1TB Lacie d2 Quadra vs WD Home Edition; Chain disks/mirroring

[soacst]

1) I narrowed down my choices for an external disk to the above two.
I need a faster then USB2 interface to both PC and MAC. These two have both eSata and Firewire:
Lacie has both 400 & 800, WD only 400 and doesn't have an eSata cable nor on/off switch.
The WD is lighter, a little smaller and cheaper.
My main concern is the disk reliability.
What is your experience and knowledge of these two particular models?
Is there a survey of the nature of Consumer Report for Hard (external) drives?

2) For the purpose of chaining disks, is it an advantage to have identical disks?
I believe that for mirroring identical disks are recommended?

 

[lhuser]

If the Lacie external HDD offers the connector interface(s) you need, then you should go with that. They are reliable, like WDs would be.

If you want to mirror disks, it would be best to have identical disks.