AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu (02/23/90)
The smoke seems to have cleared from the latest round of Jasmine bashing, but I'd like to pick up this thread with La Cie. Does anyone have any horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie?
fadushin@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Fred Dushin) (02/23/90)
In article <90053.120147AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu> AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >Does anyone have any horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? My LaCie 32meg drive (Cirrus30--Seagate) has trouble starting when cold--it takes a few tries with the power switch. So I leave it on all the time, figuring I might as well wait for the bearings to go instead of burning out the motor by straining it trying to boot it. Besides, it's nice to be able to use the machine whenever one wants with a clean conscience. Not a real *horror* story:-> Fred Dushin fadushin@rodan.acs.syr.edu "Metaphor. Can't get around it."
6600bike@hub.UUCP (Puneet Pasrich) (02/23/90)
From article <90053.120147AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu>, by AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu: > The smoke seems to have cleared from the latest round of Jasmine bashing, > but I'd like to pick up this thread with La Cie. Does anyone have any > horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? Well, I've own three La Cie drives and all of them have worked _great_!! One is Cirrus 107 and the other two are their 45-meg cartridge drives. No compability problems with any hardware/software. No need to call tech support because their manuals/software is sooooooo good! BTW, if you don't use SilverLining you're missing out! It's suberb! The cartridge drives have given me no troubles what-so-ever. Oh yeah, I forgot. I did call tech support once. I needed to take out the terminator from the cartridge drive. The guy was really helpful and knowledgeable. Walked me stright through the whole process - until I had the chance to turn my Mac on and see everything come up. I give La Cie 5 kudos!! You might have to be careful because all their drives (to the extent of my knowledge) come terminated but, as you can tell, you can take them out, if needed. Also, the cartridge drives have this tab-kinda thing you can hit to change the SCSI-ID, if needed. A _lot_ easier than to open up the drive and do it. ___________________________________________________________ |Puneet Pasrich | Internet: 6600bike@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu | |Karate Kid | Bitnet: 6600bike@ucsbuxa.bitnet | |'Just do it!' | |
aland@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Alan D Danziger) (02/23/90)
Well, I have had mixed but positive 'events' with LaCie hard drives. I bought my LaCie, sold to me as a 70 meg when I was looking for an 80 meg drive at a good price, at the MacWorld Expo in Boston... They told me I'd have it within 7 days, and I got it almost 6 weeks later. When I got it, it only had 65 megs worth of storage... So I was disappointed, but as someone else said, Silverlining is a great utility, and I DO like the drive (it's quiet) and even their icon... So I'm not complaining. Second incident: A friend of mine bought (at my recommendation) a LaCie drive, which wouldn't work. We finally tried daisychaining our drives together (after I reset the ID# on mine) at which point we got his to work, but only while mine was hooked up and turned on. So he returned it and got his money back. Again, no major complaints. The third and final incident with LaCie drives is our school newspaper. We bought a 105 meg LaCie (which had 105 megs!) and the problem with this one was that the drive for some reason needed to be reformatted when we got it (possibly because of <incompetance> in the non-computer-oriented people setting it up, although they couldn't have done that much wrong. Also, it's possible that the problems were because they hooked it to a Plus. Once it was reformatted, however, there have been no problems.. -- -=Alan=- aland@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
kempf@tci.bell-atl.com (Cory Kempf) (02/24/90)
AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >The smoke seems to have cleared from the latest round of Jasmine bashing, >but I'd like to pick up this thread with La Cie. Does anyone have any >horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? I have a LaCie 600MB Disk at home. So far: The manuals that they produce are among the best I have seen Their tech support is pretty good Silver Lining is a VERY GOOD program It works with A/UX (I have found one minor bug though) I have only one complaint: just after I bought my disk from them, they shifted to another brand of disk... and the warrentee went from 2 years to 5 years. Silver Server (disk share utility) comes free with the disk Silver Platter (printer share) is not out yet (they promise to send it when it is -- free) I have had my disk for about 6 months. The next disk that I buy will probably be from them. -- Cory Kempf Technology Concepts phone: (508) 443-7311 x341 uucp: {anywhere}!uunet!tci!kempf, kempf@tci.bell-atl.com DISCLAIMER: TCI is not responsible for my opinions, nor I for theirs Tired of choosing the lesser of two evils? Vote Cthulhu! -- Oleg
deane@cs.swarthmore.edu (James Deane) (02/24/90)
Overall - 6 on a 7 scale
--
James R Deane Snailmail:
UUCP {rutgers, att, ihnp4}!bpa!swatsun!deane Swarthmore College
deane@swatsun.swarthmore.edu Swarthmore PA 19081
jrd90@campus.swarthmore.edu housen@ssc-vax.UUCP (Kevin Housen) (02/24/90)
In article <4049@hub.UUCP>, 6600bike@hub.UUCP (Puneet Pasrich) writes: > From article <90053.120147AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu>, by AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu: > > The smoke seems to have cleared from the latest round of Jasmine bashing, > > but I'd like to pick up this thread with La Cie. Does anyone have any > > horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? > I have had a LaCie 140Meg drive in my MacII for several months now. It works fine. Its quiet and fast. The only problem I had was in the cable they sent me (it was the wrong one). I phoned them and they sent me a new cable within a couple of days. By the way, I have had it mounted vertically for a couple of months now with no problems. The formatting software (Silverlining) that comes with it is very nice - especially if you want to partition and/or password protect your disk. A friend of mine bought a 90 Meg external drive. He was unable to format it for some reason. He sent it back to LaCie and they are going to give him a 100Meg drive instead (at no additional cost). Kevin Housen housen@ssc-vax
wiseman@tellab5.tellabs.com (Jeff Wiseman) (02/28/90)
In article <718@tci.bell-atl.com> kempf@tci.bell-atl.com (Cory Kempf) writes: >AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > >>The smoke seems to have cleared from the latest round of Jasmine bashing, >>but I'd like to pick up this thread with La Cie. Does anyone have any >>horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? [stuff deleted] > I have only one complaint: just after I bought my disk from > them, they shifted to another brand of disk... and the > warrentee went from 2 years to 5 years. Actually they didn't. It was originally the Quantum and afterwards it was the Quantum. Quantum always offered the 5 year warranty, Lacie just changed their policy (and agreement with Quantum I beleive) in order to pass on more of Quantum's warranty to their customers. Pretty nice. Except I have the same problem (two year warranty). Oh well if you wait for the "best" deal to come along, you never will own a mac :-). -- Jeff Wiseman: ....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM
arie@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Arie Covrigaru) (03/01/90)
In article <2193@rodan.acs.syr.edu> fadushin@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Fred Dushin) writes: >In article <90053.120147AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu> AKB101@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >>Does anyone have any horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? > I had an 80MB (Quantum) from them and now I have a 105MB (Quantum) and both drives performed perfectlly. I also liked the driver software very much. They returned my calls when I called with questions and were always nice and helpful. I have no connection with them other then being a customer. ============================================================================= Arie Covrigaru | Internet: arie@eecs.umich.edu University of Michigan AI Lab | 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 =============================================================================
bparrish@hpccc.HP.COM (William Parrish) (03/01/90)
> [stuff deleted] >> I have only one complaint: just after I bought my disk from >> them, they shifted to another brand of disk... and the >> warrentee went from 2 years to 5 years. > >Actually they didn't. It was originally the Quantum and afterwards it was the >Quantum. Quantum always offered the 5 year warranty, Lacie just changed their >policy (and agreement with Quantum I beleive) in order to pass on more of >Quantum's warranty to their customers. Pretty nice. Except I have the same >problem (two year warranty). Oh well if you wait for the "best" deal to come >along, you never will own a mac :-). > > > >-- >Jeff Wiseman: ....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM >---------- Are you SURE they haven't swapped vendors? My last copy of MACWORLD has a LaCie add that is confusing to say the least... (this is the March edition... a two page ad starting on p. 26. The ad shows a yellow pad indicating that the primary drive is "Quantum"... but in the table way over to the left, it indicates that the 20,40,80,100,and 200 MB drives are CONNOR (whatever that is? anybody know about those mechanisms? speed, etc.?) and that the 50MB, 100,120,170,200 MB drives are Quantum mechanisms. They list prices for the drives using CONNOR mechanisms, but for those using Quantum mechanisms, they indicate "Call for new Quantum prices..." By the way, the 650 MB mechanism is listed as HP! 8-) Anybody know about Connor mechanisms or what's going on with LaCie? Bill Parrish / HP Roseville CA (bparrish@hprnd.hp.com)
hf07+@andrew.cmu.edu (Howard Haruo Fukuda) (03/01/90)
I would guess that LaCie is moving away from Quantum's 40mb, 80mb, 105mb ProDrive series to the Quantum 50mb (52?) and 100mb (105?) ProDrive LPS (Low Profile Series, I heard 1" high). The 120mb, 170mb, and 200mb are also part of Quantum's next generation family half-height drives. This is just speculation. -Howard hf07+@andrew.cmu.edu
nf0i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Norman William Franke, III) (03/01/90)
I would assume LaCie is moving to the Quantum LPS, as well. I think the Connor mechanism is used in the Apple Portable. Does anyone know for sure? -Norman Franke nf0i+@andrew.cmu.edu
wiseman@tellab5.tellabs.com (Jeff Wiseman) (03/03/90)
In article <11220001@hpccc.HP.COM> bparrish@hpccc.HP.COM (William Parrish) writes: [discussion about Lacie changing warranties deleted] >Are you SURE they haven't swapped vendors? My last copy of MACWORLD >has a LaCie add that is confusing to say the least... (this is the March >edition... a two page ad starting on p. 26. The ad shows a yellow >pad indicating that the primary drive is "Quantum"... but in the table They have added drives to their product line made by vendors other than Quantum. I think that originally though, a lot of their drives were Quantum (including the 2 yr warranty drives and now the 5 yr). I think that the real issue here is that there seems to be about 5 major items of consideration when buying a drive. -Who makes the drive itself (ie. Quantum, Seagate, Miniscribe, etc.) and therefore what is the quality of the drive. -The packaging of the drive (for externals) and its style. Eg. Plastic, metal, flimsy, sits under - behind - or beside mac. The power supplies that Lacie uses on most of their drives now are universal 100-220volt. -Software bound with the Drive and its quality. The Silverlining and Silverserver packages distributed with Lacie drives are excellant. If fact, by themselves they list for around $160 or something like that. -The quality of technical support and company support when you have a problem. Lacie is up there with the best of them in my books. -The overall cost of the package where the package includes all 4 of the above. I have found that for Lacie, I have had no problems with any of the above. I know that for a period of time Quantum put out some drives that had a lubrication problem. That (in my mind anyway) does not change the fact that the Quantum mechanisms are some of the best. 'course all 'o this is just my own opinion :-) :-) But I do like having good service and a 1-800 number for help. -- Jeff Wiseman: ....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM
jwg1@gte.com (James W. Gish) (03/03/90)
In article <cZv9C7W00WBM43d3VB@andrew.cmu.edu> hf07+@andrew.cmu.edu (Howard Haruo Fukuda) writes: > I would guess that LaCie is moving away from Quantum's 40mb, 80mb, 105mb > ProDrive series to the Quantum 50mb (52?) and 100mb (105?) ProDrive LPS > (Low Profile Series, I heard 1" high). The 120mb, 170mb, and 200mb are > also part of Quantum's next generation family half-height drives. This > is just speculation. > Is there a performance difference between the ProDrive series and the ProDrive LPS series? I've noticed some sellers of the Quantum drives in MacWeek say that the drives have a seek time of 12ms. La Cie says 19ms, or 15ms with their optimization package(?). Are they all selling the same drives and just using different numbers/measuring different things, or are they selling different drives? -- Jim Gish GTE Laboratories, Inc., Waltham, MA CSNET: jgish@gte.com UUCP: ..!harvard!bunny!jwg1
mdc@spt.entity.com (Marty Connor) (03/03/90)
In article <11220001@hpccc.HP.COM> bparrish@hpccc.HP.COM (William Parrish) writes: >> [stuff deleted] >>> I have only one complaint: just after I bought my disk from >>> them, they shifted to another brand of disk... and the >>> warrentee went from 2 years to 5 years. >>Actually they didn't. It was originally the Quantum and afterwards it was the >>Quantum. ... >>Jeff Wiseman: ....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM >Are you SURE they haven't swapped vendors? My last copy of MACWORLD >has a LaCie add that is confusing to say the least... >Bill Parrish / HP Roseville CA (bparrish@hprnd.hp.com) I just had a LaCie 40 meg drive fail, and LaCie, if you're listening, you need to talk to your customer support people about who pays their salaries. The talk I had with the tech was not cordial. I was told that I had to find the invoice for the particular drive even though I registered it. I assume these people have heard of computers and databases. I think it's shameful for me to have do look up an invoice when I have registered, and have supplied the drive serial number and LaCie's own unit number. FileMaker II could handle a database of serial numbers vs. invoices. Geez. To the issue at hand. The drive I am returning has a MaxStor mechanism (figure that one out). I am told that what happened at LaCie last year was that they stopped using Seagates for their low-low-end drives because the failure rate was too high. Let's face it. Seagates (for years) have had the worst MTBF of any drive around. Seagates fail faster than most anything, and take less abuse. Currently in the mid-density range, LaCie seems to be using a two-pronged strategy. They are selling Quantums and Connors. The Quantums cost more. They are historically a more reliable drive. I have heard Apple's problems may stem from custom ROMS that Apple insisted on. I believe Quantums are the fastest, quietest, more reliable drives currently available to the average consumer. The Connors cost less. I have been told by people who sell them that they fail A LOT more often (and sooner) than Quantums. I tell all my customers that if they have the money, but Quantum. I believe that the Connors may be better than Seagate in terms of reliability, but not much. If you are offered a choice of mechanisms for 40 to 100 megabytes, I would recommend preferring: 1. Quantum 2. Connor 3. Seagate This is what I recommend for my clients, and I believe that the prices of the drives are in that same order, coincidentally. Disclaimer: I am a Macintosh Consultant. I do not sell hardware or software. I get no money for recommending one drive over another. I believe that Public Corporations including Apple Computer are a dangerous perverse creation of capitalism, and must be watched very closely because it is illegal for the people who are officers of the corporation to do anything that will cause the company to lose money, even if it is telling the truth. I believe software is priced too high. I believe that large software companies are gouging customers, and that people should copy programs and help each other learn how to use them to protect themselves from the outrageous high prices. I believe we are IN a recession. I believe that the Supreme Court is now a primarily fascist entity. Just some opinions to test the First Ammendment to the Constitution. Peace and Blessings unto you. Marty -- Marty Connor, Marty's Computer Workshop, "Specializing in Macintosh Training" 126 Inman Street, Cambridge, MA 02139; (617) 491-6935 mdc@entity.com, or ...{harvard|uunet}!mit-eddie!spt!mdc
hf07+@andrew.cmu.edu (Howard Haruo Fukuda) (03/03/90)
In article <JWG1.90Mar2145617@bunny.gte.com> jwg1@gte.com (James W. Gish) writes: >Is there a performance difference between the ProDrive series and the >ProDrive LPS series? I've noticed some sellers of the Quantum drives >in MacWeek say that the drives have a seek time of 12ms. La Cie says >19ms, or 15ms with their optimization package(?). Are they all selling >the same drives and just using different numbers/measuring different >things, or are they selling different drives? The average access time to physically move the read/write heads of the Quantum ProDrive Series is 19ms, 17ms for the ProDrive LPS (or so I heard), and 15ms for the ProDrive 120/170/200. One of the things that makes Quantums so fast is that they have a 64KByte disk cache which lowers the average access time to retreive data. Quantum's estimates for the effect of the cache is average access times of 12ms for the ProDrive series, <12ms (11?) for the ProDrive LPS, and 10ms for the ProDrive 120/170/200. Depending on who's advertising the drive you may see either set of numbes, like 12ms or 19ms for a 105mb ProDrive. It is the same drive, different marketing. -Howard Internet: hf07+@andrew.cmu.edu
mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (03/03/90)
In article <315@spt.entity.com> mdc@spt.UUCP (Marty Connor) writes: >I just had a LaCie 40 meg drive fail, and LaCie, if you're listening, >you need to talk to your customer support people about who pays their >salaries. The talk I had with the tech was not cordial. I was told >that I had to find the invoice for the particular drive even though I >registered it. Hi, Just a suggestion: call up LaCie and ask to speak to a manager, and tell him/her what you said above. I've never had any complaints with the friendliness of LaCie's people, and they've always been very scrupulous about calling me back when I've called with questions, and recently with the problems with my 105Mb drive (see my earlier messages). It is not really reasonable, I agree, for them to want you to find the invoice. My invoice has a serial number sticker stuck to it, and I would think that their records would have much the same thing. They should definitely be able to keep track of them, since they sell direct! I'm getting ready a letter with some suggestions that I have. You might do the same. Among the things I'm suggesting: o As long as they plan to sell internally-terminated drives with 25-pin connectors, they should be able to tell you where you can find a 25-pin SCSI terminator, should you need one. o They should send a BLOODY HARDWARE MANUAL. I didn't get one. I asked why, and they said that it was confusing, and so it was being rewritten. Nonetheless, I got absolutely zero instructions about termination issues, including how to remove the internal stuff, etc. (In their defense, the tech I spoke to was very knowledgeable, and told me exactly how to remove the terminators). --Mike
d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon Watte) (03/03/90)
In article <315@spt.entity.com> mdc@spt.UUCP (Marty Connor) writes: >To the issue at hand. The drive I am returning has a MaxStor >mechanism (figure that one out). I am told that what happened at > 1. Quantum > 2. Connor > 3. Seagate Maxtor drives have a very good name by me. So has NEC, and possible Vertex. Sony is like Sony is - mass produced, decent quality but not more. Anyone have more experiences in hard drives (not just for the mac) Just "Brand X is good/bad". >This is what I recommend for my clients, and I believe that the prices >of the drives are in that same order, coincidentally. You get what you pay for... -- --- Stay alert ! - Trust no one ! - Keep your laser handy ! --- h+@nada.kth.se == h+@proxxi.se == Jon Watte longer .sig available on request
joe@amos.ucsd.edu.ling.ucsd.edu (Joe) (03/05/90)
In article (Arie Covrigaru) writes: >>>Does anyone have any horror stories/kudos with regards to La Cie? >> >I had an 80MB (Quantum) from them and now I have a 105MB (Quantum) and >both drives performed perfectlly. If Quantum drives are so good (and I believe they are), why go through a distribitor such as LaCie or CMS, etc ??? There are plenty of mail-order houses which ship Quantum drives, complete with warranty. Sure, you won't have nifty partitioning software, but who needs it. For the potential hundreds of $$ savings, it's well worth the thought. Just be careful you are not getting your external drive without the case. Or your internal drive without the mounting bracket. Some less than worthy mail places will pull stunts like that !!! Best, Joe. * * "Think, imagine, feel" are words like good and evil; * they mean what you choose them to mean - and nothing more. * If you define them, they fall apart. * * INTERNET: joe@amos.ucsd.edu * BITNET: joe%amos@ucsd.bitnet * * Salk Institute for Biological Research, La Jolla, Ca *
jjw7384@ultb.isc.rit.edu (Jeff Wasilko) (03/06/90)
In article <3057@draken.nada.kth.se> d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon W{tte) writes: >In article <315@spt.entity.com> mdc@spt.UUCP (Marty Connor) writes: > >>To the issue at hand. The drive I am returning has a MaxStor >>mechanism (figure that one out). I am told that what happened at > >> 1. Quantum >> 2. Connor >> 3. Seagate > >Maxtor drives have a very good name by me. So has NEC, and >possible Vertex. Sony is like Sony is - mass produced, decent >quality but not more. > >Anyone have more experiences in hard drives (not just for the mac) This past summer the company I co-oped with used Maxstor drives in their equipment (~70 meg, 330 meg and 660 meg) and I was amazed at the failure rate. In the 6 months that I was there, I probably saw 4 330/660 meg and 2 ~70 meg drives fail. These drives had been in service from 1 day to 1 year, and either failed with media failure/many bad blocks or a complete failure to spin up. Field Service engineers told me about many more failures in the field. The company was sending a demo system to Tokyo and we were so paranoid about failure that we equiped the system with 2 backup disks for the two primary disks. One of the primary disks failed while I was configuring the system. They were in the process of switching to Imprimis drives. IMHO, the Imprimis drives were designed better, built better and more trouble-free. The drives were being used in Sun 3 series and VMEbus applications and were ESDI drives, but I would assume that the same would hold true for the SCSI interface drives. Disclaimer: I'm only relaying what I saw. Jeff -- | RIT VAX/VMS Systems: | Jeff Wasilko | RIT Ultrix Systems: | |BITNET: jjw7384@ritvax+----------------------+INET:jjw7384@ultb.isc.rit.edu| |UUCP: {psuvax1, mcvax}!ritvax.bitnet!JJW7384 +___UUCP:jjw7384@ultb.UUCP____+ |INTERNET: jjw7384@isc.rit.edu |'claimer: No one cares. |