6. Conclusion: Capacity Vs. Sturdiness

LaCie and Western Digital are taking different approaches to getting consumers for their rather similar portable hard drives. Both vendors deploy 2.5" notebook hard drives that seem appropriate for mobile use, since they were designed for this purpose - they are not only lighter than desktop hard drives, but also less sensitive to mechanical problems.

Aside from the hard drive type, however, the two companies have taken rather different approaches. On the one hand, Western Digital uses the faster hard drive. However, it does not offer a Firewire interface, and the maximum capacity of the Scorpio drive family is 80 GB. (The 2 MB cache size is something we do not consider a very big issue for mobile hard drives.)

In contrast, LaCie offers up to 100 GB with 8 MB cache. However, due to their drive's 4,200 RPM rotation speed, it is not able to keep up with the WD Passport. That is particularly important if you end up using the inner media zone by utilizing the whole capacity of the drive. In exchange, LaCie supports both Firewire and USB 2.0.

Both drives check in at around 7-8 ounces in weight. Neither of them requires a power supply when using USB 2.0 or Firewire, since both interfaces are capable of powering the 2.5" hard drives and their controllers. Setting the drives up is very simple under Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS 9.0 and OS X, since additional drivers are not required.

What we don't quite understand is the short warranty period of only one year. Also, neither LaCie nor Western Digital bundle any add-ons; we would have liked to see at least some sort of storage bag.