Top Notch and Rugged Portable Hard Drive: LaCie Rugged Hard Drive Review

Where to Get the LaCie Hard Drive:

• You can find the LaCie Rugged Hard Drive here on Amazon.com

What’s Included:

• 1 rugged hard drive
• 1 USB 3.0 cable (also compatible with USB 2.0)
• 1 FireWire 800 cable

I reviewed the 1TB model, which I got on Amazon.com.

LaCie Rugged Hard Drive Review:

In the list of the worst things that could possibly happen to you while traveling, losing all of your pictures would probably be the 2nd worst – just after dying. Thankfully if you have a LaCie Rugged Hard Drive, the chances of that happening will be greatly lowered.

I’m not too sure if you can say this about an external hard drive, but I’d have to admit the LaCie Hard Drive is beautiful. The designer, Neil Poulton, did a fantastic job at making the LaCie stand out from your average plastic black hard drive, while keeping it the LaCie functional. The rubber shock resistant sleeve that runs along the edge of the hard drive is orange (my favorite color) and has a rubbery feel, which will prevent it from slipping from your grip. The hard drive itself is encased in an aluminium shell, which is both protective and classy and has a very similar feel to that of the exterior of a MacBook.

The hard drive is a bit thinner than a bagel and weighs 9.2 oz, which means it isn’t bulky, but it isn’t extremely portable either.

Pros:

• Extremely rugged
• Fast transfer speeds
• AES 256-bit encryption protection
• Drop-resistant up to two meters (about 6.5 feet)
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatible
• Firewire compatible
• Portable, relatively lightweight
• Advertises as compatible with both PC and Mac (I have only tried it on Mac)

The main selling point of the LaCie Rugged Hard Drive is it’s ruggedness, hence its name. The external hard drive is shock resistant, scratch resistant and drop resistant up to 6.5ft. It even has an option to password protect your data with 256-bit data encryption for keeping your data accessible only to you.

Here is a diagram from the LaCie website:

As you can see in the diagram, there are actually 2 layers, the rubber sleeve and the internal rubber bumpers, which will protect the drive from drops. Several months ago, my Dad had unintentionally tested the LaCie’s shock absorbing ability when he dropped his messenger bag with the hard drive inside from about 4 feet onto a stone staircase. The aluminium shell was left with a dent, however our data was perfectly fine.

When traveling, the drop protective-ness and overall ruggedness is extremely helpful, since you never know what you’re going to expect around the world.

The fact that the hard drive is compatible with USB 3.0 means it is very fast as well as rugged. The LaCie Rugged Hard Drive has impressive read and write speeds, which will keep you from waiting when backing up large amounts of photos or videos.

Cons:

• Not water resistant or waterproof
• Expensive (approximately $150 on amazon.com. Amazon.com was the cheapest place where I could find the hard drive.)

While the LaCie external hard drive is durable, it isn’t invincible. The LaCie’s Achilles heel is that it isn’t waterproof or even water resistant.

If you are planning on traveling to rainy places, I would recommend you stay indoors when it rains (duh) or you can get a Sea to Summit Dry Bag, which is versatile, lightweight, can hold your hard drive along with your camera and other precious electronics and completely waterproof. You can get a dry bag here on Amazon.com.

At $150, the LaCie hard drive is much more expensive than other 1 TB hard drives. For example, the Western Digital My Passport 1TB costs about $70 on Amazon.com and the Toshiba Canvio costs only $60!

The $150 price tag is slightly justifiable when considering the swanky design, ruggedness and speed, but if you are looking for a cheap option, this probably isn’t for you.

The Verdict:

The LaCie Rugged Hard Drive is a top notch and remarkably rugged external hard drive for travelers, photographers and more. While the price of the LaCie is higher than most other hard drives, the LCie boasts several features (i.e. compatibility with both Macs and PCs, extreme durability) that most other hard drives don’t.

Where to Get It:

• You can find the LaCie Rugged Hard Drive here on Amazon.com

Do you have any questions about this hard drive? Leave your comment below and I’ll try to answer it as soon as possible.

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