Trying to decide between these two wireless hard drives; thoughts welcome

By Kristoffer Gus…, 24 March, 2017

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hi.
I've written much here on buying wireless hard drives.
I got two to choose from. lacie fuel or wd my passport wireless.
I want the wd my passport, it has Everything I want. sd card reader, very much file sharing, easy to stream videos etc
It also has a built in Power bank.
the problem is that you can't charge the drive and use it at the same time.
It doesn't matter if I connect it to the wall or usb. same thing.
should I let the battery to decide for me?
/Kristoffer

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Comments

By Adam M on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 20:22

Hello Kristoffer,
Based on the two models of drives that you indicated that you were looking at, I have taken a careful look at each drive's specifications, and made an analysis.
The Lacie drive is much more expensive, but it does offer a longer battery life. It also does not offer an SD card slot.
The WD Passport drive offers a shorter battery life, but also has an SD slot for expansion and increased connectivity with the various portable memory devices that are possible, as well as a greater number of connected devices.

Unfortunately, the issue that you have pointed out is not specifically defined in either of the drive's specifications. Neither indicates whether or not they can be used while charging.
Honestly, the choice is up to you, but as you have asked for recommendations, this is mine.
Go with the WD Passport. As your brain and your gut told you.
You get additional memory connectivity options, increased device connectivity via wireless, as well as the fact that Western Digital (WD) is one of only three major manufacturers of hard drives on the planet.
Everyone else (including Lacie, Iomega, etc buy's hard drives from either Hitachi, Seagate, or Western Digital, repackages and rebrands them, slaps on a price tag, and all of a sudden, that HT, Seagate, or WD drive inside the case says lacie on it, and they box it up, make it pretty, and charge a $50 premium on it, and sell it to you like it was their own creation.
Not to mention, if you ever needed real support on the drive, especially data recovery, good luck.

I believe you will be satisfied with the Western Digital drive.
You will need to make charging and data loading preparations, but that's to be expected when preparing to leave home base for a while.

All the best,
Adam M

By Carlos Taylor on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 20:22

I'm curious to know the advantages of a wireless drive. It seems like it would be much slower and a pain to always have to worry about the status of the battery. Also, since batteries don't last forever, do you know if it is easy to replace the battery? I would hate to have data on a drive that I can't access because of a bad battery.

By Kristoffer Gus… on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 20:22

I want the wireless drive so I can use it with my Iphone and ipad.
the thing was that with lacie fuel I can use the drive all the time as long as it is plugged in the computer or in the wall.
with western digital I can't charge and use the drive at the same time.
with lacie I get 2 terabyte.
with western I get 4.
/Kristoffer

By david s on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 20:22

Hello,

Since you are talking about wireless, what wireless protocols do they use? Wireless G, N or AC? You want to avoid the G because it’s slow and if possible, get the AC so you can future proof your purchase. While most devices including IOS and Macs currently use wireless N, it won’t be long before they start shipping with wireless AC. I used to think I wouldn’t notice the difference between wireless N and AC. But if you transfer files from your device to the drive or stream meadia, you will notice it.

I would pick the WD for three reasons. It’s WD and I know what drive is in there. With the LaCie, it can be one of three drives and I am not a fan of Seagate. Two, The support and service WD provides is great. Should you ever need a replacement, they can send out a replacement, you can then try to move or recover your data to the new drive, then send back the old one using the same box and prepaid UPS label. Finally. The WD has an SD slot. This is a time saver if you ever need to move large amount of data to or from the drive to your device, a PC with an SD card reader or an IOS device with a camera kit. Try moving 100GB of data wirelessly and see how long it takes. Should your wifi time out or drop for a second, you will need to start over.

As far as battery life, ask yourself how often you will be away from a power outlet. If you’re like most people, chances are you will always be close to one.

HTH and good luck.

By Deborah Armstrong on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 20:22

One of my girlfriends had a USB drive for her iPHONE. She could move videos and photos to and from it, just like connecting to a PC. But she couldn't put all her audio booksand ebooks, music and recordings, podcasts and documents or all the other app data one collects on it because iOS wants data to belong to a particular app. I'd consider a wireless drive if I could actually use it the same way I use an external drive with a computer, but my concern would be that I'd still have the phone filling up with app data.