LaCie 2TB Hard Disk MAX Quadra

The LaCie 2TB Hard Disk Max Quadra is designed for those who want a higher level of protection in the event of a disk failure.

The Quadra name is derived from the four interfaces at the back of the drive and it features USB2.0, FireWire400/800 and eSATA. Rather than having one disk like most hard drives, it features two 1TB disks. The benefit of having RAID support means you can either set it to RAID 0 (Fast) and use the drive as a single 2TB volume, or you can set it to RAID 1 (Safe) and have a 1TB capacity drive that mirrors your data onto the other 1TB drive so you have a safety backup should one partition fail. The SAFE/FAST switch is located at the back of the drive and is recessed to prevent you accidentally switching it when the drive is in use. 
With two disks contained, it’s not surprising that this is a heavy storage device, weighing 1.8kg. There are four rubber feet on the base to prevent it sliding around on slippery desk surfaces and the clean, brick-sized, design makes it easy to stack one or more on top. It feels strong and robust, but with its large dimensions you may need to create some space for it beside your PC. 
Switch on the LaCie 2TB Hard Disk MAX Quadra and the neon blue LED indicates it’s powered and ready to use. The hard drive was quiet in operation and the cooling fan operated silently even when we were copying and transferring large volumes of data. Testing the drive on our PC showed that it took 1 minute 24 seconds to copy 1GB of RAW files using USB 2.0 compared with 36 seconds when using FireWire 400. Opening a 200MB file into Photoshop took 10seconds with USB2.0 and 6 seconds with FireWire400. After plenty of use the hard drive remained cool to touch and showed no signs of getting warm or overheating.
The LaCie Hard Disk MAX Quadra would be a great storage option to go for if you like fast read/write speeds and want the facility of backing-up data all within one drive. If you’re going to create data backups elsewhere, the RAID 0 2TB volume will hold masses of storage space for all your large image files, but it won’t make the best cost-effective solution. If you want a cheaper 2TB hard drive without the RAID facility, you’ll be better off saving some cash and investing in LaCie’s 2TB Hard Disk at £185.

AT A GLANCE
Street Price: £260
Capacity: 2TB
Interface: USB2.0, FireWire400/800, eSATA
Interface Transfer rate: USB2.0 480Mbits/s, FireWire 400 400Mbits/s, FireWire 800 800Mbits/s, eSATA 3Gbits/s
System Requirements (PC): Windows XP, Vista, 7
System Requirements (Mac): Mac OS X 10.5,10.6
Dimensions (LxWxD): 193x177x77mm
Weight: 1.8kg

www.lacie.com