LaCie Rikiki 500GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive 301909

Pros: Small size, bus-powered

Cons: Fails often, connector quickly degrades

Other Thoughts: I've had three of these drives. All eventually started failing to mount and sounding the "beep of doom." The first one LaCie replaced without hassle, but then they started balking. They'll blame anything else, like insufficient bus power. That's a crock; I've tried powered hubs and direct connections. The USB connection is a failure that will become loose over time and force you to spread the end of your USB plug to get it to fit securely. Also, strangely, the power light is on the BACK of the drive (where the USB connector is).

Pros: Small size, bus-powered

Cons: Frail mini-USB jack, failed soon after 2-year warranty ran out

Other Thoughts: The mini USB jack will quickly become loose and unreliable, forcing you to distort the USB plugs you use, in order to make them seat tightly. I'm not sure what the best solution to this would have been, since this device is truly too small to house a regular USB "B" connector.

One of my two units began issuing the "beep of death" not long after the warranty ran out.

Pros: It's a nice 500GB Drive. They have them at Best Buy for around $850 less, but I guess you could buy it from Newegg.

Cons: Really? The price at the moment is close to $1000. Throw in a 2 year warranty for $100 more. I understand the floods in Thailand caused HDDs to go up in price, but really?

That's more expensive than an SSD

Pros: Not one problem. Top notch as usual.

Cons: not one

Pros: When it worked, it worked well
Great for storing all kinds of data
Convenient
Looks Nice
Cheap

Cons: After about 5 months, it began to make a clicking sound before it started up. It wouldn't start spinning properly until I held it so it was standing up, and sometimes does not work that way either. Still usable, but the clicking is enough to force me to replace it.

Other Thoughts: My experience might not happen to most people. I'm not sure what caused the clicking, either my own error, or the drive.

Pros: Small, quiet, and plenty of storage for what I needed it for which was my modded Wii. It has not given me one problem and formats with WBFS just fine.

Cons: None.

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Cheap

Other Thoughts: Their warranty procedure is ridiculous. If you want to talk to a real person you have to pay $15 for the privilege, even on in-warranty items. Otherwise it's an on-line type-fest where they do everything in their power to show it's YOU and not their product that's defective.

Pros: it works, non obtrusive orange led, small, 500gigs

Cons: the usb port is in a funny spot, on the side, but if it were too much of a problem i would not have bought it. the usb boost is not 64bit compatible.

Other Thoughts: i have used it for many computers and each and every one has recognized it.

Pros: It's small.

Cons: It's made by LaCie.

10 years ago LaCie products were the very best. Today they are some of the worst products you can buy. I own a data recovery house, and let me tell you the truth, almost 50% of the ext drives we see in for recovery are LaCie. Yet they only have about 5% of the market. You do the math and then ask if your data is worth the risk?

Pros: Small

Cons: After only 60 days of use. Freezes when attempting to add files, freezes when attempting to partition, either as simple partition or by zeroing out the drive. Makes a loud, constant burring sound with vibrations.
LaCie support is frustrating, only via e-mail, asking to perform diagnostic functions I already told them I had done.
It took LaCie 3 days of online back and worth, asking to try this & that when all the information was in the original posting. Yes I tried a different computer, yes I tried a different cable, no it will not reformat, yes it shows up in disk utility. Now after 3 days they graciously permitted me to ship back the drive at my expense for them to repair it. What do I use while they repair this failure of theirs?

Other Thoughts: I'm out of a device that I rely upon for conducting business. When it comes down to it, the actual (cheap) Samsung mechanism in your (cheap) enclosure is probably costing you about $15-20 in bulk. The cost of the enclosure, mass produced for about $2. An advance replacement program where the customer leaves a deposit, say $25, to be refunded when the failure is returned in the pre-paid packaging would mean minimum downtime for the customer, happier customers means loyal customers. Loyal customer buy more of LaCie products in the future.
I guess we know where LaCie stands when it comes to reliability and dependability. No wonder my IT department steers clear of anything LaCie.