Preempting CES 2015's official start date as so many electronics manufacturers often do to beat the media buzz, Seagate announced the world's thinnest 500GB hard drive — and who knew it could be so beautiful? While many might inquire as to the actual excitement a relatively low-capacity hard drive should bring, the reality is that the Seagate Seven — a truly 7mm-thick USB 3.0 external hard drive — could drastically change our mobile workstations in ways that make our lives much easier. Along with the Seven, Seagate announced the LaCie Rugged RAID, featuring up to 240MB/s-access to 4TB of storage in a USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt enclosure.
Naturally, when you have the ability to make storage smaller, you can fit more into less space. This lets you either add backup storage or nearly double your speed, depending on how you use the drives. Even more importantly, however, is the fact that these drives look so good. Call it a silly point to make, but I would much rather deliver shoots to clients on a new Seagate Seven than just about anything else I can imagine — the drive is reminiscent of something that might be used by characters in 2010's TRON: Legacy. The information you need to identify the drive is stamped straight into the metal rather than using printed stickers that fade over time. If Apple were to make an external hard drive, it just might look like this. Available sometime this month for $100, there are certainly a few cheaper ways to get 500GB of portable storage. But none are nearly as slick.
With Seagate and Western Digital already having introduced products like the Seagate Backup Fast and WD My Passport Pro nearly a year ago, one could have seen a LaCie version coming any day now. But the choice to give us two interfaces — both a USB 3.0 port and a Thunderbolt cable extension — in a LaCie Rugged design will undoubtedly please cult-strength fans of LaCie's previous Rugged drives. Promising 240MB/s, the 4TB unit lets you choose between RAID 0 or RAID 1 for speed or backup while providing class-leading speeds. Pricing for the LaCie Rugged RAID drive will be updated when available, but expect it to be at least slightly more than the Backup Fast's $270 MSRP and likely closer the My Passport Pro's $400 MSRP.
As IT, I can say Seagate the least reliable HHD drives. And all Lacies have Seagates inside.
Just a fact.
which drives do you like for HDDs and SSDs?
Hello Michael,
SSDs - Intel, Samsung (Pro series)
HDDs - WD. WD slower, more expensive, but more reliable.
In any case, always do backups!!!!!
Aleksey, I go for the WD drives as well and I have a Samsung SSD that is going almost 3years strong. And my backups are redundant on two different external WD drives! If its not on two drives your data might not be there the next day.
Crucial SSDs are known to be extremely reliable and very easy to update. Fantastic customer, tech, and warranty support. Prices are usually the best in the market. An American brand too.
Over the years 8 have seen no difference in reliability when it comes to 3.5" drives from Seagate comoared to the compeition. The only area that I have had issues are with external 2.5" Seagates. I've had a few fail on me after just a few months of use. The failures were all due to the heads literally coming apart. Very fragile design and construction. I've moved on to WD 2.5 externals and only time will tell if they are more reliable. It's about time to move on to SSd externals.
This note looks like a advertisement copied straight from Seagate :)
This hdd will not change our mobile workstations - it`s just an external small capacity hard drive from not really reliable Seagate manufacturer. Technology from the past.
Warranty Data recovery, then maybe. Past experiences would say Pass.
The Thunderbolt interface, which is the same as the Mini DisplayPort, is very durable. It would be very unlikely for the interface/cable to fail within the life of such a drive. If anything, it is much more likely the much more delicate USB 3 interface would be damaged long before the Thunderbolt interface and cable would fail.
Lee...I was thinking the same thing as you regarding the cable...but in reality it wouldn't be a doorstop since you could always use USB 3.0; not it's not ideal but it would work. I prefer Thunderbolt (it's fast and keeps my USB 3.0 ports available).