The LaCie Rugged 500GB Hard Drive is specifically designed to withstand all the bumps and bruises of frequent travel and extensive use. As such, it is ideal for business men and women who need a compact, portable store of data without having to worry about damaging it in the packing, travelling and unpacking process. Apart from its famous strength, the most notable feature of the LaCie Rugged 500GB Hard Disk is that it is powered by the USB BUS, which means that you will not need an extra AC power cord to power this hard-drive. The LaCie Rugged 500GB is truly a plug and play device, yet a device with a huge amount of data storage capacity.
Have a look at the features of the LaCie Rugged 500GB hard disk:
- 500 GB External Hard-Drive in shock resistant case
- BUS powered and plug and play operable.
- 3.6 inches by 1.0 inches by 1 inch in size
- Triple interface that includes USB 2.0 and both firewire 800 and 400
- Weighs 8.82 ounces
- Requires Windows XP, Vista, 2000, or Mac OS 10.5 Leopard or higher.
- Requires at least 128 MB RAM.
I personally got the LaCie Rugged 500GB for my somewhat dated Windows XP laptop and it has proven itself to be a lifesaver in situations where I needed to backup large files that my USB flash drives couldn’t hold. There are only so many 16GB, 32GB USB flash drives you can buy before you realize that it’s getting ridiculous and you need a different solution. I like the idea of the BUS technology and not having to pack away one of those cumbersome AC adapters to simply power the thing, thus it works much like any flash drive does, except that it is faster (even more so with firewire 800) and stores 20 times more! It does work very well and the super-fast firewire 800 connection is awesome!
All in all, I’ve been very happy with all the LaCie hard drives that I have owned. They seem to fail less compared to other brands, such as WD, SeaGate, and others. I especially like the LaCie Rugged hard disk, since I do travel often, and sometimes I go to some rather remote parts of the world. The fact that it runs on BUS technology means that I don’t need any of those annoying and bothersome adaptors that take too much space in my computer bag.
The transfer speed of the LaCie Rugged 500GB is satisfactory when using USB 2.0, and well above satisfactory when using Firewire 800. The versatility in terms of connection types is another plus; I get the impression that LaCie have really put a lot of thought into this drive being one of the leaders on the market for travelling data storage, with its rugged, shock construction, variety of connection types (USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800) and of course its self-powering ability via the USB BUS.
A lot has been said about the ‘rugged’ name and exactly how ‘rugged’ the LaCie Rugged 500GB actually is. The orange rubber bumper and aluminum shell design certainly make it very hard to break it if you drop it. Can it survive being thrown out of an aircraft flying at 20,000 feet? Probably not. But compared to your average Western Digital hard drive, I know which one I would choose on a trip to France.
Pros:
It operates on BUS technology, allowing you to use it anywhere without needing an electrical outlet.
Sturdy shock-resistant design makes it ideal for travelers.
Reliable and less likely to fail
Versatile high speed connectivity
Works on USB 2.0, fire wire 800/400
Cons:
Per gigabyte of storage space, the LaCie Rugged is more expensive than its competitors
If you need more information about the LaCie Rugged 500GB Hard Drive on Amazon, click here.
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