LaCie 300GB d2 External Hard Drive With Triple Interface (300791U)

by LaCie

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.7 x 6.8 inches ; 3.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000AY8DEQ
• Item model number: 300791U
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 21, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

LaCie continues to break the boundaries of speed, capacity and design with the launch of its fourth-generation d2 Extreme range of external hard drives. LaCie d2 Extreme drives are ideal for audio/video editors who demand professional performance to edit, store and exchange large projects, even in cross-platform environments (Mac and Windows). Home users will benefit from the d2 Extreme’s ease of use. No software or drivers are needed, just plug into any Mac or PC and gain immediate access to extra storage space for images, music, personal backups and more. LaCie d2 Extreme for home use comes in a compact 3.5-inch 1U design and offers data transfer rates of up to 64 MBps with FireWire 800. Drives are equipped with standard heat dissipation features.

User Benefit:

• FireWire 800, FireWire 400, Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interfaces
• 50% faster than first-generation FireWire 800 drives
• Ultra-quiet, heat dissipating design
• Stack, rack-mount or stand upright

Product Description

Box Contents: FireWire 800 to800 cable; FireWire 400 to 400 cable; iLink/DV cable; Hi-Speed USB 2.0 cable (USB 1.1 compatible); Drive stand; External power supply; LaCie Storage Utilities CD-ROM including: Silverlining Utilities (Mac OS 9) for advanced drive management, and SilverKeeper (for Mac) software for automatic backup and file verification
Lacie's d2 300GB Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface combines all the leading interfaces in one drive. It's easily shared among multiple users and environments and is conveniently plug & play. The specially-designed exterior can be stacked, stood upright or rack-mounted, and it's also ultra-quiet and dissipates heat quickly. Average Seek Time (Write) - <10 ms Buffer - 8MB minimum Quiet, fanless operation OS compatibility - Windows XP/2000 or Mac OS X Dimensions(WxHxD) - 1.7 x 6.3 x 6.8 in (44 x 160 x 173 mm) Weight - 3.31 lbs (1500 g)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Hard Drive: Never had any problems., June 12, 2006

By 

Hugh (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LaCie 300GB d2 External Hard Drive With Triple Interface (300791U) (Personal Computers)

I have purchased 6 Lacie D2 Hard Drives over the last 4 years, (3x 160 GB, 1x 200 GB, and 2x 300 GB) and all 6 drives are still working perfectly. The drives are well designed, and dependable. Many of the product reviews I have read on Amazon contradict my experience.

I think it is important to note that any hard drive, no matter the brand name, is in danger of failure. External hard drive failure is to be anticipated in my profession (video editor, artist, teacher). Almost any professional working with video will tell you to buy 2 hard drives, one to work on and the second to back up the first. Another strategy is to intermittently back up your data on DVDs, but this approach is time consuming and imperfect.

I would also like to add that one of the most common causes for external hard drive failure is improper shut down. Every time your hard drive is disconnected improperly from your computer you risk failure. I teach video editing to undergraduate students at Hunter College. I have observed that teaching the students how to properly disconnect their external drives from the computers almost eliminates drive failure. Out of my class of 9 students last semester (the majority using Lacie hard drives) there was not a single problem.

External Drive Shut Down Instructions (Macintosh):
1) Eject your external drive by throwing the disk icon in the trash or using another method (see Mac Help "Ejecting a disk, server volume, CD or DVD disk, or other devices").
2) Once the disk icon has disappeared from your desktop, turn off your hard drive (pressing the drives power button or flipping its switch to the off position).
3) Once the drive is turned off, disconnect the data cable connecting the drive to the computer.
4) Finally, unplug power supply from power source.

I have known multiple people who have lost irreplaceable data to hard drive failure, regardless of brand name. Whether Seagate, IOGear, Maxtor or Lacie there is a chance of failure no matter what precautions one takes. My experience has been that Lacie D2 drives are dependable and trouble free when used properly.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great backup drive for Mac OS X and beyond, December 28, 2005

By 

Rc2 (The OC, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LaCie 300GB d2 External Hard Drive With Triple Interface (300791U) (Personal Computers)

I received this drive as a Christmas present. I needed extra space for iTunes, iPhoto and FinalCut storage. I have been using it now for three days and intial impressions are great. It is SUPER fast using the FW800 connection. It is the quietest external drive that I have had. It does a small amount of clicking when initially accessing but over all it is very quiet. The internal fan in my PowerBook is much louder than the drive. The case is metal and seems very sturdy. It has a power light on the front. It turns itself off when the computer powers down which is nice, too. I dont know about long term reliability yet but initial impressions are great. Amazon offers a great price on it, too.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent piece of equipment, January 11, 2006

By 

Alan Holyoak (The Shadow of the Tetons) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LaCie 300GB d2 External Hard Drive With Triple Interface (300791U) (Personal Computers)

I recently purchased the LaCie 300GB Extreme external hard drive to provide storage space to support video editing that I do. The firewire connection is perfect for that job, and the 300GB can store over 25 hrs of digital video material.

There is seamless movement of material from my working files to storage files, and the transfer rate is fast.

If you want to use this unit to support a PC instead of an Apple you need to format the hard drive, and that takes a a little while, but once that's done, this unit works like a dream.

I haven't had any problems at all using this unit to support my Windows XP Pro based PC.

I highly recommend this unit, and I'd certainly buy another one if I had the need.

5 stars across the board.