Purchasing Advice: Lacie External Hard Drives

mimac

I'm really interested in buying a 200 GB external HD, mainly for holding heaps of music and digital video editing with iMovie, and like the look of the Lacie d2 range.



Here's the thing... as I haven't had any experience of using an external HD, how do I go about using iTunes and iMovie via an external HD and which of these two (see links below) drives would be best...ie. faster?



Both of the 200 Gb models (item nos, 300717 and 300878 ) are very similar in price but one has FireWire 400/800 and USB2.



Lacie Triple interface HDs



lacie Extreme FW HDs



Specs look similar on both, so maybe the triple interface is the one to go for?



Thanks.

mccrab

I have four Lacie drives (250GB each) and have found them to be very good and reliable. I would get the FW and USB2 interfaces just in case you use the drive in future in PC Land.



To use iTunes, simply set up the music library on the external drive and select 'Preferences' - 'Advanced' from the iTunes menu and change the iTunes Music Folder Location. In iMovie, the app asks for a location of where you would like to create your project on startup (or on creating a new project).

ipodandimac

Quote:

Originally posted by MiMac

I'm really interested in buying a 200 GB external HD, mainly for holding heaps of music and digital video editing with iMovie, and like the look of the Lacie d2 range.



Here's the thing... as I haven't had any experience of using an external HD, how do I go about using iTunes and iMovie via an external HD and which of these two (see links below) drives would be best...ie. faster?



Both of the 200 Gb models (item nos, 300717 and 300878 ) are very similar in price but one has FireWire 400/800 and USB2.



Lacie Triple interface HDs



lacie Extreme FW HDs



Specs look similar on both, so maybe the triple interface is the one to go for?



Thanks.

They're really loud. Mine sorta bothered me, but I only have to use it for back ups now.

indecisive pc user

I have the 200Gb triple interface version and it works great. It comes formatted for Mac but i needed to use it with wintel too so reformatted it to FAT32 (windows) and now i can use it with both formats. The firewiree 400 / USB2 option is great. Haven't tried the firewire 800 yet as my mac only has the 'old' 400.



I would definately recommend Lacie!! 8)



I haven't found mine too noisy and i've used it for video editing and as a boot drive. The only time it's noisy is when copying large files around the drive itself (i.e from folder to folder or partition to partition). But copying from my desktop to the Lacie (or vice versa) is pretty quiet!

jwri004

Loud?



Only time I notice them is when they wind up, and 'ping' off. Other than that I hardly notice the noise. In saying that I have mine hidden down the side of my desk....

gavriel

Loud? So they're not loaded with Seagate drives then, are they? Pity. I was looking to pick one up. But they're rather expensive and I'm not paying top-dollar for something that makes excessive noise.



I remember the 80 Gb Seagate Barracuda IV that I put into my last homebuilt PC. That harddrive was truly whisper quiet.

sport73

I use the Porsche designed 250GB LaCie drive, which I really like. It's very small and portable (I take it with me rather than lugging my PowerBook to the office and back). It works perfectly with iTunes or iMovie, and isn't at all noisy (IMO) unless you expect to never hear disk access.



It also is a nice compliment in style to my desktop G5 PowerMac.

lgnome

Quote:

Originally posted by ipodandimac

They're really loud.

weird.



i have 2, 250 d2 triples and i concur with the previous poster that the loudest noise it makes is the pinging sound of shutting down --- by no means is the drive louder than the high speed fan of my ti book..



if you get one of these drives, just make sure to run disk warrior on it on a regual basis. I think the 'drive failure' you hear about with these drives is more related to a complete lack of maintence than overheating...

mimac

Thanks for all the info guys! Think I will go for a 250GB now as the price is not much more expensive than the 200GB.



Now to find an etailer that delivers to Ireland \ Seems that the best deals to be had online from UK companies are not much good when they won't deliver outside of "mainland UK".

It's not as if I live on the other side of the world! \

madmax559

pick up an empty external case

they come with usb & fw ports

i paid approx 80$ for mine



get any ide hdd you want, open the case

& put it in



use as needed



a lot cheaper & works very well

digitalandres

I have a 160G LaCie external, and while the loudest noises are the ping or the starting windup, it still runs pretty loud the rest of the time. It doesn't botheer cause I almost always have music going on, but I would say I found it surprisingly loud. (Quite a bit louder than my iMacG4 I'd say).

zo

Bumping up.



Im looking at an external HD where to back up many many MANY hours of video in raw DV to then put together over the next many months. I have about 18 full tapes to get off. Probably 15-20 hours worth. I dunno. These are tapes from 10+ years ago that I want to put on DVD. Crazy project, I know.



Anyway, looking at external HDs, I suddenly see that a 250GB HD is about 220-250 euros. Then, suddenly the LaCie Porsche Design 250GB USB2 7200rpm drive is 160euros. I saw some reviews and seems ok... but Im still at a loss why its so much cheaper.



Will I regret the fact it just has a USB2 connector since I will be using just this HD for DV content?



Im not a power user ... Im just weary of a sudden low price for a "brand name"



Also, although I dont see why there should be a problem, the fact its not Firewire shouldnt be a problem right? For iMovie/Video capture.



Thanx



http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10468