LaCie Rikiki 500GB USB 3.0 Black Portable External Hard Drive 301949 LaCie Rikiki 500GB USB 3.0 Black Portable External Hard Drive 301949

Pros: Awesome design, ran perfectly with no issues ou tof the box.

Cons: Horrible newegg packaging

Other Thoughts: Newegg put the hdd in a slightly padded envelope, they could at least throw a layer of bubble wrap around the hdd regardless if its external or not.

Pros: real SATA drive inside!

Cons: This is a spinning media drive. If you drop it your data is probably gone.

Other Thoughts: I opened the case of this thing and found a Samsung ST1000LM024 SATA2 drive.

That is good news because if the USB connector gets damaged you can still retrieve your data using a regular SATA connection.

Some similar drives come with the USB port directly on the hard drive. With that, you loose everything if the tiny USB connection gets damaged.

Pros: - small
- handsome
- USB powered
- short cable
- works well with USB 2.0 or USB 3.0

Cons: I have not opened the case yet to determine if this is a native USB drive or a SATA drive with an adapter kit. It is much better if it is a SATA drive because if the connector breaks I can pull out the drive and rescue the data with a regular SATA connection.

Pros: Small size, bus-powered

Cons: Fails frequently, flimsy USB connector 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 try to blame insufficient bus power. That's bullshít; I've tried powered hubs and direct connections. The USB connector on the drive is a defective design 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). Three drives and 100% failure: AVOID.

Pros: Worked for a year although I used it extremely rarely (maybe once a month, if that).

Cons: Well it's been a year, and like the other reviewer, the USB cable no longer seems to fit correctly into the drive - so it gets power but can't be recognized by a computer, therefore data can't be accessed. And the cable they use has a very specific design so you can't just use another USB cable to take care of the problem. This drive is a useless piece of junk - barely used and already broken because of terrible design. Definitely don't recommend. My much older "Passport" drive was cheaper and still works.

Pros: At the time of purchase, was very affordable.

Nice looking case, sturdy feeling.

Cons: The cable that was given with the unit did not fit very well in the LaCie connection. After a little over a year of use (which was well under used, once or twice a month at most), the USB3.0 connection in the LaCie snapped off its board.

I was thinking that it would be a simple case of unscrewing a few screws to get my data, but it was not that simple.

The screws that are used for this system are allen wrench security bits. This made things extremely difficult. I work at a college IT dept, and they didn't even have what I needed. I ended up drilling the top portion of the security bits off to release the good ol' 500gb Samsung hard drive.

All in all, either it was a lemon connector, or this is a horrible long term product. Please don't buy. I would have given this one star, but it worked fairly well for a year, and the hard drive inside was a great buy at the time.

Pros: none if it doesn't work

Cons: Does not work with MacBook Pro 13" purchased in August 2011.

Pros: Draws enough power to run solely from USB power.

Never had ANY copy or transfer issues. I use this almost daily.

At time of purchase this was priced competitively against USB 2.0 drives of similar capacity/form factor.

Black brushed metal looks cool.

Cons: Status LED is on "backside" of the drive near the rear port with no indicator on the "face" of the drive. Odd but not deal-breaking.

Other Thoughts: After several months of ownership it's sustained no damage despite being in use on bumpy train rides, being kept in a purse/backpack, and being accidentally left on beneath a thick dish cloth that was on my desk for cleaning other stuff (got really warm but no damage).
The mechanical drive itself in my unit is a SAMSUNG drive.

Pros: The main part of the body is brushed aluminum and feels quite sturdy for being so small. Also, the USB cable that is included feels well insulated and strong.

Cons: Not as fast as other USB 3.0 external drives, but will max out USB 2.0 most of the time.

Pros: LaCie has always delivered a high quality product and this one is no different, and for the price you just cant beat this deal. Speed and performance are pretty good on this I have no complaints and I only need it for a storage back-up device, so this is perfect for what I'm using it for.

Cons: None as of yet.