lacie vs other

[Matthew Nelson]

G-Technology’s G-RAIDs have been a solid performers for me. The 500GB drive I got when they first came out is still humming along. I have had only one go down and G-Tech quickly fixed the issue.

Matt

[Alan Smith]

My experience has been that Lacie is tempermental and not reliable for important work/projects. Of the 5 that I have had, two of them crashed and I lost every thing on them. One of the remaining is rattling so I don’t use it. I have several g-tech drives and they have never failed.

[Jim Kinsey]

I second that G-tech drives just work. I have one 500 GIG and (2) 320’s and have pounded out numerous shows over the last couple of years and they keep running like little energizer bunnies… The g-tech mini triple interface drives are great for on the road and remote working environments were power sources are limited.

JK

[Trevor Ward]

I’ve used Maxtor drives for years and never had a problem. I use FW drives. I’ve used the FW400 and FW800 drives. I’ve had small ones (200GB) and big ones (1.5TB). I like them for simple backups and editing of DV material.

I just recently purchased a CalDigit Raid and it’s awesome. It’s about $.50 per GB. CalDigit has a 3 year warranty vs. the G-Raid’s 2-year.

-trevor ward
Red Eye Film Co.
http://www.redeyevideoproductions.com
orlando, fl

[Todd Reid]

Everybody has different experiences with external drives.
I have had very little trouble with Lacie drives, but I know they seem to have a bad rep.
My oldest Lacie is 3-4 years old and still running like a champ.
I have achived mp3, photos, and even some old SD projects and footage.

I have had a Lacie go south on me and I did lose several hours of digitized material, unfortunate. One call to Lacie, and they replaced my drive and I continued on.

I have had very bad experience with WD-My Book drives, but I bet several people will post and say that they have been using them with no trouble.

It is important to note that every drive you have ever seen, or worked on, will eventually fail. Its inherent in the design.

Whatever drive you decide on CAN (and eventually WILL) fail or develop problems. Archive according to the importance of your media, which may mean multiple archives, in case your back up fails too.

just 2 cents from an editor with 15 years experience, who started in the linear days of 3/4″ tapes, and the edit suite took up a whole room, not just a computer tower.

[Walter Biscardi]

[James Carroccio] “i need a new external tho and was wondering if i should go back with lacie.

i have had success with them but my two previous ones crashed within years time. is this normal?”

Did you contact LaCie tech support about those? They’ve been great with any tech issues here. But our two S2S SATA arrays have been running without fail for two years now, we have a Two Big SATA that’s solid, a 2TB Firewire drive that’s solid almost 2 years now, and assorted LaCie D2 drives. Have only had one D2 unit go south on my so far and that one was dropped out of a car at one point.

I love the original G-Raid units from a few years ago, but the new G2 units are terrible if you connect more than one unit to your Mac. Speeds drop off something fierce.

I don’t have any issues with LaCie, WiebeTech and even the MyBook for backup. If you’re looking to edit with the drive, then LaCie or WiebeTech.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Michael Sacci]

Not to knock other brands but I really like OWC drives (Macsales.com). They are a great company and I think their prices per GB maybe the lowest. I have probably purchased 30 of there drives over the years. Of the ones I still have in my possession they are still working. I have 100 GB drives that are going on 7 years old. Love the quad interface enclosures, use them for ETT via the eSATA when I use the Io with my MBP.

[Tim Danyo]

Lacie drive are terrible. The D2 drives anyway. I had 4 of them. Within two years three of them completely failed. The last one was making a funny noise so I took everything off of it and shelfed it. The first drive that went out, everything was lost. The next two I was able to save the data before their deaths.

Tim

OSX3.4, FCP4.5, QT6.5, Dual 2 ghz G5, 2 SATA drives, 2.5 gigs RAM, DSR11 deck