Review: LaCie 1 TB d2 Quadra Hard Drive

[I wrote this review, with additional revisions here, for a major electronics purveyor's Web site.]

“No problems so far,” written 3/26/2010

Pros:
Easy to setup, High capacity, Easy to use
Best uses:
Backup, Additional storage
Describe yourself:
Casual user
Primary use:
Personal

I know starting my review with the headline “no problems so far” doesn’t convey much confidence. But before I bought the d2 Quadra, I did a lot of research into an external hard drive for my ancient PowerBook, and it seemed like for every review I found praising a hard drive, another was posted in which the consumer complained the drive failed out of the box.

In the end I went with the d2 Quadra primarily because I felt it was the best VALUE. I thought the Western Digital and Seagate external hard drives were more aesthetically pleasing. But I didn’t like the idea of having to use the WD software (necessary, I believe, if one wants to take advantage of the drive’s energy saver option). And I didn’t like that the Seagate drive had only one orientation, according to a reviewer who wrote that the drive’s base doesn’t allow it to fully rest on its side.

The d2 Quadra was several dollars cheaper than the WD and Seagate drives I looked at. I consider LaCie a pretty reliable brand. I have another external LaCie drive, a small, portable model that’s a few years old now that I still use . And I liked the d2 Quadra’s PORTABILITY, or FUNCTIONALITY, with its four interface options (eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0). I expect this hard drive will be around when my computer meets its demise, so COMPATIBILITY with future computers I might get was a must.

The d2 Quadra is UGLY, however. The weight and noise, which other reviewers have mentioned, haven’t bothered me, however. I keep it upright and plugged in on my desk. I was easily able to create three partitions on it. Every few days I turn on the d2 Quadra, connect my laptop via FireWire 400, and do a Time Machine backup as well as a Clone update with SuperDuper!

Which reminds me of another great feature of this hard drive: its SIZE. I can’t comment on how much of the advertised space is actually accessible to me because I’m nowhere near reaching the limit. With 1 TB at my disposal, I don’t have to worry about running out of disk space.

Tompkins Square Dog Run Halloween Parade Photos

I’ve posted on Flickr another set of photos that I took. The photos are from this year’s Tompkins Square Dog Run Halloween Parade.

On Michelle Wie’s Disqualification

On this week’s edition of On the Media, they discussed the controversy surrounding Wie’s disqualification from her first tournament as a pro. Thought it was worth mentioning because it concerns an ethical dilemma faced by a journalist. More on this later.

I’ve also uploaded the photos that I took at the anti-war march in Washington, D.C., last month. You can view them at my Flickr site.

Stoop Sales and Feral Cats

I’m posting two reports that I did for my radio reporting class. The files are fairly big but unless you’re on a modem, you should have no trouble listening to them.

Brooklyn stoop sales (1:42) I’d wanted to note that I always see flyers for stoop sales taped to streetlamps or advertised on the sidewalk in chalk, but there wasn’t enough time. A minute and a half really is no time at all!

Feral cats (3:34) The inspiration for this report came about because I fostered a feral cat that Elyse (one of the women whom I interviewed) had trapped.

After writing about my desire to walk across the country, I read about a man who’s doing just that right now. He left California in April and expects to reach New York in September. His story appeared in the New York Times magazine a week ago, meaning you’d have to pay for access, but here’s his Web site: The Fat Man Walking.

Just for fun, here’s a cute article about the release of the latest Harry Potter book, about a husband and wife who have to buy two copies of The Half-Blood Prince because both want to read it at the same time. I totally understand their rationale. On another note, I noticed around 1:30 Saturday morning that the New York Times online had a review of the latest Harry Potter book. I wonder if the reviewer wrote a draft beforehand, based on what she thought would be in the book, and then skimmed the book for plot points. As far as I know, no advanced copies of the book were (intentionally) released.

Awake Late

I just added a copy of my first zine, Awake Late #1, onto my Web site. Check it out here by clicking on the “Zine” link and read about my first cigarette! Issue #2 will go up soon.