LaCie Starck 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 301888KUA

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Looks cool, heavy, decent speed, November 29, 2009
By Richard C. Drew (Oak Lawn, IL USA)
I've had a lot of external drives, from a 10 meg oh so many years ago (the size of a shoe-box) to the ultra-modern LaCie Starck - and many in-between.

First impression - this is the HEAVIEST external I've had in several years. It's built like a tank. Instead of a fan, it uses the case to dissipate heat.

Looks - It's the coolest looking external I've ever seen. From the contoured face to gun-metal gray case, to the orange laser + projected on my desk surface.

But what about really counts - speed, reliability and ease of use?

Installation: Plugged in the USB and power, turned it on, and Windows 7 recognized it immediately. It comes with 10 meg formatted - this has the installer / formatting application. Run it, agree to the standard terms, select the system (PC, etc. - see my screen capture) and the drive starts to format.

Windows also popped up a warning / message (see screen capture) that it wanted to format the drive - since LaCie's application was already formatting the drive I did not Windows format it as well. Windows really should have detected it was already being formatted!

Formatting took about two minutes - pretty fast. Part of the formatting procedure (and another reason NOT to let Windows format the drive) is writing the manuals and some different applications to the drive. See the screen capture.

After this was complete, I installed the included backup software and desktop manager. The desktop manager is pretty useless.

It's USB 2, so the speed is limited by the USB interface (cable included,) but it's still pretty speedy.

So far I'm really impressed. I'm going to spend the next few days copying about 800 gig of files I want backed up, and I'll see how long it takes.

Bottom line - 1 TB of data storage in what looks like desktop artwork - a great addition to my storage needs, and these are growing daily. I shoot around 3000 photos on some weekends, and have a LOT of music files. I've learned the hard way that you can't have too many backups!



Geek Chic in a Hard Drive: A Rugged Device with Extra Features, November 27, 2009
By Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA)
Both in appearance and functionality, the LaCie Starck is startlingly different from your average, plastic-body device. The drive is encased in a solid, charcoal gray metal box (and its weight reflects it) with a front that looks like liquid metal -- think Terminator II inside a radioactive containment box. The shiny chrome front acts as a shortcut touch pad for the included software. To protect your desk from the rugged exterior, two padded strips are attached to the bottom. The drive comes with outlet adapters for various countries; from my memory of adapters, I believe that they can be used in US, the UK, Europe, and Japan.

The drive works almost silently, a real change from my Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN, and it's quicker as well. The real difference here, however, is the touch pad which is powered by special software. Using the LaCie Desktop Manager, you can select two functions, one activated with a short touch and the other by holding your finger against it. For instance, when used in conjunction with the included backup software, you can instantly copy all your documents to the drive with a tap of your finger. And then back up all your photos with a longer touch.

Mac users will appreciate the option of partitioning the drive to have one Mac section and a Windows or Linux section, allowing backups from both operating systems without having to swap hard drives. Of course, the drive can also be formatted for Time Machine.

Like any device, the LaCie Starck is not perfect. Its power cord is too short, and the installation of the software is not as intuitive as it should be. For example, when the Desktop Assistant is formatting, you cannot tell its progress. If you abort, you'll then have to reformat the drive and download the software from the LaCie website since the reformatting will erase all the included software. The documentation out of the box is minimal since the manual is instead on the hard drive itself -- a real issue if you reformat before reading the manual. LaCie recommends moving the manual from the external drive to your computer before beginning, and the advice should be followed. Even when you do read the manual, the instructions are not explicit. For Macs (I did not test the PC software), you have to launch and set up both the Desktop Assistant and the Intego Backup Assistant before you can use the touchpad. It took me a full hour to figure out everything so I could use all the features. Most external hard drives are plug-and-go. Of course, most hard drive don't have the touch features that the LaCie has.

Once I got the LaCie Starck up and running, I loved it. It is quiet, rugged, and, yes, cool.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann



Very solid drive., November 26, 2009
By S. Power (Detroit, Michigan, United States)
Pros:
- 1TB - the knew norm in harddrive capacity
- very solid construction
- LaCie reputation for quality. It is worth a little extra money per gigabit to know that my precious, irreplaceable, data is safe.
- Easy to use, included, automatic back-up software.


Give or Takes:
- Touch pad on the front of it (I don't know why anyone would care about this feature, but that may just be because my harddrives are in a completely different room of the house).


Cons:
- I wish I spent a little extra to get 2TB, which soon to be the norm. Every size harddrive I've ever bought has always seemed bigger than I would ever need, and I've filled them all. 2TB will probably last you five years, as opposed to two or three for a 1TB.
- The included documentation isn't great.
- Too much focus on Form over function. It is a harddrive, not a centerpiece.




Mostly works, November 25, 2009
By C. Bayne (Phoenix, AZ United States)
So far I like this product, except for one minor complaint, which I'll get to in a bit.

I like how the on light is a little glowing X projected right in front of the drive. I like the silver front. I like that this is sturdy.

I copied a 19.3 gb file from my laptop, and it took 16 minutes. I watched a DVD file from the drive, and it seemed to play OK. The voice seemed to be just a microsecond off, so I watched it from my laptop drive, and it was synced a little better.

The case has sharp edges, and the metal is stylishly rough. It's a little darker grey than the picture. You can only stack 2 of these, but since I only have 1, that's just fine. I also have a Western Digital 1 TB My Book drive that is going to stand on top of this so that I have my bank of hard drives and gaze at it in absolute nerdvana.

There is a nifty little feature that took me forever to figure out because the instructions aren't very clear. There is a touch pad on the front of the drive that you can program to do various things like open Firefox or your Kindle for PC app. Right clicking and dragging the icon over to the Desktop Manager will do it, but I didn't find anything that tells you that. For the frustration this caused, I'm knocking off a star. Well, I'm knocking off half a star. A little bit gets knocked off because there's this LaCie Desktop Manager file that I can't close. Minimize, sure. Close, no. A little more because of the sharp edges and the very short USB wire, and there's your 4-stars.

This seems solid - I wouldn't want to drop it, but I'm not worried about accidentally hitting it with something. Except for the Desktop Manager thing, it's easy to use and set up. The price is decent, especially considering how sturdy this is. I don't think it's as elegant looking as the company thinks it is, but it's a nice drive. And it holds a whole lot of stuff.