LaCie Quadra Drive? at DVinfo.net

Nicholi Brossia · July 2nd, 2007, 01:04 PM

I recently purchased two of the new 500GB LaCie Quadra external drives for capture/archive through Final Cut 5. I quickly began recieving "dropped frame" error messages when trying to capture to and sometimes even play from the drives. This has happened on two different computers with three different decks and both firewire 400 and 800, even though everything has worked fine with previous generation LaCie drives. It almost seems like the new drives are taking over my computer's firewire bus.

The manufacturer didn't understand what was going on, so I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced any wacky stuff with these new drives.

Jim Fields · July 2nd, 2007, 03:17 PM

I dont use Lacie externals drives for that reason, and also because everyone I have ever purchased has gone up in blue smoke.

It is the drives, not your computer.

Nicholi Brossia · July 2nd, 2007, 03:40 PM

Wow. Generally I just use them as archive drives, so that's probably why my luck has lasted so long. Which brand/model do you use primarily?

Jim Fields · July 2nd, 2007, 06:15 PM

I had, key word had, the Lacie Terabyte drives. I believe they were the bigger disc versions, had 4 drives inside. I used them for storage, and for streaming my footage from, meaning before I put a 750GB drive in my iMac, I used those. Now I just buy 750's and get my drive enclosure off of the web, and use the 750 in my iMac to store current projects. No more speed issues.

My experience with Lacie was this..
Overheating
Finder crashes
Skipping, or loss of frame rate while working with HDV footage
Raid boards going bad
Blue smoke
Bad power supplies
Random drive failures.

In the past 2 years I have lost 7 Terabytes worth of data from Lacie, I will never go back to them.

Malameel Shawky · July 2nd, 2007, 06:46 PM

One LaCie Drive, and it died and never bought another one.

I actually had call one of thise Drive Savors compnaies, and they told me tha around teh lab they actualled them "Lazy" drives because they break so often and LaCie does nothing about it.

So I never bought one again.
M

David Scattergood · July 3rd, 2007, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malameel Shawky

One LaCie Drive, and it died and never bought another one.

I actually had call one of thise Drive Savors compnaies, and they told me tha around teh lab they actualled them "Lazy" drives because they break so often and LaCie does nothing about it.

So I never bought one again.
M

Any problems with G Tech G raid drives? I'm soon going to purchase one (more than likely this brand) - FW800 1TB (which I may mirror...depending on if I can set that up).

Kevin James · July 19th, 2007, 05:58 PM

After a couple days of troubleshooting it appears my week old lacie quadra 500 was the culprit behind my dropped frame issues in FCP. Calling B&H Tomorrow. G-tech here I come!

Glenn Davidson · July 19th, 2007, 06:45 PM

I have spend the last three days downloading corrupted audio files in fragments from a Lacie Quadra to CD for editing in Protools. The client recorded to CF then copied to Lacie 500 gig external drive and wiped the cards. The Lacie likes to pick random sections to lock-up for 2 minutes. I have 4 Glyph drives that work very well. I am also looking into the G Tech raid, but will probably stick with Glyph.

Lazy..HA...I like that.

Kevin James · July 19th, 2007, 08:14 PM

Yeah, I'm not real happy.

Can anyone recommend a decent firewire enclosure that supports sata drives?

Oliver Smith · July 19th, 2007, 11:40 PM

Interesting. I use Lacie D2E drives for my HD capture and have never had a single problem. So far I've discarded Maxtor, because of the constant drive failures, and don't touch standard HDD's (Segate or Western Digital) in external enclosures because of the power/connection problems. Actually, the Maxtor drives usually tend to actually outlast those! So far my Lacie has outlasted any other HDD bar the one thats actually in my Mac.

David Scattergood · July 20th, 2007, 05:28 AM

Never heard of Glyph...not sure if you can get them in the uk?
I've just found a good price on a G Tech G raid Drive (500gb) which will get me out of my desperate lack of space situation very quickly.
There are also G tech G Drives and SATA's...unfortunately I still don't know the difference between them all :(
The G safe's might be a good bet as they are automatically mirrored (and the SATA drives are hot swappable)...so many questions!

Kevin James · July 20th, 2007, 09:29 AM

B&H is exchanging my Lacie Quadra for the G-Technology 500gb fw400/800 drive. It's just the standard non raid version. My only worry is that it is fanless......but I keep my office pretty cool anyway.

David Scattergood · July 20th, 2007, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin James

B&H is exchanging my Lacie Quadra for the G-Technology 500gb fw400/800 drive. It's just the standard non raid version. My only worry is that it is fanless......but I keep my office pretty cool anyway.

Let us know how you get on with this one...to be honest I don't really know what the difference is between the standard and the raid drive...striped...mirrored etc.

Timothy R. Barksdale · July 21st, 2007, 05:52 PM

I am not employed by nor affiliate with... own stock in.. etc. etc.
However, my experience with LaCie has been very positive. I own 6 drives overall.
2- 250 gig
2- 500 gig
and
2- 1.28 Terrabyte drives.

All have performed well given that they are firewire and have limitations. They cannot preform like eSata drives, which we are moving to entirely this year.

We produce in HDV, HDCam and still have a fantastic Digital Beta cam as well. FCP and Macs are the backbone of our editing systems. Currently we are editing 1/2 hour show for PBS shot in Ecuador and are beginning a second that we completed last week in Alaska for Audubon and the Lab of Ornithology.
Tim Barksdale
Birdman Productions LLC
Choteau, MT

Pete Cofrancesco · July 23rd, 2007, 10:03 PM

I have had nothing but good experiences with Lacie. It's not fair to condemn an entire brand due to one bad drive because most drives have similar failure rates. Btw, I don't believe Lacie makes the hard drive, they build the enclosure and put an interface card with it. The heavy metal enclosure transfers heat from the drive without the need of a noisy fan, and their interface cards provide good transfer rates.

July 2nd, 2007, 01:04 PM	#1
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	LaCie Quadra Drive? I recently purchased two of the new 500GB LaCie Quadra external drives for capture/archive through Final Cut 5. I quickly began recieving "dropped frame" error messages when trying to capture to and sometimes even play from the drives. This has happened on two different computers with three different decks and both firewire 400 and 800, even though everything has worked fine with previous generation LaCie drives. It almost seems like the new drives are taking over my computer's firewire bus. The manufacturer didn't understand what was going on, so I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced any wacky stuff with these new drives. __________________ Nicholi Brossia

July 2nd, 2007, 03:40 PM	#3
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	Wow. Generally I just use them as archive drives, so that's probably why my luck has lasted so long. Which brand/model do you use primarily? __________________ Nicholi Brossia

July 19th, 2007, 05:58 PM	#7
Kevin James Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 204	After a couple days of troubleshooting it appears my week old lacie quadra 500 was the culprit behind my dropped frame issues in FCP. Calling B&H Tomorrow. G-tech here I come! Last edited by Kevin James; July 19th, 2007 at 08:14 PM.

July 19th, 2007, 11:40 PM	#10
Oliver Smith Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 29	Interesting. I use Lacie D2E drives for my HD capture and have never had a single problem. So far I've discarded Maxtor, because of the constant drive failures, and don't touch standard HDD's (Segate or Western Digital) in external enclosures because of the power/connection problems. Actually, the Maxtor drives usually tend to actually outlast those! So far my Lacie has outlasted any other HDD bar the one thats actually in my Mac. __________________ Liquid Productions

July 21st, 2007, 05:52 PM	#14
Timothy R. Barksdale New Boot Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 16	LaCie Drives I am not employed by nor affiliate with... own stock in.. etc. etc. However, my experience with LaCie has been very positive. I own 6 drives overall. 2- 250 gig 2- 500 gig and 2- 1.28 Terrabyte drives. All have performed well given that they are firewire and have limitations. They cannot preform like eSata drives, which we are moving to entirely this year. We produce in HDV, HDCam and still have a fantastic Digital Beta cam as well. FCP and Macs are the backbone of our editing systems. Currently we are editing 1/2 hour show for PBS shot in Ecuador and are beginning a second that we completed last week in Alaska for Audubon and the Lab of Ornithology. Tim Barksdale Birdman Productions LLC Choteau, MT

July 2nd, 2007, 03:17 PM	#2
Jim Fields Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Worth Texas Posts: 247	I dont use Lacie externals drives for that reason, and also because everyone I have ever purchased has gone up in blue smoke. It is the drives, not your computer.

July 2nd, 2007, 06:15 PM	#4
Jim Fields Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Worth Texas Posts: 247	I had, key word had, the Lacie Terabyte drives. I believe they were the bigger disc versions, had 4 drives inside. I used them for storage, and for streaming my footage from, meaning before I put a 750GB drive in my iMac, I used those. Now I just buy 750's and get my drive enclosure off of the web, and use the 750 in my iMac to store current projects. No more speed issues. My experience with Lacie was this.. Overheating Finder crashes Skipping, or loss of frame rate while working with HDV footage Raid boards going bad Blue smoke Bad power supplies Random drive failures. In the past 2 years I have lost 7 Terabytes worth of data from Lacie, I will never go back to them.

July 2nd, 2007, 06:46 PM	#5
Malameel Shawky Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 68	One LaCie Drive, and it died and never bought another one. I actually had call one of thise Drive Savors compnaies, and they told me tha around teh lab they actualled them "Lazy" drives because they break so often and LaCie does nothing about it. So I never bought one again. M

July 19th, 2007, 06:45 PM	#8
Glenn Davidson Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Nevada City, California Posts: 499	I have spend the last three days downloading corrupted audio files in fragments from a Lacie Quadra to CD for editing in Protools. The client recorded to CF then copied to Lacie 500 gig external drive and wiped the cards. The Lacie likes to pick random sections to lock-up for 2 minutes. I have 4 Glyph drives that work very well. I am also looking into the G Tech raid, but will probably stick with Glyph. Lazy..HA...I like that.

July 19th, 2007, 08:14 PM	#9
Kevin James Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 204	Yeah, I'm not real happy. Can anyone recommend a decent firewire enclosure that supports sata drives?

July 20th, 2007, 05:28 AM	#11
David Scattergood Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 755	Never heard of Glyph...not sure if you can get them in the uk? I've just found a good price on a G Tech G raid Drive (500gb) which will get me out of my desperate lack of space situation very quickly. There are also G tech G Drives and SATA's...unfortunately I still don't know the difference between them all :( The G safe's might be a good bet as they are automatically mirrored (and the SATA drives are hot swappable)...so many questions!

July 20th, 2007, 09:29 AM	#12
Kevin James Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 204	B&H is exchanging my Lacie Quadra for the G-Technology 500gb fw400/800 drive. It's just the standard non raid version. My only worry is that it is fanless......but I keep my office pretty cool anyway.

July 23rd, 2007, 10:03 PM	#15
Pete Cofrancesco Inner Circle Join Date: May 2004 Location: USA Posts: 3,005	I have had nothing but good experiences with Lacie. It's not fair to condemn an entire brand due to one bad drive because most drives have similar failure rates. Btw, I don't believe Lacie makes the hard drive, they build the enclosure and put an interface card with it. The heavy metal enclosure transfers heat from the drive without the need of a noisy fan, and their interface cards provide good transfer rates.