Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought a Lacie hard drive at CompUSA. The purchase was fine. What's terrible is Lacie's support. The drive had a triple interface. The Firewire 800 port never worked, but I was happy with the usb connection. After about 8 months the drive started having problems. I work on computers for a living. I tested the drive, the problems followed the drive amoung 3 computers and of 4 other drives the Lacie was the only one with a problem. I called for support under my warranty and they first start telling me that drives now days only last about a year. I argued that point, but said regardless, mine is under warranty. they sent another one. it worked for about a week and started having problems. they sent another one. this one still doesn't work under f/w 800, so that's fine, maybe it's my card, even though it works with another device I have. I put it on the usb and write some scripts to hammer the drive since it's close to the end of it's warranty now. after several days the drive starts failing. It works fine with very light use, but with constant reads and writes it fails. I call tech support for over a week with no response. I finally call the head of sales and ask if he can direct me to someoe that can help. 2 days later a guy calls. He's very disrespectful and tells me that they are not willing to work with me because of my history with the company. The only history I've ever had with this company is what's on this page, with this one drive. So, because they can't get me a drive that works under normal or heavy usage, it's me that's the problem.

The LaCie 300GB d2 Ext. HD is a pleasure to use. The triple interface comes in handy and compared to my EZQUEST Ext. HD, the LaCie is extremely quiet in most of its operating modes since it has no annoying continuously running fan. A great boon if you store and listen to your music from your Hard Drive. About the only time you'll probably hear any noise at all from it is when it's seeking data but even then, the the noise is negligible. Also very conveinient is the large glowing blue power button (thankfully located on the FRONT of the HD, not in the rear like some including the EZQUEST hard drives) which blinks rapidly when searching the hard drive for content and glows continuously when the hard drive is not in use. I've been using the LaCie HD for almost three months now and so far no problems. I would definitely reccommend a purchase.

I've been buying LaCie products for my Macs for years. As usual, this one was well priced, effortless to put into service, and does what I bought it for: serve as a backup destination for two heavily used Mac laptop, mine and my wife's. Came with everything needed to put it to work, including Firewire and USB cables. (On a Mac that's all you need, no driver install required.)

USB2.0 high-volume (40 GB) backups are about 15% slower than identical-sized Firewire 400 backups, which is typical results for a USB 2-equipped Mac.

What a disappointment that what I thought was a reputable company makes such an unreliable product. After about a years time, my LaCie drive started clicking. And then, no data. It completely failed. I too made the mistake of trusting this drive and didn't back it up. I am sick about what I've lost. I've emailed LaCie about the failure and have not received a reply. Beware of LaCie external drives.

I purchased this drive in January 2006. I carry it to work with me everyday and then back home again. Connecting it and disconnecting it twice a day. The hard drive was fine with this and worked great - quickly saved and opened my files directly from the drive. However, about November it started taking a long time to do so. One day a clicking started to happen eventually leading to my files disappearing and the hard drive just randomly disconnecting from my computer. I filed a claim on LaCie's website, come to find out I had been wrapping the cord around the drive in transport everyday and it weakened the cord at the top where it connects. Thus, the power supply was being weakened to get to the hard drive. Even though at this point my warranty was days old (1 year warranty is given), they sent me out new power cords for free. So all in all it is a great hard drive, just disconnect all your cords and wrap them separately from the unit. If you experience such "clicking", remember this reveiw. LaCie did stand behind their product, which is a big plus.

I moved from the North to the South and wanted to take the contents of my desktop with me on my laptop. The LaCie was very easy to set up and use and has accomplished my purpose. LaCie technical support whom I called before my purchase was very helpful in directing me to the right product.

The hard drive came with very easy to follow directions for installation and use, and it has been reliable ever since. The La Cie 300GB hard drive has a firewire for a fast way to back up all your data and media. I am very satisfied.