The darn thing has a high MTBF rating and a five year warranty both of which have come nowhere near completing. It is connected via an Ethernet hub so I can DL via an iMac G4 desktop files from a networked old 8600 (P4 computer).

As usual as I was trying to migrate my P4 renders off one of my 5 drives on the 8600 I had another freaking brown out. I had a cheap Maxtor firewire drive hooked up to the iMc when it happened. The iMac went down. The 8600 went down and the LaCie went down. All the others recovered with seemingly no problem. The damn important LaCie ws the ony one that copped a freaking attitude! (I'm sorry...do I sound pissed?).

They told me it was the power brick. I have been sent three different Power bricks. The second one worked and got the drive up and running. I almost wet my pants with joy. But then my mouse cable touched the power cord from the brick to the back of the drive and being too loose a fit it fell out stopping the poor drive in its track. The third brick wire fits nice and snug now provides power to flash the little blue light but doesn't help me with my problem...again.

Since the problem I have tried connecting it to the iMac via the USB 2 cable as well with no results. System Preferences recognizes the drive on the port but it just refuses to mount on the desktops of neither the iMac or my newer MacBook.

LaCie said they can try to address the problem but strongly urged me to "BACK ALL THE STUFF OFF THE DRIVE" before I sent it in because it would be wiped during the repair. So I am a dunder head but I still do not understand how I am supposed to back-up a defective drive which doesn't mount on any desktop. So much for having a warranty and the supposed knowledgeable tech support I paid for.

I reminded them that because it is still under warranty and seems to be working otherwise they should run some software diagnostic or a DO NOT WRITE DRIVE repair option if I send it in. No good. Too much liability and they refuse to play nice about it.

I feel worse because I always thought the LaCie line was top of the line. It used to be but apparenbtly is no more if I can believe stories I am reading from friends in design and photography in New York who have had similiar problems with the LaCie products.

Reminds me of Iomega and the $#!+ they produced with their warmed over floppy based Bernouli technology in their ZIP AND JAZZ drives. Very unrelaible and very unpredictable (unless you consider predictably prone to fail as a good point). I never wanted to get another Iomega product since that experience.