LaCie Minimus 2 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301967

This drive has been a pleasant surprise across the board. Based on my testing I'm planning to use several for disaster recovery and for local disk expansion (esp for Adobe Lightroom which won't use catalogs on network resources). I can't really find any faults. [See my 3TB Minimus review for comparison.]It's fast:The challenge with large drives is having adequate bandwidth to move large data volumes to what they're attached to. USB2 is a real bottleneck for drives over 1TB. It takes hours to move big loads. For this 2TB drive it would take a day and a half to fill at typical USB2 port speeds.* When connected to USB3 it tested over twice as fast when communicating to a high-speed NAS server over gigabit Ethernet vs. when connected to USB2. In this case I installed a USB3 ExpressCard in my Lenovo T61 laptop for testing to a ReadyNAS U6+. I was seeing >25MB/sec sustained for a 25GB mixed-file-size test.* Back and forth to the Lenovo internal drive the speed was significantly lower and USB V3/V2 difference was slightly less than 2x. Surprisingly this external drive on USB3 is faster than the internal laptop drive (no slouch, a WD 250GB 7200rpm), so when used as a local drive there will probably be little to no compromise in speed.It's enclosed and connectors/buttons are robust:Unlike previous WD Books I've used, it doesn't have air vents. The case is mostly aluminum, and it feels solid. It only gets slightly warm when running flat out. However it isn't rated as rugged so it shouldn't be bounced around or exposed to moisture. Having read about issues with connectors on competing products I wanted to avoid those problems, and everything about this is well designed. It does have an odd USB data cable you'll want to keep track of... it's not like the 20 others you already have. One end (at the drive) is a new "USB 3.0 Micro-B" format while the other end is the old boxy Type-A format you know. It will connect to either V2 or V3 USB computer portsIt's small:For a 2TB external drive the case is reasonably compact, and they stack nicely. It has soft rubber runners on the bottom. OK, it also looks nice if that matters. It's much smaller than some equivalent external drives (they advertise it as smallest in desktop class), but is not as small or as lite as "portable" class drives.It comes with a power supply (mandatory in this case):Having been burned in the past trying to source enough power from USB ports to power external drives I always use separate supplies when I can. In this case one comes in the box (same is used for both 2TB and 3TB.) [Nov2013 edit: This is not a "portable" class drive which typically uses USB power exclusively; rather it *requires* an external supply.]It's silent:It virtually makes no noise. The blue light on top blinks when it's doing something, but that's about the only way to know. It doesn't have usage bars or LCD readouts.It's easy to set up:It runs a quick simple little application to configure it, and then it's ready to go with 1.8TB usable space in Windows.Internals:Mine have a Seagate ST2000DL001 9VT156 (2TB 5900rpm) drive, a member of their green Barracuda series. Spec sheets on the ST2000DL003 are probably close. Operating temp 0-60C.Update 14mar2012:* I have four drives I use almost daily with automatic scripts. No problems, no fails.* Case where I'm backing up NAS (on 1Gb network) with LaCie (attached to Intel_i7 USB3): Copy speeds run between 40-50MB/sec sustained between the LaCie and the NAS server, twice what I was seeing with the older laptop (no big surprise).* Case where I'm backing up Intel_i7 desktop SSD with LaCie: Copy speeds from the SSD to this USB3 drive run 92MB/sec for a mix of 40 large files. This might be as fast as you can expect these drives to run.

This LaCie external hard drive seems to be capable. However, when I went to install the drive on my computer, I began with the included startup file. The installation process began, but "hung" and never finished. I tried again with the same result. I tried it on another computer with the same result. So I had to go into the device manager of Windows 7 and expand the empty partition, leaving only the small partition with the installation commands. I assume I accomplished what the included installation would have, but can't be sure. I timed the transfer of 24 Gb of documents and pictures to the drive from my computer and found the speed was only 50% faster when plugged into the USB 3.0 port vs. the USB 2.0 port of my computer. Is the lack of much higher speed for 3.0 due to my new, "hot-rod" HP computer with an Intel i7 processor, etc. or the LaCie? I don't know, but it does work reliably. The 3-foot cable is short, but I like the on-off switch.

I bought this drive to hold my large collection of music and pictures. It worked wonderfully right out of the box and I quickly went about transferring files from my computer and another, older LaCie drive. The next morning the drive wouldn't turn on! I finally narrowed the problem down to the power supply and was able to get it replaced. The drive works just fine with the new power supply but it was scary to have that happen with a brand new storage drive. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I've had a LaCie power supply fail. In the previous case LaCie had discontinued that supply and I was unable to get my drive working again. Now, it appears that they have made most of their products share the same power supply so at least these newer ones should be easy to acquire if one fails. The four LaCie drives I own have been rock-solid but the power supplies, not so much.

First let me tell you the pros and cons of this device, then I'll describe my specific experiences with it. If you don't like to read though a long review then, in short, I love it and just ordered another one.Pros:- Very Small- Love the look and the metal case. It doesn't even even show finger prints.- Super quiet, I can't hear it running- Has on on-off button for power savings. Button vs switch is easier to toggle- Very fast spin up after power on. Hit the power button and it's almost immediately ready to go.Cons:- Wish it came in sizes bigger than 2TB- Haven't been able to try the USB 3.0, but that is an issue with my early USB 3.0 motherboard I suspect. It seems to constantly keep losing and regaining the connection. Like I said, I don't think it has anything to do with the drive, but I don't have another 3.0 computer to try it on, so I can't speak to that.- This isn't so much a "con" but there isn't an access light on the front. In fact there are no lights on the front. I think that looks better personally, but to each his own. The USB and power adapter connections, as well as the power button with light, are all on one side (the back, though I guess you could turn it around if you don't mind cables in your "front". Like I said, not really an issue but some may may take issue with it.- Custom, and useless IMHO, LACIE software was installed in a separate partition on the drive. I deleted the partition to reclaim the little bit of space.I got this drive for my HTPC in order to store my older DVD and video collection that I wasn't going to convert to BD. In completely filling the drive with data (within a couple hundred megs), loading the collection, and playing movies it has functioned without complaint. It seemed quite speedy in its performance and is more than adequate (even running with only USB 2.0). After a few months of use (turning it on and off after each use) it seems a solid performer that you can just plug in and not have to worry, it just works. I liked it enough to order a second one to fit the rest of my collection on, which is why I wish it came in sizes greater than 2TB. I would recommend this to anyone looking to get a great external HDD for any use. Though I don't travel with it, it's small size would be a plus for that crowd as well, and everyone can appreciate the very solid feel of it's all metal exterior.

LaCie is a little pricier than most hard drives; however, it's totally worth it. They are reliable and extremely fast pieces of equipment. Don't have to worry about this hard drive failing - ever.

A bit of a late/older review as I got this unit a few years ago but it's a very solid, dependable drive, lots of storage, reasonable transfer rate, no problems at all. Faster, more storage capacity units are on the market now.... but that is the digital age. It's still a good HD if available.

Only about a week in at this point, but so far so good. Definitely good value per gig compared to Thunderbolt, the only other real competition at this point, at least on the Mac side. Only slight complaint is that the drive makes a wee buzzing sound, which I think is either its own or an OSX routine it performs on start-up. After a few minutes the sound either goes away or I get used to it.No cooling fan, though, so it runs hots. Not fried-egg hot, but still.

I have about 4 of these now and I really like em'. They're durable and reliable. Would recommend for sure!

LaCie is always reliable!