1tb @ $.62/GB, anyone?

rutt · September 9, 2006

I just bought this from J&R:

LACIE 1 TB Big Disk Extreme with Triple Interface Hard Drive
1TB Capacity / 7200 RPM / 8MB Buffer / 3 High-Speed Transfer Rates through USB 2.0. Firewire 400 and 800

for $590. As far as I know, this is a breakthrough price/capacity ratio. It's also bigger than any manufacturer's disk I know of. So who makes the disk in this box? Anyone know?

Anyway, with a disk like this at this price we should all be able to get through until the next big storage breakthrough without having to throw anything away. I think it was Marvin Minsky who said: "Don't delete, call Memorex".

Wookie · September 9, 2006

I don't know who makes the disks, but I do know that it is basically an enclosure and controller with 4 250 GB disks in it. The price is coming down because 250 GB disks are coming down, and LeCie has a 2TB model out now using 4 500 GB drives.

Wook

rutt · September 9, 2006

I think that's a different product. This thing isn't big enough for more than one disk (unless they are notebook disks.)

JohnR · September 9, 2006

As far as I know, the largest drive is 750GB by Seagate.

rutt · September 9, 2006

I didn't open the case, but maybe there really are two disks in it.

Anyway, pretty nice.

claudermilk · September 9, 2006

Nice price. There's got to be multiple drives, the 750GB bombshell only landed a couple of months ago. From what I hear you need to keep a close eye on drive temps with the LaCie enclosures--they are pretty much recommended to NOT get over at FM.

ChrisJ · September 9, 2006

Yep 750 GB (by Seagate) is currently the largest single H.D. I recently bought a single 400 GB drive for $120, but I've seen that same drive for $100 now at Frys. That's $0.25/GB!!!

wxwax · September 10, 2006

I saw an Iomega 1 tb box on sale for $600-$700 the other day. Sold out fast. Dunno who made the hardware for them.

I'm attracted to the idea of having one large box back up all of the smaller external hard drives I have.

colourbox · September 10, 2006

rutt wrote:

I didn't open the case, but maybe there really are two disks in it.

The Big Disk cases are longer than the regular d2 disk cases (I have one of the d2s), but you might not notice if you don't see the cases side by side. I've seen both at the Apple Store and the Big Disk was definitely longer. Just long enough to think there's a second drive in there, maybe they're both mounted vertically. You can kinda see the difference in case proportions on the LaCie site. Scroll down to where the d2 and the Big Disks are. The listed capacities suggest that they use 2x250GB, 2x300GB, and 2x500GB.

The user reviews on Amazon and Apple.com range from mixed to nasty. Knowing that any disk can die for any reason and any brand of mechanism can end up in any make, I have a mix of models on hand.

gluwater · September 10, 2006

I've also heard really nasty things about Lacie. Rutt, let us know how you like it and if you have any issues with it. From what I have read Lacie uses Maxtor drives but they do not advertise this. They may be using other brands as well. Maxtor does not have a very good reputation either. What kind of warranty did the drive come with? I hope everyone using these monster drives are still backing up their data on separate drives, and/or multiple sets of DVDs. Losing 1TB of data would just be awful.

Art Scott · September 10, 2006

Here is a LINK to Buffalo Technologies Terra Station , they do configure 4 - 250gb into their boxes. Lowest price I have seen so far is $679.95 .

I send an email asking what brand of HDD is in there Terra Stations.....wonder if they will reply telling me the brand or saying that is privilaged info..:D

Art Scott · September 11, 2006

Buffalo Replies
From: "Chris Hall" <chrish@buffalotech.com>
To: "ARTHUR D SCOTT" <ARTHURDSCOTT@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Terra Station
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:16:34 -0500

We use Western Digital hard drives.

Regards,

Chris Hall
Technical Support Engineer & MIS
Buffalo Technology USA
www.buffalotech.com <http://www.buffalotech.com/>

________________________________

From: ARTHUR SCOTT >Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 4:31 PM
To: Bt_Sales
Subject: Terra Station

I am curious as to what brand of hard drive you use in your Terra
Stations.

Many Thanks

Art Scott

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I must say Buffalo Tech surprised me.....as I have asked similar questions in the past to have a mfg'er tell me no or that it was privilaged info.

Of course that doesn't mean I trust them, but at least they will talk to you....I haven't had the greatest luck with W.D. or Maxtor drives....so for now i will save for 2 to 4 of either 500 or 750 gb externals for all my backing up.......right now it is a 120 gb backing to a 300gb.....those will become "c" drives and a scratch disk before long when the BIG DAWGS start arriving.

JBurt · September 11, 2006

I have a lacie 650g. I've had no problems with it... yet. One thing that concerns me is when you turn it on the drive winds up and runs constantly whether in use or not. (The heat prolem??) The screech when I turn it off, is scary. Since it is at speed, it sounds like slamming on the brakes.

claudermilk · September 11, 2006

Could be a contributing factor.

Re the Terastation: Good to know. What I was looking at for a NAS unit was the Infrant X6, you can buy an empty enclosure & fill it with whatever you want, and with their RAID-X setup the firmware apparently recofigures the drives based on what's in there. A little more spendy than Buffalo, but seemed to be worth it.

wxwax · September 11, 2006

Art Scott wrote:

I haven't had the greatest luck with W.D. or Maxtor drives....so for now i will save for 2 to 4 of either 500 or 750 gb externals for all my backing up.......right now it is a 120 gb backing to a 300gb.....those will become "c" drives and a scratch disk before long when the BIG DAWGS start arriving.

On this board I've heard badmouthing about Western Digital, Maxtor and LaCie.

Boys, that doesn't leave many big names!

I have a feeling that when someonre's burned by a failed hard drive, they get pretty angry and vengeful about it. Even though we're told repeatedly that all hard drives fail, eventually.

rutt · September 12, 2006

It's not a statistically significant sample, but I've had bad luck with every drive brand EXCEPT Maxtor. IBM (now Hitachi), Seagate, Western Digital. Never a bad experience with Maxtor. And I've had 3 LaCie's and no bad experiences with any of those. I've been spinning a lot of drives at work and at home for a long time, but as I said, I can't be confused with some sort of methodical testing system.

Go figure.

BeachBill · September 12, 2006

We purchased a Buffalo Tech TeraStation 1TB NAS server back in March 2006 at Fry's for $699 - $150 rebate = $549 which is about .55/GB (based on manufacturer's stated 1TB = 1000GB).

The TeraStation is an ethernet device so it just sits on our network. I refuse to buy anything that requires to be connected to a computer. It's currently used for online music, photo and data storage (everything is backed up to DVD of course).

It also acts as an FTP server so I can back up photo shoots remotely assuming I have a high speed connection.

ChrisJ · September 12, 2006

rutt wrote:

It's not a statistically significant sample, but I've had bad luck with every drive brand EXCEPT Maxtor. IBM (now Hitachi), Seagate, Western Digital. Never a bad experience with Maxtor. And I've had 3 LaCie's and no bad experiences with any of those. I've been spinning a lot of drives at work and at home for a long time, but as I said, I can't be confused with some sort of methodical testing system.

Go figure.

As a Sysadmin, I've seen *all* types of drives fail from *all* manufacturers. It's not an if, but a when. Only thing you can do is back up your data to another source and/or use RAID.

I like Seagate's right now for my personal use, simply because they seem a bit quieter.

wxwax · September 12, 2006

Maxtor 1TB for $650.

Is it possible to one-touch back-up three external hard drives to this big boy?

gluwater · September 12, 2006

ChrisJ wrote:

I like Seagate's right now for my personal use, simply because they seem a bit quieter.

I also like the 5 year manufacturer warranty.

I just bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB. It'll be here tomorrow. So I have a WD Raptor for my C drive and this will be my main storage drive. And once I save up some money I'll get a second to use as a backup drive. I think the one thing to keep in mind here is that regardless of how large your drive is you still need to back it up, preferable in at least 2 places.

colourbox · September 12, 2006

ChrisJ wrote:

As a Sysadmin, I've seen *all* types of drives fail from *all* manufacturers. It's not an if, but a when. Only thing you can do is back up your data to another source and/or use RAID.

We should remember what Mean Time Between Failure is...it's just the average. Regardless of brand, you can end up with a drive at one end of the average ("I bought brand XXX and it lasted 6 years no problem!") or the other ("Hey...where the he** are my photos???")

LuckyBob · September 13, 2006

ChrisJ wrote:

As a Sysadmin, I've seen *all* types of drives fail from *all* manufacturers. It's not an if, but a when. Only thing you can do is back up your data to another source and/or use RAID.

And even RAID isn't failsafe (especially on servers)

pathfinder · September 14, 2006

I have been eyeing the Buffalo 1000Gb Terra Station from some time. As the price continues to fall, it looks more and more enticing.

You could have two of these devices on your network, and thus have a full TerraByte of data storage with backup, and not have it directly connected to your computer. It can also be made so it can be accessed via the WEB as well. You need appropriate security for this of course.

How many of us ever thought we would need a TerreByte of data storage for ur own personal files 5 years ago??

Art Scott · September 14, 2006

Fyi - Seagate Warranty Info

gluwater wrote:

I also like the 5 year manufacturer warranty..

Registered my Seagate ( a little over a year ago when purchased)....ran the s/n on Seagate site and saw the mfg date was over a year earlier.

Asked Seagate about conditions of warranty.....5 yr warranty starts day of manufacture.....so if you buy from a source that isn't selling very many...that 5 yr warranty may only be 3yr or less.....always check s/n's before purchase......of course in most states that warranty will be a full 5 yrs from purchase date in accordance with consumer laws......:D

claudermilk · September 15, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

I have been eyeing the Buffalo 1000Gb Terra Station from some time. As the price continues to fall, it looks more and more enticing.

You could have two of these devices on your network, and thus have a full TerraByte of data storage with backup, and not have it directly connected to your computer. It can also be made so it can be accessed via the WEB as well. You need appropriate security for this of course.

How many of us ever thought we would need a TerreByte of data storage for ur own personal files 5 years ago??

The NAS units are getting more and more attractive.

I hear you on the personal storage thing. I now have 1.2TB raw in drives in my case right now. :wow I know that isn't going to be enough for long....

BeachBill · September 15, 2006

Speaking of the Buffalo 1TB TeraStation, Fry's (instore only) has it advertised this weekend for $559 (after $120 rebate) . Price good till Tuesday, Sept 19.

SpeshulEd · September 18, 2006

this is my buddies, 2.2tb - he made it himself, the case is antec, some 4" fans, currently 8 hdd's, and a 350w power supply. he uses it for all of his audio recordings...

1tb @ $.62/GB, anyone?

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