Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez
**Consumer review**
Using computers nowadays means that archiving is technically paperless. Writing papers for classes have to be stored somewhere after they have been typed. Pictures from your digital camera have to be organized. Videos downloaded from the Internet have to be shelved digitally. So what’s the best way to store all this media when the computer’s hard drive becomes full and burning discs become a tedious job?
Storing your digital memories and work can be easily transferred to an external hard drive that has basically the same amount of space as your computer or even more.
I have been using LaCie hard drives for a number of items; video projects I have worked on as a video editor, storing high resolution photographs from my digital SLR, and music that I have collected throughout the years. I used to burn discs all the time to back up my information. I would get worried that if those discs scratched, that would mean the end of my work. Using a hard drive, that is mostly solid state, would diminish those worries, until you drop it or fry it with a surge of electricity, but that worry only comes with clumsiness.
I would use my LaCie 500GB hard drive almost everyday. I would back up my photos I shot that day, and go back to organize any other folders or documents I would have scattered in the drive. Using the Mac’s firewire port, everything I did was in real time and I could delete or replace without a problem…
Until the drive disappeared from the desktop and all hell broke loose.
I was in the middle of transferring some photos and my system froze when the drive disappeared. I thought the power went out, but the drive was still running. I checked the cables and both ends were connected. Turns out the drive suddenly died. Nearly 400 gigabytes of information were instantly lost. I couldn’t imagine the drive would suddenly break down. The drive had never moved from my computer desk after coming out of the box.
Researching on what would cause the drive to fail, and attempting to recover as much information as possible, I learned that LaCie will not guarantee to recover any information that has been lost on a dead drive. LaCie will only replace the drive within its warranty period of one year if the drive becomes faulty. The hard work and memories I had trusted the drive to hold onto, were gone. My old job as a video editor also encountered problems with LaCie drives not appearing on the desktop. One computer would read it, but not others. Their drives are very inconsistent.
I have little respect for drives that are not reliable. All my other hard drives, five years old on my oldest drive, still run perfectly. LaCie however, four months after purchasing it, it goes dark in the middle of a transfer. The drive would heat up so much, I could fry an egg on its case. There is no fan to keep it cool or large ventilation holes. The case is completely closed, so I think that may be a reason why the drive suddenly died.
After such a devastating incident, I cannot recommend this brand of external hard drives. The solid silver casing with its Cyclops blue light cannot convince me to trust using it anymore.
()
