LaCie adds power eSATA to portable Rugged drive

by Parm Mann on 12 February 2010, 13:29

Tags: Rugged eSATA, Lacie (EPA:LAC)

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Lacie isn't short of rugged external hard drives, but it has managed to introduce something a little different with the launch of a rugged drive equipped with a power eSATA interface.

It's called, unsurprisingly, the Rugged eSATA, and the 90mm x 145mm x 25mm drive arrives as one of few bus-powered eSATA solutions on the market.

Connected to a USB-eSATA combo port - an interface becoming increasingly common on modern notebooks - the 500GB drive will offer transfer speeds of up to 90MB/s, roughly three times the performance of a USB-only alternative.

As with LaCie's previous rugged models, the Rugged eSATA drive is housed in a scratch-resistant aluminium shell designed by Neil Poulton. It offers "internal anti-shock absorbers" and a "shock-resistant rubber bumper" to help protect the 500GB, 7,200rpm hard disk within.

Those with a USB-eSATA interface are catered for, too, with the drive offering backward compatibility with standard eSATA ports. Though, users going down that route will then need to power the drive via the bundled USB power cable.

The LaCie Rugged eSATA drive is available now priced at £129 and comes backed by a three-year warranty.