If you are looking for a hard drive that can sustain a beating and give your data physical protection, look no further. LaCie Rugged Mini is the one for you. As the name suggests, the rugged external hard drive is meant to be tough and is protected by a rugged orange sleeve which is easily removable.
LaCie is a name which might not ring a bell in your mind, it is owned by the rather popular Seagate when it comes to Hard Disks. Hence, one can expect a lot of similar features as Seagate hard drives which are known for their high performance and durability.
While unboxing the new LaCie Rugged mini, the first thing that had our attention was the Orange protection sleeve provided which gives the hard disk a rather attractive look without making it bulky. The hard disk comes with a USB-C cable as well as USB 3.0 cable.
Size & Compatibility
The LaCie Rugged Mini is compact and comes with a dimension of 86 x 135 x 19 mm and a weight of 240 g with the cover on. Without the orange sleeve, it measures to 74 x 135 x 13.5 mm and 166 g. Once you remove the sleeve you are left with a stylish storage device with a brushed aluminium enclosure. The device also comes with shock resistance and can easily sustain a drop up to 4 feet when in non-operating mode. Along with this, the device also provides rain resistance (not waterproof). The device remains functional even when pressure up to one ton is applied to it.
The USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports make it super compatible on Windows as well as the MAC devices. The USB 3.0 port is also backward compatible making it super easy to connect to any computer even with a 2.0 port. LaCie let you choose between the FAT32, and NTFS or a hybrid while installing the application.
Performance & Security
LaCie Rugged Mini is currently the fastest portable device available in the market. The SSD version of the drive blew us away. The rotational speed of the device is 5400 rpm and the interface surface rate of 5Gb/s in USB 3.0 & 10Gb/s. When used with Thunderbolt the average data rate came up to 330Mbps for writing and more than 330Mbps for reading. The same with USB 3.0 it managed to score 155 Mbps for writing and 227Mbps for reading. This shows LaCie Rugged Mini is worth every penny if you are looking for a fast portable drive.
The drive is super secure on every end but the only deletion is no password security provided which we do expect in a drive with such capabilities.
Software & Backup
The mirroring & backup software of the device is super easy to set up. The device comes with a quick install guide following which you can easily set-up the device on your Windows or MAC device. The drive also offers AES 256-bit encryption which protects the data against loss or theft. You can easily reformat the LaCie rugged mini using the toolkit utility included with the device.
The backup process works support scheduling. While backup is a great option, we suggest mirroring your device as the device is meant to travel with you to harshest of terrain and you can always have a copy of your device.
The other benefits of the device are it comes with a two-year warranty and also allows you to use Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan for absolutely no cost for a month redeeming the voucher that comes along the device. The plan itself costs INR 3,382 and is a great deal.
Final Verdict
The LaCie Rugged Mini as the name suggests is compact, build to last long & is super stylish. The device doesn’t disappoint when it comes to performance either and is one of the few devices to be compatible with macOS. It’s a great device for everyday data backup and is super travel-friendly. As a backup drive, it is really fast for a spinning disk which is another boon. Though the device is worth every penny, INR 16,000 for a 2TB hard drive might come out little pricey for most people. You can definitely score great deals online on the device. We totally recommend the device given its powerful performance, speed and resistance.
Buy it here: LaCie-Rugged-LAC9000298-External-Orange