LaCie Starck hard drive: Starck stores le stuff

Philippe Starck has added his own certain 'je ne sais quoi' to the hard drive. We have pictures

Richard Trenholm

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

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Richard Trenholm

Nov. 1, 2009 10:46 a.m. PT

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Design guru Philippe Starck has fulfilled what was no doubt a lifelong ambition by adding the hard drive to his portfolio. LaCie makes a mobile version or a higher-capacity desktop version of Starck storage.

Each of the two drives is wrapped in a 2mm aluminium shell. Inside this oddly textured metal skin is a fluidly curved chrome housing.

See the man himself revealing the conceptual gubbins behind the design. The LaCie Starck hard drive represents the philosophy of the product: your data is being stored and protected, and the dead 'ard exterior is a physical manifestation of that.

The playfully-rounded mobile version comes in 320GB and 500GB versions, costing £85 and £110 respectively. It features a USB connection neatly hidden in the back of the housing.

Our photos show the desktop model, available in 1TB or 2TB flavours. It's a brick of a thing, with a kind of industrial purposefulness that borders on malevolent. We sit up straighter when it's on. Sometimes we think it's watching us. Watching; and waiting...

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The status LED light beams out Monsieur Starck's signature orange plus sign.

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The front of the drive is touch-sensitive, and can be programmed to launch an application, such as Firefox or Word. This does mean installing LaCie Destkop Manager software and keeping it running, however.