired) Ethernet port. At 100 Meg, or better yet, Gigabit (1000), you should be able to stream DVD-quality video without a problem. There are 2 USB ports on the back of the device too. One can be used to connect the Mini directly to a PC. The other can be used to add more disk space to the device - add a second external USB drive.

There is a wizard on the CD to make it easy to `find' the EDMini on your network and perform the initial configuration. Although, you may not even need to do any configuring of the device. It comes with a Windows share predefined. You may just need to plug the Mini in and then, from your PC(s), map a drive to \\EDMini\Share. If you are inclined to do some more advanced configuration, the management is all done from a browser interface. It is pretty straight forward to use. Worst case, the web interface is very well documented in the manual - which is a PDF on the installation disk. No one provides a printed manual anymore.

Mac users are not left out in the cold. You can create Mac shares as easily as Windows. A good way to share files between different Operating Systems. Since the EDMini, is an embedded Linux machine, you can access it via FTP, HTTP, or SMB from a Linux computer. If you have a Digital Media Player on your network, you can enable the Media Server functionality of the Mini to provide content to your DMP.

Basically:
If you are a home user, or even a small office, and need to share disk space among several computers, the Ether Disk Mini is a great choice. However, if you are expecting "file server" performance from a $200 device, you should, probably, spend the extra money on a server.

Excellent product and great value. We were always creating shares on our separate notebooks and desktops where the kids could put their homework and we could exchange documents, photos, music etc. This device is a perfect solution. Been able to easily centralize all our data with easy access to shares and provide file-backup space as well.

Set up and administration was a breeze and upgrading to the latest firmware was simple. Support for FTP and HTTP protocols is nice. Access times and transfer speeds appear to be more than adequate. According to some benchmarks posted by cnet it faired pretty well against much more expensive competition. I can't really rate product support since I haven't needed it other than pulling down the latest firmware. The site seems well organized with good access to information and support.

All-in-all a great little product that ought to suit most home users very well. If you need redundancy, more storage and higher performance look at some of their other products.

Set up was not as easy as I would have liked, however, Lacie customer support was surprising accessable by phone. I forgot what good customer support is like, and I didn't have to wait more than 2 minutes for someone to pick up the phone.

The drive works great and can easily stream HD content to a media adapter. Not sure why the other reviewer is complaining about the transfer speads. This is the Version 2 with gigbit ethernet. Typical read/write speads over a network which are not going to be as fast as USB or Firewire. Overall an excellent drive for the money.

Bottom line: This is a good NAS, and it is cheap. I'm satisfied. It just works. First, it's a server that runs independently, so you don't need to install softwares. It does a good job for those who want to concentrate files in a single network device, to be accessed from any machine from either LAN or Internet, which can't be done with USB devices.

Important points:

- Web interface speed: This is the major complaint. Yes, it is very slow indeed, but good news is that LACIE just released a firmware update 1.1.2.1 and now it is just slow. The point is this: This bothers only when you're configuring it. Once you're done with configs, you'll forget it. I consider it to be a minor problem. Check LACIE's webpage constantly for firmware updates.
- There are no ridiculous copyright restrictions as to which file formats you're allowed to share.
- You can create users and levels of access to folders: none, read-only, read-write. That helps privacy.
- It is silent.
- It is small.
- The case is very sturdy, metal made, not cheap plastic. It helps heat dissipation. Real good construction material.
- The internal fan turns on/off/mid-speed as needed, automatically.
- You can fix an IP address (come on, file servers aren't meant to use DHCP-assigned dynamic IPs!).
- Copy speed: Fair, but don't expect it to perform as fast as cutting edge computer 2GHz+ CPU. It has a 400 MHz CPU and does the job it can do, for the price you're paying. It is what it is. Want more? Then buy a full-PC. Hundreds of small-file transfers can take long, but see again you're using network communication protocols that may be chatty.
- File system: It uses XFS, which is a robust journaling file system that helps maintaining integrity in case of power failure.
- I had some trouble navigating in the beginning, but that was because Windows XP automatically used my PC user/password, which differed from the ones I had created in the LACIE drive. If you face this you'll need to re-map the drive using the correct user/password you've created.
- Some have complained that drive runs uninterruptedly and don't know how to stop it. That happened when I enabled the Media Server and it kept scanning my thousands of pictures, videos and mp3. I just disabled it and the "auto-access" stopped.

All in all, I consider this to be a good buy, specially if you consider some other piece of junk NAS that are for sale out there.

The LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini is great for having a networked iTunes folder, sharing files wirelessly, etc. I've had it for several months & it's worked well.

Other good things:
1) Looks cool -- REALLY cool. Have you seen some external/NAS drives? Shiny injec-molded gooey forms? Not this one...
2) Quiet enough, if you have a dedicated room for this type of stuff (might be too noisy for living room, etc.)
3) Daisy-chainable via USB. You can increase the capacity and mount additional disks. Awesome!
4) Seems to always mount, just by launching apps which have a recent document there (this has been true of Quicktime videos, iTunes libraries, maybe an OS X-only feature). In fact, I just have to plug in my iPod & my Powerbook finds the drive & mounts it (having remembered the password in my keychain). Pretty cool.

The bad:
While I dislike its lack of any sleep functionality, that's not a big deal as long as I turn it on & off when appropriate. Along those lines, however, I STRONGLY dislike the push-button power switch. It's too sketchy in terms of whether or not you've held the button long enough (and sometimes the required duration changes between power-offs). A simple rocker on the rear would've been more appropriate, especially with the lack of "sleep" (because you actually need to turn it off each evening). Also, the power button's bright blue LED can be annoying if you are transferring files, stuck in the room & have to watch this thing "wink" at you.

Looks great, functions well, but only four stars because it clearly could have struck a better balance with regard to the power switch.

-Chris H.

After working for a few months, this miserable device suddenly disappeared from my network. It refused to reinstall. Likewise it would not install on a USB connection. LaCie's primitive software gave no indication of what the problem was, much less a solution.

As a busy professional I had limited time to deal with this unwarranted and inexcusable failure. Despite my request for urgent assistance, LaCie took their sweet time, responded in 2 days with a pro forma and totally useless response that provided ZERO solutions. They simply suggested a USB installation--but their USB driver would not even install--on 2 different computers.

By that time I had too many work deadlines to deal with LaCie's Mickey Mouse excuse for customer support. I simply have had no backup storage for months until I have time to deal with the mess LACIE and their junk equipment caused me.

LACIE IS NOT ONLY TOTALLY USELESS, BUT THEY ARE A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY AND A GREAT WASTE OF TIME. A TOTAL WASTE OF THE PRICE I PAID FOR THIS JUNK. AND THEIR MICKEY MOUSE "TROUBLESHOOTING" IS A TOTAL WASTE OF VALUABLE PROFESSIONAL TIME.

Don't trust them with a dime of your money!!!

This unit has operated on a network for 16 months as primary backup. The unit requires periodic maintenance to be read by the server. It is loud. The unit has failed. After 4 days of dealing with customer service on a warranty issue, my frustration has lead me to purchase a competing product.

Don't buy from Lacie. My device started randomly locking up. I sent it in for repair. Lacie sent it back and it started having the same issue. I sent in a new comment to their tech support. They replied stating the device was working fine. They never bother to check the error log, which shows it locking up. The product is worthless and their product support is even worse. Now I'm stuck with a product I have to unplug and plug back in everyday just to use.