 Looks cool, heavy, decent speed |
| Review Date: November 29, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Richard C. Drew, Oak Lawn, IL USA |
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. |
Geek Chic in a Hard Drive: A Rugged Device with Extra Features
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| Review Date: November 27, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Debbie Lee Wesselmann, the Lehigh Valley, PA |
Both in appearance and functionality, the LaCie Starck is startlingly different from your average, plastic-body device. The drive is encased in a solid, charcoal gray metal box (and its weight reflects it) with a front that looks like liquid metal -- think Terminator II inside a radioactive containment box. The shiny chrome front acts as a shortcut touch pad for the included software. To protect your desk from the rugged exterior, two padded strips are attached to the bottom. The drive comes with outlet adapters for various countries; from my memory of adapters, I believe that they can be used in US, the UK, Europe, and Japan.
The drive works almost silently, a real change from my Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN, and it's quicker as well. The real difference here, however, is the touch pad which is powered by special software. Using the LaCie Desktop Manager, you can select two functions, one activated with a short touch and the other by holding your finger against it. For instance, when used in conjunction with the included backup software, you can instantly copy all your documents to the drive with a tap of your finger. And then back up all your photos with a longer touch.
Mac users will appreciate the option of partitioning the drive to have one Mac section and a Windows or Linux section, allowing backups from both operating systems without having to swap hard drives. Of course, the drive can also be formatted for Time Machine.
Like any device, the LaCie Starck is not perfect. Its power cord is too short, and the installation of the software is not as intuitive as it should be. For example, when the Desktop Assistant is formatting, you cannot tell its progress. If you abort, you'll then have to reformat the drive and download the software from the LaCie website since the reformatting will erase all the included software. The documentation out of the box is minimal since the manual is instead on the hard drive itself -- a real issue if you reformat before reading the manual. LaCie recommends moving the manual from the external drive to your computer before beginning, and the advice should be followed. Even when you do read the manual, the instructions are not explicit. For Macs (I did not test the PC software), you have to launch and set up both the Desktop Assistant and the Intego Backup Assistant before you can use the touchpad. It took me a full hour to figure out everything so I could use all the features. Most external hard drives are plug-and-go. Of course, most hard drive don't have the touch features that the LaCie has.
Once I got the LaCie Starck up and running, I loved it. It is quiet, rugged, and, yes, cool.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann |
Very solid drive.
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| Review Date: November 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: S. Power, Detroit, Michigan, United States |
Pros:
- 1TB - the knew norm in harddrive capacity
- very solid construction
- LaCie reputation for quality. It is worth a little extra money per gigabit to know that my precious, irreplaceable, data is safe.
- Easy to use, included, automatic back-up software.
Give or Takes:
- Touch pad on the front of it (I don't know why anyone would care about this feature, but that may just be because my harddrives are in a completely different room of the house).
Cons:
- I wish I spent a little extra to get 2TB, which soon to be the norm. Every size harddrive I've ever bought has always seemed bigger than I would ever need, and I've filled them all. 2TB will probably last you five years, as opposed to two or three for a 1TB.
- The included documentation isn't great.
- Too much focus on Form over function. It is a harddrive, not a centerpiece.
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A MUST HAVE hard drive !!!
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| Review Date: January 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: V. DASILVA, Greenville, NC USA |
| This is a MUST HAVE hard drive specially for those who own the new imac 27"...is a very stylish and works perfectly with Time Capsule and the front touch works as described by Lacie. I had to replace a old Lacie hard drive 300 Gb for this new 1 Tb to be able to save all my precious data. |
Great machine
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| Review Date: January 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Photobill, Amherst, NH |
| The Lacie 1 TB USB hard drive is a perfect storage machine. Quick and easy to run, fast download and upload speeds, and is nice to look at. I am very pleased with the purchase |
Can a Hard Drive Be Sexy?!?
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| Review Date: June 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Celeste, Louisiana |
I'm not sure if a hard drive can be sexy, but this one comes very close. It's amazing how such a small detail, the sleek design of the cover, moves this devise from a piece of equipment to a piece of art.
The hard drive was incredibly easy to set up; I just plugged it into my computer and followed the instructions.
If you're computer or media setup is in a public location in your house, this is a great hard drive. It adds a touch of style and elegance to your setup. This is not a hard drive that wants to be hidden away! |
Form and function
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| Review Date: January 24, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Randall Louks, CANTON, MI, US |
| The unit fits in with my 27" iMac wonderfully. The drive out of the box was easy to install. It is the quietest drive in my collection. It is very stylish, fast and quiet. If you are looking for a drive that sits on the desk this is the one for you. Also backed by the genius of LaCie |
A beautiful piece
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| Review Date: January 18, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Streiff, Duluth, MN |
What makes this different then every other 1TB external hard drive out there?
This one is beautiful.
This hard drive replaces the ugly black box (which is what I had before this one). This is the hard drive for those of us who have a computer in the middle of our living spaces, where you may want something not so bulky looking sitting out. When your wanting something that looks more like a streamline piece of equipment rather then a big black book with rubber ends. You can not hear it running and it works super fast.
It's for those who want something different then everything else.
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Exclellent external hard drive.
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| Review Date: May 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Edgardo Font Ulloa, Costa Rica |
| I am very happy with the performance, looks, built quality, and value of this LaCie external hard drive. I'm using it with Time Machine as a back up drive. It has a very sturdy metal case that looks great besides my new (aluminum) iMac. For my purposes, this USB 2 unit has plenty of speed in transferring files fast. Great value. |
Gimmicky software, good drive
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| Review Date: December 3, 2009 |
| Reviewer: S. D. Johnson, La Sierra, CA, USA |
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. |
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