Seagate Announces LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle and 2big RAID External Drive Enclosures

LaCie, Seagate Technology’s premium brand, has announced two new external storage products for desktop use and a rugged portable in the LaCie 2big RAID and LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle. Both products offer an internal RAID 0/1 setup for increased speed or redundancy and USB-C USB 3.1 (Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.0 compatible) interface for faster transfer speeds. The 2big RAID is intended to be a more static fixture while the Rugged RAID Shuttle, as the name implies, is designed for the rigors of travel and its inherent abuse.

The Lacie Rugged RAID Shuttle offers the same features as the Rugged RAID Pro such as speeds up to 250 MB/s using Hardware-based RAID (0/1 supported as well as JBOD), IP54 dust and water resistance, as well as being 1.2 meter drop and shock resistant. The main differences between the Pro and Shuttle is the latter uses Seagate Secure Hardware Encryption on the drive, double the capacity (up to 8 TB, two 2.5-inch drives) and is slightly larger in size. The Shuttle does not have the include an SD card reader.

The Seagate Secure Hardware Encryption uses AES 256-bit encryption methods and is said to be transparent to the user – in other words, no performance overhead. It can be password enabled or used as normal. The chassis is a secure design Seagate says is hard to crack and open. The unit has an orange rubber surround on it to assist with that drop and shock resistance as well as being able to withstand a crushing force of a two-ton car rolling over it.

The unit is connected to the system through a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C interface and is also compatible with USB 3.0 Type-A with an included adapter cable. The device is powered through the USB port and in most cases, even when using two 4 TB drives, power is fine. However, if the device is used with an older generation PC or small compact devices, you will need to use the optional external brick (included).

The Rugged RAID Shuttle offers a three-year warranty and Rescue Services as well as a 1-Month Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps.

The Lacie 2big RAID, on the other hand, is designed to be an external desktop solution without the rugged capabilities of the Rugged RAID Shuttle. This device supports speeds of up to 440 MB/s (RAID 0), supports RAID 0 and 1 as well as JBOD - all of which is configured through LaCie Toolkit software. For increased reliability, IronWolf Pro Enterprise-class HDDs are used. 

The 2big RAID is suggested to be used for video editing, back up, and archiving and will support capacities up to 16 TB using full-size 3.5-inch drives. Compared to the 2big Thunderbolt 2, it adds USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity, compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 hosts without using an adapter, and preformatted exFAT drives.

The chassis is an aluminum unibody enclosure capable of fitting two 3.5-inch HDDs and is powered by an external power supply. The 5-year warranty also includes five years of Rescue Data Recovery Services.

The 8TB LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle will be available in May 2019 with an MSRP of $529.99. The LaCie 2big RAID is available starting April 2019 with an MSRP of $419, $529, and $739 for the 4 TB, 8 TB, and 16 TB models respectively.