LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB 3.0 1TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD (STEV1000400)

I purchased on the recommendation of a friend of mine who is an expert in this field. The first one we received did not work. I simply reached out to the store. They immediately shipped a replacement and the second one arrived quickly, and it works perfectly. I am a content creator, and this is invaluable in keeping a backup all of my videos and pictures. I highly recommend this one.

If you're still using a Mac with Thunderbolt 2 connections and are stuck using all kinds of workarounds to get decent transfer speeds from external storage then here's, well, another workaround! The cool thing about this drive is that it can be quickly & easily opened up rendering it a Thunderbolt drive enclosure. True, it's a pricey enclosure but good luck finding ANY Thunderbolt 2 enclosure otherwise. The Seagate HDD inside can be used for whatever (get an $8 USB 3 enclosure and give it to a friend or connect it to wi-fi and make it external storage for your phone!) and a sexy new SSD can be inserted in its place. The whole swap involves 6 screws and a little tape (AND the torching of the LaCie warranty, mind you...). There're YouTube tutorials to walk one through the 5-minute process. You'll ultimately be limited by the SATA connection (to around 6 Gb/s I think), but that's nothing to sneeze at, especially if you've been stuck using those lousy USB 2.0 ports. Thank goodness for USB-C - now if we can just get Apple to let go of crappy Lightning tech - egads. Anyhow, give your Mac the gift of long life with an easy peasy speed enhancement and postpone all that traitorous talk of impending retirement for the beloved beast.

Backups. Backups. Backups. I have lost data before so I backup obsessively. This my second Rugged Thunderbolt and my third backup drive. For my Mac I have a Time Capsule that is one of these drives and another La Cie that I got with the computer. My original Apple Time Capsule and Wi-Fi router failed and I replaced it with one of these. This second one goes to the safe deposit vault at the bank and about every month I go and get it, back my data up and then return it to the bank. I have decades of my life on my computer and loosing it would be devastating so, ya I'm over the top in some peoples eyes but not mine.The drive is kind cool with it's orange jacket and built in Tbolt cable and I don't worry too much using it at home and in the office. Also it can be partitioned into two drives with one partition being Mac and the other being FAT32. Very easy to set up with software that comes on the drive.

The orange is really bright, but it protects your hard drive! The way these drive works is to store anything you want from photos to videos to music! It does it all! And comes with drivers to help you efficiently service this drive.

If you have a newer MacBook Pro--the 2016 and 2017 models with the Thunderbolt 3.0 ports--this is NOT the external drive you're looking for. This drive has a built-in Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 connector, which won't plug into your Thunderbolt 3.0/USB-C ports. If you have a hub that gives you USB Type A ports, you could plug it into that, using the included USB 3.0 cable--but then you'd be giving up the extra Thunderbolt speed you paid for.The last time Apple made a MacBook Pro that had a Thunderbolt 2.0 port compatible with this drive was 2015.Amazon lists a LaCie 1TB Rugged USB-C/USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive (#STFR1000400), but it doesn't appear to have Thunderbolt. And in any case, it's out of stock, with no due date (probably because it's even more out-of-date than this drive!) LaCie makes larger-capacity Thunderbolt 3.0/USB-C drives, and a 1TB solid state version, but if you want a basic, inexpensive, 1TB, portable, mechanical disk drive, you're out of luck with LaCie--they don't appear to make one.I returned this drive and bought a Glyph Blackbox Plus 1TB Mobile Hard Drive (BBPL1000) with USB-C. It says it's "Thunderbolt-compatible" but not that it *uses* Thunderbolt (the interface is USB 3.1). But at least I'm not paying extra for Thunderbolt technology that I can't use!

Great product

Like size & sturdiness. When I'm gone on extended trips, can either take along, or store away easily. One glitch that is happening with backups of Mac Mini, and don't know whether it is Mac or this storage that is the problem. Have partitioned into 4 (for different Macs), and the backup partition to the Mini doesn't always mount. Usually able to get Disk Utility to mount, but occasionally can't right away. Have to eject all & try again.

Love LaCie, use for my Mac and air backups. This is my second purchase of this brand, the other one 3 years old is still working great on my Big Mac, this is for my MacBook Air and the thunderbolt backs up fast!