I was to understand from the product description and other reviews that this hard drive had an ac adapter that plugged inot the wall but it only has one that plugs into the usb 2.0 port or the ps2 (mouse) port. Well my laptop doesn't have a ps2 port so I have to plug into my usb port and the actual usb for the drive is in the other port and I only have 2! I have a 4 port bus but it doesn't supply enough power for the drive so i have to use both of my ports for this one device which is very frustrating. Other than that, it seems to be a decent drive. So if you only have 2 usb 2.0 ports like me, you might want to look elsewhere.

This drive works like a dream! I just got it yesterday and used it with my laptop, which runs Windows XP. There was no need to install anything, just plug in and use. (This came very handy as I bought an Iomega drive earlier and had to return it, because the installation in that case was not intuitive.) The power from my USB port was not enough to drive the LaCie drive, but the problem was solved after I connected the PS cable (the product came with both cables, and a third one allowing you to tap in auxilliary power from another USB port if the PS port is in use). The drive was recognized by my laptop without a hitch, and I was able to send folders and folders of documents with just the click of a button. It takes about 4 minutes to back up 4 GB of documents, pictures, etc. through the USB2.0 port. It is also super easy to create folders, organize data, sorting things into recycling bin within the drive. It also showed up smaller than I anticipated and would really fit in a shirt pocket or most pockets designed for PDAs in an attache. Some other drives claim the same but they really meant extraordinarily large pockets like on physician's lab coats. The design is simple and without uncessary weight or baggage, as you can see on the photo. Granted, it is not a 911, but drives just about as fast.

This drive is for me an excellent alternative to carry easly lots of files from work to home, is not the smallest on the market but neither is pricey. Just fine and practical enough.

Pros:
- Small, fits in my shirt pocket
- Fast, Very fast interface, faster than other similar drives at work.
- Clean design, easy to clean when dusty.
- No drivers to install, I just plugged and it was all
- Can reformat to NTFS and use the security and compressing options of Windows XP, so if it is stolen no one can see my files.
- Quiet

Cons:
- No carring bag (When you see this drive the first thing that comes to your mind is not to scratch the case whan transporting it)
- No syncing or backup software included. (I use Second Copy 2000, is easy and very practical for me)
- No vertical stand (Without one you should not put it vertically, the drive is too light and can drop to a side just by sligtly touching it)

Why I bought it instead of others:
- Needed something small but not willing to pay the price of the smaller drives around, something in between.
- Needed a multi-gigabyte drive that does not need a power supply or drivers to work (To take files to my customer or friends computers)
- This one was the fastest and trouble free of all the other choices y saw at more or less the same price. Other drives have included software for backup but prefer to save the difference and have a more reliable drive. Other more cheap drives at work tend to fail. Only time will tell with this.

Lacie are getting the wrong end of the stick from me. The fact that this company refuses to update drivers for old hardware for new versions of an OS is simply a farce in this day and age.

Lacie refuse to develop drivers to support a new OS or even an update. Back in the days of NT they would not even bring out Win2k support for the systems. When XP arrived most of their hardware the year before was simply left to dry up with age.

In short if you buy Lacie then it will only perform to your current system specs. Any changes to the OS and chances are you will be shelling out more doe for new hardware.

CON.

I bought this drive to back up data and extend the life of a laptop that has a small hard drive (by current standards).

The drive has a very simple, albeit boxy, design. A pack of index cards is an apt description. "Installation" was a breeze - the plug & play worked fine (whew!). The drive needs 2 cables - 1 for data (USB) and 1 for power, and LaCie provides both a USB AND a PS2 cable (with pass-through in case you're already using that port). This is nice for people (like me) who only have 1 USB port on the PC and/or a hub that's already full...

So far, I'm really happy with the drive - it works fine, it's compact, & LaCie provided PS2 AND USB cable for power source.