LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 portable hard drive
SuperSpeed USB and military-grade toughness?
Review Although it has been said that it won't become mainstream until it is officially adopted by Intel in 2011, USB 3.0 - aka SuperSpeed USB - is steadily emerging from the shadows with more and more manufacturers bringing support for the protocol to the eager masses.
Shock and awe: LaCie's Rugged USB 3.0 has military grade impact resistance
Joining the influx of devices supporting the new standard is LaCie’s 500GB Rugged USB 3.0 disk, the latest addition to its rubber-wrapped product line, which already features USB 2.0, eSata and Firewire 400/800 drives.
These drives are certified shockproof to the US Department of Defence MIL-STD 810F specification - MIL-STD 810F Method 516.5: Shock, to be precise. However, LaCie doesn't specify if the Rugged is also compliant with other aspects of MIL-STD 810F such as:
- MIL-STD 810F Method 505.4: Solar Radiation
- MIL-STD 810F Method 508.5: Fungus
- MIL-STD 810F Method 511.4: Explosive Atmosphere
- MIL-STD 810F Method 519.5: Gunfire Vibration
- MIL-STD 810F Method 522: Ballistic Shock
Essentially, this means that the drive will survive up to a 2.2m fall when it isn't operating. The device specification states that dropping in operating mode “is not recommended”, something which I can't in all honesty disagree with.
USB 3.0 connectivity - which is handily backwards compatible with USB 2.0
So, the Rugged USB 3.0 may be military spec compliant, but is this enough to keep your valuable data safe around small children and clueless co-workers?
COMMENTS
While we're on the subject of ruggedness
can we have the person who came up with the WD 'My Book' enclosure taken out and subjected to all of those Mil-Spec tests, please?
Balancing a 3.5" HDD on its narrow edge and positively encouraging people to place it near their mouse hand may well not have been the greatest design decision ever. Based on 3 (so far) that I've encountered, they tend not to survive being toppled while spinning, and the form factor means it only takes a tiny nudge...
Did you read the review?
This is a bus powered drive that has no PSU but draws power from the USB port.
I have a LaCie drive that has a PSU and it's just a standard 12V affair it can be replaced for around £5
Fungus?
Military equipment is ruggedized against mushroom attack?
More irresponsible naming than Pocahontas' parents.
Rugged and Hard Drive are two things that should never be associated. This is still in a pretty flimsy case and I have suffered some pretty nasty data loss from one of these while it was in hold luggage transit.
Rugged my ass, the little big disk with its aluminium case is far far more reliable (crappy LaCie PSU aside, but that's for another story, already covered by previous poster) and with RAID0 will actually be able to make use of eSATA bus speed.
This line of rugged LaCie's should be outlawed for irresponsible marketing. And LaCie as a HD manufacturer is greatly over estimated. IMHO.
No bloody good...
If it comes with the usual crap PSU that dies just after a year and costs about as much as the drive to replace.
Yes, I do have a LaCie drive I can't use at the moment. How did you know?
