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

After seeing so many positive reviews Im a little confused about what happened to mine Purpose: I used the drive as a backup for my external Seagate HDD backup (a backups backup) so it didnt get very much use. Just every other month it synchronized with the other external drive. Length of use: 1 year. Served its purpose without problems during that time. Problem: Turned it on one day to update my backup and smoke started coming out the vent. Opened it up to find one of the chips on the circuit board of the enclosure had short-circuited. The hard drive inside is fine. Just need to get another SATA enclosure. Other thoughts: It was noisy but I never ran it for very long so that wasnt a big deal. Bottom-line: Its a pretty good drive and thats why I bought it I guess mine had a freak accident. But since that happened I cant give it more than a 2.
 
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I've been using this drive for external storage to my 500GB iMac since December, and this drive not only looks sporty and came at a good price, but it has been reliable. I'm a power user--I also have a 1TB Maxtor and a 300GB Western Digital external drive connected to my computer. The Maxtor makes occasional grinding noises. The Western Digital, the oldest of my three external drives, has also been a reliable workhorse, but is hidden from view because it is not as good-looking as the LaCie Porsche. I intend to replace the noisy Maxtor with another LaCie.
 
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My fourth copy, all work reliably and are good values. What a nightmare all those cables and external power supplies can become when you have 6+ external HD enclosures parked next to your computer! My 500GB HD is quiet and not especially hot when operated for an hour or so. This model seems as trouble free as they get. Highly recommended... Wish I could see how to look inside the case... any clues?
 
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This is my second Lacie Drive. I primarily use them for back ups and for storing pictures and old movies. I got the first 250 GByte drive about two years ago. It has worked so well that I chose to buy the 500 GByte drive now that the price is reasonable. Both of my drives came without an internal cooling fan. Some folks claim the drive gets hot but I would not call it hot since I could hold my hand on the drive case all day long without getting burned. However, both drives get very warm. This has not been a problem for me. The only negative I have is the short USB cable but it is not a major concern.
 
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I have no less than 20 of these hard drives in my production facility. We use them for backup of video files. We also record directly to them in live production settings. We have yet to have a drive fail. They are so inexpensive that we file them away on a shelf when they are full of video clips and they becomre an archive of past productions. Just packed up two more to send to Denver for a location shoot and I am very confident that when FedEx delivers the equiment cases, the Lacie drives will be in perfect working condition. Make sure you format them as NTFS if you are doing any long form recording. The FAT32 file partition is useless for video recording. That is done I guess so the drives can work on a Mac out of the box. But we reformat them (quick format) as soon as we turn them on. We also put a letter designation on the drive so that content can be easily mateched to the video editing time line. OVERALL FABULOUS
 
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I've had this drive for several weeks as of this writing, and it has worked fine with TimeMachine on my Intel MacBook as well as my wife's iBook G4. It's not too noisy.
 
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Great product. Great price. Delivered fast and in perfect condition.
 
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Great little drive. Quiet. Fast enough for offloading graphic and video media for editing media files. Nice backup unit. Very portable. Only wish they made the powering up option automatic as I tend to forget that it's still on after powering off my iMac. Great value for the money. I've had other LaCie products and they work great.
 
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I purchased my LaCie 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Designed By F.A. Porsche - 301103U in November. So far so good, however, it does seem a little slugish and it's a bit loud for an office enviroment. It works, does what I need it to do, and looks shiny! Overall, for the price, Lacie Rocks!
 
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YES I AM EXSTATIC ABOUT THIS HARD DRIVE. IT'S THE SECOND THAT I HAVE BOUGHT AND I WOULD PUT THE LACIE UP AGAINST JUST ABOUT ANY OTHER HD. IT'S FAST AND HOOKS UP TO ALL OF MY COMPUTERS. THANKYOU JERRY S. HIGBY
 
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The new power connector is a bit more snug when plugged into the drive as opposed to the older ones that looked like S-Video connectors. The On/Off button is always a plus and the drive runs pretty quiet. This is my 6th Lacie drive with 3 of them being this 500Gb USB model. A good drive overall.
 
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This is my 6th Lacie drive (all of the F.A. Porsche design) and I've been satisfied using them over the years starting from the 160Gb model, which I've long outgrown, to my 3 current 500Gb models.
 
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I was in great need of memory - space on my local home network. But not anymore! LaCie 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive is the perfect solution to all my needs. Efficient, fast and reliable! Highly recommend!!!
 
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This unit was already formatted for use. Unit was seen quickly by cpu unit in a quick amount of time. From out of the box to you storing files on it in no time. Very neat. Also what a great price and free shipping. What more do you want!
 
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These two LaCie drivews are not the first two we have just purchased. In fact we have close to 20 that we use in our video production business. We have been using them for several years and have had but one problem which LaCie repaired at no cost quickly (USB connector issue). Our only fear is that one of thes days they will stop making them. They stack nicely andthey run quietly. They are fast (7,200 RPM) and work great for video storage and editing. We will buy more, they have become less expensive than video tape!
 
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It's funny...you would think that a hard drive would be...a hard drive. This USB Hard drive is great because it is clean design and low profile. This drive was to replace a WD MyBook that crapped out because it fell over too many times. That hard drive was designed to sit up like a book, but after it fell over I placed it sideways...but since it didn't have rubber stoppers it would get pulled off the desk. That is why I really like this drive. Pros: - design - low profile - simplicity Cons: - runs really hot - I wish it could pull power via an additional USB port - it runs well short of the 500 GBs. The WD ended up with about 485 GBs but the LaCie was around 440. In the end, I recommend this drive as a good purchase.
 
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I have used this drive for three weeks .It has worked fine. Very easy to set up and a great value for the price.I am very satisfied.
 
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I was a bite shocked when I discovered that only 465 GB's was usable storage space, I paid for 500 advertised GB's, where did the rest of my storage space go ? (no mention in the user guide). This made me feel as though someone took me for a ride...... The unit works well, is quite, but does get a bite on the warm side when left on.The on/off button is an added feature, and the overall size of the drive is very small, which is a good thing.
 
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I bought this to connect to my Dish Network DVR receiver. It allows me to offload and archive shows very easily. The drive worked exactly as expected without any problems.
 
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I've used the Lacie 500GB USB 2.0 Porsche drives for a couple years and find them to be affordable and reliable. They are not as fast as Firewire, but fast enough for most uses. However, if stacked and in use for extended periods they become very hot. Therefore, they are best placed on their sides instead of stacked.
 
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i am very satisfied with my lacie hard drive. it works very well with my mac computers. i also have one for my toshiba laptop. ease of use with no extra programs to deal with. also excellent buyer experience with buy.com. will definitely buy from them again.
 
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Good hard drive. great value. USB cord is a bit short, wish it were longer but nothing that can't be replaced. worth the $$
 
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Easy to set-up and connect with a Mac. Surprisingly noisy: a low rumble rather than a high pitch. Perhaps it is because of that that they didn't bother to put a light that tells when the drive is on. I use it just to back-up through Retrospect. Not sure who the culprit is, but the combination is at least an order of magnitude slower than my previous set-up through a FireWire drive. If could go back, I would definitely pay the