LaCie 301103U F.A. Porsche 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

9Jan07

Quite small: 4.5W x 1.250H x 7.5D (about 1/2 size of my HP Ext DVD Burner)
Win2K SP4 on my desktop & Win XPhome SP2 on my laptop saw it as 500GB drive.
Many internal & external drives that I have had in the past were not recognized at their full capacity by Win2K.
I purchased this drive to store BeYond TV recorded programs.

This is my 4th LaCie external drive. I've been running the 160GB and two 250s for 4+ and 2+ years, respectively. I use one as a primary shared repository for files on the home network, including the TiVo. The others are backups. The share drive has been on 24/7 for 2 years. The other drives are only turned on when I need them.

I've seen mixed reviews for these drives, but my experience has been very positive. With the usage outlined above, I have had reliable, fast, and zero-maintenance operation.

i just bought this HD and i love it. its smaller and more compact than i had expected which is very nice and its a good deal for under $200. as soon as i got it i plugged it into my comp and it was working with no issues.
the only drawback is the short usb cord tht this device comes with...i just used one of my own.
its a great device and i recommended it to my siblings who were also looking for an external HD

i own 2 other HD's and i wish i would have discovered this one earlier...then i would have bought 2 :)

This USB-HD does what it is supposed to do. I had no problems so far.
It is extremely silent. The external AC adaptor is bigger than others I've seen. Although its design is by Porsche, it is nothing more than a steel box and that feature surely must not influence your buying decision.
It comes formatted as FAT32 for maximum portability among operating systems, but if you use WinXP you probably will want to reformat it to NTFS and create some partitions over its 465MB formatted capacity. That process takes well over an hour.

Not for having in a toom as a backup or source of music. Otherways works good.

This is my 3rd external and it is great, nice and compact giving the storage space...500GB for a low price what more can you ask for..a must have!!!

I was very happy to buy this product after looking for months for a similar product.

I have a Lacie drive at work that uses the firewire connection on my Mac. I loved the price (on sale) of this item and the capacity, but the connection is a USB 2.0. It is very slow, and I have to eject the drive from my Mac desktop in order to be able to eject a CD. It can also take 3-5 minutes for it to mount on my desktop once plugged in and turned on. The capacity is great, the price was right - so if you have patience, this is a good drive to use for back-up.

I purchased two LaCie's - 500GB from Amazon a couple of months ago. Both drives came well packed and shipping was fast. I am now running 1.33TB worth or LaCie drives. I have two other LaCie drives that I purchased over a year ago. I have never had any trouble with any of the drives. Just plug n' play and you are set. The F.A. design lets you stack the drives on top of each other and They look impressive with their silver case. You can't go wrong with LaCie - They are built to last.. Alan

I have a 250 GB HDD of the same make/model and I haven't had problems with it, despite other negative reviews. I purchased the 500 GB with an ever expanding digital library. The first model I received was lemon -- it wouldn't power up. I sent it back (had to pay for my own re-shipping), but was promptly sent a NIB replacement which has worked great. LaCie lives up to its reputation of a quality HDD with a sleek apparence, just as long as you don't get a lemon.

I now have about 8 Lacie external USB drives and they have all been great.

This one is fast, quiet, well designed and easy to install and use. Unlike the 250 GB drives, this one does have a fan, but it is whisper quiet. I acutally did not know it was there until I noticed the vents and put my finger there and could feel the air flow. Then I listened carefully and could hear it (up close). But you will never notice it in normal use.

Easy to install, very cool design, fast, works good. Sounds like a five to me. ;)


I've had it for 3 months now and I'm in love with this piece of equipment. It's plug and play, easy to carry and so, so quiet. I'm thinking of buying another. I've recommended it to all my friends


Overall this is a nice Ext HD. I personally liked the quality and design of the tool. However, some minor things I did not like:
1- The electrical plug-in end that goes into the HD is hard to fit in or remove

2- It's fan is a bit noisy sometimes.

The external hard drive is a fairly simple device, so I'll keep this short. It looks great, offers a HUGE amount of storage, and is an incredible value. It spins up pretty fast and is silent otherwise. I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for more storage in a very attractive form.

This is my third LaCie drive (the others are the lego-looking ones that I think they stopped making) and my favorite because it is virtually silent, the speed is fine for the kinds of stuff I store, the price was very good for a 500 GB drive, and it's very sleek and modern and small. Very easy to add to my system. As others have said, the connecting USB cable is really too short, should be twice as long, but it reaches for what I need.

Overall it's a good product except for two things:

1. the USB is way too short, a little bit over 1 foot. LaCie, what are
you talking about? it probably costs you only one dollar to add some
extra length. The whole point of an external hard drive is its
portability and a short cable doesn't give you that.
2. USB interface, dc power, and power switch are put all one side, but
the LED indicator is on the other side. Again, dear designers, have
you ever tried to work with your own stupid design? Do you know how
awkward that is?

I just bought it. Not very impresed by the Porsche design...???
But I took it out of the box and connected it... beautiful it worked !!! But... it took about 1 and a half hour to reformat to NTFS for windows XP. After that I transfer 170 Gig to the drive and it took all night long.
The next morning I tried for smaller data and it work well. It does its job. Very smooth and quiet. No temperature. Obviously it is a storaging device, not something that you want to work actively with. All in all, good purchase if your looking for room and nothing else.

Most external hard drives look like electronic dumpsters. Not this drive. I actually LIKE looking at it on my desktop. Sure it's not lightening fast but what USB external backup drive is? I didn't buy it for speed. I bought it to back up my files which it does just fine. I have now purchased three of these drives and I'm happy with every one of them.

Yes, if you want to store files larger than 4 Gb the drive must be formatted to NTFS from FAT32.

Other than that, the drive worked just as it was advertised and it's one of the most elegant pieces of hardware on my desktop.

I bought it through Amazon.com and the price was very competitive. I feel this drive represents a good value if you're looking for a large, good looking backup drive.

Very quiet, easy to work with, a great buy overall. The short USB wire doesn't bother me.

Bueno en mi esperiencia puedo decir que todo me a salido muy bien desde la compra a la entrega soy de Republica dominicana y solo dure tres dias para que me llegara el disco Lacie en verdad estoy pensando comprar otros productos lacie pues la esperiencia con que e adquirido es muy buena.


Adalberto

If you want to protect your computer data against a hard disk crash, I would recommend investing in this external hard drive.

I purchased this external LaCie hard drive to use as a back up drive for my home business. Since it doesn't seem to have a fan in it, I wouldn't recommend using it on a constant basis, maybe only use it for occasional back ups. The software that comes with it is great for backing up, especially on macs. I was so used to using briefcases in the windows environment, and the Silver Keeper software that comes with it is close. I recommend this drive as a back up.

I bought this drive because I wanted to have a fan on a drive with this much capacity for maximum reliability. I am completely happy with it:

- This design is the most compact stackable desk drive that I have seen.
- It requires no installation of any description with Win 2000 and later versions.
- The software is simple and very basic but might prove useful to non-tech friendly people (just one click will back up everything in "My Documents" for those who have trouble undrestanding where their files are actually stored).
- The "smart fan" makes it as quiet as the BEST laptops.
- The styling is understated and timeless, not flashy.

I had a couple of USB cables already, so I used one of those for connecting to my desktop but I actually LIKE the short cable that came with it for CONNECTING TO LAPTOPS (who wants 6ft of USB cable trailing across their desk?).

I also like the push on/off button which I find easy to use by feel alone, which some other reviewers have criticised here (and on other LaCie drives) and which I find much easier to use than the fiddly slider switch I have on my older LaCie drive.

The only thing I do not like so much is the rather large power brick, but at least it is not one of those transformer sockets that take up too much space on surge protectors and it is no larger than the bricks shipping with many other peripherals (or even many laptops, for that matter).

Having a USB connection and easily hooking up to my computer, I TOTALLY backed up everything on my computer and even made duplicate copies of some large files that I backed up individually as well as part of a system backup. Then, I restored my computer to factory new settings to fix Windows Files problems. Getting all of my data back was a breeze with this storage device. It is compact and holds households of file cabinets!! It was a breeze to set up. The only shortcoming is that it is so inconspicuous that I forget to turn it off after use and it runs for a day before I discover it. The software that came didn't want to work on my Windows computer, but no worries as XP has plenty of options.

Having a USB connection and easily hooking up to my computer, I TOTALLY backed up everything on my computer and even made duplicate copies of some large files that I backed up individually as well as part of a system backup. Then, I restored my computer to factory new settings to fix Windows Files problems. Getting all of my data back was a breeze with this storage device. It is compact and holds households of file cabinets!! It was a breeze to set up. The only shortcoming is that it is so inconspicuous that I forget to turn it off after use and it runs for a day before I discover it. The software that came didn't want to work on my Windows computer, but no worries as XP has plenty of options.

I bought this drive because I wanted to have a fan on a drive with this much capacity for maximum reliability. I am completely happy with it:

- This design is the most compact stackable desk drive that I have seen.
- It requires no installation of any description with Win 2000 and later versions.
- The software is simple and very basic but might prove useful to non-tech friendly people (just one click will back up everything in "My Documents" for those who have trouble undrestanding where their files are actually stored).
- The "smart fan" makes it as quiet as the BEST laptops.
- The styling is understated and timeless, not flashy.

I had a couple of USB cables already, so I used one of those for connecting to my desktop but I actually LIKE the short cable that came with it for CONNECTING TO LAPTOPS (who wants 6ft of USB cable trailing across their desk?).

I also like the push on/off button which I find easy to use by feel alone, which some other reviewers have criticised here (and on other LaCie drives) and which I find much easier to use than the fiddly slider switch I have on my older LaCie drive.

The only thing I do not like so much is the rather large power brick, but at least it is not one of those transformer sockets that take up too much space on surge protectors and it is no larger than the bricks shipping with many other peripherals (or even many laptops, for that matter).

I purchased this external LaCie hard drive to use as a back up drive for my home business. Since it doesn't seem to have a fan in it, I wouldn't recommend using it on a constant basis, maybe only use it for occasional back ups. The software that comes with it is great for backing up, especially on macs. I was so used to using briefcases in the windows environment, and the Silver Keeper software that comes with it is close. I recommend this drive as a back up.

If you want to protect your computer data against a hard disk crash, I would recommend investing in this external hard drive.

Very quiet, easy to work with, a great buy overall. The short USB wire doesn't bother me.

An excellent disc drive - and no problems so far. Looks good and is small enough to tote round. It does get rather warm (which is why I knocked a star off), but the fan seems to keep it functioning just fine.

OK, this is the USB version, but I bought the Firewire version. It was a hard choice, but the Firewire is reported to be faster in the real world (even though the technical specs put them close: check out the debate on USB 2 vs Firewire 400).

I had previously bought the smaller version LaCie Porsche Design drive (about 120 GB), and filled it in short order with simple, manual clicking and dragging. Not so the 500 GB. I used SuperDuper to image my MacBook Pro 111 GB drive to it. I only have about 80 GB on it. It took a bit to copy it completely (and do the file checking along the way) and make a bootable image. I want to say more than an hour -- less than two. I then did something radical: I plugged it in as the start-up drive on my iMac at work, and it ran smoothly and without incident. I wasn't sure if the MacBook Pro bootable would run the iMac, but there was no problem.

The drive runs very quietly; I do not hear whirring or otherwise. It's warm to the touch. My previous smaller one did not require an external supply and ran much cooler. This one does require external power. Compared to the elegance of the drive, the power supply is bulky and awkward. The Firewire version was about $170 from LaCIe, but the USB 2 version is substantially cheaper from Amazon. You decide what interface suits you. There is no mention on the LaCie website of a potential Firewire 800 which I would have preferred to purchase.

By the way, I now do SmartUpdate (in SuperDuper) from the MacBook Pro to the LaCie drive and it takes about 20-30 minutes to completely update all the files. I also checked the drive afterwards with disk utility software and found no corrupt files or bad blocks. Although it took me awhile to do this, it did give me piece of mind that the LaCie product (like its predecessor) is a quality drive.

What a deal. 500 GB.

PS: More recent weekly SmartUpdates take under 13 minutes. It must be getting smarter.

Compact, nice-looking, robust. I bought a LaCie 250GB drive two years ago, and now my 500GB stacks neatly on top of it on the visble grooves. They're both the same size, too, and this 500GB model also has a fan.

The newer models have a push-button power switch and what I believe to be an automatic power-off function if the drive idles for a period of time. My older 250GB has a switch instead, so I have to turn it off manually when I'm not using it.

The USB cable is oddly short, but the power cables are long; I suppose LaCie meant for you to have this drive near your computer where you could reach the power button anyway, but packaging an extension cable would have been nice.

The drive is very quiet and quite speedy. I'm likely to see myself buying a LaCie 1TB drive in the next two years.

This hard drive was a godsend. I had needed to upgrade both laptop and desktop for some time now, but due to budget limitations, I could not. With this hard drive and a new video card, I was able to get the performance I needed without a total system overhaul. As an added bonus, when I do fully upgrade, all I have to do is copy my documents to this drive and plug it into the new computer to have everything back.

Everyone should have a drive such as this. It makes life so much easier.

I have had this hard drive for a few months now and have not had any problems. The one thing I did not like was that the USB cable is kind of short.

Bueno en mi esperiencia puedo decir que todo me a salido muy bien desde la compra a la entrega soy de Republica dominicana y solo dure tres dias para que me llegara el disco Lacie en verdad estoy pensando comprar otros productos lacie pues la esperiencia con que e adquirido es muy buena.


Adalberto

Most external hard drives look like electronic dumpsters. Not this drive. I actually LIKE looking at it on my desktop. Sure it's not lightening fast but what USB external backup drive is? I didn't buy it for speed. I bought it to back up my files which it does just fine. I have now purchased three of these drives and I'm happy with every one of them.

Yes, if you want to store files larger than 4 Gb the drive must be formatted to NTFS from FAT32.

Other than that, the drive worked just as it was advertised and it's one of the most elegant pieces of hardware on my desktop.

I bought it through Amazon.com and the price was very competitive. I feel this drive represents a good value if you're looking for a large, good looking backup drive.

I just bought it. Not very impresed by the Porsche design...???
But I took it out of the box and connected it... beautiful it worked !!! But... it took about 1 and a half hour to reformat to NTFS for windows XP. After that I transfer 170 Gig to the drive and it took all night long.
The next morning I tried for smaller data and it work well. It does its job. Very smooth and quiet. No temperature. Obviously it is a storaging device, not something that you want to work actively with. All in all, good purchase if your looking for room and nothing else.

This is my third LaCie drive (the others are the lego-looking ones that I think they stopped making) and my favorite because it is virtually silent, the speed is fine for the kinds of stuff I store, the price was very good for a 500 GB drive, and it's very sleek and modern and small. Very easy to add to my system. As others have said, the connecting USB cable is really too short, should be twice as long, but it reaches for what I need.

Overall it's a good product except for two things:

1. the USB is way too short, a little bit over 1 foot. LaCie, what are
you talking about? it probably costs you only one dollar to add some
extra length. The whole point of an external hard drive is its
portability and a short cable doesn't give you that.
2. USB interface, dc power, and power switch are put all one side, but
the LED indicator is on the other side. Again, dear designers, have
you ever tried to work with your own stupid design? Do you know how
awkward that is?

The external hard drive is a fairly simple device, so I'll keep this short. It looks great, offers a HUGE amount of storage, and is an incredible value. It spins up pretty fast and is silent otherwise. I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for more storage in a very attractive form.

Overall this is a nice Ext HD. I personally liked the quality and design of the tool. However, some minor things I did not like:
1- The electrical plug-in end that goes into the HD is hard to fit in or remove

2- It's fan is a bit noisy sometimes.

I've had it for 3 months now and I'm in love with this piece of equipment. It's plug and play, easy to carry and so, so quiet. I'm thinking of buying another. I've recommended it to all my friends


I now have about 8 Lacie external USB drives and they have all been great.

This one is fast, quiet, well designed and easy to install and use. Unlike the 250 GB drives, this one does have a fan, but it is whisper quiet. I acutally did not know it was there until I noticed the vents and put my finger there and could feel the air flow. Then I listened carefully and could hear it (up close). But you will never notice it in normal use.

Easy to install, very cool design, fast, works good. Sounds like a five to me. ;)


I have a 250 GB HDD of the same make/model and I haven't had problems with it, despite other negative reviews. I purchased the 500 GB with an ever expanding digital library. The first model I received was lemon -- it wouldn't power up. I sent it back (had to pay for my own re-shipping), but was promptly sent a NIB replacement which has worked great. LaCie lives up to its reputation of a quality HDD with a sleek apparence, just as long as you don't get a lemon.

I have a Lacie drive at work that uses the firewire connection on my Mac. I loved the price (on sale) of this item and the capacity, but the connection is a USB 2.0. It is very slow, and I have to eject the drive from my Mac desktop in order to be able to eject a CD. It can also take 3-5 minutes for it to mount on my desktop once plugged in and turned on. The capacity is great, the price was right - so if you have patience, this is a good drive to use for back-up.

i just bought this HD and i love it. its smaller and more compact than i had expected which is very nice and its a good deal for under $200. as soon as i got it i plugged it into my comp and it was working with no issues.
the only drawback is the short usb cord tht this device comes with...i just used one of my own.
its a great device and i recommended it to my siblings who were also looking for an external HD

i own 2 other HD's and i wish i would have discovered this one earlier...then i would have bought 2 :)

9Jan07

Quite small: 4.5W x 1.250H x 7.5D (about 1/2 size of my HP Ext DVD Burner)
Win2K SP4 on my desktop & Win XPhome SP2 on my laptop saw it as 500GB drive.
Many internal & external drives that I have had in the past were not recognized at their full capacity by Win2K.
I purchased this drive to store BeYond TV recorded programs.

This is my 4th LaCie external drive. I've been running the 160GB and two 250s for 4+ and 2+ years, respectively. I use one as a primary shared repository for files on the home network, including the TiVo. The others are backups. The share drive has been on 24/7 for 2 years. The other drives are only turned on when I need them.

I've seen mixed reviews for these drives, but my experience has been very positive. With the usage outlined above, I have had reliable, fast, and zero-maintenance operation.