LaCie Little Disk 500GB USB 2.0

I've had my Little Disk for over a year and it has travelled around the world with, thrown in to my ruck sack, betten up on planes, I drag it out and it still works. I'm concerned about the USB cable connection which I think will eventually break. But its going well right now. Robust little unit.

The LaCie Little Disk 500GB USB 2.0 should be a simple product that should get 10/10 each time. However, it has its faults.I've had 2 of these drives now - the first one went catastrophically wrong when I plugged it into two PC's at the same time (it didnt say you couldn't - but it resulted in the hard drive completely corrupting)So, possibly foolishly, I bought a second one and this one has been OK so far and 'does the job'On the positive side, the software is quite good that comes with it and the design is quite nice. Also, it's pretty quiet when in operation which is great as some hard drives can be shockingly noisyOverall though Id have to say dont buy one because of the problems I had with the first one

As it says on the tin, the LaCie 500 Little Drive is a portable 500G 2.5inch disk. Mine is the USB2.0/FireWire400 version.

The disk is formatted as FAT-32 for Mac/PC compatibility out of the box, but comes with a utility on the disk that reformats the disk to NTFS with 2K sectors. There's an optional TurboUSB executable program that acts as a driver that aims to improve the performance of the drive. I cannot confirm that it improves the performance, but I use it as a matter of course.

The device is covered in black plastic that will look awful when scratched. It's also supplied with a cloth pouch that is of much lower quality that those provided in previous models (as designed by Porsche).

The connectors are odd. First, there's a FireWire400 hub, which is very welcome as I use a Mac Mini that only has one FireWire400 port. But rather than providing a USB port, it has a very short USB cable that I'm sure will break over time. It also comes with a USB extension.

Now, I had no ends of problems with the USB extension cable as the connectors are low quality. The drive continued to disconnect/reconnect, but the problem was solved once I filed the offending extension in the trash. The problem then is the drive is suspended in the air by the very short main cable. However it works well.

I bought the LaCie Little Disk 500GB USB 2.0 disk to take work to and from the office and my home. The drive doesn't power off my Apple laptop so I have to use two usb ports to get it working at home & then something happens that it just won't mount. You have to format the drive to get it to mount then the same happened again. I sent the drive back to DABS, and they, instead of a refund or exchange, sent me another one!!! Very plastic feeling, door completely detaches - am sure I will lose it or stand on it at some point. retractable usb lead is too short so you need to carry the extension at all times. Velvet soft case!

USB powered. No really, USB powered is a big plus. Not just as a tagline.I mean it works in my Panasonic home theatre set's USB port.I watch movies and tv shows from it.

I love it so far. It's small, it has a retracting USB cable.

Well recommend LaCie Little Disk 500GB USB 2.0.

Recommend you buy one of these.