External Drive Lacie Vs Icecube

[Mika]

We just had a second lacie 250 bit the big one after a few days of abuse. Are we just unlucky ? Who uses what , what to avoid etc .

[Daz]

I have 4 LaCie 250 7200rpm triple interface drives that have worked perfectly for about 18 months...touch wood. Then again, I only use them for back up and a bit of Avid Xpress work at home or on location.

I have read on the Avid-L of many LaCie failures, usually the larger capacity drives and also ususally heat related.

Make sure your drives are in the upright position, mounted on the 'foot' that comes in the box. Make sure there's enough space between 'em for cool air to circulate. DO NOT stack 'em on top of each other.

For more info, try the Avid knowledge base
http://www.avid.com/onlinesupport/
or Avid forums
http://www.avid.com/cgi/forumscg
or if you're brave enough, the Avid-L
http://www.avid.com/community/maillist/index.html
If you do try the Avid-L, you'll find the users to be knowledgable but also irascible...and quick to flame a newbie!

[E_Tedeschi]

Mika,

Currently using a 250Gb SATA Firewire 800 Icecube for external storage, and portability between two FCP suites with no problems. Connectivity is fine, playback is smooth and fast, and certainly hasn't died on me (...yet, where's that wood....)

Has anyone has any experiences with using large HDs to go between PC and Mac? What is the largest drive I can use that will natively be read by both Windows and OSX without needing something like MacDrive? 80Gb?

[Mika]

Thanks Daz , that's our normal method of handing the disks. The most recent one to die was actually fresh of the shelf. I think maybe lacie QC isn't that flash

[Daz]

Fast, cheap, good...pick any two!

[Jude]

Lots of complaints about Lacies on FCP groups too. We have one that seems to fall off line all the time. Apparently there is a firmware upgrade that deals with this.