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LaCieīs d2 design has stood the test of time. Its sturdy metal casing and heavy weight make this drive feel resilient, but the d2 is certainly not alone in this. However, the vertical stand is more than just a tray in which the drive perches; rather it is firmly affixed to the drive for extra steadiness. It adds only a small amount to the driveīs own dimensions, giving it a fairly small footprint
What makes the d2 Quadra stand out is its consistently good performance in all the benchmark tests over a FireWire 400 connection. It took first place in the random write test and second place in the other three. Its performance is consistently good, although Freecomīs Hard Drive Pro is nipping at its heels.
Up against the other eSata-equipped drives, the results are less clear cut. It lost the sequential read test to the WiebeTech drive by a small margin, and there was a larger gap between it and the Western Digital drive in the random write test. Itīs only in this test that weīd really question its performance. Elsewhere the results were comfortably close or completely in LaCieīs favour.
Included software installs a preference pane in System Preferences, which configures the button on the driveīs front to launch an application, or you can disable it altogether. This feature works only over USB and FireWire connections, though - not over eSata.
Like Buffalo, LaCie has chosen the very capable but somewhat cumbersome Retrospect Express as itīs backup software. As stated elsewhere, itīs a good choice if you want to make scheduled backups to multiple locations or types of media.
It was a close call between the d2 Quadra and the Freecom Hard Drive Pro. Their performance over FireWire 400 was similar, but the d2īs eSata port is of limited use to Mac users at present. Freecomīs hardware encryption comes at a nominal extra cost. If you donīt want it, this drive is decent enough value at 23 pence per GB and offers consistently good performance.
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