What a concept - mechanical hard drives not lasting a lifetime; actually failing...and only LaCie's....go figure.
Not the point. LaCie shipped out an overwhelming number of various drives over many years with power supplies that failed within weeks. Google it. This was a simple QC issue that could have been taken care of when reports first started rolling in, but instead went on for years. For the past decade LaCie spent money on fancy designer enclosures instead of better QC and CS.
I have an aging first gen intel iMac that won't be upgradeable to Lion. Even though I am a strong advocate for Apple's "insistence" not to have a legacy drag like Windows, it still is hard to know everyone else will be enjoying Lion whilst I'm still on that dog Snow Leopard.
CPU in your iMac should be upgradable to Core 2 Duo, as far as I remember so it can have Lion too.
"Thunderbolt will likely see more rapid adoption in the high-end video market."
No kidding! Given it takes an SSD or multiple, striped HDDs which push the cost per GB way up it's never really going to be a consumer technology.
McD
You're missing the point. It's not about maxing the interface, it's about whether the interface limits your access to data.
Currently, USB 2.0 is a major bottleneck for a fast external drive - and even worse for an external RAID. TB fixes that problem - the interface is no longer the bottleneck. You can get the data every bit as fast as the hard drive can provide it.
USB 3.0 MIGHT be able to claim that with current generation drives (with MIGHT being the operative word), but fails in a couple of regards - burst speed (which is more important with today's huge caches and hybrid drives), RAID, and future generations of hard disks.
So even a moderately advanced users will see the difference between TB and USB 2.0 - it doesn't require a high-end video user. So the user has to decide between TB and USB 3.0. The cost difference is likely to be insignificant, so why not choose the superior technology - even if it's far faster than you need?
Not the point. LaCie shipped out an overwhelming number of various drives over many years with power supplies that failed within weeks. Google it. This was a simple QC issue that could have been taken care of when reports first started rolling in, but instead went on for years. For the past decade LaCie spent money on fancy designer enclosures instead of better QC and CS.
While I do backup often, dealing with LARGE amounts of data is a pain to backup, especially when that data changes often. If my HD failed, I would lose some of my larger work because I back those up by hand and not consistently (large, rapidly changing data sets take too much space with Time Machine).
I also stopped buying LaCie, but I think their past problems were related to overheating so maybe they will have more luck with SSDs?
Totally agree. I used to recommend LaCie products to tons of people, until they all starting breaking and I had to deal with their horrible customer support. I'll never buy from them again.
I'll wait until OWC comes out with their new drives.
...So when the new Mini has ONLY ONE PORT, a ThunderBolt port, you will simply plug in your monitor, and everything else will plug into that.
No hubs, no wires, no mess. Simple. One port.
When the updated Mac Mini comes out, it will still have USB and probably Firewire.
From what little I have seen on the subject so far, Macs currently can't boot from a drive connected by Thunderbolt. I would imagine that would include a USB or Firewire adapter that uses Thunderbolt for a connection. Will that change? Probably at some point, but I wouldn't be surprised if it requires a hardware change. Remember, Macs initially couldn't boot from USB drives and it was only at the end of the PPC era that Macs got that ability.
Totally agree. I used to recommend LaCie products to tons of people, until they all starting breaking and I had to deal with their horrible customer support. I'll never buy from them again.
I'll wait until OWC comes out with their new drives.
Horrible customer support? Seriously? Sounds like you would benefit from a few weeks on the other end of the phone.
The people who cling like a dying man to their legacy connections oppose ThunderBolt because they are mired in the past. They imagine dozens of weird adaptors and cables and hubs and wires and mess.
What they don't realize is that TB can be daisy chained.
So when the new Mini has ONLY ONE PORT, a ThunderBolt port, you will simply plug in your monitor, and everything else will plug into that.
No hubs, no wires, no mess. Simple. One port. No need to think about anything, or to call home to have them describe that weird looking plug when you are at Best Buy. Just know that ThunderBolt is what you want. Simple.
Well, maybe. Unless the TB spec states that if you've got a miniDisplayPort device in the chain, it has to be the last one in that chain.
Again, you're ignoring the point. I have a happy backup system with drives of various companies that I use confidently. My personal experience with LaCIe products over the past decade is that their quality control is too poor to get into my place again, despite such snazzy cases.
Stop harping for a moment about the life of mechanisms, which isn't even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about dead enclosures and flakey power supplies that can kill mechanisms.
Thank you for your next very relevant response, which is to keep back ups.
Again, you're ignoring the point. I have a happy backup system with drives of various companies that I use confidently. My personal experience with LaCIe products over the past decade is that their quality control is too poor to get into my place again, despite such snazzy cases.
I've had exactly one power supply problem with LaCie drives. I've also had a power supply problem with Buffalo, and a fan problem with Western Digital.
Does anyone keep actual statistics on reliability of external drives, rather than just anecdotal evidence (which is an oxymoron, in my opinion)?
That's not the solution. As the poster said, it's the power supplies that fail. The drive and the data are fine. I was buying Lacie drive enclosures in the 80's and had constant power supply issues. Sometimes it's just the supply, sometimes it fries the board on the way out. Move on 20 years and still the same problems. I gave up on Lacie in the 80's but I watched 4 out of 4 power supply failures on less than 3 year old Lacie drives last year. OWC is all I buy, out of about 20 drives, 0 failures and some are quite old. The 2 former Lacie owners of the 4 failed drives are also now in the OWC camp.
Comments
"Thunderbolt will likely see more rapid adoption in the high-end video market."
No kidding! Given it takes an SSD or multiple, striped HDDs which push the cost per GB way up it's never really going to be a consumer technology.
Now all that's needed is a high-end video editing package to go along with it.
Some of my larger transfers will be able to be completed without a coffee-making trip down the hall. Ugh. Less exercise. Could be fattening...
What a concept - mechanical hard drives not lasting a lifetime; actually failing...and only LaCie's....go figure.
Not the point. LaCie shipped out an overwhelming number of various drives over many years with power supplies that failed within weeks. Google it. This was a simple QC issue that could have been taken care of when reports first started rolling in, but instead went on for years. For the past decade LaCie spent money on fancy designer enclosures instead of better QC and CS.
I have an aging first gen intel iMac that won't be upgradeable to Lion. Even though I am a strong advocate for Apple's "insistence" not to have a legacy drag like Windows, it still is hard to know everyone else will be enjoying Lion whilst I'm still on that dog Snow Leopard.
CPU in your iMac should be upgradable to Core 2 Duo, as far as I remember so it can have Lion too.
"Thunderbolt will likely see more rapid adoption in the high-end video market."
No kidding! Given it takes an SSD or multiple, striped HDDs which push the cost per GB way up it's never really going to be a consumer technology.
McD
You're missing the point. It's not about maxing the interface, it's about whether the interface limits your access to data.
Currently, USB 2.0 is a major bottleneck for a fast external drive - and even worse for an external RAID. TB fixes that problem - the interface is no longer the bottleneck. You can get the data every bit as fast as the hard drive can provide it.
USB 3.0 MIGHT be able to claim that with current generation drives (with MIGHT being the operative word), but fails in a couple of regards - burst speed (which is more important with today's huge caches and hybrid drives), RAID, and future generations of hard disks.
So even a moderately advanced users will see the difference between TB and USB 2.0 - it doesn't require a high-end video user. So the user has to decide between TB and USB 3.0. The cost difference is likely to be insignificant, so why not choose the superior technology - even if it's far faster than you need?
Not the point. LaCie shipped out an overwhelming number of various drives over many years with power supplies that failed within weeks. Google it. This was a simple QC issue that could have been taken care of when reports first started rolling in, but instead went on for years. For the past decade LaCie spent money on fancy designer enclosures instead of better QC and CS.
Backup, backup, backup
Backup, backup, backup
While I do backup often, dealing with LARGE amounts of data is a pain to backup, especially when that data changes often. If my HD failed, I would lose some of my larger work because I back those up by hand and not consistently (large, rapidly changing data sets take too much space with Time Machine).
I also stopped buying LaCie, but I think their past problems were related to overheating so maybe they will have more luck with SSDs?
Totally agree. I used to recommend LaCie products to tons of people, until they all starting breaking and I had to deal with their horrible customer support. I'll never buy from them again.
I'll wait until OWC comes out with their new drives.
...So when the new Mini has ONLY ONE PORT, a ThunderBolt port, you will simply plug in your monitor, and everything else will plug into that.
No hubs, no wires, no mess. Simple. One port.
When the updated Mac Mini comes out, it will still have USB and probably Firewire.
From what little I have seen on the subject so far, Macs currently can't boot from a drive connected by Thunderbolt. I would imagine that would include a USB or Firewire adapter that uses Thunderbolt for a connection. Will that change? Probably at some point, but I wouldn't be surprised if it requires a hardware change. Remember, Macs initially couldn't boot from USB drives and it was only at the end of the PPC era that Macs got that ability.
-kpluck
Totally agree. I used to recommend LaCie products to tons of people, until they all starting breaking and I had to deal with their horrible customer support. I'll never buy from them again.
I'll wait until OWC comes out with their new drives.
Horrible customer support? Seriously? Sounds like you would benefit from a few weeks on the other end of the phone.
Now all that's needed is a high-end video editing package to go along with it.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk... be nice, now!
Finally. I want to backup my 2011 iMac but I don't want to deal with USB 2.0.
So why wasn't FireWire 800 an option?
Will it also have a floppy disk?
Nope... chadless punched paper tape, or at best a cassette tape.
Will it also have a floppy disk?
As much as I believe in your one-port future, I'm sane enough to know it won't happen until the end of the decade at the earliest. Give it a rest.
Nope... chadless punched paper tape, or at best a cassette tape.
i'm holding out for the 8 tack tape system
in vinyl of course
9
The people who cling like a dying man to their legacy connections oppose ThunderBolt because they are mired in the past. They imagine dozens of weird adaptors and cables and hubs and wires and mess.
What they don't realize is that TB can be daisy chained.
So when the new Mini has ONLY ONE PORT, a ThunderBolt port, you will simply plug in your monitor, and everything else will plug into that.
No hubs, no wires, no mess. Simple. One port. No need to think about anything, or to call home to have them describe that weird looking plug when you are at Best Buy. Just know that ThunderBolt is what you want. Simple.
Well, maybe. Unless the TB spec states that if you've got a miniDisplayPort device in the chain, it has to be the last one in that chain.
Backup, backup, backup
Again, you're ignoring the point. I have a happy backup system with drives of various companies that I use confidently. My personal experience with LaCIe products over the past decade is that their quality control is too poor to get into my place again, despite such snazzy cases.
Stop harping for a moment about the life of mechanisms, which isn't even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about dead enclosures and flakey power supplies that can kill mechanisms.
Thank you for your next very relevant response, which is to keep back ups.
Again, you're ignoring the point. I have a happy backup system with drives of various companies that I use confidently. My personal experience with LaCIe products over the past decade is that their quality control is too poor to get into my place again, despite such snazzy cases.
I've had exactly one power supply problem with LaCie drives. I've also had a power supply problem with Buffalo, and a fan problem with Western Digital.
Does anyone keep actual statistics on reliability of external drives, rather than just anecdotal evidence (which is an oxymoron, in my opinion)?
Backup, backup, backup
That's not the solution. As the poster said, it's the power supplies that fail. The drive and the data are fine. I was buying Lacie drive enclosures in the 80's and had constant power supply issues. Sometimes it's just the supply, sometimes it fries the board on the way out. Move on 20 years and still the same problems. I gave up on Lacie in the 80's but I watched 4 out of 4 power supply failures on less than 3 year old Lacie drives last year. OWC is all I buy, out of about 20 drives, 0 failures and some are quite old. The 2 former Lacie owners of the 4 failed drives are also now in the OWC camp.