LaCie Starck 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301889KUA

by LaCie

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 4.2 x 6.2 inches ; 4.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002SH43MO
• Item model number: 301889KUA
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 11, 2009

Product Description

Capacity: 2 TB

From the Manufacturer

One glance at the LaCie Starck 2TB USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive and you know it's special. A collaboration between LaCie and world-renowned designer Philippe Starck, this external hard drive is the perfect union of form and function. Featuring a sturdy aluminum casing and an intelligent, touch-sensitive surface, the LaCie Starck is a dependable and elegant addition to any workspace.

LaCie Starck 2TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive At a Glance: Stunning design by Phillipe Starck. 2 TB of disk space. Touch sensitive surface launches applications. USB 2.0 interface.

The stylish organic design by Phillipe Starck features a glowing LED on the front and a USB port on the back.

Backup software for both PC and Mac is included. View larger.

2 TB of Space in a Smart, Elegant Design
Famed designer Philippe Starck gave the LaCie Starck a sleek, organic design that will turn heads. The drive features a thick aluminum exterior that gives the drive a unique look while also providing resistance to shock and overheating. An LED on the front of the drive glows in the form of Starck's signature symbol and changes color to indicate drive activity.

And with 2 TB of disk space, there's plenty of space for all your photos, music, movies, and more.

Customizable Touch-Sensitive Surface
The LaCie Starck's most striking feature is a touch-sensitive surface on the front panel of the drive. The surface can be customized to open the application of your choice in response to light tapping or firm touches. The touch-sensitive surface is both easy to use and helps you get work done quickly.

USB 2.0 Interface for Universal Compatibility
The LaCie Starck connects via a USB 2.0 interface that is compatible with virtually all computers. It is compatible with both PC and Mac operating systems, including Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6, and supports data speeds of up to 480Mbits/s. And with USB Boost, you'll experience up to 33% faster speeds.

Easy-to-Use Backup Software Included
LaCie's easy-to-use backup software is included for both PC and Mac, making it easy to protect files on your computer and avoid accidental data loss. Scheduled automatic backups mean you won't worry about forgetting to back up your latest files. And for Mac users, the drive is compatible with Apple's Time Machine backup software.

The LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive is backed by a two-year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive, USB 2.0 cable, external power supply, and Quick Install Guide.

Product Description

Encased in sturdy aluminum, the LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive offer the most robust choices for consumer hard drives on the market. The durable exterior protects the hard drives from shock and overheating, making them thoroughly dependable. The LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive features a status LED in the form of Starck's signature symbol. The symbol glows orange or green to indicate different activity. The LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive offers a built-in USB cable, uniquely placed for convenient storing and data accessibility. Complementing Starck's design philosophy is a touch-sensitive surface to open any application with the touch of a finger. The LaCie Starck Hard Drives come standard with the versatile USB 2.0 interface. In addition, the range comes with one of the most comprehensive software bundles on the market including LaCie Backup Assistant and LaCie Desktop Manager for formatting, back up and customization.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gimmicky software, good drive, December 2, 2009

By 

S. D. Johnson (La Sierra, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LaCie Starck 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301888KUA (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

I've got a macbook running OSX 10.6 and with Windows XP on a boot camp partition, so I was able to test the drive's software under both mac and Windows.

Physically this is a nice drive. The casing is solid metal and the drive is pretty heavy. I think it should work well as a "heat sink" but unfortunately there is no fan to reduce internal temperatures. The drive looks nice, but has a funky looking faceplate. The LED is a small orange light on the bottom left of the front panel. It isn't too bright, but is also easy to see.

The drive comes formatted into a small partition and is not usable without running the mac or windows setup utility on the drive itself. There is no software CD. You can bypass the built-in utility and partition/format it manually using the mac or windows utilities, but will need to download and install the software manually from the Lacie website.

I figured most users would test the drive under Windows, so I ran the setup utility under OSX. The utility allows you to setup the drive as a single mac partition or as a split mac/windows partition. Unfortunately, it only allows you to setup the windows partition as a 32 mb FAT32 partition. This is unusual in that most other external drives can be setup as a single FAt32 partition to use their full size. In fact, most drives come pre-formatted as a single FAT32 partition.

I setup the drive with the split partitions and it did a fine job of partitioning and formatting the drive with OSX and FAT32 partitions. It installs the manuals and software on the FAT32 partition, so they can be accessed from both OSX and Windows.

I ran the drive manager under OSX and, after installing all the required software, it reported that no compatible Lacie drive could be found. This means I cannot use the gimmicky "touch sensitive" front panel to start programs under OSX. So, while the drive is very functional as an external drive for a mac, it doesn't perform the gimmick function that separates it from other drives. Since the drive is more expensive than other 1TB drives, mac users would be better off going with a cheaper drive, unless they are enamored of the funky front-panel appearance.

I rebooted into Windows and ran the disk manager utility. This time it recognized the existence of the Lacie drive and allowed me to setup the programs to be run when I touch the front panel. There are two functions available, one by a short press of the front panel and the other by a long press. To run a particular program, you can simply drag the icon into the disk manager utility. I dragged Windows Explorer into the short-press functionality and it seems to work properly. However, I don't really see the value of this functionality. I usually keep my external drives out of reach, so touching the front panel is a pain. I can more quickly locate the programs I want to run on my desktop and can click the icon to run them quicker than I can reach down and touch the front panel, even with the drive located within easy reach. Also, the ability to assign only two functions limits the value of the "touch panel" capability.

So, while it works with Windows, it is still a gimmicky function that has a very limited usefulness. Since the drive is more expensive than other 1TB drives (such as the Western Digital Elements drive) most Windows users would also be better off going with a cheaper drive option. This isn't a bad drive, it just isn't anything special.

Additional notes:

1. The drive has a mini USB connector on the back so you cannot use standard USB cables.

2. I did finally get the disk manager software to work on the mac, but again, it is pretty useless for my purposes.

3. While I was able to uninstall the software on the Windows side, I cannot find out how to get rid of the parts it installed on the mac, except the main utility program in the Applications folder.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looks cool, heavy, decent speed, November 28, 2009

By 

Richard C. Drew "Anaal Nathra/Uthe vas Bethod... (Oak Lawn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LaCie Starck 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301888KUA (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

I've had a lot of external drives, from a 10 meg oh so many years ago (the size of a shoe-box) to the ultra-modern LaCie Starck - and many in-between.

First impression - this is the HEAVIEST external I've had in several years. It's built like a tank. Instead of a fan, it uses the case to dissipate heat.

Looks - It's the coolest looking external I've ever seen. From the contoured face to gun-metal gray case, to the orange laser + projected on my desk surface.

But what about really counts - speed, reliability and ease of use?

Installation: Plugged in the USB and power, turned it on, and Windows 7 recognized it immediately. It comes with 10 meg formatted - this has the installer / formatting application. Run it, agree to the standard terms, select the system (PC, etc. - see my screen capture) and the drive starts to format.

Windows also popped up a warning / message (see screen capture) that it wanted to format the drive - since LaCie's application was already formatting the drive I did not Windows format it as well. Windows really should have detected it was already being formatted!

Formatting took about two minutes - pretty fast. Part of the formatting procedure (and another reason NOT to let Windows format the drive) is writing the manuals and some different applications to the drive. See the screen capture.

After this was complete, I installed the included backup software and desktop manager. The desktop manager is pretty useless - unless you want to use the touch interface. You can program two actions - one for a short touch, the other for a long touch. I have the drive under one of my monitors and I've toched it accidentally a few times. Positioning it elsewhere would solve that, but I like it where it is.

It's USB 2, so the speed is limited by the USB interface (cable included,) but it's still pretty speedy.

So far I'm really impressed. I'm going to spend the next few days copying about 800 gig of files I want backed up, and I'll see how long it takes.

Bottom line - 1 TB of data storage in what looks like desktop artwork - a great addition to my storage needs, and these are growing daily. I shoot around 3000 photos on some weekends, and have a LOT of music files. I've learned the hard way that you can't have too many backups!

Followup: I copies 700 gig of files overnight - speed was decent - taking into account that there were almost 200,000 files!! The darn thing is so quiet I forget that it's there! Totally silent.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly works, November 24, 2009

By 

C. Bayne "katluvr_1" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LaCie Starck 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301888KUA (Personal Computers)

(What's this?)

So far I like this product, except for one minor complaint, which I'll get to in a bit.

I like how the on light is a little glowing X projected right in front of the drive. I like the silver front. I like that this is sturdy.

I copied a 19.3 gb file from my laptop, and it took 16 minutes. I watched a DVD file from the drive, and it seemed to play OK. The voice seemed to be just a microsecond off, so I watched it from my laptop drive, and it was synced a little better.

The case has sharp edges, and the metal is stylishly rough. It's a little darker grey than the picture. You can only stack 2 of these, but since I only have 1, that's just fine. I also have a Western Digital 1 TB My Book drive that is going to stand on top of this so that I have my bank of hard drives and gaze at it in absolute nerdvana.

There is a nifty little feature that took me forever to figure out because the instructions aren't very clear. There is a touch pad on the front of the drive that you can program to do various things like open Firefox or your Kindle for PC app. Right clicking and dragging the icon over to the Desktop Manager will do it, but I didn't find anything that tells you that. For the frustration this caused, I'm knocking off a star. Well, I'm knocking off half a star. A little bit gets knocked off because there's this LaCie Desktop Manager file that I can't close. Minimize, sure. Close, no. A little more because of the sharp edges and the very short USB wire, and there's your 4-stars.

This seems solid - I wouldn't want to drop it, but I'm not worried about accidentally hitting it with something. Except for the Desktop Manager thing, it's easy to use and set up. The price is decent, especially considering how sturdy this is. I don't think it's as elegant looking as the company thinks it is, but it's a nice drive. And it holds a whole lot of stuff.

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