Customer Reviews

LaCie 40GB USB 2.0 Mobile Drive ( 300693 ) P2 design by FA Porsche, bus powered

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

 

 

I just plugged in my drive for the first time. I'm on a machine running XP Home and USB 1.0. So far so good!

I'm copying 3.6 GB of music while I type this. It is slow, but what can I say ... USB 1.0. I'm glad the drive supports USB 1.0. (Note to self: buy a USB 2.0 port. They are cheap and easy to install. And 7 times faster!!!)

Perceptions thus far:
- The drive seems well made. It is not indestructible -- so don't drive your car on it -- but it definitely feels like it will be fine in the real world (which in my case means it will travel in a slightly padded case tossed in my bag of cables).
- Don't buy this just for the "Design by F.A. Porsche". The drive looks nice but is rather plain -- I guess I was expecting something that looked cool like a Porsche 911 :) Maybe a rear spoiler would help :)

Note that the Technical Details claim the dimensions are: 2.5 inches by 5.75 inches by 1 inch. This is wrong according to my ruler, which pegs this drive at 3 inches by 5.1 inches by .75 inches. For those that are visually oriented, this drive is the size of a 3x5 index card (OK, actually it is about the size of a pack of 50 index cards). Though this drive is slightly longer than my old Palm Pilot IIIx, it fits fine in the Palm's old case (which I will be using until I find something better).

In my view, a case should be included. It seems to me that LaCie & Porsche would rather have their name on my case than the "Rhino Skin" tag (that appears on the case from my old Palm Pilot) -- sorry guys, you didn't give me a case so I'm left to improvise :)

I will update this review after I get some real world experience with this drive. I'll be using the drive with XP Pro and Win 2000 shortly, and will update this review to share my experience.

But for now ... so far so good. I don't think you can go wrong.

Wish list: Longer USB cord. If you have a PC that sits under your desk and you want to put the drive on the desk top, the cable is pretty short. The solution for me was easy -- I plugged the Lacie cord into the USB cord that came with my awesome Bonzai (ASIN: B00006HYPU) keychain USB drive which I carry everywhere (though its 128 mb just isn't always big enough -- hence this Lacie drive for me :).

Overall: I'm very pleased with my Lacie drive and have no qualms recommending it. I truly suspect that I'll have this drive for a long time.

======================================
Update - 8/14/2004: OK, I've now used this drive on Win XP Professional and Win2000, too. Zero problems. It works just as slick as my Bonzai flash memory drive (ASIN: B00006HYPU). OK, one exception: My Dell Latitude laptop seems to have insufficient power in its USB. No problem - I just plugged in the auxiliary power cable that comes with this drive. In fact, it comes with two -- one PS2 and one USB. I used the PS2 version (note that it has a much appreciated pass thru so you keep using your existing stuff, too). I deem this a laptop issue not a hard drive issue. The two desktop machines I used with this drive have ample power in their USBs.

======================================
Update - 12/4/2004: Still happy! :)

======================================
Update - 8/5/2006: Still happy! :)

======================================
Update - 2/18/2009: Still happy! :)

I bought this drive to back up data and extend the life of a laptop that has a small hard drive (by current standards).

The drive has a very simple, albeit boxy, design. A pack of index cards is an apt description. "Installation" was a breeze - the plug & play worked fine (whew!). The drive needs 2 cables - 1 for data (USB) and 1 for power, and LaCie provides both a USB AND a PS2 cable (with pass-through in case you're already using that port). This is nice for people (like me) who only have 1 USB port on the PC and/or a hub that's already full...

So far, I'm really happy with the drive - it works fine, it's compact, & LaCie provided PS2 AND USB cable for power source.

This drive is for me an excellent alternative to carry easly lots of files from work to home, is not the smallest on the market but neither is pricey. Just fine and practical enough.

Pros:
- Small, fits in my shirt pocket
- Fast, Very fast interface, faster than other similar drives at work.
- Clean design, easy to clean when dusty.
- No drivers to install, I just plugged and it was all
- Can reformat to NTFS and use the security and compressing options of Windows XP, so if it is stolen no one can see my files.
- Quiet

Cons:
- No carring bag (When you see this drive the first thing that comes to your mind is not to scratch the case whan transporting it)
- No syncing or backup software included. (I use Second Copy 2000, is easy and very practical for me)
- No vertical stand (Without one you should not put it vertically, the drive is too light and can drop to a side just by sligtly touching it)

Why I bought it instead of others:
- Needed something small but not willing to pay the price of the smaller drives around, something in between.
- Needed a multi-gigabyte drive that does not need a power supply or drivers to work (To take files to my customer or friends computers)
- This one was the fastest and trouble free of all the other choices y saw at more or less the same price. Other drives have included software for backup but prefer to save the difference and have a more reliable drive. Other more cheap drives at work tend to fail. Only time will tell with this.

I was to understand from the product description and other reviews that this hard drive had an ac adapter that plugged inot the wall but it only has one that plugs into the usb 2.0 port or the ps2 (mouse) port. Well my laptop doesn't have a ps2 port so I have to plug into my usb port and the actual usb for the drive is in the other port and I only have 2! I have a 4 port bus but it doesn't supply enough power for the drive so i have to use both of my ports for this one device which is very frustrating. Other than that, it seems to be a decent drive. So if you only have 2 usb 2.0 ports like me, you might want to look elsewhere.

I bought two of these (100GB version). They both failed. I sent them in under warrantee. They were returned to me "reconditioned" - and still with the same problem. I wrote back to customer service and they ignored my emails.

This is my second Lacie Mobile Drive and I am having the same problem that I had with my first one after using it for about a year. Since its so small its great for travel but the problem i'm having now is my computer is not detaching it.

I'm sure this is because the there is something wrong with the power wire. The LED light comes on as if it was working but my computer and my other computer is not detaching it.

I'm going to try to look up info on the net for help and call them tomorrow because I really need my data.