The MacTrack – iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch and Mac News

Portland, OR – LaCie today announced the 4big Quadra, the most complete four-bay RAID solution for small servers, creative pro workstations or offices that need large storage and backup capacity, superior speed and advanced security. Offering capacities of up to 6TB (6000GB) and a versatile hot-swap feature, the 4big Quadra supports seven RAID modes including RAID 0 and RAID 5 for optimal performance and data protection.

Thanks to its native RAID controller that conserves computer resources, the 4big offers burst transfer rates reaching up to 200-230MB/s* through eSATA 3Gbits. This solution integrates perfectly with most applications that demand high speed, such as photo processing, audio/video projects, pre-press, and even HD post-production. Compatible with Time Machine(TM), the 4big also comes with Genie Backup Manager Pro(TM) and Intego Backup Manager Pro(TM) for customizable backup and computer recovery.


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Updated 11/05/2008: I did in fact purchase a “Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 500GB” from Play.com on 22th April 2008 but am having to return it There is an overheating issue with the individual drive I received.  It’s getting extremely hot and occasionally there is a burning smell – not good!

I’m getting a refund and am going to go with a LaCie 500GB Quadra v2 eSATA / USB / Firewire 400 / 800 at £114.99.  Hopefully this will prove a better choice for me.

Note: As far as I am aware the fault I encountered is restricted to the one individual unit I purchased.  Luck of the draw I guess!

Original article 02/01/08:
I’m thinking purchasing a 2nd (larger) external hard drive for my Mac. Primarily for Time Machine usage but also to add some redundancy to my system. I’m after a large drive (at least 500gb) with a Firewire 800 port as that’s how I will be connecting to it.

Currently the drives under consideration are:

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As a follow-up to my last posting about hard drive storage I thought I’d better mention Drobo, by data robotics inc.

Drobo is billed as the worlds first storage robot, featuring:

A Four Bay Disk Interface:

• 3.5″ SATA I or SATA II hard disk drives
• Full or half-height, no carriers required
• Choose the drive manufacturer, capacity (mixed capacities ok), and spindle speed or cache that fits your current storage needs

Drobo details can be found at it’s website: http://www.drobo.com/

Available at play.com (check other sites too for pricing comparisons) – shipped without any drives which you need to buy separately.