Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals
Little Big Disk Quadra
Do you need a bus-powered 1 TB hard disk? You're in luck - LaCie announced the Little Big Disk Quadra today. Available in early July, the Little Big Disk Quadra uses a pair of drives in a RAID 0 configuration for speedy response. My personal concern is that if one of the two RAID drives goes out, you'd lose all of the data in the array. Although LaCie states that it's "Compatible with Time Machine", the Little Big Disk Quadra is probably better-suited as a scratch drive for video work on the go.
This is a tiny drive considering the capacity - the outside dimensions are 1.6 x 3.3 x 5.5 in. (40 x 85 x 140 mm) and it tips the scales at 1.4 lbs (650 g). You don't need to use the included AC adapter when using the Little Big Disk Quadra with FireWire 400 or 800, but you will need it when using the drive with eSATA or USB 2.0.
Some sites are stating immediate availability, but LaCie has confirmed that it will be several weeks before the Little Big Disk is available.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Martin Voshell said 8:15PM on 6-16-2008
I'd prefer the Centris.
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glebec said 8:20PM on 6-16-2008
LaCie drives are too much of a gamble considering they don't actually manufacture drives (what's inside the case can be any of a number of things, even in one model line). I've personally lucked out with a LaCie D2 Quadra that has a relatively well-rated drive inside it, to go by storagereview.com.
But what is really annoying here is the accompanying photo. If it's a TUAW mashup, no problem. But if it's from LaCie, it's hilarious. Conflicting perspectives, different focal lengths, etc. make the drive look like it's about to fall out of the hand of someone with huge melting fingers. Deserves an entry on that photoshop disaster blog if it's official.
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greg said 8:30PM on 6-16-2008
It's RAID 0, i.e. mirroring, not striping. So no, if one drive fails, you don't lose the array. You lose one drive. You put a new drive in and the mirror rebuilds.
I swear, TUAW is retarded sometimes.
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John Clay said 8:37PM on 6-16-2008
Except that RAID 0 is striping, and RAID 1 is mirroring. I swear, readers are retarded sometimes.
Nick said 8:38PM on 6-16-2008
Actually, you're wrong. And on top of that, you're smug about it.
Hazmat said 8:40PM on 6-16-2008
Um...pot. kettle. black.
Raid [b]1[/b] is mirrored.
Raid 0 is striped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels
I rate your troll attempt = Lame.
Jason said 7:15AM on 6-17-2008
Let's all take a moment to congratulate Greg on becoming the new poster child for irony...
jonecat said 8:43PM on 6-16-2008
I just had a 1TB Big Disk Extreme fail on me, I am glad everything was backed up. This drive was not even a year old, color me disappointed.
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Unpainted Huffhines said 8:53PM on 6-16-2008
Forget it.
LaCie concentrates on shelf presence and gimmickry to the detriment of reliability (Lego drives, Porsche design, etc., etc.). If it isn't the crap mechanisms, it's the crap enclosures that fail.
Just. Forget. It.
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James Ramirez said 9:09PM on 6-16-2008
these enclosures are not even made for handling the heat at regular size, let alone this size, this is a huge disaster... big waste of money if you get Lacie... i dont know a single person who would recommend them.. awful stuff
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Scott said 9:41PM on 6-16-2008
Who would you recommend over lacie?
Ralph said 9:50PM on 6-16-2008
http://www.macsales.com
Excellent test routines for the drive types they sell.
David Lawrence said 2:50AM on 6-17-2008
http://www.g-technology.com/
Excellent drives.
freedolin said 3:36AM on 6-17-2008
@David:
G-Drives are excellent ... unless you need their support (worst customer support ever, at least in my case) or want to upgrade the drive inside ... it just won't work.
Contrary to most others here, I am very happy with my two Lacie drives, a Little Big Disk and a D2 Quadra.
-- Markus
conigs said 8:31AM on 6-17-2008
I'll second the OWC drives (macsales.com).
While I do like the G-Tech drives, they were recently acquired by a company called Fabrik back in January. Not a hug fan of Fabrik (nor their "SimpleTech" drives). I'm not sure if they're just attaching their name to G-Tech and letting them run as they are, or if they're taking over the company in its entirety. Either way, I can't say I recommend those drives any more.
Ralph said 12:29PM on 6-17-2008
While I've always liked the look of the G-Tech series, I'll take better pre-sales support and the track record of OWC. I know they do extensive stress testing on the drive types they sell.
Ralph said 9:50PM on 6-16-2008
I've lost so much data to LaCie drives over the past 8 years or so, I'll never trust them again.
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mr kitty said 9:56PM on 6-16-2008
I can think of 8 clients off the top of my head that would agree. It's never a question of "IF" your LaCie drive will go down, rather "WHEN".
I cringe whenever someone utters the words "I'm having problems with my external" and have a LaCie drive in their hands.
And their tech support over the last couple of years has decided to switch from attempting to be the best in the business, to attempting to be the worst. But hey, at least they've accomplished one of their goals.
eric f. said 12:23PM on 6-17-2008
Ditto. I and everyone I know has had disks fail or a ridiculous amount of corruption from Lacie Drives. It's got to be something about their enclosures....
Dany Geller said 10:01PM on 6-16-2008
Last month bought two Lacie Quadra 750gb.
One for data, the other to be the Time Machine HD.
Returned one of them Amazon after 1 day trying to make it work.
Most of Lacies HD, are rated +/- 3 stars by consumers on Apple.com/store.
But looking carefully, you realize it's the average btw 1 star and 5 stars. That is: there's a huge fail rate.
Love it (if you're lucky) or hate it...
I hated it ...
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