LaCie 2big Triple RAID Drive - Review
Searching for an affordable freelancer/SOHO backup solution? I think I found one on the weekend. I use JungleDisk for offsite storage of *really* important stuff that I would quite literrally die if I lost, but in this day and age of huge media files, the need for vast amounts of reliable, fast, storage is present. After a previous Maxtor drive started making some horrendous whirring and high pitched electrical whines a replacement needed to be found.
A Saturday morning Google turned up that desktop external HDD’s with RAID arrays are now actually affordable, and realistically the only option for a backup drive. Most external drives seem to be configured in RAID0 (data is split across drives effectively doubling capacity, but the upmost worst for reliability). However some drives are available with configurable RAID settings. The LaCie 2big Triple is one such drive, I found one that was within driving distance in downtown Toronto @ Vistek.
So off I went and picked one up. Should you be south of the border it’s significantly cheaper on Amazon, I paid just under $CAD469+tax - whereas Amazon it’s $US329: LaCie 301254U 1 TB 2big Triple 2-Disk RAID Hard Drive
Unboxed it, set it up. It’s a fairly attractive little unit, the aluminium blending in with any respectable SOHO. The funky blue bulge actually is a big red/blue light & one touch backup button. It’s a bit more attractive setup than the product images would have you believe. Some designer has put his name to the unit so it looks the part. On the back you have the drive caddies - in theory it’s hot swappable (if one drive fails, replace it and the data will be rebuilt to the new drive), with the RAID setting switch, drive status lights, and connectors. I chose the ‘Triple’ unit meaning triple interface - USB/Firewire400/Firewire800. There’s also a NAS variant
I flicked it over to RAID1 and switched it on. A few blinks of various LED’s later as the drive reconfigured itself from RAID0 to RAID1 I had a drive ready to be formatted. Use DiskUtility and format/partition it, was then good to go and store files away with peace of mind. And well what can I say - it’s just another drive at this point ! I neglected to install any of the packaged software, time machine was quite keen on turning itself on and using the drive but I’m still too cynical and want to control my own backups. A couple of days later having consolidated all of my media and backup files strewn across various drives I feel exceedingly virtuous and safe in the knowledge if one drive goes tits up my data is still safe**
Okay so things aren’t quite perfect, the only downside I can see is I hate noise with a passion, I really would like a noiseless drive but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Given what this unit does the noise is a good compromise, it has a tiny little fan hidden away behind the heatsinks, so with the drives idle it’s liveable, just a gentle whirr. Accessing it it’s a different story - both drives spin up and it crunches away, but given the data’s getting written twice to both drives it’s unreasonable to expect whisper quietness. The initial dumping of gigs of data to it was quite something but now streaming back mp3’s during the day I don’t notice it. If you like ultra quiet you may want to store it away in a desk unit or something.
So if you’re not backing stuff up, sort it out, now that drives like these are reasonably priced there’s no excuse. Also bear in mind always think worst case scenario, and use something like JungleDisk or ExpanDrive to store your files offsite.
** There’s some argument out there that prepacked RAID drives are statistically not actually that hot as the drives likely came out of the factory one after the other, in which case if one fails the others not too far behind it. But that’s being a little paranoid!
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
stevem
Hi and thanks for the review. I’ve got the same drive and can’t figure out how to configure it as a RAID “safe100″ drive. I turned the cheezy little dial on the back of the drive and it does not mount or appear in Disk Utilities.
Can you point me to any instructions for how to format it and use it in this “mirrored” RAID mode?
thanks!
Jun 6th, 2008
Anders
I have almost the same issue, I turned the little screw to safe100 on the back and my drive is visible in DIsk Utilities, but I don’t know how t format it from here. LaCie install guide is useless.
Jul 11th, 2008
admin
Just search on partitioning drive in disk utility os x. You don’t need to worry about any ‘mirror’ settings, that’s all hardware based, the drive appears as one disk. I can’t remember the exact order but it will appear xxx GB LaCie in the disk utility window, click on that, then go to ‘Partition’, choose 1 partition (or multiple if you want to have multile ‘drives’) give each a name and go.
Jul 11th, 2008
Luis
But the problem is that in the safe100 mode, the disk appears with the full memory instead of the half. I have done what you said with my 2T 2big triple, and in the safe100 I continue having 2T instead 1T….what can i do?
Aug 15th, 2008
Munson Bong
Yes, great drives. I have two. One for my iTunes and another for everything else. Photos, etc.
Also, as you stated these are not true “Plug n’ Play”.
Carefully select the RAID mode you desire on the back. The switch to select this is so damned tiny, you have to spend some time to be sure you have it set to the correct mode. An arrow is indented into the switch but again is so tiny you have to be sure which end is the pointer for it. The switch is continuous and is capable of being continually turned and turned and turned so this leaves the possibility for being set incorrectly.
When you first attach the firewire or USB cable and power up you will get a small window that tells you that the system cannot read or recognize the disk. From this window select “INITIALIZE”. Selecting this will open Disk Utility. You should then see the drive listed to the left on the Disk Utility window. From here choose your format type and partitioning. If you do not understand the purpose of partitioning, choose for ONE partition. Then select “erase”. At this point, the drive should appear on your desktop ready to go. Be careful when using Disk Utility. If you have connected a drive that already has any sort of data on it that you need to save, clicking any erase or format button will erase the data on the disk. But you knew that. Yes?
My thoughts on the 2Big Triple………….
I have always been impressed with LaCie. In this unit they are using Seagate Barracuda drives. Impressive as they are very dependable workhorses. Seagate has been making drives for a very long time I feel a bit safer knowing my data is on these. These drives also sound the part but NOT at all annoying. They do have the typical spin-up sound, which I think is actually cool and once up and running are really very quiet considering what they are. There is also the typical clicking as they read and write data but again is not offensive at all.
Some people have reported that these drives do not sleep or “spin-down” when inactive. This is not true. I believe that it is related to the power switch setting. “OFF” is….well….off. No power. Der! The “AUTO” setting will turn the drives on and off with your computers power BUT WILL NOT allow them to sleep if inactive. If you set the power switch to “ON” the drives remain powered but will sleep after about ten or fifteen minutes of inactivity. The drive’s blue eye will remain on to serve as a great night light. It reminds me of Hal, the computer from the movie 2001!
Aug 16th, 2008
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