Hi guys, which one should I buy?

1.- LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface

Link: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10059

Price: $219.00

Capacity: 250GB

Pic:





2.-Maxtor OneTouch™ II - 200GB FireWire 800 & USB Drive

Price: $229.95

Capacity: 200GB

Link: http://www.maxstore.com/product.asp?sku=2668788

Pic:





I'll appreciate your help.

Thanks,
JCMA90

I think that FireWire 800 has little or no future, so I would not invest in it. I am hoping that Apple will set adopt external SATA as a replacement (eSATA).

Otherwise, the LaCie is clearly the better choice here.

PS: This has nothing to do with OSx86 installation and should be in the hardware forum.

I work with students at a college with hundreds of external hard drive units, and trust me go Lacie. I have seen more Maxtors go dump than lacies. Not saying it's not impossible, but the Lacie is much better.

bump

The reliability really depends on what drive is actually inside the enclosure. At my job we use lots of the lacies. I've had many failures with the Lacie's that have WD2500jb's inside. (I had 5 wd2500jb's die last summer alone. 2 were in lacie enclosures, 3 were in raid 5 arrays.) If the D2 extreme uses a newer 3 year warranty WD or Hitachi or a 5 year Seagate go for it, but if it still uses the 1 year warranty wd2500jb, i would stay away. Likewise if the Maxtor uses a Diamondmax 10 or Maxline 3 its probably a great drive, but if it uses a Diamondmax 9 its junk.

If you want to burn your money buy LaCie. I bought the exact same drive you are talking about. It went bad after exactly one year. I called LaCie and the response was no service after warranty! I opened it my self and what a nice surprise. This drive is a P.O.C. covered with an aluminum cover.

Bottom line: Buy anything but LaCie

Practical Answer

1) Buy external casing for a 5.25 Inch HD

Or

Get junk Lacie/Maxtor Casing

2) Install any HD offering 5 yr warranty

3) Enjoy with a low cost, reliable external HD

NOTE: Of course external enclousure could go bad,before 5 yrs, but unlikely

Yep, homemade is good unless you totally need the OneTouch type of thing. Actually, you can buy a casing at Circuit City (Newegg and XPCGear probably carry as well) that has the autobackup button and software. Find a case you like and just wait until you see a ~300 Gb Seagate Retail Kit rebating down to about $99 at Outpost.com and you are all set. Even if the case dies out of warranty, you are only out the $30-50 for it, not the HDD as well.
Cheers!