Lacie Rugged - Which one?

Hi all

I'm looking around for portable external HDDs for field editing. The Lacie Rugged range looks good and I've had some good feedback about them, but was wondering if the 5400rpm versions will cut it for video capture? I've been holding off because I wanted to order the 500gb 7200rpm model or even the new 1tb esata model, but they are both out of stock in the UK right now and time is running out. I've got about 2 weeks before they need to be in my camera bag ready to fly...

Cheers, Simon

I would stick to the 7200 rpm, and if possible the eSata interface... Order it from the US...

I have both and have no problems with either. Guess the 7200 would be better obviously, but I'm not sure I can tell that much of a difference. I'm still shooting with the Z1 though too - awesome little drives.

I also use a Lacie rugged. I don't believe the spin speed is that much of an issue for capturing. The speed issue comes up when using the drive during the editing workflow and, if there is much compositing, during playback which can result in dropped frames. I am currently working with the new Drobo Pro doing speed tests and such. The drives they sent me all spin at 5400 but I have been able to play back without dropped frames some test clips from HDV, Red One, DV, Pro Res and DV Cam, loaded with text and filters and don't (as yet) see an issue.

Steve

Simon:

Our Lacie rep was just in here a couple of hours ago. The new 7200 RPM 500GB drive will be shipping this week! I say definitely go with 7200 RPM!

I've been using the On-the-go drive enclosures from Macsales available HERE for years in the field without problems.

What's nice and you can use any laptop drive. 7200 is the only way to go...

I've been using the On-the-go drive enclosures from Macsales available HERE for years in the field without problems.

What's nice and you can use any laptop drive. 7200 is the only way to go...

They are good, but I have had some of them go bad (the FW ports). There seemed to be a time when I got a bad run of them. Of course I have alot of them, so it could just be the odds (and I have had to use the USB ports to bail me out.)

Simon:

 

Our Lacie rep was just in here a couple of hours ago. The new 7200 RPM 500GB drive will be shipping this week! I say definitely go with 7200 RPM!

You need to be very careful about dealing with reps, they are well trained to use their company's hyperbole to their advantage. I owned a dive shop for several years and also worked selling hi end stereo, and these reps were the light of the day as we frequently laughed at the BS they'd throw around. While I would prefer a disc at 7200 over 5400, it is really not as critical as you may think Mike. The drives themselves and how they are made and tested for durability are much more important. For example, the Western Digital 'Black Label' SATA drives are significantly better than their 'white label' drives and it has nothing to do with speed. Lacie enjoyed a good reputation for awhile until they came out with their 500 gig and higher drives and then folk were having them crash all over the boards. Personally, my 4 Lacie drives of 120. 200 and 320 and a rugged, have all held up just fine. The same with G-Tech who also enjoyed a great rep. I have heard that they were bought out by another company and that their quaility has dropped. I don't know but my 500 and 750 G techs are also doing well. I recently was turned on to OWC externals and the 1 terabyte drive I got from them I use strictly for once a month system back up.

For those who may be interested, here is my review of the new DroboPro from Data Robotics. This is my first experience with RAID systems and much research and consulting went into it before the first word was typed. Still not an expert on RAID but really appreciate what the DroboPro has to offer. http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/drobo_pro_douglas.html

Steve

I ended up getting a Rugged XL esata 1TB 5400rpm. I'll see how it performs over the next couple of weeks before I decide on whether I'll get another or look again at the other options. First impressions appear promising, but I've not really had to put it through its paces yet...

Cheers, Simon

Are you doing much editing with it Simon or just capture and first cut stuff?

You can get away with 5400 for basic stuff no worries at all.

Exactly that Jon. I just need to know the footage is as good as it appears in the viewfinder I'll be doing some very basic editing and archiving but nothing too taxing.

While testing it out today I noticed that it does chug a bit on raw Canon 7D captures, particularly the 720p50 stuff. 1080p25 seems to play ok though and so did editing in native HDV in FCP. Maybe it just had a bad day with the 50p.

Cheers, Simon

Lacie doesn't make hard drives, they just put together the enclosure, which is a housing and a 3rd party drive controller and interface board. I have 3 of the Seagate 500gb 7200 RPM drives and they are very good so far. Yes, a 7200 rpm drive is significantly faster than a 5400 if you are doing a lot of read-write and swapping.

I use a Rocketfish enclosure w the drive - which has an eSata port. Keep in mind that most eSata enclosures need a separate power supply - as power is not supplied through the cable like w/ USB and 6-pin FW

Cheers

James

Keep in mind that most eSata enclosures need a separate power supply - as power is not supplied through the cable like w/ USB and 6-pin FW

 

Cheers

James

Yeah I didn't read the small print on that one for sure! It's not going to be a problem for me for 95% of the time I want to use it, but it still would have been better powered through the interface like the USB ones are. Actually the Lacie Rugged XL also has a USB2 interface - I wonder if the drive powers through that when it is used as the interface - I'll check it out tomorrow as it would be handy for times when you just can't get a power lead connected.

Cheers, Simon

Yeah I didn't read the small print on that one for sure! It's not going to be a problem for me for 95% of the time I want to use it, but it still would have been better powered through the interface like the USB ones are. Actually the Lacie Rugged XL also has a USB2 interface - I wonder if the drive powers through that when it is used as the interface - I'll check it out tomorrow as it would be handy for times when you just can't get a power lead connected.

 

Cheers, Simon

Depends on the drive, but the USB should work. At one point some drives, when they got larger, had problems with FW or USB and power (I had a couple of models) Some have also come with USB power plus to plug into USB to get some power.

I terrabyte is large though and looking at the manual, looks like it may need the power connection even for USB.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11257

Guess you will know for sure shortly

For those who may be interested, here is my review of the new DroboPro from Data Robotics. This is my first experience with RAID systems and much research and consulting went into it before the first word was typed. Still not an expert on RAID but really appreciate what the DroboPro has to offer. http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/drobo_pro_douglas.html

 

Steve

Interesting review, although you make one error:

"RAID 1, with smart firmware, should be just about as fast as RAID 0."

Baloney. It "should" be as fast as a single drive, but no way "smart firmware" is going to double the write rate of a single drive... that's the goal of striping (RAID 0). Striping speeds things up because each drive only writes half the information. With mirroring, each drive has to write all of the information, just like with a single drive. No "smart firmware" is going to magically double the native write rate of a drive that still has to write all of the data. What the better "smart firmware" accomplishes is preventing a mirrored array from taking longer than a single drive would take to write the same data... it eliminates the performance hit that lesser equipment can incur when mirroring.

Had a nightmare with this drive so far. Initially I thought it was very sensitive to electrical supply, but I've got it home now and that's not the issue and it just seems very unstable when using the esata interface. Using USB2 is fine, but while using esata I get repeated crashes of the drive and my system. I'm home for a few days so I'll look into updating drivers etc - that 'could' be the issue, especially as my Macbook Pro is running SL..... Also the drive is big and bulky and it doesn't run off the usb power when connected via usb On the plus side I've still got 850GB of space left after a two week shoot!

Cheers, Simon