Customer Reviews

LaCie 160GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive ( 300700U ) P3 design by FA Porsche,

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

After about an hour of use, this hard drive just stops communicating with the computer. Information can't be stored or retrieved. Turning it off and then on again sometimes helps, but not for long. Turning it off for longer (> 1 hour) does allow it to be used again, but only temporarily.

After trying everything I could think of to get it to work consistently, I returned it for a replacement. The replacement behaved exactly the same, which indicates this is probably a design flaw, rather than a defective unit.

(I'm using a Compaq PC with XP, and have had no trouble with other USB2.0 externals.)

I purchased this hard drive to use as my music library with my Mac and iTunes. It doesn't work. As the drive heats up, iTunes will only play portions of a song, then move on to the next song. This does not happen with other hard drives, just the La Cie Porsche design hard drives and many others have had the same problem (check the iTunes forum over at Apple.com and you'll see).

Also, when hot, the drive will frequently do odd things, showing full folders as empty. Yes, these drives are cheap compared to the prices of others on the market, but in the end, you get what you pay for.

I got this drive for less than $190 (no stupid rebates needed).
It was very easy to install on my AlienWare PC.

I use this drive for backup and mp3. So far so good. It's fast and very very quiet. I had to carry it a couple times and I appreciated the small size/weight.

I would buy it again. If you are serious about your data, it's a good purchase.

I bought this new drive from LaCie a few weeks ago. So far it has been great. I am using it under XP. It is fast and quiet. It is smaller than some other external drives that I bought in the past (2 maxtor and 1 iomega). It looks very good (better than the picture...) with "Design by Porsche" on the side.
I would definitely recommend it.

I've had this drive for 6 months now without trouble.

Another reviewer complained about the drive letter changing when another device is plugged in, but this is how Windows works and has nothing to do with this drive. Same review complained that this drive is not easily bootable, but it's not advertised as a bootable drive, either, and few customers care about that anyway.

I've never taken the time to write a review, but since I've given this thing so much of a chance to prove itself that now I can't return it, the least I can do is try to save someone else some grief.

Like all the other reviews...it work wells for a day or so. Then it starts unmounting during file transfers. It skips when playing songs off it with iTunes. Some files even vanished and then reappeared days later! All this happens during the rare times I am able to get the thing to actually mount. Hopefully I'll get one more mount out of it so i can transfer my data when I buy my next non-LaCie external hard drive!

DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE!!!

Plug and Play? no problem.
Reliable? so far, so good (had it for 2 months and use it only occasionally for back up.)

Sturdy? seems to be; I dropped it on the garage floor and dented the corner of the case, but it still runs like a champ.

Capacity? 160GB is more than I dreamed. I've thrown everything I've got at it and managed to use only 20% of its capacity.

Gripes? the drive vibrates slightly (don't know if that's normal or not.)

Would I buy it again? Absolutely. I haven't experienced any of what the others have observed.

This drive has been very reliable for me. I have been using it to back up large directory structures from my file system at least weekly for more than 3 years. I bought the 250GB model for additional capacity, and have had the same reliable experience with that one, too.

I have been using this drive for 4 months and I am very pleased with it.
I am using it with 2 pc (laptop and desktop) and I perform full backups quite often.
The drive is fast and reliable. It's smaller than the maxtor and accom date drives that I have.
I recommend it.

bought my lacie drive 1 month ago as a slave drive for my apple ibook. so far, it works pretty good. the speed is a bit slow though. its only good as a backup. it took me 5 minutes to get it running after receiving it.