French computer hardware manufacturer LaCie (pronounced Lay-See) specializes in external hard drives, optical drives, flash drives, RAID arrays, interfaces (FireWire, USB, Ethernet, eSATA) and computer monitors.

Their products are the go-to choice for many industry professionals and are endorsed by companies like Apple Inc. for handle backups, video storage and large data volume exchange. Needless to say I had high expectations from the 500GB 7200RPM Rugged Drive that is allegedly drop resistant from up to 2 metres and comes with a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) specification.

Design

The 7200 RPM shock-resistant hard drive is bound in place by anti-shock rubber bumpers housed within a protective matt finished aluminium shell. There is an orange shock-resistant rubber sleeve that surrounds the aluminium casing, adding further protection to an already secure drive.

At the bottom of the orange sleeve there is a cut-out that holds a USB 3.0 port and two FireWire 800 ports. The sleeve extrudes above the ports so that they are not damaged upon impact. There is a coherent square chequered pattern engraved into the aluminium and orange sleeve which can supposedly add to the grip, shock-resistance and design of the hard drive.

Apart from the hard drive and orange sleeve, a FireWire 800 and a USB 3.0 cable are included in the box.

Usability

Some people use external hard drives to back up data from their computers, while others use them to carry around large volume data that would generally not fit on a USB flash drive. I would recommend that you use separate external hard drives for those tasks in case you opt for both, since putting all your eggs in one basket is generally a bad idea.

The LaCie Rugged Drive is perfectly suited for being carried around in backpacks.

It will bear the occasional toss, travel abuse, and go as far as withstanding rain, but do not think that it is indestructible and it’s a good idea to throw it around or immerse it in water - it’s not!

There is no silicon seal around the aluminium casing, so water will eventually get inside the hard drive, and on the box it says ‘drop-resistant up to 2m’, not shock-proof.

The USB port and both the FireWire ports are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and FireWire 400, which makes it easier to use with older machines, and works flawlessly on PC and Mac.

Initially I created two partitions – OS (journaled) and exFAT – one to backup data through Time Machine, and the latter to gather data from multiple sources; both were fast, secure and reliable.

Later, I formatted the drive and created one single NTFS partition for benchmark tests.

Performance

I ran two separate benchmark tests. CrystalDiskMark tested a 500MB file while ATTO Disk benchmark-tested a 1GB file. The drive’s reading capabilities came back steady for both files, well over 75MB/s while connected to a USB 3.0 port.

Writing speeds varied marginally with different file sizes, but still clocking in speeds faster than any other USB 3.0 hard drive I have tested so far. Exact results can be seen in the benchmark test screenshots.

The Rundown

The LaCie Rugged Triple drive is substantially more expensive than most 500GB external hard drives in the market, but connectivity, stability and security options that come with it go a long way in justifying the extra expense.

Some people would understandably choose the cheaper option, but many of you that frequently travel with large volume data should definitely go out and buy a LaCie Rugged Drive.