[nickknutson]

I'm looking to buy a portable USB-powered HDD and I'm looking at the LaCie Rugged 500gb model. I've been using a 160gb Seagate for about a year and half now, but need more space. I really like the size of the LaCie, but don't know anything about that brand, I usually stick with Western Digital or Seagate.
Thanks in advance!!

 

[Wired_Gargoyle]

Not too crazy about Lacie's external HDs. I have/had two that both died at roughly the same time and read that others haven't had good reliability experience with them either.

Right now, I'm using Western Digital's Passport external HDs (320Gb) and find them excellent. They're USB powered, roughly the size of an ITouch/Ipod and seem rock solid so far. I've been playing World of Warcraft off of one for a week now (Don't ask) and there isn't any data transfer lag at all.

 

[nickknutson]

^ Thanks! I actually just found that WD is coming out with a 500gb Passport Elite...just preordered one!

 

[Lornecherry]

I used to sell a lot of LaCie's way back 10 years ago, when I had an Apple dealership. (Don't get me started on that).

Sometimes they were flaky, but the Canadian distributor was rock-solid in replacing and repairing ...far better then WD, Fijitsu and other drive makers or OEMs who's warranty depots were harder to get a straight answer out of then a politician.

LaCie did NOT make their own drive platters, they use WD or other quality components. They just do the casings and sometimes RAID configurations, etc.

I personally would recommend LaCie based on the experiences of myself and my former customers ; many graphic artists and DTP businesses (whose life back then depending on mega-storage) liked LaCie and the service they gave.