# LaCie 2big Quadra drive. Will it work with Samba via eSATA?



## donjao (Aug 12, 2010)

Hey folks.

I'm planning to buy an external raid storage array, particularly this one. But I'm not sure if it'll work with FreeBSD + Samba. Can anyone advise on that?

I contacted the LaCie support directly, they told me that it should work, but since, they don't support it they cannot tell for sure. That's why I'm asking you guys. I don't wanna buy a drive that I won't be able to use. And the problem is that I cannot buy and test it, i'm building a home file server, that should be accessible via wired/wireless interfaces and on different OSes. That's why I need know if all hardware and software will work together before I buy the parts.

Thanks in advance.


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## SirDice (Aug 12, 2010)

I have a 2TB Lacie USB drive shared with Samba and NFS. I see no reason why this wouldn't work either.

The biggest question will be if the eSATA controller is supported. If that works everything else will too.


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## donjao (Aug 12, 2010)

SirDice said:
			
		

> I have a 2TB Lacie USB drive shared with Samba and NFS. I see no reason why this wouldn't work either.
> 
> The biggest question will be if the eSATA controller is supported. If that works everything else will too.



Hey, thanks for quick reply. And to find it out, we need to know the exact controller that LaCie drive uses, right? What about the FW800/400? connections? I wouldn't want to use USB 2.0 as it's damn slow.


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## SirDice (Aug 12, 2010)

donjao said:
			
		

> And to find it out, we need to know the exact controller that LaCie drive uses, right?


No, we need to find out what the eSATA controller inside the PC is. It's the controller that does all the work and for which you need a driver.



> What about the FW800/400? connections? I wouldn't want to use USB 2.0 as it's damn slow.


USB 2.0 is about as fast as FW400. The only difference is that FW uses DMA so it's less CPU intensive. USB is a client-server model.

FW400 shouldn't be too much of a problem, I have an old FW card that works fine. Haven't tried FW800 but I doubt this will be a problem too.


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## donjao (Aug 12, 2010)

> No, we need to find out what the eSATA controller inside the PC is. It's the controller that does all the work and for which you need a driver.


Ha! Well the good news, that there is not PC yet!  I'm planning to build up one using mini-ITX motherboard. But that's a matter of different forums.


> USB 2.0 is about as fast as FW400. The only difference is that FW uses DMA so it's less CPU intensive. USB is a client-server model.
> 
> FW400 shouldn't be too much of a problem, I have an old FW card that works fine. Haven't tried FW800 but I doubt this will be a problem too.



Thanks for info. But yeah, I was aiming for FW800. If I were ok with USB speeds, I'd buy a standard NAS drive. But this is not a case. I wanna take the maximum out of it!


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