LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini (250GB)
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May 22, 2005 03:27
Mediocre
1.0/5
I bought this drive as a shared plug and play device. I need to backup the different Macs on my network so I started by partitioning the drive. Now the first thing I realised is that I could see the drive pretty well when connected as a USB2 drive on my new PowerBook. This is because it appears as another hard disk on the desktop. I was able to use the OSX tools to see the drive and partition it. First issue: there seems to be a minimum partition size, which is not exactly helpful - this limits the size of the larger partitions that I need. Backing-up my PowerBook onto a selected Partition worked fine and I thought we were going in the right direction.
Now number of my Macs onle have USB1 and Ethernet. USB1 is clearly too slow for back-ups so I needed to get Ethernet up and running. Well you may be a networking expert ? but I am not. You cannot believe the number of hours I have spent trying all manner of different Networking preference and ED Mini set-ups to get the damned thing working. I know its all obvious once you get there but for those of us who have other things to do in life its not.
I eventually worked out a method for accessing the drive using an Ethernet cable by setting IP addresses manually on both my computer and the ED Mini. To do this I had to connect the ED Mini as a USB2 device on my new PowerBook to access the "advanced" set-up panel where I could override DHCP. I'm sure there is a better way to do this and that I can get my computer to act as a DHCP server but I have not yet figured it out yet.
How about when the drive is connected to my wireless router? I can get the device to work in DHCP mode when it is connected to the router by resetting the ED Mini back to its factory settings in the Advanced set-up panel. In this mode I can also manage the ED Mini using my browser. However, a certain degree of trial and error is required to find the ED Mini because when you try to find the device using the Go/Connect to Server/Browse menus it is not recognised. You therefore have to try a set of informed guesses for the ED Mini's IP address and you will see the page come up when you guess the right one!!
However, this is not the end of the story. When connected in Ethernet mode I can only see one partition - and I clearly want to see all of them. The marketing blurb tells me that I can set permissions for different users. Well even if I could see more than one partition, I can't see anywhere in the browser based management software to do this.
Maybe this is all because I am running Macs. Well I don't think so. I also have a PC on my network so I tried to log in to the drive from there. Guess what? No response. Now I have spent quite long enough trying to get some sort of work around for my Macs and I simply cannot face having to go through the same rigmarole for my PCs.
I have another LaCie product. This is a simple Firewire 500 GB drive that seems to work fine. It powers down when not being used and comes up quickly when I need it. However, the ED Mini does not seem to have any time related power down facility and I think you have to use the browser based management software (or the button on the front of the box) to put it into sleep mode ? a real pain. As you might expect, there is no remote power up facility, which means you have to use the button on the front of the box to turn it on. This seems to call into question the whole basis for having a remote drive in the first place.
Now this power up and power down facility might not be such an issue if the drive was quiet. It is not! The fan is pretty loud and the unit vibrates in such a way that I do not really want it near where I am working. My desk is upstairs and I can hear a loud hum quite clearly from downstairs.
Of course LaCie's technical helpdesk is useless. They tell you to go to the dealer you bought the product from for help. Guess what? They don't have a clue. Go to the LaCie website and try FAQ. Type in the word "Ethernet" leaving all other fields unselected so that you get the maximum number of answers. Guess what? No FAQs on this subject at all. Now LaCie has had Ethernet drives on the market for some time now and I simply cannot believe that there have been no issues on this subject.
So I call the sales number (there is no technical helpline number) and they tell me to submit an email request. Well this is a new product and you might think that they might be paying attention to requests about new products. One week after sending my request I have no response.
Then I try something else. Maybe they have supplied old software on my new product. The software version supplied with the device is "LaCix 1.0.0" and it looks as if there is a version 4.0 for Ethernet drives that you can download from the LaCie website. Well lets have a go... It turns out that the files will not unzip - either on my Mac or my PC. Pretty useless!
So here I am left with no support for a new flagship product that seems to work well in USB2 mode as a simple (partitioned) hard drive. I cannot get to use it for the purpose I bought it. I'm not even sure if I can be bothered to return it to the dealer - I have spent more than enough time on it and the hassle of packing it all up and tripping down to the post office to send it back to them... and then making sure I get my money back on my credit card etc is probably more than I can bear at this time.
I think what gets to me most is simple and seemingly crass statements in the Quick Install Guide that comes with the ED Mini. Things like:
1. Ethernet Disk mini will appear on your desktop
2. Log on will start automatically
Oh Yeah? Well I hope that if you buy it they will have sorted out some of the basics... or that you are a networking wonk. Good Luck!! -
January 6, 2007 09:54
4.5/5
I've had a file server in the basement for years, sharing out all of our family's documents and music and software. So every couple of weeks I'd run Windows updates...and every year or so replace a bad fan or some such...and this year, the old 120GB Maxtor gave out. So I went to Newegg looking for a 250GB drive, and found that for $40 more I could retire the server entirely, save power, and eliminate maintenance aside from running backups. What's not to like?
Network performance is rather better than my old server, and it took only about 30 minutes to set up shares, assign permissions, remap everyone's drive letters, and start copying over the data.
The drive runs cool and quiet - - at least by my standards. The astonishingly heavy and solid aluminum case probably has a lot to do with that. It looks and feels like a quality product. -
November 8, 2006 10:17
4.0/5
After reading the previous negative reviews, I decided to leave my two cents to give the unit some justice.I bought this device (300GB) on ebay about 2 months ago.
I own a Windows laptop and an Apple Laptop, and I am no networking expert, but right out of the box the drive did exactly what I expected it to do.
Here is how I use it :
The device is hooked up to a linksys wireless router (WRT54G)and mainly holds my music and videos library.
Using the web management tool, I disabled DHCP on the unit so it always maintains the same IP (useful for port forwarding). It is mounted via SMB on both the MAC and Windows, though when i want to move larger files i do it via ftp, and when I move even larger files i plug the device with USB (I do that about once a month).
For music, I use iTunes, with the library on the NAS. Streams perfect. Only, adding and writing to files takes longer than if the library was on the local drive. Pretty normal (and I suspect this is in part due to how iTunes deals with the files).
For Videos, I stream with VLC. No problem there too. To be sure everything runs smooothly I raised the file buffer to 3000ms.
Icing on the cake : I configured my router with a dyndns account, so I can access my drive anywhere outside my home via FTP. Configuring shares : I gave access to my friends to the music and videos, and my family to a share for their personal backup. No problem there either.
Now for the cons :
- Slow Ethernet Speed (via wireless) : I never got higher than 3MB/S, though it seems (and from what i read almost everywhere) this is because of the FAT32 filesystem (which has a max filesize of 4GB ...), which on the other hand is compatible with both Mac and PC's (unlike NTFS)
- Slow web based management though absolutely usable.
- A bit noisy, but then again, i don't really know how loud other comparable drives are.
All in all, a great value, I don't regret it at all. -
August 24, 2005 12:41
4.5/5
Received it yesterday so I haven't used it much. But so far Great. I Connected the storage drive to my wireless router as per instructions and it worked without me having to do anything further. I kept the drive in it's default format FAT32. Opened My Network and I saw the drive. Maped a network drive to it and backed up lot of my info onto the drive. -
September 2, 2007 04:18
4.0/5
I checked out a bunch of other devices including turning an old PC into a network server. Check this link for Pros and Cons of different home server/network drive options.
Detailed Pros and Cons of different Network drive options:
http://www.999reasons.com/content/view/116/1/
Including a old PC/Linux server or even an Xbox or PS3.
The net result very happy with the Lacie Ethernet drive! -
December 29, 2006 10:47
3.5/5
Just got this today. Now, I've gotten this about two years after it originally came out, so I got it for $100 through a good deal around Christmas.
Plugged the hard drive in and there was a bit of confusion. I'm no tech expert, so I got help from my tech savvy dad and things started becoming a bit clearer. Since there's two different connections to this, I'll leave information on both the USB and Ethernet.
USB
Connected the USB and there was some concern at first because when we checked the hard drive space it was only reading 15 MB free! At best it was reading that there was about 130 MB total to the hard drive, quite a shocker when I paid for a 250 GB hard drive! What we realized, though, was that you have to log in to the hard drive in order to access the rest of the drive. After that, it's free access to about 230 GB. The log-in procedure is a slight bump I wasn't expecting, but all in all I like it because it makes the hard drive at least a little more secure. After I had everything set up I tested out the speed. Transferred a 54.7 MB folder from a laptop with USB 1 connection to the hard drive and it took 1 minute and 30 seconds. Sorry, don't know how long it would take with USB 2, but for those who don't have USB 2 and don't foresee getting it, there's a good idea. For those of you with USB 2, you can be guaranteed (sp?) it will go faster.
Ethernet
The ethernet was a bit trickier to figure out. If you're not tech savvy and don't know anyone that is, this probably isn't the hard drive for you. However, if you do have a tech person on hand, this is a pretty good deal. Once connected (which was a little tricky, but not as bad as we thought), the transfer of a 54.7 MB folder (pictures, same as above with the USB) went at 20 seconds flat. I was impressed.
As to the formatting problems or ability to communicate with multiple systems as in the other complaints listed, I could be wrong but my guess is there was a simple lack of following instructions. The manuals clearly warn that formatting the drive one way will make it such that you can only read it from other systems. My understanding: If you format the disk (beyond it's factory format) for a Windows machine, you won't be able to write to the hard drive from a Mac but you will be able to read. Vice versa for a Mac. It's also Linux ready.
Overall, it seems to be an excellent product. -
September 6, 2006 06:55
Mediocre
1.0/5
