LaCie 301825U d2 Quadra 500 GB eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 External Hard Disk

A very sleek and sexy piece of hardware with it's ribbed case and big blue eye. Heavey and solid. Has all the interfaces you could possibly want. Tons of storage, speedy, and built like an M1 Tank. However beware! My unit stopped working (crashed) after only 3 months of usage. If you put mission critical data on this drive, BE SURE TO BACKUP YOUR DATA! The drive crashed after only 3 months of regular usage. I lost all the data on this unit, but luckily I had made a backup of this drive just before the crash. Yes, I am very lucky. LaCie support is acceptable, and fortunately, they will replace the drive. If you purchase this unit, please remember to make a backup of everything you store on this drive. Backup your backup!

They've changed the design of the power supply, which, hopefully, will correct the problem that the earlier model had. If you're using this with multiple external hard drives, be warned that the speed of the connection between them is limited to the speed of the connection to your computer. For example, if your daisy chain or RAID configuration connects to your computer via Firewire 800, then all of the connections between your external drives will be limited to Firewire 800 or slower, even though all of your external hard drives may be eSata compatible. Also, it's very difficult to create a RAID configuration without reformatting the drive which is to be mirrored.

We haven't had this drive very long, however so far it has performed flawlessly. We love the all aluminum case - much more attractive and robust than those other external hard drives with plastic cases.

Fast access to your data on FireWire 800. I wish you could connect two computer to one hard drive. I would recommend this product.

Easy to set up (at least on a Mac). Quiet operation. Still working after one month. If it's still working after two years, I'd give it five stars.