LaCie Rugged USB-C, 4TB, Portable External Hard Drive, Drop, Shock, Dust, Rain Resistant, for Mac & PC (STFR4000800) by LaCie

Does what it says it will do. Cheapest storage solution I could get.

This drive stopped working after about six weeks. It stopped mounting. The light on the drive would come on, but nothing else would happen. No internal noise. The drive didn’t and doesn’t appear in the Finder, Disk Utilities, DiskWarrior, TechTools or even in Terminal on my Mac. It’s sat on my desk since I bought it. No drops, no water, nothing. Other USB devices work just fine.

I contacted the manufacturer, Seagate (LaCie is now owned by them). The drive was under warranty and could be replaced by them. They also said, “Data recovery is not covered under the warranty.” They gave me a link on the Seagate website (Seagate also runs their included 2 year DataRescue plan). I clicked that link. Here’s what that site says:

“US $49.00 Engagement Fee & US $650.00 Recovery Fee with return media
ENGAGEMENT FEE DUE NOW (NON REFUNDABLE)
FINAL PRICE MAY INCLUDE LOCAL TAXES
RECOVERY FEE AND OTHER ADDED OPTIONS WILL BE
DEDUCTED AUTOMATICALLY UPON SUCCESSFUL RECOVERY
FINAL PRICE MAY INCLUDE LOCAL TAXES”

I’m not in the position to lend Seagate almost $700 to rescue the data from a drive that cost under $200. Yes, I might get some of that back, but the drive lasted only about SIX WEEKS.

Undaunted, I got the box out of the closet and found the brochure about the Data Rescue plan. It also has a link. That website has lots of information about the plan and purchasing the plan. There’s nothing about actually using the plan.

UPDATE: After discussions with Amazon, the vendor and Seagate, they didn’t charge me the $699 or the $49. They told me that they would recover the disk under the included Data Rescue plan. So, I sent them my disk to be recovered. The sent me back a BLANK DISK.

When I asked Seagate what was going on, they told me that my original disk was still being recovered. Um… I really wish that they’d told me that. Getting a blank disk with no note attached that explained things led me to logically conclude that my files were gone for good. At the very least, Seagate could have emailed me a note that gave a status update. They didn’t. I took me writing them, politely letting them know that I wasn’t exactly happy, to get updated status information. That disk was the replacement for my crashed disk.

AND WAIT, IT GET’S BETTER: It’s now October 4. I purchased it on March 28. They sent me back a drive that arrived today. It supposedly has my recovered files on it. This drive is password protected. The original wasn’t. I can’t access the files without the password, but did they send it to me? Nope. Once again, I’ll have to spend time on the phone and write emails.

It seems like they’re really trying hard to blow it every way that they can.

Update: On Saturday, October 5, I sent an email to the CEO of Amazon and the CEO of Seagate about this ongoing saga. I didn’t expect to hear from either of them until Monday. Amazon called me within 20 minutes, even though it was a Saturday!!! Amazon was willing to bend over backwards, but the problem clearly is with Seagate. Have I heard from Seagate? Of course not. I’ll send them a certified letter in a few days.

October 8, 2 pm: After contacting Seagate yet again via yet another email, they sent me a text and an email with the password. I also got a call from them. Yes, the nightmare is over, but I will NEVER buy another Seagate/LaCie product.

I have generations of LaCie drives and love them. My previous one was 2TB drive that I filled up already. I decided to get 5TB as the next model. I am disappointed because 5TB model only includes USB-C cable (in comparison 2TB model included both USB-C and regular USB cable as two options). I essentially have to poach a cable from my 2TB drive to be able to connect the new one to the computer. Additionally, 5TB is bigger in physical size of the drive (you can say, duh, but 2TB was actually the same size/weight or even slimmer than previous models with less capacity). I also experience inconsistent performance from it on Windows 10. 5TB model takes longer to pop up in File Explorer. The transfer speeds are all over the place from 1MB/sec to 40MB/sec with my older 2TB model always around 30MB/sec on average. Bottom line, I still recommend LaCie, just not their 5TB edition. In retrospect I wish I just ordered another 2TB.

El mejor disco duro, funciona muy bien

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