Hardware Review: LaCie 2big Quadra External RAID Hard Drive
July 2, 2009
To start, let me say that eQuixotic is not a hardware/gadget review blog. That said, hardware is used in the creation of eLearning and presentations. Thus, people creating eLearning and presentations purchase hardware, and are often faced with hardware buying decisions. Me, I love to research every product I purchase. Unfortunately, most online reviews are found on retailer sites and consist of precious little substance, ranging from (5 stars) “I LOVE THIS, IT’S THE BEST EVAH!!!” to (1 star) “THIS IS JUNK AND IT SUCKS AND I HATE IT!!!” Sadly, reviews cannot be sorted or filtered by reviewer intelligence (or lack thereof). Thus I often rely on blogger reviews to help guide my purchasing decisions, as bloggers tend to throw some real meat into their reviews.
Unfortunately, I could not find any detailed reviews for the LaCie 2big Quadra external RAID hard drive, so I was forced to purchase on blind faith. To my peril. To spare others my fate, I thought I’d post my assessment.
Now having essentially given away the “ending” of my story, let’s back up and fill in the details, shall we?
The LaCie 2big Quadra is a two-disk external RAID hard drive enclosure. For those of you unfamiliar with RAID, it essentially gives you the option of mirroring your data on two (or more) drives, protecting you from data loss if one of those drives should fail. I like this idea, as I don’t have to rely on two separate external hard drive enclosures (and two FireWire cables, and two power cords) to accomplish the same task. I purchased this drive in the 2 TB configuration (two hard drives, each 1 TB in size) from Dell’s website.
The “Quadra” designation refers to the connectivity options, offering all four standard connections in a single box: eSATA, USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. Choice is good, particularly when choice includes the fastest options available (eSATA and FireWire 800) as well as the reassurance of universality (USB 2.0 and FireWire 400). When I received the drive and began to unbox it, I realized, to my dismay, that I didn’t own a FireWire 800 cable and would have to rely on FireWire 400. But to my delight, LaCie included all four cable types in the box (USB, FireWire 400 and 800, and eSATA). Bravo, LaCie, Bravo! I was soon in business. Which is when the trouble began. But before I get to that, let’s lay this review out all official like.
When evaluating an item like this, I have three criteria to judge (aside from price, of course):
1. Functionality / Usability
2. Quality
3. Design
I’ll assess the 2big Quadra based on these three criteria. Ready? Let’s go!
1. Functionality / Usability
Um…err….let’s come back to this one.
2. Quality
To say this thing is built like a tank would be an understatement. It is substantially larger than most external hard drives, obviously, as it houses two drives. The body is solid aluminum and heavy. Not only would this thing likely survive a fall from the desk to the floor without a scratch, but it would probably do some serious damage to your floor in the process. I love stuff that feels indestructible, and the 2big Quadra delivers. My old external hard drives look (and feel) like cheap toys next to this thing.
5 stars for build quality. No question.
3. Design
In our modern world of space-sucking digital media, where many gigabytes of audio and video quickly fill our hard drives to capacity, external storage is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. So why is so little attention paid to the design of these devices that clutter our desks? I had four external hard drives on my desk, of varying sizes and design – and they all looked like cheesy afterthoughts. It was a silly looking mess. I spent extra money for a beautiful computer – I really wanted a beautiful external hard drive to compliment it. The 2big Quadra was the only drive I found that fit that criteria. Designed by Neil Poulton, the 2big has an industrial elegance and simplicity that compliments my aluminum iMac. If Apple were to design and build an external hard drive, it would probably look and feel a lot like this one. And that’s high praise indeed. This is a peripheral I am not ashamed to have on my desk. The ribbed aluminum not only looks great, but provides more surface area for heat dissipation, which should reduce the frequency of fan noise. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the 2big Quadra. More on that in a minute.
As beautiful as this drive is, I’m disappointed by Mr. Poulton’s decision to include the Great Blue Glowing Orb (see photo of drive at the top of this review). Sure, it looks cool. Until you turn it on. What is it about electronics designers/manufacturers that makes them think that we consumers like to be bathed in the cold blue light of our gadgets? The light on this thing, which glows whenever the drive is active, illuminates nearly my entire home office at night. Between my microphone, my printer’s illuminated control buttons, and my external hard drive, I don’t need any other office lighting. And that’s not good – particularly when you’re trying to scare yourself silly with a little late night gaming in Left 4 Dead. After awhile, I wanted to take a hammer and smash this cycloptic eye to smithereens. When it comes to superfluous lighting, Mr. Poulton, less is more. In the case of the 2big Quadra, much less. Please. At least give me an off switch for the light (or a convenient cable to cut).
4 stars for the beautiful design, knocked down from 5 stars only for the huge glowing orb.
Now for the really bad news.
1. Functionality / Usability
One would think an external hard drive’s functionality and usability would be a no-brainer. Plug it in, turn it on, and let Time Machine (on a Mac) or the bundled software that comes with the drive (on a Windows machine) do all your backup work for you automatically. Cake, right? Unfortunately, LaCie has seen fit to make this simple task as infuriatingly annoying to the user as possible with a power management and cooling system that seems designed by Satan himself. For an enclosure that is essentially one gigantic aluminum heat sink, you’d think cooling fans would be rarely needed. And you would be wrong. LaCie’s claim on its product page:
The sturdy, aluminum heat sink design—with 60% more surface area for heat dissipation—keeps it quiet and safe.
sounds scientifically rational, but LaCie and I clearly have differing opinions on the definition of the word quiet. The fans on this drive fire up the moment you flip the power switch and continue, vacillating in volume level, almost indefinitely. The power switch is a three-way affair: Off, On, and Auto. The implication of Auto is that the drive sleeps when you don’t need it and spools itself up automatically when you do. Which is how my other external hard drives have always worked. Unfortunately, the 2big Quadra assumes you need it about every, oh, two minutes or so. I have my Time Machine settings configured to back up my data every hour. So I should only be hearing this beast huff and puff every 60 minutes, giving me 59 minutes of peaceful tranquility. Not so. The drive “goes to sleep” (I use the phrase loosely) with a couple of loud clicks, and you think all is well. Two minutes later (not an exaggeration), the drive spools up again and the fans kick into action. Why? I don’t know. The computer isn’t feeding it any data – it has no reason to awake. Sometimes the drive (with noisy fans) spools itself up even if the computer is asleep. Since my office is next to the master bedroom, I have to turn this drive off before I go to bed. I’ve never had to do that with any external hard drive I’ve owned. So why is cooling fan action needed when 1) the surrounding air is a cool 70 degrees, and 2) the drives aren’t actively reading and writing data? I have no idea. They certainly aren’t heat activated, as the air that blows out of the unit is not noticeably warm. If only I were able to change the settings for the fan activation.
How loud is it? If you’ve heard an iMac under full load (say, in the aforementioned Left 4 Dead gaming event), it sounds a lot like that. Why should an inactive hard drive enclosure make as much noise as a 24″ all-in-one computer that has to cool a dual-core processor, LCD display, video card, and hard drive, crammed into the slimmest of spaces, all being pushed to their limits in a graphically-intensive 3D shooter? An explanation escapes me. At least when I’m gaming I have the sounds of shotgun blasts and screaming zombies to drown out the fan noise. But when I’m not gaming, this external hard drive is a noisy little companion that just won’t shut up. The iMac (under normal load) is the faintest whisper – the 2big Quadra is a stiff summer wind.
My good faith assumption would be that I simply have a defective unit. But LaCie’s failure to respond to my question (submitted via their website) about the power and fan cycling, while a previous question about RAID modes was answered promptly, leads me to fear the worst: this is just a bad design. And not just bad design, but unbearably bad design. If you are, like me, someone who needs computing silence (or near-silence), this little beast will drive you quite mad.
Forget narrating an eLearning course while this thing is powered on. I never had to power down my other external hard drives while I recorded narration. They quietly minded their own business. The 2big Quadra, on the other hand, just can’t bear not being the center of my attention.
To design and build such a beautiful peripheral and then destroy it with bad internals is like spiking the ball and doing a touchdown celebration dance on the 1 yard line. You were so close to greatness, LaCie, so close indeed. But the only applause I can offer is the sound of my hand smacking my forehead in utter disbelief.
1 star for Functionality / Usability. Yes, it backs up your data, and it does so quickly. But it makes so much noise while doing so (and while not doing so) that you’ll prefer to just turn the thing off entirely. This drive is going back to Dell post haste. And if they charge me a restocking fee, I’m going to be really upset.
If you detest gratuitous noise (and light) from your computing peripherals, my suggestion is to stay far, far away from the LaCie 2big Quadra. I’m disappointed to have to add this product to my eQuixotic Hall of Shame. If anyone has any suggestions for external hard drives that may meet my criteria, please let me know in the comments section. I doubt I’ll find anything as nice looking and solid as the 2big Quadra, but I certainly hope to find something quieter (and less, um, illuminating).
If the opinions in this review seem a little, er, extreme, realize that it’s due to my absolute loathing of noisy electronics and my frustration with great design that turns out to be only skin deep. I admit, I demand a lot from my stuff. If noisy electronics (and room-illuminating blue lights) don’t bother you, than the 2big Quadra may be a perfect storage solution for you.
Personally, I cannot recommend it.
NOTE: If anyone at LaCie is reading this, thinks I may have had a defective unit, and would like to loan me a review unit for a reevaluation, I would be happy to oblige.
UPDATE 7/6/09: Still no response from LaCie regarding the behavior of the drive, nor a response from Dell regarding my return request. I am preparing for a return nonetheless by doing a 7-pass wipe (secure erase) of this drive to remove my data from it. Which Apple’s Disk Utility estimates will take…2 days 5 hours. With fans (and light) in FULL INTENSITY mode.
Two days of this and I may end up quite mad. Farewell, sanity. I hardly even knew ye.
UPDATE 7/9/09: The noisy beast has been wiped, silenced, boxed, and is on a UPS truck on its way back to Dell (who provided stellar customer service on the matter – thanks Dell!). I should have tossed a pair of earplugs into the box just for grins.
UPDATE 7/12/09: I can’t go without data backup (not even for a week), so I promptly found (and ordered) my replacement drive…the LaCie d2 Quadra. Yeah, I know, I know – once bitten, twice shy. But I loved the look and build quality of the 2big Quadra. Other drives on the market typically have cheap plastic bodies, most offer USB 2.0 but no Firewire, and some have their own special quirks (the tendency of the WD My Book models to unmount themselves spontaneously on the Mac, for example).
The LaCie d2 shares the same industrial design (also by Neil Poulton) as the 2big, but in a smaller size. I probably would not have considered this drive until I saw this word in the product description: fanless. Ode to joy! The d2 still sports the Great Blue Glowing Orb, albeit a more petite version than that of the 2big Quadra. I assume the room illumination should be reduced, and with no fan to drive me crazy, this might be the drive for me. User reviews on retailer sites praise the lack of fan noise, though some have gripes about the drive noise. We’ll see if this one will actually sleep when it should. I wish there were quality bare enclosures available on the market that would let me select my own hard drive. The Western Digital Caviar Green drives (lower power consumption, reduced noise) look intriguing. LaCie should consider selling bare enclosures for those who would like such an option – think of all the hassles they could avoid with returned units from failed hard drives!
Stay tuned for a review of the LaCie d2 Quadra…
Posted in Hardware, Rants, Reviews, eLearning Hall of Shame
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July 6th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Hello Chris,
Thanks a lot for your people-oriented review.
I tried to find any tests or reviews for this product but it seems like only you made it for the present time
I have just want to ask: do you maybe have any update about this issue with LaCie 2big Quadra?
It maybe was any firmware update from LaCie that fix this issue or something like that, no?
Or your Quadra still makes a noise like the Satan
I’m asking, because I really need to find a not very expensive external hard drive array with RAID features (RAID-1 at least) and I can’t find nothing better then this one.
In Russia at least…
Best regards,
Andrey.
July 6th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Hi Andrey,
No response from LaCie. Yes, the noise from the drive is as unbearable as ever.
Sadly, I suggest you continue your search.
Chris
July 8th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Hi Chris,
It’s sad to hear this (((
Do you have any information about the level of noise for 4big Quadra?
As far as I understood, LaCie using another cool system in this device (big fan with oil-pressure technology from Noctua company).
Did you maybe had a chance to “hear” how it work?
Thanks a lot for your help.
BR,
Andrey.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hello Chris,
I feel the need to post a counterpoint to your review.
Whe I read your review, I was afraid, very afraid. Because I, too, had purchased the Lacie 2Big Quadra sight unseen (or sound unheard) …
So I rushed home, busted it out of the box, and fired ‘er up, waiting for the evil blinding Cyclops to render me sightless as I slowly lost my hearing and my mind as well …
And much to my surprise …. none of the above came to pass, (which is not to say that I am not indiscernably slipping into madness, just that it didn’t happen last night …).
What I am trying to say is that I believe you may have overstated the noise level and light intensity a bit, since, as you say, you have an “absolute loathing”.
I do NOT, for the record, accept intrusive devices easily either, but given the fact that the Lacie will be used only when I am editing and burning digital video files, it is quite suitable for my needs. (RAID 1 to protect family memories).
I think it only fair to present this view, as users should know that the Lacie 2Big array’s suitability largley depends on your circumstance, and your sensitivity to noise and glowing orbs …
Thanks for the use of the soapbox.
Chris
July 8th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Hey Chris, I welcome your counterpoint. I’m glad to hear your experience (thus far) is not the same as mine. I’m returning my drive to Dell. They asked if I wanted to try a replacement. I almost said yes, but I feared ending up in the same situation. I’m curious to know whether you’re the anomaly or am I. LaCie still hasn’t responded to my support request submitted via their site – not a confidence booster. I’m on day two of my disk wipe and the fans are still running full bore.
I hope you wouldn’t mind posting a follow-up in a few days to tell us whether you remain satisfied. In particular I’d like to know if your drive remains asleep when it should or whether it likes to wake up every few minutes. Mine is connected to a new iMac via a Firewire 800 cable. It simply refuses to sleep the way it should (or the way all my other external hard drives have).
July 8th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Hello Chris
I too have recently bought this beautiful looking external harddrive, and have just installed it tonight. I found your website (via Google) because i wondered if i was the only one who had one that sounds exactly as my wifes vacuum cleaner. It is absolutelt insane how loud it its fan is. I have just build a PC with Intel E8500 CPU and an ATI HD4870 graphic card, and you almost can’t hear it running. Big was my surprise as i turned the LaCie on, and hearing some 20-30 times as much noise from that thingh. I entirely agree with all you wrote, the good as well as the bad.
Kind regards from Denmark.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Hi Chris:
Thank you for this post!! I’ve been searching for info about this lacie drive and whether it sleeps properly when you sleep your mac or not. Apparently, it’s something no vendor knows and no retail store is willing to test for me.
I have a 2big dual that i use on a PC; it sleeps properly and wakes properly using eSata (as long as i disable vista’s “sleep drives” option which messes it up), but using USB it doesn’t sleep at all with the mini. From what I have read, one must use FW to get this behavior on a mac during sleep as the USB ports remain powered. (thoughts)? Hence my thought of getting a quadra for the mini.
Bit leery though as I’ve had one drive blow on the 2big dual already (had it a year); replaced both drives myself (voiding warranty) with newer gen 7200.12 seagates (it came with 7200.11s) and the unit is a lot quieter! Fan is noisy tho for sure. Do you know what gen seagates the quadra comes with?
The cyclopean blue light doesn’t bug me, but when it blinks red and blue it’s hard to tell what’s wrong (at one point it was because it was rebuilding the raid set; had to go on youtube to realize that one of my drives wasn’t defective).
Do you (or anyone else!) have other RAID brands that you’d recommend as working properly with the mac, especially sleeping and waking properly?
Cheers and thanks!! Alison
July 9th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hey Alison,
I’m not sure what drives the 2big Quadra comes with. Platter noise wasn’t my issue (I’m used to the clickity clack of hard drives in action, and since I only back up hourly, I can deal with that). It was the constant fan noise and the clicking as the drive put itself to sleep (and then spooled itself up again two minutes later).
I’m in search for another RAID drive that won’t drive (pun) me nuts. The Western Digital MyBook models are infamous for spontaneously unmounting themselves on Macs (I own a 500GB model). Other brands I’ve looked at offer USB 2.0 but not Firewire 800.
Right now I’m looking at G-Tech drives. I’m hoping to find some reviews that address the noise situation.
Seems no one makes a “truly great” external hard drive. A real shame.
Chris
July 9th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Thanks Chris,
Yes, I’ve heard about the myBook horror stories. I’ll take a closer look at the G-Techs too. Please post if you find anything!
Do you have any thoughts on the 2nd gen Drobos? Seem to be all the rage in the official reviewer world but personal reviews not so hot. Super expensive too, tho the concept is really neat.
Cheers!
July 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am
The Drobo intrigues me, but the price does not. I’ve also read many negative reviews. Perhaps not quite ready for prime time?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I’m in the middle of installing the 2big quadra and I’m left with a question about Raid 1. When in Disk Utility only one drive mounts, should I see two? Also only the 1st drive status led is on… Is this normal?
*** Both drive status led’s where on when I first turned the 2big on.
Thanks for the post.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
@ ChrisW:
Apparently something about guys named Chris lead them to buy LaCie drives.
The RAID setup befuddled me as well (a point I did not include in my review). I also set my up (I thought) for RAID 1, yet the capacity was still shown as 1.8 TB in Finder. I don’t know if this was normal or not. The Quick Setup Guide included with the drive was worthless when explaining the various RAID modes – you had to refer to the manual on the CD-ROM to get any detail.
I’m not sure about the drive status LEDs…
I’d love a follow-up from you regarding noise and sleep functionality if you can spare the time.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
@Chris:
I know, I was worried when I saw all the posts from Chris’s… Strange.
Let me start by first writing that my intentions where to purchase the “2big Network” not the Quadra… I was worried about having to eject the Quadra everytime my Mac went to sleep. If that does happen, the Quadra is going on Ebay.
Well, it sounds like you and I are both interested in Raid 1. From my brief trouble shooting, and interpretation of the manual, it seems that only the 1st drive LED should be on. Also less than 1TB should be available. If you have more than 1TB, your 2big Q is configured for a different Raid.
-NOISE-
As I type this I’m backing up 600gb+ to the 2big Q and honestly it not to loud, but I’m running it on a Mac Dual 867 PowerPc G4… Which is a loud machine on by its self, every second it is on… Drives me crazy.
-Free Online Storage-
What sold me on buying a Lacie is that with a purchase of any new Lacie drive you are eligible for 1 year free Unlimited online storage from Carbonite Online Backup.
Here are some links:
http://www.Carbonite.com
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/30/lacie-to-provide-one-year-online-storage-free-with-every-drive-s/
July 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Chris W, funny you should mention the Power Mac Dual 867. I used to own that machine. It was the second most annoying device (noise-wise) I’ve ever used (after the LaCie 2big Quadra). It was like a fantasy come true when I switched to an iMac, which made the faintest of whispers. The LaCie is shockingly loud compared to the iMac.
I can’t imagine the Dual 867 and the LaCie 2big both going at once. I’m quite certain my sanity could not endure it.
I didn’t know about the Carbonite deal. That certainly is a nice bonus. Not enough to overcome the noisiness of the thing though.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I’m talking to Carbonite now, via online chat… Apparently the deal is only for PC users. But this is on Lacies website:
Availability
LaCie One Year Online Backup will be available worldwide with the purchase of a LaCie consumer hard drive. It will be available in November 2008 for PC users, with a Mac version to be released at a later date.
SCAM!!
People should contact them and complain.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Scam indeed, since Carbonite released their Mac service in March.
July 9th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I have a copy of the conversation if anyone is interested.
I would avoid doing business with http://www.Carbonite.com they’re a bit shady.
They’re basically trying to sell me a year subscription, even tough I should be getting a year of service for free.
I’m willing to post it if it’s fine…. Just let me know.
July 9th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Chris W., I’d prefer we limit the rants in this post to LaCie products.
Bummer to hear about the Carbonite shutout though. Truly lame. Another strike against LaCie I suppose, since they bundled the service.
July 10th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Hello everybody!
Just want to ask, it maybe someone heard how noisy 4big at work?
BR,
Andrey.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:03 am
UPDATE:
I returned the 2Big Quadra 2TB for the 2Big NAS 3TB. The NAS has a lot more features and fits my needs better.
I’m reformatting the drives, changing the RAID mode, and the NAS’s fan is operating very quietly, again I’m use to the noise of a loud 867 DP, so I would consider a helicopter in my backyard to be quieter. Seriously though, the noise is barley noticeable, I have it placed 5 feet from me, and I really have to pay close attention to hear the fans working.
A cool feature on the NAS model, the front blue light can be TURNED OFF from the network panel.
It also offers alot of great sharing and remote access features and takes advantage of the speed of the network.
I think I’ll be happy with this model.
July 25th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Great review. I was considering a 2big Quadra but the first question that always crosses my mind is exactly how loud the cooling fans are… let us all know how you get on with your replacement solution down the line.
July 25th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Hi Mark,
The answer to your question is LOUD. And incessant.
As I added to the post, I received my new drive, the LaCie d2. It has no fan, so the lack of noise is a huge relief. That said, the drive still refuses to stay asleep. It tends to clatter back into action every few minutes. Is this a LaCie thing or a Mac thing? I’ve not had this problem with previous drives on my Mac. I need to do some experimentation.
That said, it’s a vast improvement over the 2big Quadra. I plan to post a brief review of the d2 soon.
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Hi Chris and Chris W, any news about the free year of Carbonite service for Mac users? Were you successful in signing up? Why is the service not available to Mac users if Carbinite already has a Mac app?
October 15th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I have the 1 terabyte version of this drive. It works well enough. It is silent. The bad news is that it goes to sleep too often, necessitating a delay of the entire system while the drive comes up. A minor irritation once or twice a day; a true annoyance fifty times a day.
October 18th, 2009 at 12:36 am
i have the 2TB version mirrored (so 1TB usable). it’s hooked up via fw800 to a box running 10.5.8 server. yes, it sounds like a rocket. small price to pay for data redundancy. mine is set to ‘ON’ so it never sleeps.
October 21st, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I did not buy this drive but I do own 2 other Lacie external HDs and can’t help but add my two cents on this page.
The guy who said this above:”I found your website (via Google) because i wondered if i was the only one who had one that sounds exactly as my wifes vacuum cleaner.” had me laughing so bad my sides hurt because I could totally identify with him.
I bought both my Lacie drives last year, a 500GB and a 1 TB. For those who are interested in the exact models, they are these:
http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Desktop-301285U-External-Drive/dp/B000WA009Y%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJASE6HSSVXTNREYQ%26tag%3Dws%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000WA009Y
http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-301301U-Desktop-External-Drive/dp/B00112DMEC/ref=sr_1_1/191-0014084-8245242?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1256184721&sr=8-1
The 500GB one (I think is fanless) has served me well for more than a year. I don’t have a gripe with it and it is mostly quiet, that is… until I go idle. Every time my screensaver comes up and my laptop’s power saving mode kicks in, the drive would start whirring like nothing. The only way to stop that would be to move my mouse so that my laptop would get active again and the lacie would then miraculously go quiet. I have since reconfigured my power settings not to “shut down” the Hard drive after a period of idle time. Only way to stop that drive from starting up and waking me in my sleep every 20 mins.
The 1 TB Lacie that I have on the other hand, has a fan that drives me mad to the point of insanity, such that today I finally decided I had enough and tried to pry the case apart hoping to remove the hard disks from the enclosure so I could use them without. But everything was sealed so tight it was impossible to dismantle, so I’m now left with a twisted and defaced piece of junk with 2 SATAs stuck insides that I won’t even be able to sell on ebay.
Seriously, I have never had anything quite like this Lacie. I’ve quite a few external HDs and 2 NAS’es in my collection due to the fact I only use laptops. My Western Digital My Book World 2TB NAS sits only 2 metres away from my bed and if not for the occasional blinking of the LEDs, it was quiet as a sleeping baby that I barely even notice it’s turned on most of the time. My QNAP NAS is located at the other end of the room, and even though it has a fan, it has barely ever tickled my ears. In fact my laptop is usually less than half a metre away from me whenever I’m sleeping, and it sits on one of those laptop coolers with 3 fans turned on almost 24/7 and they have never bugged me either. This one of a kind Lacie is really something else!
Let me tell you what it does and I can confirm from what I’ve read online about this model earlier today that I’m not alone in my experience. After about half an hour or so of running, the fan would turn itself on automatically. What is super annoying is not only that the fan makes a very high pitched noise akin to the noise you hear when you’re sitting in an airplane or like what another guy commented above, the noise of a vacuum cleaner in the next room….. But what this fan does is it would turn itself on for just 30 seconds or so, then shuts down…. Then turns itself on again 30 secs later for another 30 seconds, and this would go on forever. I would seriously rather be sitting in an airplane where the noise is at least constant than be in the same room as this pain in the ass. As I’m writing this, I’m not quite sure how I actually managed to live with this for more than a year . I had already banished this hard drive to occasional use but recently I began trying to transfer all my data from this drive to my NAS’es and it was taking forever … so today I lost it and brought out all my pliers, knives, screwdrivers….
Granted, both my Lacies have never died on me. But I don’t think I will ever buy another Lacie drive again despite all these eye candy models around unless Lacie clearly states that it’s fanless (they obviously suck at the fan department) and one where I can ACTUALLY SEE a way of taking apart in times of emergency without the need for explosives.
November 7th, 2009 at 5:32 am
I own the Lacie 2big Quadra 2TB, used as RAID 1 and via eSata. The fan is indeed very noisy. So noisy that I ended up placing the drive in a compartment of my computer desk. I also considered insulating it further with noise absorbing foam, but didn’t yet take that step yet. Fortunately, the noise has a low frequency and a faint resemblance to wind noise. I read that it helps to replace the built-in (hot) Seagate drives with cooler Western Digital Eco drives. Apparently, the fan has a temperature sensor and reduces its rotation frequency (and thus noise) accordingly. Another option would be to replace the fan or disconnect it altogether – a feasible option with the right drives. Both will void your warranty, though.
Apart from the noise, the drive is absolutely fantastic, great build quality, extremely simple to replace drives yourself (almost plug and play), and excellent transfer rates under SATA. If you are very picky about noise (and I am), it has some drawbacks, but otherwise, it’s a good RAID.
November 14th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Thank you big time for your reviews. I will not be buying a LaCie 2big now. I wonder if anyone has any experience with the new My Book Studio Edition II which does not have a fan, uses the WD green drives, and has Raid I with Firewire. It may be the way to go. It is plastic, but the drives do come out and can be replaced. It should be quiet. My ONLY concern is about the drives running to warm. I live in Bangkok and my computer room gets quite warm. The only other option I see is the OWC or Guardian Maximus cases but I don’t know if they can ‘go to sleep’ at all and may be noisy.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I have the Lacie 2big Quadra 2TB set to safe mode so i have just one disc showing on my desktop. I was initialy very glad to not have to double back up each time to know that my data was safe. (ie should one drive fail my data will be on the other) but now i am petrified that the data is only going to one disc. How can i check that both drives are working in tandem and that indeed should one fail my info will be on the other… help!
November 18th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Sorry also…(I have the Lacie 2big Quadra 2TB set to safe mode) the drive seems to power up and down quite a lot… is this normal? My other 500gb twin lacie drive has the blue light on all the time.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I have a LaCie 500GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive, and I (also) went looking for a review of LaCie. My own problem is that my Vista OS has stopped recognizing the hard drive. It was a ‘K’ drive this morning, but now it fails to show.
You cannot format something you can’t see.
Yesterday afternoon, I decided to back up (Clone) my C: to the LaCie (K:) drive using Easeus ToDo Backup 1.0. Problem: ToDo said the K drive was unformatted. But it WAS formatted, with FAT, and had a lot (125GB) of data on it already. So, I copied the data from the K drive to a new folder on the C: drive (a ‘temporary’ measure). I then formatted the ‘K’ drive as NTFS, and verified that the properties correctly gave me a full drive – the LaCie was formatted and existed as a ‘K’ drive.
Then, I went to clone the C: to K: using ToDo. This time, after about 5 minutes time and very little visibility relating to onscreen action, I got an error message – ‘Write Failure’. Damn. Sure enough, that ended the ToDo cloning process, and it also left my K: drive incognito.
Is this a LaCie problem? An EASEUS ToDo problem? I don’t know, but I see a lot of complaints on the web regarding the inability to ‘mount’ a LaCie drive, or have it recognized by the system. In no case have I seen a satisfactory explanation as to what could cause the device to suddenly ‘disappear’. I have rebooted, powered down and waited 10 minutes then powered up again – to no avail.
Perhaps someone else looking for LaCie anecdotes will sympathize with me – or have a similar story. I’m not sure if I’m upset with LaCie or EASEUS ToDo, but I am upset! It takes about 3 hours to format the 500GB hard drive (not the ‘Quick Format’), and it takes that long to copy the data from onw hard drive to another. I have invested over 7 hours in a housekeeping project that left my LaCie useless, and I have no idea where or what the problem might be!
Thanks for initiating a LaCie sounding board!
December 4th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Just wanted to say I wish I had seen your review before I bought the drive — mine (a 3TB version, received some 2 weeks ago) has the exact same characteristics that you describe and it is driving me mad. I own several LaCie drives, including a 2TB version which is almost noiseless, even when in heavy use, so I was very surprised. And worried, quite frankly: I don’t believe the fan unit will last very long if it is running at what sounds like full speed most of the time.
December 6th, 2009 at 10:17 am
So has anyone found a good RAID 1 device that is noisless and can recommend? I’m looking for a 3-4 TB unit.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Hey David (November 14th, 2009),
I’ve just bought the WD MyBook Studio Edition II (2TB) because I needed back-up from my LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 1TB drives (because the power supplies failed, and then the drives failed… yes, both of them).
The MyBook Studio Edition II is downright noiseless. There are no fans, and the drives are silent, and it takes up very little space on my desk. There doesn’t seem to be too much heat coming off the top, even after transferring 700 GB to it. Also comes with very nice quality cables, and a 5 year warranty.
I was hoping to replace my LaCie Big Disk Extremes with the 2Big Quadra 2TB, but if the fans are as loud as you say…
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
@ Dave:
If you’re using the MyBook with a Mac, I’d like to know if you experience the spontaneous unmounting problem that a lot of Mac-using WD customers complain about.
(And yes, the fans on the 2Big Quadra are as loud as we say. Much to our dismay.)
December 29th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Hey Chris,
My wife’s got a MyBook 1TB (USB/FW/eSATA), that’s about two months older than the Studio Edition II that I just bought. I’ve experienced the spontaneous unmounting issue with her MyBook, but so far have not experienced it with the Studio Edition II. I really hope it doesn’t, as so far I really like the unit.
LaCie has told me that they will be replacing one of my Big Disk Extreme+ Triple Interface units, but who knows with the other one. Hopefully they will replace both units, as I have no faith in that drive anymore.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:08 am
I have used many disk drives with my multiple Macs and would not recommend WD drives of any sort even the ones supposedly for Macs. I have found that they unmount, fail during writing substantial amounts of data ( > 100Gb in a single copy ) . In the case of a MyBook Raid array it totally failed and I ended up removing the drives which worked perfectly in another enclosure. I have always for LaCie drives work properly with Macs although I have do date only used the triple interface sort. I have just bought a 2Big Quatra 2Tb drive and will be interested to see if it displays the issues of noise described in this article. Mind you I have a Drobo too and that gets very noisy when hot. However the Drobo using firewire 800 is only around 40% of the speed of the 2Big Quatra drive.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I found this site between replies from LaCie Tech Support for help with my brand new 4Tb 2big. Good to hear of others’ views. I’ve feared that changing the RAID mode before installing the thing (to a new Win 7 machine) was the reason for the 2big never showing up so I could reformat it. It seems to be stuck in some weird looping behaviour. And boy it is LOUD! And such a bright BLUE! (unfortunately always blinking…). I have the same needs as SOS. I want 3 or 4 TB Raid. My other LaCie portable HDs are great even with all Windows machines, but I guess I’ll send this back & look at WD. Sigh.
February 6th, 2010 at 6:34 am
Another owner sitting in a wind tunnel
Does anyone know is it possible to just disable the fan? Or will the standard drives rapidly overheat?
February 27th, 2010 at 12:49 am
Thanks all for your experiences with the Lacie 2big Quadra. I’ve just today started exploring a RAID system because I’ve just inherited an HP xw4600 workstation running XP Pro from work, and I run an iMac (Snow Leopard etc) at home. I use Photoshop on the iMac and also have it on the HP so now want a common system for access and backup for both machines. The kid at the local iMac store suggested the Lacie. Apart from the fan noise problem, can anyone advise on whether this unit will meet my needs. I did read a review which said file loading/saving into RAID can be slow, and I’ll be wanting to work on large digital images – average 10-12MB but up to 60MB – and sometimes there will be two of us editing images? Cheers
March 6th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
I managed to solve the fan problem by having the disk unmount after Time Machine had done its thing using the following applescript
just change the values as needed.
tell application “Finder”
if not (exists the disk “DISK_NAME_HERE”) then
do shell script “diskutil mount `disktool -l | grep ‘DISK_NAME_HERE’ |
sed ’s/.*\\(disk[0-9s]*\\).*/\\1/’`”
delay 15
end if
end tell
do shell script “/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/backupd-helper >/dev/null 2>&1 &”
delay 90
tell application “Finder”
if (exists the disk “DISK_NAME_HERE”) then
eject “DISK_NAME_HERE”
delay 2
end if
end tell
April 15th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Hey guys,
Just a follow up…
To my dismay, I now know exactly how loud fans on an external hard drive can truly be! Fortunately, it doesn’t get to full puff all that often, but I do recognize many of the points raised here… Even when the fans are blowing full, the air coming out of the unit isn’t even warm, so you have to wonder what the point is.
Regarding the Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II 2TB, I’ve been running it for more than 4 months now, and I can’t recommend this drive enough. I’m running Mac OS X 10.6.3, and have not experienced the spontaneous un-mounting issue even once. It is an extremely quiet drive. I like it so much that I bought another one for when this one fills up.
June 9th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Hi Chris. Great review of this drive. I was googling this drive & came across your site. Have you ever received a response from LaCie concerning the loud fans?
It sounds like a great system, if it wasn’t for the fan noise. Any updates are appreciated.
Thanks
ant
June 9th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Hi Anthony,
Not a peep from LaCie regarding the fans. Not from my own inquiry as a customer, and not in response to this review. Sad to see a serious product shortcoming like this completely ignored by the manufacturer. Buyer beware.
Chris
July 14th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
I too bought the LaCie 2big Quadra External RAID Hard Drive. Originally chose this drive for its redundant raid configuration and its connectivity options. This drive was to be used as a backup for my wife’s photography. Upon plugging it into to her new imac, I chose to use firewire 800. This drive is so loud it has been mistaken for a tv left on with static blairing in the background. After two days of annoyance to sound, I decided to use the USB cable as a connection option. To my suprise, the fan noise is cut down drastically. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this?
July 17th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
I bought the Lacie 2big Quadra two years ago. From day one, the excessively loud fan annoyed me. I ended up placing it in a closed compartment of my desk which was somewhat bearable. As some reviewers mentioned their unit didn’t have the same noise issue, I eventually RMA’d the unit. Lacie’s support disabled the fan altogether, from what I can see, rather than replacing it with a quieter unit. The drives now heat up to 55 degrees Celsius (external temperature measured directly on the drives with an infrared thermometer). As this is still below the 60 degrees which the built-in Seagates are spec’ed for, it at least did away with the noise. Apart from that issue I had no problems with the RAID. I use RAID1 on eSata and the average throughput is 120MB/s.
August 30th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Chris,
Thanks for your in depth “user” review. Wish there were more like you. I to am in the
process of buying 2TB Raid unit. I’ve looked into Fantom, Buffalo, Verbatim. I came upon your site when eyeing the LaCie 2d Quadra. Your review only confirm all of the other posts that I read. The last response (Christian) said “LaCie’s support disabled the fan altogether…”. Did he actually send the unit to LaCie for this or was accomplished otherwise?
One Raid that’s going to get a closer look-see is the WD MyBook Studio II 2TB. Sure it’s a plastic enclosure…maybe it doesn’t need metal since it supposedly run so cool. Plus, selling for almost $100 less (on-line purchase) than the LaCie, it’s well worth considering. I would love to hear back from other WD Studio II users regarding their experiences with
the unit.
September 6th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
The 2Big is noisy, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why it seems to go on all night even after I’ve put the iMac to sleep. I bought it as a replacement to a WD Studio II that quit working with my iMac’s Firewire (would not wake from sleep). I guess I’ll put up with the noise of the 2Big or should I say 2Noisy
December 6th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
I have the 2TB Raid unit and finally went on line to inquire if anyone else was having this same issue about a loud fan. My husband was wondering what was making so much noise.
Issue is, i finally turned it off, and the fan is still going and is so is the alien blue light! Is this normal? It has been a good half hour since i ejected the unit and switched the power switch from auto to off. I have not read anyone else complaining about this, so i am wondering if this may be an issue.
Thank you for posting this blog!
Madeley
December 21st, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I bought one as well. It goes to sleep just fine when I don’t need it, but when I use it, oh dear.
And the hurricane coming out of it is awful.
I hacked it to make it shut up, here’s a blog post about it:
http://eos1dmkiv.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=o8dSDC0BAAA.uXTNv_3Oo24zyDfdkUgHvA.MtLZS_0OFjRSIKoHBQfvqg&postId=882542938514778075&type=POST
December 23rd, 2010 at 12:01 pm
In response to you Madeley. My 2Big runs the fan at odd times. Even when my computer is sleeping. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the fan running. Short of shutting it off with the switch, I can get it to stop by dismounting the hard drive (on a Mac) by dragging it to the trash. But then I have to either remember to turn it back on, or re-mount the hard drive via Disk Utility.
July 15th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
I’m so impressed with the loud noise that my Hd 2big quadra does.
It’s just incredible that Lacie does a Hd with a error so bad like this.
It’s impossible to edit with this noise arroud. This is to bad.
I by I Lacie because I thought it was trustful and I’m so disappointed…
THE NOISE IS TO BAD!!!
Be careful and don’t buy it!
September 20th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Bummer, the drive just goes on and off constantly, must age it too. So, leave it on or turn it off.