LaCie 250GB d2 External Hard Drive Extreme USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800 Interfaces (300790U)

LaCie is obviously well known for Mac users. Transfers are flawless and fast. Perfect for backing up my design work, my music, my movies, everything. Very sturdy and built to last. The size fits perfect anywhere.

I use a MacBook Pro and the LaCie worked like a dream out of the box. Editing directly off the drive in Final Cut Pro is seamless. I recommend to anyone looking for one or two extra storage units. Portability is simple and easy.

i have read a zillion bad reviews of these drives, and while i believe them and my heart goes out those who've been failed by their hardware, i've had nothing but good luck with LaCie. I have a whole line of this size drive. i've been frightened enough by the reviews to buy a larger one figuring that if there is a failure, at least it will happen to less material. my desk looks like a LaCie exhibit.

i'll report back if something bad happens

LaCie replaced the HD and the chipset after only a month. When the HD was off warranty, the circuit board failed. I also own a 120GB and two 500GB drives in this series. The FW400 port fell off the 120GB circuit board. The 500GB enclosure had a catstrophic failure one wek after it was off warranty. I expect the second 500GB to fail also.

I've had this for about a month, and it's working fine so far.
I partitioned it to use part as a backup drive for my Mac.
Standard shipping from Amazon was very quick.

i was hesitant to get this thing, but it came recommended and has yet to hiccup.

fingers crossed.

This is the second LaCie triple interface (USB/FW400/FW800) drive I've purchased, in each case for amateur musicians who wanted a Firewire drive to use for audio recording. These folks will be using them for rare recording sessions and to transfer material already on other media (ADAT or DA88 MDMs, CD, etc.), so they will spend most of their time in storage and don't need to stand up to daily studio work. For that I'd recommend a Glyph. All the needed cables are included (unlike some others I've bought), and everything works fine in a recording session with Pro Tools, right out of the box. Having USB allows owners access to the material on home PCs without Firewire (although these owners probably won't try to do that). Having FW400 and FW800 allows rapid access where FW800 is available, without requiring adapters where only FW400 is available. I've heard no complaints, but I can't give it five stars because I don't actually use this drive myself, and it only gets light use anyway, so I can't compare it to other external hard drives I use frequently.


thanks soo much!!! couldnt of asked for better service and shipping!!! everything was just as promised or better

Easy to use right out of box, a life saver when computer hard drive crashes (as long as you have been backing up faithfully.)

I use it to back up my G4 powerbook via the included Firewire 800 cable. Mine had some vibration noise which I fixed by putting some extra felt padding underneath the base. There was an issue very early on which at first led me to believe it had failed, but it turned out the problem was with my computer's firewire ports (mac users: resetting the PMU fixed the problem). I don't know if the drive was responsible for scrambling my ports -- it was the first time I had connected an external drive to that computer.

One nice feature is that it turns on, off, and sleeps automatically just as it should. I never have to touch the power button.

The drive comes bundled with two poorly designed mac applications: Lacie Backup and Silverkeeper, which come with no usable documentation and totally unintuitive interfaces. Lacie Backup is worthless; don't install it. Silverkeeper, however, is quite good for backing up your Home directory (once you manage to figure out how it works). So other than the poor documentation and software, I'm happy with this drive.

It looks as tough as a tank, but it isn't. Once it crashed eveyone told me it's a very delicate piece of equipment. I did not carry mine around, for one, it is too heavy. I also only fired it up when I did my monthly backups, so I didn't have it running all the time, so it shouldn't have over heated as others have mentioned. But after less than 11 months, the computer stopped recognizing it---it hums but never gets anywhere. I changed the ports, bought new cables, all to no avail. As it happens, my computer had failed and I was relying on the LaCie back up drive to retrieve my files--what a shock when I couldn't get to them. Tried other computers, both MACs and PCs, and still no sightings of the LaCie drive on the desktop.

Even though still under warranty, I got NO HELP from the LaCie help desk. Their suggestions to use a data recovery application is unhelpful since I couldn't see the drive to select it. They don't even give you a toll free number to call. They also expect you to pay to ship the heavy thing to them even under warranty. They give NO HELP to retrieve data. If you allow anyone to open the case it voids the warranty, but they won't send you the hard drive separately, even if you send them the item intact and it turns out that it's something else.

Head aches, head aches....if it worked, it would be great, but it's not the drive that is important, it is the data and if Lacie hasn't figured out a way to help clients when their products fail, they shouldn't be in this business.

buyer beware! I wouldn't buy another LaCie ever again. Also learned my lesson, two copies are still not enough, especially if one of them is LaCie.

My drive FAIL after one year and a half...!!! This company really suck BIG TIME....I lost all of my data ...!!! ALL OFF IT...!!! THIS IS THE THIRD ONE THAT FAIL OUT OF FOUR OF THEM I PURCHASED LAST YEAR!!! Total JUNK...!!! NEVER buy a LACIE AGAIN FOR SURE....MAXTOR EXTERNAL IS THE BEST!!!

Bought as a backup drive for my G5 and to record audio.
Nice case design, and I have it rack-mounted in my road rack.
Fast, clean, easy.

great drive and great support. had great success with this drive. never had a problem

A few weeks ago I said this drive was excellent. So good that I bought another one.

Well I thought the new drive would supplement and not replace the old.

A week after I got the new drive, the old one failed. The old one was (naturally) 7 months out of warranty.

I've read too many reviews from other LaCie d2 users whose drives also failed.

Drives do fail, but not this much.

Now I have to buy another drive. It won't be a LaCie, that's for sure.

I have 4 other Lacie external hard drives ranging from 160 to 300 GB's. I've had no problem with any them. I even like they way they look! So when the need arose I got another one, the newly configured 250 GB 2d listed here at Amazon.

I'm extremely disappointed in this drive because it won't go to sleep. My other Lacies all do, but this one goes to sleep for about 30 seconds and then wakes up again and stays awake unless my Mac G5 is shut down completely.

I exchanged several emails with Lacie tech support and after trying several fixes (even running it on an older G4 Mac) I was eventually told to return the drive to Amazon. I did and they quickly sent me another (thank you Amazon). But alas, the new drive had exactly the same problem. I sent Lacie tech support an email saying I thought the new configuration (it has a different port arrangement on the back) has a design flaw. No response.

So what, if it won't go to sleep? Well, with newer Macs (I'm not sure about PC's) you seldom shut down completely, you just put your MAC to sleep. Saves energy, screen life, and ware and tear on your hard drive (because they spin down). But since this new Lacie won't spin down in the sleep mode it will probably wear out faster and the failure of a hard drive and resulting data loss is certainly traumatic. That's why I gave this new Lacie 250 GB 2d a single star. It will jeopardize my hard drive contents, something any drive manufacturer should go out of their way to prevent.

I am a videographer and have purchased 4 of these drives over time. I'm done with LaCie. Two failed after a year and the two remaining are failing now, clicking and clacking and regularly unmounting themselves. They look great! ... designed by a famous guy, but what's inside should last longer than a year!

LaCie knows it, and didn't want to look at my failed drives at all. After all, they outlasted the warantee, and that was all that was needed for them.

I ended up with some from Mercury (Elite Firewire 800 Pro). They are about the same price, don't look near as good, and work great!

Respectfully submitted

I have had this drive for 13 months and used it only for periodic, offsite backups of critical information. Consequently, I used it for less than five hours over the period. The drive started to make an ungodly noise whenever it idled. The LaCie support answer, via email, was not helpful at all. Their first response was, "It could be the power source. If you don't have another one, buy one from us for $20.00." Luckily, I had another one, which did not fix the problem. The LaCie response, "We don't repair drives. Buy a new one." I am left with a $180 dollar doorstop and a resolve to never purchase another LaCie product.

The LaCie d2 250GB external drive DIED less than 24 hours after I got it! I edit video on a Mac, and had loaded approximately 40GB of footage onto the new drive before shutting down for the night. The next morning when I turned everything back on, the LaCie d2 made a modest "click" sound and became a useless $200 paperweight.

*edit*
LaCie's tech support e-mailed me within about 6 hours to suggest a few things I could try, none of which worked. While no contact numbers for LaCie come with the actual product, I was able to find a customer service number via their website. I'm relieved to say I was connected right away with a human being, and the person I spoke to was really helpful in guiding me through their defective returns procedure. I was not charged for shipping the item back, nor was I responsible for insuring the package. I also should note, at no time did LaCie push me to exchange rather than refund my money. THAT is rare these days.

*edit*
The drive shipped quickly back to LaCie, and they refunded my money in exactly 7 business days. In fact, the only downside to the whole experience was the product itself.

This is the third, and last LaCie drive I will ever own. My first one failed, and unfortunately I had already bought my two others before they also failed. In the end, all three drives that I bought from LaCie have failed. If you do decide to buy one, you might as well get two and use one for backup because it's only a matter of time, just read through some message boards.

This item is easy to use once you get it installed, which takes high level PC knowledge. Not at all plug and play for PCs, but maybe MACs. Had to install software supplied and reconfigure PC.

Subsequently, we purchased a Seagate 300GB, which was immediately plug and play easy. Never had to install software supplied.

Warning: After upgrading to Mac 0S to 10.4.6, both my Lacie 250 GB drives failed to mount. System profiler and Disk Utilities show both the drives--after fixing permissions and running disk fix utility, the problem still would not go away. I called Lacie Support and they told me that the drives needed to be reformatted. Since I couldn't afford to lose ANY data, that was not an option. The drives did have the latest firmware. I looked through some online forums: 1. Other people did have this issue but apparently if you disconnect the drives from the Mac BEFORE updating the OS, there shouldn't be a problem. If I were you I still would not want to try that. 2. Some said try connecting using USB2. It didn't work for me.

I later figured that it was the OS upgrade that was causing the problems. I had the luxury to connect the drives to OS 9 machine. Luckily, the drives mounted fine. I also tested on the OS 10.3 system and it was fine. So, I had to back up the data to another computer and reformat the drives on OS 10.4.6.

So, if you run into the same problem, find a computer with previous version Mac OS (apparently Windows XP works) to hook up the drives.

I've been using Lacies for many years. I like the price. Out of 7 Lacie drives I own, 1 failed (died) and then these 2, 250GB drives won't mount after installing Mac OS 10.4.6. It IS kind of risky to have problems like these. I may get another brand of external HD next time.

Worked great initially. Fast, easy to hook up.
Losing 20 Gigs of data on a dead drive within 3 weeks of purchase was not so much fun.
If you like gambling and don't mind losing your data, this might be the drive for you.
Otherwise, look to a more reliable name.


Our 5th LaCie drive (d2 Extreme) and they are all still going strong. The triple interface means you can plug and play almost anywhere. Solid build and decent speed for most applications and they supply all the interface cables you might need. (unlike certain printer manufacturers...)

I had a 500Gig crash on me within a year. I bought this 250 as a replacement. Out of the box it was unfunctional and made the weirdest sounds I've ever heard. I sent it to Lacie and they sent it back to me no different. I'm not using Lacie anymore - too much is at stake. I loved the way they looked and stacked but I'm WAY OVER it. Lacie no more.

Amazon delivered the goods right on time and the goods are good. I have been using the LaCie drive for some HD video editing and it has yet to crash or malfunction which is superb.

P.S I wish amazon would have made it availible in Canada.

I have three LaaCie external hard drives. Use them for video storage.
bought a new 200 GB drive to store mini DV videos. disk crashed shortly after I put 140 GB on the disk. less than one month after buying it.

I haven't experience any of the issues the others have. I've had 3 250 GB LaCie d2 drives and they've all been great. I use them heavily for video editing and pushing 10-20 GB files. No problems.

The only issue I ever had was with an old Mac and the 500 GB LaCie drive ... probably a FireWire issue. I've had much better luck with LaCie than Mercury. One note of caution for people who have had issues: software upgrades and firmware issues are very common, especially with Firewire, and I've gotten into the habit of always shutting down before adding a drive and unmounting a drive before removing it, even though Firewire is hot-swappable, I've had external FW devices blow up trying to hot-swap.

I'm a fan of LaCie. It could look like a baked potato and I'd still use it.

I work at a design studio that bought about 10 of these drives over the past year or two. We we're seduced by the nice box design. They look great but they usually last about a year or less. We have lost more data due to LaCie equipment than anything else we own. I use one at home for music. I thought maybe the failure rate was due to multiple users, being passed around, overall misuse. Not the case unfortunately. Today, for the second time in three months, my LaCie 250gig external harddrive failed. This time it just died. No disc utility could repair it, just tick tick tick. It hasn't been moved, it is very well ventilated and very well taken care of. This disc sits on a shelf above my stereo and is used 3-4 evenings a week to listen to background music. Very light use. Seeing the same drives die frequently at work, I backed everything up to a 6 year old EzQuest drive that has never failed me. If I hadn't done this I would have lost around 200 gigs of music. In the past LaCie was known as the cheesy, cheap, bad alternative to other more expensive brands. Seems like the only thing they changed was their marketing. This is a low quality product / brand. Don't be seduced by the handsome box design, the reliability is terrible and the warranty is about half as long as other manufacturers... makes you wonder why.

I am adding my hard drive to the list of completely failed drives.

My drive failed 5 days after the 1 year warranty expired. It is unrecoverable and unusable. In retrospect, it did take a month to slowly die and I should have paid attention to those "chipmunk like" sounds while the product was under warranty. However, after reading about the LaCie warranty support here on other Lacie products, I feel better knowing they would have given me the run around anyway.

My experience with LaCie support was that they were ultimately not worth the effort or downtime.

Here is their last email after 2 weeks of emailing back and forth ::
"Thanks for contacting LaCie Technical Support. The drive is too far past the end of its warranty for us to repair it. We do not perform out-of-warranty repairs or sell parts as we often no longer have parts and it is usually more cost effective to purchase a new unit. Depending on what is wrong with the drive, parts may be salvageable. We are unable to assist with any of this, but if the mechanism itself is dead, a new one can be placed inside the case. If the mechanism is still good, it may be installed elsewhere--either in a computer or inside a new third-party case."

It is curious that the LaCie smaller hard drives seem to have no bad reviews here on Amazon. No matter, after such insipid customer support, I would never buy LaCie products again.

I am going out to buy a Maxor drive today.

I've never experienced the former reviewers unfortunate issues with this LaCie Drive. I've owned one of these for two years, and Im a heavy user - 10 hours a day. I edit lots of video and have 30GB of music on here that I play throughout each day using I Tunes. never a glitch, never a problem. I've used SeaGate external drives and those are great too, but I have had a few problems with those. Im so far a big LaCie fan and Im buying another one soon.

I bought a 250gb LaCie d2, not through Amazon, but through another retailer. I spent several months ripping my music collection. Now after less than 1 year of ownship, it refuses to mount on my Mac. 3 interfaces are not much use, when none of them work.
I'm stuck with an expensive hunk of metal and no way to get at my digital music.
I've looked around the web and it turns out this is a fairly common problem with this brand. There has got to be a more reliable hard drive out there, keep looking.
UPDATE: To be fair I should post an update that I sent the drive back to LaCie (at my expense), they fixed it and sent it back to me (at their expense). It has been trouble-free for 3 months now. When it's working, it's a 5-star product.