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The LaCie 4big Quadra 4 TB hard drive is a complete RAID solution that's ideal for small servers, creative pro workstations, or offices that need large storage and backup capacity with speed and security. The 4big Quadra also offers lower energy consumption and is quieter when compared to traditional RAID towers, making it a quiet, "green" addition to any workspace.  | The LaCie 4big Quadra 4 TB offers: - Seven different RAID modes, including RAID 0 and 5.
- 4 TB of disk space.
- Four drive bays with easy to install drive trays.
- eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 ports.
- Striking enclosure designed by Neil Poulton.
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The 4big Quadra accommodates up to four drives. View larger. | 
The striking enclosure is designed by the world-renowned Neil Poulton. View larger. | Four Drive Bays and Seven RAID Modes for Speed and Protection
With four terabytes of storage included, this hard drive offers plenty of space to store all your important data, digital media files, and more. Each included drive features an extremely fast spin speed of 7200 rpm and has a 16 MB or larger cache for optimal performance. The 4big Quadra gives you the option of seven different RAID modes: RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 3, RAID 3+Spare, Concatenation, and RAID 10. The ability to hot-swap drives in some RAID modes is an especially useful feature: you can remove and replace drives even while the 4big Quadra is running. Depending on the RAID mode you choose, you can have either faster performance and higher storage space, or more protection. Please note that depending on the configuration, the usable amount of space might be less than 4 TB. Installing new drives is a cinch: simply put the new disk on a drive tray and insert it into an empty drive bay. An included tool lets you lock and unlock the drives in place. The 4big Quadra is expandable and scalable up to four units, which provides up to an amazing 24 TB capacity with 600 MB/s transfer rates. Quadruple Interface for Wide Compatibility and Fastest Speed
The 4big Quadra has four interfaces to ensure compatibility and maximize speed. Hi-speed USB 2.0 is nearly universal and has a maximum bus speed of up to 480 Mbps. FireWire 400, which is popular with digital video producers, offers up to 400 Mbps, and FireWire 800 can achieve up to 800 Mbps. eSATA, the newest and fastest standard, can achieve extremely fast transfer rates of up to 3000 Mbps, making it perfect for digital media applications such as photography, pre-press, AV projects, and even HD post-production. Design by Neil Poulton Offers Striking Looks
The 4big Quadra is designed by renowned designer Neil Poulton and features a striking, minimalist aluminum design with a round blue dot in the center that lights up. The 4big Quadra is stackable for easy expandability and is designed to complement and enhance your working environment. The large blue dot, along with LEDs on the rear, lets you easily monitor your system's performance. You'll quickly know if any drives fail, when RAID is rebuilding, if the temperature is getting too high, and more. 
Hard disks are placed on the disk tray and then slid into the drive bay. View larger. | Save Energy and Minimize Noise
The 4big Quadra was made with energy savings in mind, and compared to traditional RAID towers, it can save 30% to 80% on energy consumption. It also features a revolutionary, ultra-reliable cooling system that keeps the system almost 50% more quiet, letting you concentrate on the important things. Backup Software Included
LaCie comes with Genie Backup Manager Pro for PCs and Intego Backup Manager Pro for Macs, making backup and computer recovery easy. In addition, it is compatible with Apple's Time Machine. The LaCie 4big Quadra is backed by a 3-year limited warranty. What's in the Box
LaCie 4big Quadra including 4 disks, eSATA-to-eSATA cable, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 400 cable, hi-speed USB 2.0 cable, power supply kit, LaCie utilities CD-ROM with user's manual, Genie Backup Manager Pro software with disaster recovery (Windows XP/2000/Vista), Intego Backup Manager Pro software with disaster recovery (Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5), quick install guide, 2-in-1 RAID mode change and drive removal tool.
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 Amazing Independent RAID |
| Review Date: January 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Blake, |
I purchased the LaCie 4big 6TB about a week ago. I am running on OS X 10.5.6. This unit is compact, quiet, and really good looking. Most importantly though, this drive can function in RAID 5 mode completely independent of a computer. No software RAID or RAID card required! Amazing. And did I mention it is about the size of a small sub woofer?
I purchased this drive to have a safe home storage solution. I needed something that was RAID 5, and didn't require a computer to function. I wanted something that I could hook up to my Airport Extreme Base Station, and use as a wireless network Time Machine backup drive for OS X. In addition, I wanted something that could perform really fast over a hard wire connection, if I needed it to. This drive does all that perfectly.
Out of the box the unit is formatted for RAID 0. If you would like to use it as a RAID 5 device, you will need to reset the drive to the new setting. Make sure to read the manual for this process. It requires holding the front button a certain way to make your new settings stick. Keep in mind that you will lose all data on the drive when you do this, including the partition itself.
Once I had the unit formatted for RAID 5, I partitioned it as a single GUID OS X Extended (journaled) disk. This gave me 4.1 usable TB of storage. I chose this format specifically so that I could hook it up to Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS), and use it as a Time Machine backup drive for OS X. This is the only format that works properly with the AEBS, the 4big, and Time Machine. (That said, if you wanted to use this drive for other functions, it is quite versatile, offering a ton of RAID modes, and full PC support.)
After I formatted the drive, I expected there to be a wait time while the RAID 5 built itself. That said, there didn't appear to be any at all! The drive just seemed to be RAID 5, with no build time or degraded read/write speed at all. I could be wrong, but it appears that fresh formats are ready to go instantly. Pretty amazing really.
After that, I tested the drive on all the different connections. I was getting real world speeds that maxed out the throughput of FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and USB 2.0 respectively. Even eSata performed remarkably well, coming in around 125MB a second. No slow Drobo garbage here. This unit is BLAZING FAST.
Since then, I've copied about 1TB of data to the unit. I've also set it up as a Time Machine backup over my AEBS. It seems to function perfectly. I've had no issues at all (knock on wood). It mounts quickly, and runs fast and quiet.
I do have a couple gripes about the drive, but they're really minimal. Honestly, these have more to do with the way RAID functions than with the 4big. That said, I will point them out:
One thing that bugs me is that the unit has a really slow low power sleep mode. The power switch has 3 modes: ON, AUTO, and OFF. When set to AUTO, I was hoping for a fast low power mode, that would allow the unit to rest while not being used, and also allow the drive to awaken quickly from sleep.
When set to AUTO on the power switch: If the Mac get's shut down, or goes to sleep, the drive DOES GO INTO A LOW POWER MODE. BUT, at this point the unit is basically OFF. The problem is that the entire unit has to restart once your Mac turns back on. 4 drives have to spin up, one after the other. So you're looking at 30-45 seconds of down time before the drive comes back online if you use the AUTO mode.
Also, if the drive is connected to your machine in this AUTO mode, the unit will power down if not in use after aprox 3 mins. Again, you will need to wait for it to turn back on when you go to access the drive. This can be annoying, so you will need to weigh the tradoff of how fast you need to access your media vs the low power mode.
This isn't really a big deal though, since this is a 6TB RAID, and it already is whisper quiet. It's just something to keep in mind if you're using this as a home server.
I leave my unit on all the time, so none of this is an issue for me.
All that said, I give this unit 5/5 stars. There really is nothing like it out there on the market right now.
If you need a fast, reliable, computer independent RAID solution, this is the drive for you!
02-09-09 Update:
I love this unit. In fact, I talked the company I work for into buying two of these drives for backup. As of now, I've setup and tested 3 of these devices, and they have all performed flawlessly. I've already filled both of the work drives (8TB @ raid 5), and can report that there is no loss in performance, even when the raids are almost totally full! Really great work LaCie! |
Good report on the Lacie 6TB external RAID enabled drive
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| Review Date: December 3, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Laurence A. Bates, MI USA |
I have two of the LaCie 6TB external drives and they appear to be working fine. I am impressed with the fact that they run so cool. I also like the ease of creating various RAID formats for the drives.
My testing has indicated 1442 MB/min for simple file transfer using the USB2 interface and 4903 MB/min using the Lacie eSata adapter. For comparison, the SATA to SATA transfer rate in the same 2 x quad core computer was 4834 MB/min. |
RAID made easy
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| Review Date: February 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Tim F. Drevyanko, |
| This drive was a breeze to set up. No software to install and the drive has worked flawlessly. Now I have a fault tolerant backup of all my data. The unit is a bit pricey but worth it. |
The Best RAID Array I have found!!!
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| Review Date: September 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Paul, Plantation, FL |
| This is by far one of the best purchases I have ever made. I previously had two 1TB drives running in a software RAID 1. I then needed more space and the cost of changing the ARRY to a 2TB software Raid 1 was too expensive. Instead I first purchased a Qx2 from OWC which was the WORST device I have ever owned. It constantly went into rebuild mode, was very loud, and the fan alarm went off once a week in the middle of the night waking me up. STAY AWAY FROM the Qx2. I then did some research and found out about the 4big. I couldn't find too much info on it but decided anything was better then the junk I had. I connected the 4big and was running in a matter of minutes. IT IS AMAZING. It runs super quiet, I MEAN ALMOST SILENT. It is not constantly spinning the hard drives down and then having to spin them up. It also has a an AUTO mode for low power (which is almost no power) when the computer is off or sleeping. It is more compact and much better looking. I now am running four 1TB drives inside of it with a RAID 5 giving me 3TB of space. It is lightning fast too on reads and writes. Think about this RAID array before a 2TB drive. A drive can fail and you wont be left in the cold. It is also upgradeable to 8TB. |
4 months with no issues
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| Review Date: June 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Felipe Cruz Ferrero, San Jose , Costa Rica |
So far so good, im using it as a backup unit for an SQL Retrospect MSSQL backup machine, the drive is heavily used, i bought a spare drive just in case.
Pretty happy with the speed, its a nice looking device and mostly, so far its very reliable.
Using it on Raid 5
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Great Network Drive
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| Review Date: January 4, 2010 |
| Reviewer: S. Smith, Orlando, FL |
I've had this drive set-up for about 2 months now and it is a great drive for what I wanted. I wanted to use it as a network drive at home for streaming all my music and movies anywhere in my home. I got the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Simultaneous Dual-Band) (MC340LL/A)as my wireless router and it streams all of the information perfectly. I did need to bring in an apple guy (I only use it for my mac's) to finnish the set-up to make it perfectly what I wanted. Just took him 5 minutes, he made it a "start-up item" for the computers. The changing of the RAID was simple and was no problem. I love that my information is protected in the situation where one of the drives might fail.
The only problem that I have is that the switch position for auto power (to save power when the unit is not in use) has no adjustment on the idle time it takes to go to sleep. I find myself waiting for it to wake-up when I open iTunes then it going to sleep while scrolling through or pausing a movie for a bathroom break. Then it has to wake-up again to continue. Other than that I'm loving it! |
Large Capacity, Fast Transfer, Simple Design
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| Review Date: May 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Kevin Smith, Southern Maryland |
| If you're looking for an external storage solution with eSata, this is a great solution for home offices and SMB. As a photographer and graphic designer, I've found myself going through hard drive space like cookie monster through chocolate chips (sorry, I have kids). This is also perfect for HD video editing and other video production purposes. If I had to knock the device at all it would be only for the fact that it does not offer RAID 6 (two-drive failure integrity) and there's no management console or anything of the sort. The only control over the device is what hard drives you stick in and what RAID option you choose with the dip switches. Other wise, I've found the array to be quite quiet, speedy, and seamless in operation when going in and out of sleep mode. You may notice a longer delay starting your computer while the device spools up the drives on power-up. The best external storage solution I've had. |
Great Storage Device
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| Review Date: November 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: George, |
| This is a high quality storage device. Comes with all cables and is very easy to install. I read the other reviews about the unit being too loud..... When turned on this unit is very quiet..... Maybe the sound issue depends on which hard drive you end up with. Customer support was excellent..... I have my unit configured for RAID 5 and set up was a breeze. On the downside I had a drive go on me after six months. The issue took 3 weeks to resolve. I have to say Lacie was slow getting back to me with a replacement drive. Also, they sent a refurbished drive and not a new replacement. I suggest anyone purchasing this unit keep a spare drive laying around. If a drive goes on you don't hold your breath getting Lacie to replace. Thats why the rating of 4 rather than 5. Otherwise I love this device....excellent unit..... |
Excellent RAID system
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| Review Date: February 27, 2009 |
| Reviewer: S. Metzeler, |
Very easy to configure, very fast, at least over eSATA interface.
Maybe a bit louder than I expected based on the description, but bearable. |
big drive
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| Review Date: September 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Cape Blues, |
| Everything worked great on the 6TB except the eSATA hook up. I bought LaCie eSATA PCI card and installed it on my Mac Pro and coupled it up and have had issues. I believe it is the power level to the eSATA port being low? But most of the time the drive will not show up on the desktop. I ended up not using it which is a pain and waste and switched to Firewire 800 which has been flawless. I don't know if its the Lacie PCI card's fault or the 6TB fault? But one of the two is not doing its job and for the price, thats not good enough. Tech support was not able to help other than say send it back which would be more trouble than its worth. Sad overall as the RAID set is good and useful. Makes one wonder about cost effectiveness though. Pretty darn expensive at the end of the day! |
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