Thomas Hawk got burnt by a LaCie Big Disk external hard drive—let his experience be a lesson to you. While LaCie’s products may be a middling quality, hard disks, as built with modern manufacturing techniques, should be presumed to be disposable. There was a time not that long ago that a hard disk would last many years, but those days are almost certainly over. We’re not sure exactly what has changed, but there’s a reason that hard disk manufacturers don’t offer five year warranties anymore.