external HD recommendation.

[false_Aesthetic]

Hey,

I used to swear by LaCie external HDs. Unfortunately, in the past 2 months I've seen/heard of 4 failing.

I've had the same drive for 2 years and I use it every day--I'm thinking its time to get a new one.

Is LaCie's quality going down or are these just freak happening?

What do you guys recommend for a more portable drive (I travel a lot).
I don't need a huge drive--I'd rather pay for 7200rpm and firewire 400/800.

Thanks
T

[bob carnie]

We use Lacie portables here and are not having any problems.

Big knocking on wood right now.

[J_Tardiff]

We stopped using the LaCie drives in my lab -- they had a bad habit of dying 2 months after their warranty gave out. This includes one of their external CD/DVD drives, I suspect their enclosures and or chipsets are not the highest quality.

Some of my students have had good luck with the new WD external drives. I'm kind of old-fashioned (self-built all the lab PCs) -- so I tend to go with one of the Mercury enclosures from OWC (http://www.macsales.com) or Wiebetech http://www.wiebetech.com coupled with a reliable, fast hard drive.

I've had excellent results with rolling my own this way -- my little mercury FW enclosure + fast Seagate notebook drive has traveled all over the world the past couple of years without a hiccup.

JT

[RDKirk]

The problem with some cheaper LaCie's (and probably other recent makes) has been poor case ventilation leading to failure from excessive heating. Beware sleek, stylish cases, go for the ugly holey joes. A fan-cooled case is even better, especially if it's horizontal.

Also, be sure to give external drives space on your desk or shelf. Don't treat them like books.

[Joseph O'Neil]

I've had good luck with the new HP external HDs myself. Avoid the "no name"or lower cost external HDs, I've gone through a couple of those with poor results. They seem to have a limited life span - like the message above, except in my case, ti was about 2 weeks after warranty expires. :(

[Andreas Hagenbach]

I heard as well that LaCie disks tend to have problems when used to long - I switched to G-Technology harddrives. They seem expensier, but mines did their job so far...
Maybe you'll have a look at www.g-technology.com. I hear from several video folks that theirs also do what they are bought for.

Andreas