Like the name implies, the drive’s construction is unlikely to fail you anytime soon. The rugged category is much smaller, but Transcend offers a 2TB drop-tested drive for just $100, or a 256GB SSD for $120.Īs for longevity, the Lacie Rugged is a mixed bag. Seagate, which owns Lacie, also offers a 4TB drive of the same size for just $120, without the orange shield. Those drives offer their own advantages at an elevated price, but that’s not all there is to this story.Įxternal hard drives are an easy business to get into, and there’s no shortage of options with every feature set and capacity under the sun.
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It boasts a sturdy design, massive capacity, and portability only matched by much pricier external SSDs. Lacie’s Rugged USB-C drive sells in a variety of capacities, with our 4TB review unit retailing for $250. That said, the much more expensive Samsung T3 once again steals the show with a three year warranty – you get what you pay for. Lacie’s two-year limited warranty may not feel luxurious, particularly at the price point, but it’s twice the length you’ll find on less expensive drives. Those features come at a steep price, however, as the largest 2TB Samsung T3 is around $800, which is almost four times the price of this 4TB Lacie drive. The T3 is also several times smaller than this hard disk. They provide numerous other benefits too, including a lack of moving parts for increased durability. Only external SSDs like the Samsung T3, used over a high-speed USB 3.1 connection, are able to start producing even higher speeds. That’s basically the limit for mechanical drives, and even internal hard disks running over a SATA connection rarely break 150MBps or so. The Lacie Rugged managed to average 135MBps in our testing, with the write speed trailing close behind.
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Running setup allowed us to format a NTFS partition - Windows only - of 4TB, or to devote up to 32GB to a FAT32 partition that can be read and written by Mac and Linux machines. Instead, at least in Windows, there’s a read-only 256MB partition named Lacie Setup. When you first plug the drive in, you won’t see the volume immediately. Lacie includes Type-C to Type-C and Type-C to Type-A cables inside, both USB 3.0 compatible. If you don’t have a Type-C plug on your computer, no need to worry. Normally we’d break out a section for connectivity, but here it’s just a single USB 3.0 Type-C plug. You may not be able to drive over it with a car, but it’s worth considering that in this case, there are two kinds of durability. Solid state drives have no moving parts, and that means you can toss it around or plug it into your phone and not worry about breaking anything. It’s still a spinning disk drive with moving parts, and if it takes a drop while you’re using it, you’re likely to lose some of your data and risk corruption. While the Lacie is very durable, do keep in mind that it’s only protected when it’s not actively being written to or read from.
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You could theoretically drive a car over it. The drive itself feels solid and beefy, without being overly large, and the outer shell is removable if need be. The original design is still very attractive, and the wrap is a lot thicker and more durable than a cheap phone case. The drives haven’t changed much over the years, but here, that’s a good thing. Lacie’s Rugged external drives are immediately familiar, with a silver body wrapped in a thick layer of orange silicone. These Lacie drives set the stage for the external drives that have become ubiquitous in a laptop-driven market, and the Lacie Rugged Type-C carries that tradition on without changing a thing. A Type-C port gracing one end of the drive is the only clue this drive wasn’t made 10 years ago.Īnd yet, the bright orange silicon and muted silver chassis still fits in alongside more modern offerings. Steadfast and sturdy, the design hasn’t changed in years, and that’s totally fine, because it doesn’t need to. Which makes this Lacie 4TB Rugged USB Type-C a hammer, or a chisel, in your toolkit of electronics. Destined for days in a lonely corner of your desk, or tossed around between backpacks while traveling - a tool that serves an important duty, but only draws your attention if it breaks. There’s nothing glamorous about an external hard drive.