Used it for 24 hours so far so can't comment on reliability but an aesthetically beautiful little piece of machinery. Nice lights too--my kids were wowed! Much smaller than I anticipated and comes with it's own little carrying pouch. If you don't know this, Firewire drives get power from the cable, so doesn't generally need another power source (although AC adapter is supplied). Macintosh and Sony (laptops) have this connection standard. Others, rarely but you can add the connection via a Firewire card in your PC.