Lacie Rugged All-Terrain-120GB

Hard drive is a fragile component and hence is not preferred over flash drives by some people.Lacie has come to the rescue with a rugged all-terrain external hard drive which can stand shocks and hence makes a good companion without you having to worry about its handling.The drive supports triple interface too.

First some of its specifications:

• Dimensions: 3.5″ x 5.7″ x 1″
• Interface: USB 2.0/Firewire 400/Firewire 800
• Spindle speed: 5400 rpm
• Transfer rate: 800 mbps
• Buffer size: 8 MB
• OS compatibility : OS X , Windows , Linux
• Warranty: 3 Years

The drive has a layer of orange color rubber covering on it which gives it extra protection.The drive covering has been made from scratch proof aluminum.The design on the drive is simple yet elegant.Lacie claims that the drive will not sustain any damage if it falls from a height less than 35 inches which comes out approximately to about 3 feet which is roughly the height of a table.The drive comes in two versions.One which has only USB 2.0 interface and other which has additonal triple interface along with Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 interfaces.

Triple interface is handy if you have a firewire port on your PC and it can help you extract the maximum out of the hard disk.The drive is USB powered and does not need any AC adapter to go about doing its task.Also if the drive is not able to draw enough power from one USB port you can connect another cable to the power port provided on the hard drive.This is a boon for old PC users which have limited USB power.

The performance is very good and among some of the best in its category.The drive managed to give an average speed on 16 MB/second while writing data on the disk using the firewire 400 interface.The drive’s write speed managed to climb to 20MB/second when tested using the Firewire 800 interface, an improvement of a neat 25 per cent! The read tests slated the read speeds at 19MB/second and 22MB/second using Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 interfaces respectively. Hence Lacie hard drive managed to pass the tests with flying colors.

Pros:

• Ruggedly built
• Shock proof
• Slim
• Triple interface
• Good performance

Cons:

• Expensive

Final Thoughts

The Lacie rugged all-terrain hard drive is perfect at the job that has been assigned to it! The drive is shock-proof,its body is scratch proof which makes sure it will survive rough handling.The drive is slim with its height measuring only an inch.The inclusion of triple interface makes sure that the drive performs fast and it surely does. All in all the Lacie hard drive has just about everything going about it and is a perfect buy if you need a rugged portable hard drive and have the cash to spend.

Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB

External hard disks for network usage are beginning to become mainstream. Devices based on such solutions are also cropping up much frequently than before. Lacie introduced their high capacity 500GB Ethernet based hard disk which is a network-attached-storage(NAS) drive and can serve files to various entertainment attached to it.

Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB Specifications :

• Dimensions : 1.7″ x 6.8″ x 6.3″
• Processor installed : 400Mhz
• RAM installed : 64MB DRAM
• Capacity : 500GB
• Spindle speed : 7200 rpm
• Buffer size : 16GB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OS X 10.3 or later, Windows 2000,Xp,Vista
• Approx. price : $150

The device is very attractively priced which is one of its biggest attractions. The Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB can serve files to your PC, Xbox, your music system and of course your PC. And this all can be done without the need to power on your PC. If that was not enough, it can be configured to deliver files remotely ie. via Internet.

Talking about the build quality of the hard drive, the Disk Mini has a good strong build. Lacie has preferred to use metal for the external casing as against with other manufacturers using plastic for external hard drives. It has a big power button which gives you option to manually power off the drive. At the back, you will find the standard set of ports and also vents for heat to escape. It certainly looks quite a beauty sitting upright on your desk!

Lacie has bundled Hipserv software for categorizing your files in sets and also assign permissions for their access, always a handy feature to have. The best part about the software is its ease of use, it has lots of options but all can be easily accessed. But the backup software is just the opposite. It has fewer features, lots of restrictions and not very easy to use.

iTunes users have more reason to smile. They can use the hard disk as an iTunes server and hence make your favorite music files accessible. It also features uPnP support which makes it compatible with other music players such as Windows Media Player, nice way to keep Windows users interested.

Accessing files remotely can be a bit of pain due to slow speeds and also it can hang sometimes. Local access is smooth though with no hiccups whatsoever. The fast processor ensures that you have skip files without lag. The write speed is around 4.5 MB/s and read speed of 4MB/s. Those numbers are good enough for a NAS drive.

Pros :

• High capacity
• Good design and build
• Can be set up as iTunes server
• uPnP support
• Good performance
• Remotely accessible
• Great file sharing software

Cons :

• Unreliable remote accessibility
• Bit noisy
• Back software not upto mark

Final Thoughts

The Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB is the perfect solution for all your media streaming needs for your house. The attractive price makes it a much better buy. So if you want such a drive then go ahead and purchase it.

My Rating : 4.25/5