Disk compatibility

[RFMoya]

I certainly don't mean to start a panic, but malkruger's 3-TB d2 Quadra booting fine via FireWire, while my exact same drive fails, is indeed covered in the LaCie tech's statement to me that "any given LaCie drive may, or may not, boot a Mac." Either way, a hard drive's boot-ability is not officially supported by LaCie, so as far as they are concerned, any of their drives that fail to boot a Mac (while operating correctly in all other regards) are NOT considered defective or any kind of problem or warranty issue for them at all! ... I guess it's just the luck-of-the-draw as far as LaCie goes…

Please don't get me wrong -- I have had a long & happy relationship with LaCie & their products. But what I heard from them on the phone today has really thrown me for a loop… I honestly don't know what to do… Because I purchased the drives directly from LaCie, and they are less than 30-days old, I guess I could return them for a refund… But maybe I'm expecting too much from LaCie -- I really don't know what's the "industry standard"… Is the boot-ability of an external hard drive that variable regardless of the manufacturer? Is this really "normal?"