LaCie Ethernet Big Disk

The 2TB LaCie Ethernet Big Disk is appropriately named, we suppose. Other potential monikers: the LaCie Ethernet Big Headache, the LaCie Ethernet Sucks at Networking, or perhaps even the LaCie Ethernet Where Did My Drive Go. We jest, but there’s truth to our ramblings–the LaCie Ethernet Big Disk is horrific as a network-attached storage device, mainly due to our frequent failures to get Windows to even see the drive.

The included CD comes with a bunch of manuals, but the meat and potatoes is a small configuration application. You load it up to find your LaCie drive (sure beats typing an IP address into your browser, we suppose), and a single button-press launches the drive’s web-based configuration utility. Play with the settings all you like–there’s not much to do, save for enabling the Ethernet Big Disk’s media server.

The real fun comes when it’s time to find the device on your network. We tried looking for it in the default MSHome network path–no luck. We tried following the manual’s instructions and typed in the device’s name (\\EthernetBD). Zilch. We finally tried using the device’s actual IP address, which let us access the device (named Ethernet_bd, unlike what’s stated in the manual).

The Big Disk delivered acceptable speeds, but not anything to cheer about. The device lies squarely in third place in this roundup of four, but speeds are irrelevant if you can’t transfer files to or from the device using Network Neighborhood. Since many network boxes can connect just fine 100 percent of the time, we believe the Big Disk has a Big Fault.