The LaCie Network Space 1TB, designed by Neil Poulton is purported to be an Ethernet Central Storage solution. On the surface it’s a reasonable product. Set up is relatively easy and it is found on the network easily with my Windows 7 PCs.

Transferring data to the device was quick and painless.

But the promise of having that data easily accessible across the network remains, unfortunately, just a promise as far as this Lacie product is concerned. It’s not very reliable. After a couple of months, the device became increasingly difficult to connect to the network, finally losing its connectivity altogether – it has never come back, and neither has my data.

It’s disappointing. This product is just not ready. Having surfed the web, it seems a few others have experienced this problem too. The thing just gives up the ghost.

Lacie support is less that satisfactory. Their limited 2-year warranty is pretty limited as it turns out. After a lame attempt at trying to convince me that the power supply to the hard drive was causing the fault, they sent me a new power adapter. Well, needless to say that solution didn’t work – I knew it wouldn’t as the power supply was operating just fine. The problem was unit’s network connection and the fact that it wasn’t turning off using the power  switch but the power supply was fine. It was clear that there was a hardware or firmware error in the device. It simply didn’t work.

Lacie then advised that I should return the unit and they’d have a look. Only they wouldn’t guarantee that data I had on the device wouldn’t be destroyed. Umm, not much comfort for a device whose sole purpose was to store data. So I haven’t sent the device to them as I don’t want to risk them deleting the data that’s on the device. I’ll have to find another solution to getting the data off the device before doing anything else.

Sadly I don’t really have time for all of this and so the whole experience has left a rather nasty taste in my mouth as far as Lacie is concerned.

I recently received a customer satisfaction survey from Lacie so I could rate their service on my interaction with their support team. Ironically, after completing the survey (with a less than favourable rating!) I wasn’t able lodge it as their submit button kept registering an error and could not be lodged. Ho hum.

So another support ticket advising Lacie that they have a problem with their website has been lodged. Who knows where this will end. All I know is that I have a heap of photo files on the drive that I haven’t been able to get off just yet – one day when I have time I’ll get on to that.

So as far as Lacie is concerned, I’d advise buyer beware – especially for any networking products – they are not cooked properly yet, and it seems Lacie support is a little raw too!