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Product Description

The LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ provides enormous capacity and a transparent, built-in RAID 0 array with no configuration for fast FireWire 800 speed. Easily share data among the widest range of user platforms with this triple interface, plug & play hard drive. Store presentations, archive image banks, work on large-scale audio/video projects, or chain FireWire devices and iLink DV cameras. Its new LaCie Shortcut Button conveniently launches any application (backup, music, slideshows, etc.) with just one push. Advanced features for professionals include Triple Power Management, a 32MB cache, a thermo-regulated progressive quiet smart fan, and EMC Retrospect advanced backup and data restoration software for Windows and Mac users.

The LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 301201U 2 TB USB 2.0/FireWire400/FireWire800 RAID System is a powerful drive that's optimized for media professionals working with high-definition audio, digital video editing, SD video and 2D/3D imaging. Designed by Neil Poulton, the Big Disk Extreme+ offers a compact, lightweight storage solution ready for some heavy-duty action.

The LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 2 TB USB 2.0/FireWire400/FireWire800 RAID System offers: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 interfaces. Built-in RAID 0 performance with FireWire 800 speed with no configuration required. Flexible design that can be stacked, rack-mounted or daisy chained. Heat-dissipating body and advanced cooling system for cool performance.

The drive features USB, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 connectivity. View larger.

The Shortcut Button can back up your data or launch any application with a single button push. View larger.

By purchasing multiple drives, it is easy to set up a RAID configuration. View larger.

Big Disk Extreme+ Triple Interface
Featuring high-performance storage (2 TB of total disc space), high capacity and a user-friendly quick backup feature for data safety and recovery, the Big Disk Extreme+ packs a powerful 1-2-3 punch. Its capacity, combined with ultra-fast transfer rates, make it ideal for data-hungry applications or sharing and archiving large-scale video projects.

This versatile storage solution offers a terabyte of storage, along with FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. This triple-interface solution gives professionals the versatility needed to work in almost any environment. Professional users working with very large, resource-intensive files can take advantage of the high throughput of the FireWire 800 (with burst transfer rates up to 90 MB/s,) as well as the universal compatibility of USB. This makes the Big Disk Extreme+ especially convenient for video editors working in SD/HD, or for quick individual workstation storage in a small business setting.

LaCie's trademark "Shortcut Button"--the blue button in front of the drive--can be used to launch any utility--such as music, slideshows, or video--with a single push, or back up your valuable data. The Big Disk Extreme+ also includes EMC's Retrospect Express software for automated backups that will give you even greater peace of mind.

Convenient and Easy to Use
The Big Disk Extreme+ is a hot plug and play solution that offers built-in RAID 0 performance (with FireWire 800 speed) that requires no software configuration or drivers. Expandable via FireWire with other FireWire hard drives, the Big Disk can also be daisy chained with peripherals such as CD-RW, AIT or DV cameras. In fact, several Big Disks can even be daisy chained to the same computer and combined together to further increase capacity, speed or security via FireWire.

For extra convenience, the drive also features a power-saving three-position switch that allows for customized "Triple Power Management" -- "auto" for energy efficiency; "on" for instant access; and "off" for complete data protection.

Heat-Dissipating d2 Design by Neil Poulton
Designed by world renown designer Neil Poulton, the Big Disk Extreme+ boasts a sleek, handsome metal body that's ideal for naturally dissipating the system's internal drive heat. Its unique design actually draws heat away from the internal drive toward the external casing. The casing absorbs heat and will take advantage of its large surface to further dissipate the heat away from the drive. The Big Disk Extreme+ also includes an advanced cooling system with a thermoregulated, progressive quiet fan that keeps the drive safe and prolongs its life and reliability.

Engineered with a compact 5.25-inch 1U form factor to fit seamlessly into most work environments, and more compact and lightweight than RAID towers, the Big Disk Extreme+ can be placed in a space-saving upright position with the included drive stand, or can be stacked, rack-mounted and even daisy-chained with other drives (via FireWire) to increase capacity. An optional LaCie Rackmount Kit can be used to incorporate the drive into a standard 19-inch computer equipment rack, and the drive can also be placed in the optional LaCie Desk Rack (also sold separately).

The LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ measures 6.8 x 1.7 x 10.6 inches (HxWxD), weighs 5.5 pounds, and is backed by LaCie's 3-year limited warranty.

About LaCie
Established in France in 1989, LaCie is a leading manufacturer of computer peripherals for Windows, Apple and Linux users. With offices and plants in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong, LaCie develops and manufactures external storage solutions and color monitors that help professionals and everyday people easily manage their digital lives. LaCie has differentiated its products through original designs and leading-edge technology.

What's in the Box
LaCie Big Disk Extreme+, FireWire 800 to FireWire 800 (9-to-9 pin) cable, FireWire 400 to FireWire 400 (6-to-6 pin) cable, hi-speed USB 2.0 cable (USB 1.1 compatible), external power supply, LaCie Utilities CD-ROM with User Manual, Quick Install Guide, and drive stand for upright desktop use.

Customer Reviews:

• Ready for MAC and Time Machine
  Just got the product. This is not my first Lacie. I have one 250gb that is three years old and purrs just fine. Attached via the 800 firewire to my IMAC. Mounted right away. Time machine is running great. Have a 700gb hard drive to backup. I will come back and post how long it took to backup my IMAC....more info
• Lacie 301201U Not Good
  Just like a few others reported, I received the hard drive and there were loose parts rattling around in the enclosure. I sent it back and purchased a drive from another company....more info
• Good
  The product is fine but when it arrived it sounds like there'se something loose inside....more info
• Best external harddrive for a Mac
  This is my third external drive in the last year. The first worked for about 6 months and then just quit working. Lost all my data, no warranty, no returns after 30 days... I was out $134.95 2nd time around I bought another unwarrantied cheap external drive from ebay... this time it quit working after the third boot up. Didn't lose any data but I did lose $165.00. Had I just bit the bullet in the first place and went with the BIG NAME, 1 TB external drive I would have saved myself several hundred dollars and a lot of headache. Don't skimp on the harddrive, this LaCie is a solid choice, plug and play and super fast on Firewire. Automatically backs up your data. works in the background and you never even have to think about it.. However, do not be lulled into a sense of security. Zip all your files and burn them on CD. Fact is hard drives crash and then your data is gone, unless you pay a professional to retrieve it (been there). If it's on CD you don't have to worry about it.
  PS: Don't forget to sign up for your LaCie warranty either... You just might need it.. but at least it's there.. and it's two years!...more info
• excellent drive
  I purchased this as a present for my self and to use to store a ton of high res footage (2K & 4K) I shot with the RED camera system. It has worked great. I chose this model for the multiple ports and fast speed of transfer, I was pleasantly surprised that it included a cable for each type of port on the drive. Although there are dozens of makes of drives, I suspect they all are manufactured in just a handful of factories and just have different labels. I have used Lacie drives in my professional work before and have never had any problems with them....more info
• Disks Not Fully Compatible with Windows XP
  Potential customers using Windows Vista or XP should be advised that these disks have been preformatted for Mac and will need to be reformatted for the Windows file format (NTFS). The instructions for reformatting the disks are buried deep inside the User's Guide (page 29).
  
  What is worse, if you are using Windows XP and follow these formatting instructions, the format will fail. Only the quick-format option (which is not recommended as it will not run a disk check) will work. In fact, neither Windows disk check nor disk defragmentation will work. A workaround for defragmentation is to install another disk defrag software. I successfully tried Auslogics (freeware).
  
  The disks are delivered with three sets of cables: (1) USB; (2) 6-to-6-pin (Firewire 400/IEEE 1394a) and (3) 9-to-9-pin (Firewire 800/IEEE 1394b). If your computer (like most PC notebooks) has a 4-pin Firewire jack, you will need to purchase a cable or adapter (costs about $30) separately.
  
  LaCie offers support if you register the product. The communications take place through a cgi-bin on their website; they will not call you on the phone. Their attitude has been helpful, which is nice, but didn't solve the technical problem.
  
  The bottom line is that LaCie seems to have launched this product fully aware of the existence of this problem, but have chosen not to advise Windows XP users of it.
  
  The latest word from LaCie is that they are working on a solution; there is no telling when it will be solved. Until such time that LaCie comes up with a solution, Windows XP users are strongly advised to avoid this product altogether. I will update this review if and when LaCie solves the problem and notifies their customers about it.
  ...more info
• Garbage Products and Worse Customer Service
  Purchased LaCie product to store my iTunes. Within one week the drive crashed. I called customer support and they refused to help me and honor the warranty. I eventually (year and a half later) reset the entire drive after finding no other option to save or retrieve my files, losing 10,000 songs. I began reloading the library and the system crashed again. LaCie refused to help saying the warranty had expired, but had I purchased one now, they had an extended warranty. Do not mess with LaCie equipment. ...more info
• LaCie Big Disk Extreme 1TB
  I have used LaCie hard drives for years, and have always found them to be reliable. This one seems to be no different, except for that it is noisier than any of the other LaCie drives I've worked with. Perhaps that is because of the RAID configuration. If you need a drive that makes minimal noise (for things like audio recording), I would not recommend this drive. If not, it is a great drive with lots of space and connection options for the price. ...more info
• NIGHTMARE!
  I had several problems resulting from this product, straight out of the box including (for no logical reason) loosing my audio and video drivers, and ultimately my entire internal HD contents - gone. poof!
  
  I took a chance buying LaCie after reading so many bad reviews, and typically I would have stuck with Freecom, who I've never had problems with, but the price of this LaCie was just so tempting... big mistake.
  
  Aside from the fact this HD is MASSIVE... I mean, really HUGE, it's not particularly good looking, and the materials don't make it look or feel like a high quality product at all. Also, between the over-sized, clumsy looking power chord and the USB cables, it's just a bit of a mess on my desk.
  
  The biggest problem, is that it came formatted purely for MAC OSX systems, which was never mentioned anywhere in the product description, and pretty useless to me as a windows user... and I think the root of the problems I had - which involved having to find a MAC to use to format it to NTFS - because windows simply wouldn't recognise the device at all.
  
  It's working fine now, but that's after I've lost the better part of 700GB of photos, documents, and downloads - which are all irreplaceable. I can honestly say I will never ever buy LaCie again, and to all the people who haven't had any problems with this whatsoever, I'm jealous...
  
  I'd recommend getting an un-lubed colonoscopy from a blind, drunken back-street doctor before recommending this to anyone. ...more info
• Lots of storage in a portable package
  This is a nice sized external disk with lots of storage. It traveled acorss the country with me as a carry-on and has worked fine. If you want to use it under Windows you will have to reformat to be able to write to it, but if oyu are using an Apple or Linux it will work just fine....more info
• Lacie 301201U Not Good
  Just like a few others reported, I received the hard drive and there were loose parts rattling around in the enclosure. I sent it back and purchased a drive from another company....more info
• Good
  The product is fine but when it arrived it sounds like there'se something loose inside....more info
• Best external harddrive for a Mac
  This is my third external drive in the last year. The first worked for about 6 months and then just quit working. Lost all my data, no warranty, no returns after 30 days... I was out $134.95 2nd time around I bought another unwarrantied cheap external drive from ebay... this time it quit working after the third boot up. Didn't lose any data but I did lose $165.00. Had I just bit the bullet in the first place and went with the BIG NAME, 1 TB external drive I would have saved myself several hundred dollars and a lot of headache. Don't skimp on the harddrive, this LaCie is a solid choice, plug and play and super fast on Firewire. Automatically backs up your data. works in the background and you never even have to think about it.. However, do not be lulled into a sense of security. Zip all your files and burn them on CD. Fact is hard drives crash and then your data is gone, unless you pay a professional to retrieve it (been there). If it's on CD you don't have to worry about it.
  PS: Don't forget to sign up for your LaCie warranty either... You just might need it.. but at least it's there.. and it's two years!...more info
• excellent drive
  I purchased this as a present for my self and to use to store a ton of high res footage (2K & 4K) I shot with the RED camera system. It has worked great. I chose this model for the multiple ports and fast speed of transfer, I was pleasantly surprised that it included a cable for each type of port on the drive. Although there are dozens of makes of drives, I suspect they all are manufactured in just a handful of factories and just have different labels. I have used Lacie drives in my professional work before and have never had any problems with them....more info
• Loose Pieces
  The reason I'm giving this product 1 star is because it came to me broken. And not only that, but I exchanged it for another that had the exact same problem! I talked to LaCie and they've been receiving a lot of complaints. A bad batch went out, so you have the option of sending it to LaCie for a repair.
  However, the guy at LaCie really sold me on the 1TB Quadra model. He said the Big Disk Extreme is a little faster, but the Quadra is half the size and one drive--making it easier to recover information. The Big Disk Extreme is two hard drives, pretty big, and if some thing breaks, you may be kind of screwed.
  I was able to talk them into shipping me a Quadra instead of repairing my broken Extreme. If I were you, I would just go with the Quadra (unless you need the extra speed). I'm completely satisfied with its performance....more info
• Great backup drive.
  I have a lot of movies, pictures and music. I needed a drive that could back up everything. I am using this drive as my time machine backup drive for my MAC. Great drive and quite.
  ...more info
• Screw you
  I have returned two La Cie 1 TB Hard Drives model 301199U for loose screws rolling around inside drive. I purchased it thru Amazon and filled by JR Music World. JR Music World has been very pleasant and understanding about the defective products. I think La Cie needs to get their act together and Amazon should drop this product and not put customers through this ordeal.. I am going to buy another brand of hard drive for my home business. It is a shame because I have several Mac computers and thought this would be ideal.. I have never used La Cie products before but if this is the quality they put out they will not be around long. I think La Cie should contact all the negative reviewers and apologize for the added costs and time lost on their product. I read all the previous reviews about this loose screw issue but thought it might be a select few. Obviously it is a much larger issue than I thought.
  
  Follow up:
  
  I emailed La Cie after this post and received a quick response from La Cie in Oregon. Devin offered a substitute drive 301442U Quadra for the same price. I am taking them up on their offer and will report back when I receive it next week. Will post a review when received.
  
  ...more info
• I too got the loose screw of death.
  Like other reviewers, I too got the loose screw rattling around inside the case. It will void my warranty (protective sticker will be removed) if I open the case. I was hoping to be traveling with it in 3 days. Will Lacie do me right? I filed a support request on the Lacie site. ARGH!!!!!...more info
• I got a defective one also.
  My Big Disk Extreme arrived yesterday and I was really disappointed to hear the dreaded "loose screw" rattling around inside the moment I removed it from the box. I was hoping Amazon was no longer shipping the disks with the loose item inside given all the previous complaints about this problem, but it seems that they are. Mine is going back. ...more info
• Loose Screw Upon receipt
  I should have heeded the reviews on this drive. Many reviewers said that they had something loose inside (sounds like a "screw loose") when they received the drive. Guess what- I took mine out of the box, turned it side to side, and the there was a loose screw rattling around.
  
  Just amazing. How can LaCie stay in business?
  
  Needless to say, this is going back. ...more info
• Drive failed
  This was my main photo storage drive and it failed. Luckily the information is backed up to another Lacie hard drive. This is my first experience with a failed hard drive.
  My first external hard drive was a Lacie and it is still in service....more info
• Quiet, built superbly, no issues (no loose screws in one of two!)
  See 2-5-09 update at end of this review!
  
  Just received my 2TB Lacie from Amazon. Considering all the loose screw problems owners reported here, I waited until Amazon sold out (or returned a defective batch?) of these a week or more ago. Last week when more stock arrived and I noted its price had dropped to under $210, I ordered one immediately. Upon arrival, package was fresh and factory sealed. No loose screws or rattling noises inside, amen! Whisper quiet and it runs flawlessly. I'm using the FireWire 800 connection and although I haven't done a speed test, the test transfer speed on some large files I am familiar with seems extremely good and the Firewire 800 connection is a real benefit. I already own the Lacie 1.5 TB Networked Big Disk drive and it's performed flawlessly as well in the 8 months I've had it. Both of these have smart fans which ramp up and down for speed according to internal temps of the drive enclosure. Honestly, these drives barely get luke warm even if running full time for hours or even overnight. I've never had as cool a drive enclosures until I purchased Lacies. Package includes everything you need including removable stand, and USB2, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 cables. The best thing about the Lacie line of drives in this model group is the solidity of build. The enclosure is very heavy and and feels like a solid block of metal. These are not lightweights and for just over $200 for a 2 TB external drive, this is a steal considering the quality of build, hard drive capacity, and connection options as well as the cables being included. Hopefully the "bad batch" issues many owners reported is now history. This drive is highly recommended!
  
  2-5-09: Ordered another 2TB Lacie Extreme drive based on my positive experience with the first one and per my review above. It arrived today perfectly packaged, but, yes!.....a loose screw could be heard rattling around inside the case. So, it was returned today and I probably won't replace it right off. My biggest concern for a loose screw inside the enclosure is it could short out something inside if it landed just right. I choose to play it safe, box it up and return it for refund the same day as received! Guess getting one of these drives without a loose screw inside is a flip of the coin!...more info
• Exc. Quality, construction, install., software, highly recommend
  I recently purchased my third external hard disk drive, a LaCie; the other two HDD are still doing fine also(Seagates, both, 7200 rpm, one with 16 MB cache and the other 8 MB cache), and use firewire 400.
  
  The new LaCie is the "Big Disk Extreme Plus Triple" model of 1.5 TB, with 2 x FireWire 800 (9-pin) ports,1 x FireWire 400 (6-pin) port (compatible with iLink, DV),1 x USB 2.0 port, Thermo-regulated progressive quiet fan, Rotational Speed (rpm) : 7200 rpm, Cache : 32MB, RAID is zero(no redundancy).
  
  I am very happy with this disk. I have installed and formatted it(came formatted for Macs), and have backed up 60 GB of my photos. Have restored also. I like the metal enclosure(rather than plastic), and the metal foot that installs with real metal screws via a metal rail that fits into the bottom of the disk enclosure. The drive is quiet and does not run hot in the length of time that I will typically use it. It took about 2 hours to format it, NTFS, and it was not hot after that either. I like the port availability and one other thing- this unit has a 3 way power switch - by that I mean you can turn it off, turn it on, or set it on "Auto" to power up with your PC and it does have some sort of sleep mode power saver also. I wanted the on/off ability and not all HDD have this feature.
  
  I like the 3 year warranty also. Cords are also provided, one firewire 400 cable, one firewire 800 cable, a USB cable,and the power cable and adaptor. The software that came with it I do find to be good because it is not cumbersome and works quick. Of course you can drag and drop also. There is also a shortcut button that you can customize for use with the drive(have not set that up yet).
  
  I am very very pleased with this drive. I highly recommend the drive for its construction, metal foot, cords provided, 3 year warranty, great website with FAQs, and support, nice user manual(only electronic, not hard copy), and ease of use. Very satisfied with this drive....more info
• Excellent Perfomance
  I've had the Big Disk Extreme (1 TB) since 1 month now and so far I haven't got any problems with it. It works perfectly and fits all my needs. It has never overheated like the last one I bought, wich was a Simpletech 250 GB External Disk. I love Lacie's products, I also have the external Super Writemaster CD/DVD Burner too and haven't got any problems with it either.
  
  Janmario...more info
• EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
  It seems to work fine, however there is a loose piece of metal that rattles around in it when it is turned upside down. I am assuming that is is a loose screw and does not hurt the hard drive,...more info