LaCie Rugged Hard Disk Hard drive 250 GB

The LaCie Rugged All-Terrain External 250 hard-drive is a portable storage device which will allow you to store 250gb of multimedia files such as pictures, music and video. You will obviously also be able to hold documents and other files as well (e.g. software installations).

Measuring at 9 cm wide, 14.5 cm long, 2.5 cm in height and weighing just 250 grams, making the LaCie external hard-drive very light as well as portable. The ...
...amount. So, looking at the LaCie external hard-drive you will be looking at a memory capacity of 230-240 GB, which in this case is not a large chunk, but is still considerable.

There is no known reason why all hard-drives (including the LaCie) have less memory than stated, it may be due to the internal disk within the outer case not being able to hold the stated amount or it may be that company's want to make a profit out of its customers. ... more

The LaCie Rugged All-Terrain External 250 hard-drive is a portable storage device which will allow you to store 250gb of multimedia files such as pictures, music and video. You will obviously also be able to hold documents and other files as well (e.g. software installations).

Measuring at 9 cm wide, 14.5 cm long, 2.5 cm in height and weighing just 250 grams, making the LaCie external hard-drive very light as well as portable. The hard-drive is portable in the way that it is very light, the only thing you have to take into account is that you will require a medium to large sized pocket or any form of bag in order to carry the device. You could always opt to just carrying it around in your hand, which is not very practical in everyday life.

All external and internal hard-drives state a certain amount of memory capacity, but in fact they have less than what they state. For e.g. a 320 GB hard-drive will have about 290 GB, which is quite a chunk away from the stated amount. So, looking at the LaCie external hard-drive you will be looking at a memory capacity of 230-240 GB, which in this case is not a large chunk, but is still considerable.

There is no known reason why all hard-drives (including the LaCie) have less memory than stated, it may be due to the internal disk within the outer case not being able to hold the stated amount or it may be that company's want to make a profit out of its customers. No on really knows. If you don't believe me about the memory capacity of a hard drive being less than stated, you can yourself check your hard-drives capacity by going into 'My Computer' and then right clicking the computer hard-drive icon and going into its properties.

Now, leaving the memory capacity of the hard-drive and moving onto other areas of the LaCie hard-drive. This particular hard-drive has a USB 2.0 interface, which is basically the type of connection the hard-drive uses in order to connect to an external device, usually a desktop PC or laptop. A USB 2.0 interface means that the transfer of all files to and from the hard-drive will be fairly quick. Another factor, which speeds up the transfer of files is the buffer size. Buffer size put into simple terms is a region in the hard-drive where data is held temporarily, before permanently entering the hard-disk memory. The buffer size of the LaCie external hard-drive is 8 MB, this means that a maximum of 8 MB of data is temporarily held before being fully transferred into the hard-drive. The buffering process means that data is transferred constantly and consistently.

The interface transfer rate on the LaCie is 400 Mbps (Mega-BITS per second), this is different to memory capacity as it is the speed at which data is transferred between the hard-drive on a PC or laptop. The interface transfer rate along with the 8 MB of buffer size means that you get an overall data transfer rate in MB (Mega Bytes) of 30 MB/s (Mega BYTES per second). The 30 MB/s transfer rate means that the hard-disk will allow a maximum of 30 MB of data transfer every second to and from a desktop PC or laptop.

As soon as you plug your LaCie external hard-drive into your PC or Laptop, it will be discovered virtually instantly as the average seek-time (time taken to discover or find the hard-drive) is 12 ms (mili-seconds), which is absolutely quick and efficient as is anything under 1 second.

When buying a hard-disk you have to consider the spindle speed of the hard-drive, the LaCie 250 GB external hard-drive has a spindle speed of 5400 rpm (revolutions per minute). Most, consumer level hard-drives have spindle speeds of between 3600 rpm and 7200 rpm. The 5400 rpm spindle speed is the most common. Spindle speed basically involves components within the hard-drive, which affect the performance and transfer rate of the hard-drive. This basically means that the higher the spindle speed the better the performance of the hard-drive, the quicker the transfer rate and the higher the price.

The most important aspect of the LaCie external hard-drive is its protective outer casing, which will protect it from potentially dangerous knocks and drops. Most external hard-drives come with minimal protection and if dropped may cause you to lose all existing data on the hard-drive. You won't have to worry about dropping the LaCie hard-drive because the outer casing has been specifically designed to absorb the force created by dropping the device. And making sure none or very little damage is caused to the fragile components, which make up the hard-drive. The outer-casing doesn't mean that the hard-drive will with-stand drops from very high places, only drops from fairly small heights, such as 1 - 1.5 metres.

With the LaCie external hard-drive you get the standard USB 2.0 connection cable as well as an extra USB cable, required to give the USB electrical power in order to run. You will also get a CD, which includes the necessary drivers and other software.

The LaCie external hard-drive will function on all Apple and Microsoft Operating systems, so you will not have to worry if you are using an Apple or Microsoft OS. The hard-drives system requirements are very basic and will function on all PC's with as little as 350 MHz of processing speed and 128 MB of ram. Again this is no worry as most people have PC's with more than enough RAM and processing power.

The standard warranty for the LaCie 250 GB external hard-drive is 2 years. Which means that your hard-drive will be replaced if anything goes wrong within 2 years of purchase. The 2 year warranty applies to damages caused by accidental dropping of the device or any internal failure.

Overall, the LaCie external hard-drive is a great device for taking with you on any trip, which may involve anything from social interaction to rugged adventures with friends. The only downside is the high price of the hard-drive. The LaCie hard-drive although being more expensive than other hard-drives, may prove to be more reliable and efficient in the long run. The average price of this particular hard-drive is about £99.

Thank you for reading my review. 

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