LaCie 250GB d2 External Hard Drive Extreme USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800 Interfaces (300790U)

by LaCie

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 7 x 2 inches ; 3.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000AY7A5O
• Item model number: 300790U
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

250GB D2 HD USB FWIRE 400/800 EXTREME 7200RPM

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Won't Go To Sleep, September 19, 2006

By 

Thomas Dukich (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LaCie 250GB d2 External Hard Drive Extreme USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800 Interfaces (300790U) (Personal Computers)

I have 4 other Lacie external hard drives ranging from 160 to 300 GB's. I've had no problem with any them. I even like they way they look! So when the need arose I got another one, the newly configured 250 GB 2d listed here at Amazon.

I'm extremely disappointed in this drive because it won't go to sleep. My other Lacies all do, but this one goes to sleep for about 30 seconds and then wakes up again and stays awake unless my Mac G5 is shut down completely.

I exchanged several emails with Lacie tech support and after trying several fixes (even running it on an older G4 Mac) I was eventually told to return the drive to Amazon. I did and they quickly sent me another (thank you Amazon). But alas, the new drive had exactly the same problem. I sent Lacie tech support an email saying I thought the new configuration (it has a different port arrangement on the back) has a design flaw. No response.

So what, if it won't go to sleep? Well, with newer Macs (I'm not sure about PC's) you seldom shut down completely, you just put your MAC to sleep. Saves energy, screen life, and ware and tear on your hard drive (because they spin down). But since this new Lacie won't spin down in the sleep mode it will probably wear out faster and the failure of a hard drive and resulting data loss is certainly traumatic. That's why I gave this new Lacie 250 GB 2d a single star. It will jeopardize my hard drive contents, something any drive manufacturer should go out of their way to prevent.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Buyer Beware!, August 8, 2006

By 

gonzoriffic (athens, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LaCie 250GB d2 External Hard Drive Extreme USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800 Interfaces (300790U) (Personal Computers)

The LaCie d2 250GB external drive DIED less than 24 hours after I got it! I edit video on a Mac, and had loaded approximately 40GB of footage onto the new drive before shutting down for the night. The next morning when I turned everything back on, the LaCie d2 made a modest "click" sound and became a useless $200 paperweight.

*edit*

LaCie's tech support e-mailed me within about 6 hours to suggest a few things I could try, none of which worked. While no contact numbers for LaCie come with the actual product, I was able to find a customer service number via their website. I'm relieved to say I was connected right away with a human being, and the person I spoke to was really helpful in guiding me through their defective returns procedure. I was not charged for shipping the item back, nor was I responsible for insuring the package. I also should note, at no time did LaCie push me to exchange rather than refund my money. THAT is rare these days.

*edit*

The drive shipped quickly back to LaCie, and they refunded my money in exactly 7 business days. In fact, the only downside to the whole experience was the product itself.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars problematic with Mac OS 10.4.6, June 26, 2006

By 

SL (RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LaCie 250GB d2 External Hard Drive Extreme USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800 Interfaces (300790U) (Personal Computers)

Warning: After upgrading to Mac 0S to 10.4.6, both my Lacie 250 GB drives failed to mount. System profiler and Disk Utilities show both the drives--after fixing permissions and running disk fix utility, the problem still would not go away. I called Lacie Support and they told me that the drives needed to be reformatted. Since I couldn't afford to lose ANY data, that was not an option. The drives did have the latest firmware. I looked through some online forums: 1. Other people did have this issue but apparently if you disconnect the drives from the Mac BEFORE updating the OS, there shouldn't be a problem. If I were you I still would not want to try that. 2. Some said try connecting using USB2. It didn't work for me.

I later figured that it was the OS upgrade that was causing the problems. I had the luxury to connect the drives to OS 9 machine. Luckily, the drives mounted fine. I also tested on the OS 10.3 system and it was fine. So, I had to back up the data to another computer and reformat the drives on OS 10.4.6.

So, if you run into the same problem, find a computer with previous version Mac OS (apparently Windows XP works) to hook up the drives.

I've been using Lacies for many years. I like the price. Out of 7 Lacie drives I own, 1 failed (died) and then these 2, 250GB drives won't mount after installing Mac OS 10.4.6. It IS kind of risky to have problems like these. I may get another brand of external HD next time.