Does anybody have any experience with (or heard anything about) these? I was considering picking one up as buy.com has a very good sale going on right now (120GB/$83). All the reviews i've found so far are very mixed.
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I don't have direct experience with LaCie drives, but the NSLU2 group ( http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Main/HomePage ) that I subscribe to has reported numerious failures.
I suggest that you check your local office supply and computer stores as they occasionally run great deals on older units. Office Depot currently has a Western Digital® 160GB My Book™ Essential Edition™ External Hard Drive on sale for $70 after rebate. Since you are listed as living in the US, you are either near an office supply store or can order via the internet.
Another option is to "roll your own". Seagate has bought Maxtor and is "fire saleing" Maxtor products. Last week Office Depot had a 100Gb drive at $30 after rebate.
Enclosures can be obtained for $20 to $50 from NewEgg. I usually pay about ~$30 for the ones with a fan.
I currently have 2 200Gb Maxtors (4 - 50Gb fat32 partitions each) running 24/7 on the NSLU2 as a file server for my home network. I have 4 other smaller units that I have built up over the years and haven't had problems. Units with partitions over 32Gb can some times be a little tricky to format as fat32 on Win2k or newer operatings systems. You may want to stick with NTFS if you are running Windows.
Clair
BTW: If you can afford the difference in price, the 2 1/2 inch drives are much nicer for portable applications as they are powered from USB and are smaller.
I'm using a la Cie portable 20gb already 10 year or more (cannot remember) but doesn't give any trouble. Cost in Italy (tax included is about 150 euro, have a look in the UK); only strong suggestion put it in a wet suite as all elettronics (older one are more sensitive to the umidity.
Ciao
Fulvio
The LaCie MOBILE drives (powered directly from the USB port, no power adapter required) are marvellously reliable. I've used a 40G and two 100G drives. The 1st 100G drive broke when I dropped it from chest height onto a concrete floor but the 40G and the 2nd 100G drive work faultlessly. I am just about up to capacity and will need to upgrade within the next year or so. Unfortunately the highest capacity USB-powered machines seem to be ~120-150G. Much higher than that and the machiens seem to need independent mains power adapters, very annoying and not conveniently portable. My current 100G is partitioned approx 4G Linux ext2 + 4G FAT32 dedicated to Cygwin + 92G FAT32 Windows stuff including PortableApps. I can do just about anything on any machine.