Thunderbolt disks options

Hi friends,
a month ago I got a problem with my Thunderbolt Lacie Little Big disk 2tb, which I used to allocate (and work with) final cut x libraries. The disk started disconnecting itself randomly, and after a while it wasn't recognized by the system anymore. Disk Utility show the RAID, with error messages in one of the disks.
I have tried several repairing software, with no luck, and after getting support from Lacie, I finally decided to send the disk to recovering data company, where it is now.

Despite the results this company gives me, I'm not pretty sure to continue using this device. So I was considering to buy a new one. I live in Argentina and these products are extremely expensive here, so I want to be sure to buy the right thing.

As far as I understand, my damaged Lacie disk has two disks working on a RAID, so it should give me twice the writing/reading speed compared to a 1 disk thunderbolt solution?
Is this correct or not? If the difference is not real, I could by a 1tb disk, much cheaper.

Also, I was looking to this device
www.kanexlive.com/article/thunderbolt-adapters

Can this device be compared with a true thunderbolt disk, in terms of speed?

Many thanks,

Pablo

USB 3 directly into your Mac can give good performance. Seems LaCie should just replace that drive for free, then you're good to go. I know a few folks with them who don't have issues. You just got a bad one. Drives go bad, often now way to know in advance, just part of life. Always have a good backup. And yes, RAID will give better throughput than a single drive.

There's always been something about LaCie that has steered me away from them. I've had Macs since 1992, and I remember when LaCie was one of the few manufacturers that specifically made things for Macs (even when it's not really necessary, e.g. USB hard drives) so it seemed like we should 'support' them, but reports of drives dying seemingly at a rate greater than other manufacturers (power supply issues, overheating etc) has made me wary of buying them.

Ben,
Unfortunately I bought that disk in USA while on trip, and they don't have international support. They told me to send the disk to the vendor (I believe it was Apple online store) but the cost to send it to USA, and then get it back could be near U$S 300, so I'll have to decide what to do with it.
I had a backup of almost everything but I still need to recover some videos. My fault here. The data recovering company sent me an email today, the cost for recovering everything is U$S 350.

Martin,
what brand do you suggest instead

tks

I favour Western Digital hard drives these days, though at home I have one WD and one Seagate (both 4 TB) for use as Time Machines. I didn't want to buy two external drives from the same manufacturer and probably the same batch to use as my backup.

As for what you need, let's break it down.
The LaCie gives you 2TB, and up to 190 MB/s, it's portable but apparently not able to be powered by the Thunderbolt bus.

What do you need? Is it terabyte capacity storage? Speeds of around 200 MB/second? Thunderbolt interface? Portability? Bus powered?

The Western Digital My Passport Pro seems to fit those same specifications, plus it's bus powered. Having said that, it comes with an integrated Thunderbolt cable (short one) and if that breaks, the whole unit needs to be replaced. In addition to that there are reports on the web about drives failing. So buy locally with a good warranty.

I've just bought a Western Digital MyBook Velociraptor Duo for use at work. It has a transfer speed of nearly 400 MB/s and is as portable as a brick. I haven't even hooked it up yet so I can't tell you what it's like, but all the reviews were positive. The only negative was the price, but it's now selling for about half the price it did when it was first released.

What we seem to be missing is a USB3-interface, 3.5 inch 7200 rpm external drive. Unfortunately, all of the usual USB3 ones are 5400 rpm.

OWC has several USB 3.0 HDD enclosures for 3.5inch 7200 rpm drives. They have ones that come with drives installed or add your own disc(s). So there are options out there.

Dave

I just took a look at them and they look really good. I like the fact that you can buy them without a disk, or with the well-regarded HGST drives. Also worth taking a look at HGST 1TB 2.5" 7200 rpm drives. I think that's the biggest capacity 7200 rpm 2.5" drive. OWC has them packaged as a 2 TB RAID 0 unit for US$269.99 - very nice. It has a throughput of over 200 MB/s, and that's a great price.

Hey Pablo
Ouch in every way possible concerning$$$ and lost files.
Random disconnects are sign of big trouble. Essentially the same as repeatedly pulling the cable out of computer while using the drive, not a good thing.
As always good back ups a must, 2 back ups minimum + working media drive + Boot drive.
Needed speed differs for the type of work you do, so I always recommend knowing how fast you need and match the drives to that. If you only work in SD or even HD single cam, then you can get by with single hdds and USB3 (never USB2). If working in 4K multi cam then ThunderBolt and raided ssds. Raids should never be considered as back-up, use separate drives for back-ups.
BareFeats has several comparison articles on TB enclosures and other systems. I like their reporting. Recent articles on portable bus powered units and on desktop systems.
Keep in mind that it takes several SATA drives raided to saturate either a USB3 or TB bus.
I use USB3 for the work I do utilizing external docks and external drives connected directly; both ssds and hdds. I use a Seagate BackUp Plus USB3 connecter. The SeaGate I have is older than the current version and has a detachable cable and SATA circuit board and will power 2.5" drives via the bus. You can also get the TB connector if you want, but you will not ever saturate the USB3 bus with only a single drive so why bother.
I also use external docks which are nice as you can easily swap out drives either 2.5" or 3.5" but it requires a power source. Available in single or duo slot versions. Some can be set up as RAID.
Of course as others have mentioned you can also go the enclosure route.
Regrettably, not all units are the same and different components firmware etc…all change the speeds so sites like BareFeats or diglloyd are important for good info.
BareFeats…http://www.barefeats.com/index.html
Diglloyd…http://macperformanceguide.com
While I like the WD internal drives (Reds and Blacks), I really do not like the portable external drives with the Password protection on them. They are a PITA.
Hope this helps, Greg

Pablo,
I also forgot to mention as long as you are not utilizing the warranty on the LaCie, you can open it up and install drives of your choice. This is assuming that there is nothing wrong with the circuits in the enclosure itself. It is normally the drives that go bad.
Installing your own drives you can put in faster drives than what LaCie provides. If using RAID you need to use identical drives so make sure you match the good drive in the unit or buy 2 new identical drives.
Just another alternative.
Hope this helps, Greg

Dave, thanks for the OWC advice, I never had any device from this brand before. They have a lot of interesting options. I'll take a deep look at their page, but I think that they are not available in Argentina while Lacie and WD are. I'll take a look in Chile also.


Greg, thanks for sharing your experiences and the useful Bare Feats page.
I also have a USB 3.0 docking station that allows two 3.5" hard drives, but I use this dock only for backuping through Carbon Copy Cloner. I certainly back up everything. In this case was my mistake, I was working with a deadline and put all the media on the TB disk because of the speed, and I trusted too much in this expensive device. Fortunately, the raw media may be recovered and the final spot had been already finished.
Replacing the drives on my Lacie enclosure sounds good! I never thought on that.

I would prefer to go for a TB option rather than a USB 3.0 one. I'm not working 4k yet, but I have a DJI Phantom drone with a gopro that I use in 2.5K. And getting a 4k camera seems to be a reality (or a neccessity) in coming years. The Western Digital My Passport Pro that Martin mentioned could be a pretty nice option for my workflow and type of work. I edit both on my house and in my studio, and a very few times, in the field (but there I also can use any usb 3.0 cheaper drive). So the bus powered solution is becoming important at this point.

Tks everybody

Hey Greg, very nice Vespa. I had a PX200 some years ago. Still missing it.

We've been shooting with Phatoms and GoPros for just over a year now. Optimize all that GoPro stuff, and you'll get WAY better performance, even with a T'bolt drive.

I'm editing a ton of underwater stuff shot with GoPro, ingested as native, no optimizing. Man, I'm rendering my ass off, and getting poor performance, on a late 2013 MP, with a P2 16TB T'bolt RAID, and only 1080/120p at that (edited in 24p timelines). Optimize it, save yourself the headaches.

Thanks Pablo,
"Hey Greg, very nice Vespa. I had a PX200 some years ago. Still missing it."
It belongs to a friend on mine in Arkansas. Fully restored, immaculate condition. He got it for his wife who really doesn't drive bikes. Both my wife and I enjoyed taking it for a spin.
His normal ride is a big Harley, and for kicks he sometimes rides the Pink Vespa to meets. :woohoo:
Best, Greg