Comments on: LaCie Big Disk Extreme Failure http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/ just a lowly edtech geek, mumble mumble university of calgary Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:41:04 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Stewart http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-196129 Stewart Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:58:20 +0000 1274509980#comment-196129 You've got to hand it to LaCie, when it comes to customer care they're pretty much up there. After fiddling with terrabyte hard drive, i contacted them and they kindly advised me that as it was the power supply which had failed, and this was the item replaced previously, that it would still be under 12 month warranty. They gave me a merchant return number and i sent it back. Result. New power pack dispatched to me via recorded delivery within 5 days. Further result, after backing up all my crucial data I am now just waiting for the next PSU burn out at which point I WILL be mounting each HD separately for backups. Once bitten, twice shy. Third time's an idiot. You’ve got to hand it to LaCie, when it comes to customer care they’re pretty much up there. After fiddling with terrabyte hard drive, i contacted them and they kindly advised me that as it was the power supply which had failed, and this was the item replaced previously, that it would still be under 12 month warranty. They gave me a merchant return number and i sent it back. Result. New power pack dispatched to me via recorded delivery within 5 days. Further result, after backing up all my crucial data I am now just waiting for the next PSU burn out at which point I WILL be mounting each HD separately for backups. Once bitten, twice shy. Third time’s an idiot.

]]> By: Ron http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-196085 Ron Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:53:08 +0000 1274509980#comment-196085 Can I just take the 4 500gb drives out of my LaCie and put them in a new enclosure? Just wondering. Ron Can I just take the 4 500gb drives out of my LaCie and put them in a new enclosure?
Just wondering.

Ron

]]> By: Stewart http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-195861 Stewart Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:11:22 +0000 1274509980#comment-195861 Well, haven't I been here before? Bought LaCie 1Tb about 20 months ago. 11 months ago the power supply failed. Sent it back under warranty to receive new power supply and all data still intact. Thank god. Now nine months down the line, the power supply (I hope) has failed me again. As the actual HDs are now outside the warranty I took the brave step of opening it up, buying a SATA docking station and trying to access the data via that. Not straight forward as the disks report as RAW format due to the RAID setup, so I've had to spend money on the right data recovery software that can read, copy and convert RAW to NTFS to transfer to a new 1.5Tb internal HD. In all honesty, even if I do get another power supply from them I don't think I'll bother using it. Instead I'll just reclaim what I can from each 500Gb SAMSUNG drive, reformat them and then dock them periodically to create offline backups of my more important data. It's not that LaCie are malevolent, they're just incompetent at producing reliable hardware for today's digital mass storage requirements. No more for me thanks. On a lighter note; how many light bulbs does it take to change a philosopher? Well, haven’t I been here before? Bought LaCie 1Tb about 20 months ago. 11 months ago the power supply failed. Sent it back under warranty to receive new power supply and all data still intact. Thank god. Now nine months down the line, the power supply (I hope) has failed me again.
As the actual HDs are now outside the warranty I took the brave step of opening it up, buying a SATA docking station and trying to access the data via that.
Not straight forward as the disks report as RAW format due to the RAID setup, so I’ve had to spend money on the right data recovery software that can read, copy and convert RAW to NTFS to transfer to a new 1.5Tb internal HD.
In all honesty, even if I do get another power supply from them I don’t think I’ll bother using it. Instead I’ll just reclaim what I can from each 500Gb SAMSUNG drive, reformat them and then dock them periodically to create offline backups of my more important data.
It’s not that LaCie are malevolent, they’re just incompetent at producing reliable hardware for today’s digital mass storage requirements. No more for me thanks.
On a lighter note; how many light bulbs does it take to change a philosopher?

]]> By: Keith http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-195810 Keith Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:08:33 +0000 1274509980#comment-195810 Had a failed 250GB drive which I could not access. After reading this board and others I tried the "freezer" trick, which did not work. Then I tried swapping the Lacie covers/chassis with a working drive of the same size/model and was able to successfully access my data. From this I can conclude that the Western Digital HD was fine, but the Lacie chassis failed. I will not be buying Lacie Drives in the future. Had a failed 250GB drive which I could not access. After reading this board and others I tried the “freezer” trick, which did not work. Then I tried swapping the Lacie covers/chassis with a working drive of the same size/model and was able to successfully access my data. From this I can conclude that the Western Digital HD was fine, but the Lacie chassis failed. I will not be buying Lacie Drives in the future.

]]> By: Chris http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-195257 Chris Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:24:31 +0000 1274509980#comment-195257 I bought a fleet of 8 LaCie 500 GB drives for disk-disk backup at work and most died for various reasons over three years. And these drives were typically only accessed once per week. Usual power supply problems people had, but other problems as well. I replaced these lemons with Seagates (that came with 5 year warranty) and have had no problems since. I will never buy a LaCie product again. I bought a fleet of 8 LaCie 500 GB drives for disk-disk backup at work and most died for various reasons over three years. And these drives were typically only accessed once per week. Usual power supply problems people had, but other problems as well. I replaced these lemons with Seagates (that came with 5 year warranty) and have had no problems since. I will never buy a LaCie product again.

]]> By: claytron http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-194904 claytron Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:05:13 +0000 1274509980#comment-194904 Thank you for for this solution! I had the *exact* same symptoms and buying the new power supply has me back up and running perfectly, and backed up to another drive as well :) Thank you for for this solution! I had the *exact* same symptoms and buying the new power supply has me back up and running perfectly, and backed up to another drive as well :)

]]> By: DBM http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-194761 DBM Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:41:06 +0000 1274509980#comment-194761 Replacing the power supply unit solved my problem. Failure: External FW LaCie d2 big disk extreme 500 GB. Symptoms: 'click of death', bad blocks, write failure, blinking blue light, unable to write any large file. TechTool pro 4.6.2 indicated tat read/write was OK, but disclosed 8 bad blocks. Was able to zero out the disk to eliminate the bad blocks and recreate partitions using DiskUtility. Nevertheless, symptoms persisted. Was able to create disk images of partitions (TimeMachine, ClonedHD, other). Replaced defective 34W LaCie power supply unit model No. ACU034A-0512 with 57W unit model no. ACU057A-0512 (About $25 US in Riyadh, Saudi arabia). All problems resolved. Restored partitions from disk images with no difficulty. OS X 10.5.6. Imac early 2006, 2GB memory. FW 400 connection to LaCie Disk. Replacing the power supply unit solved my problem. Failure: External FW LaCie d2 big disk extreme 500 GB. Symptoms: ‘click of death’, bad blocks, write failure, blinking blue light, unable to write any large file. TechTool pro 4.6.2 indicated tat read/write was OK, but disclosed 8 bad blocks. Was able to zero out the disk to eliminate the bad blocks and recreate partitions using DiskUtility. Nevertheless, symptoms persisted. Was able to create disk images of partitions (TimeMachine, ClonedHD, other). Replaced defective 34W LaCie power supply unit model No. ACU034A-0512 with 57W unit model no. ACU057A-0512 (About $25 US in Riyadh, Saudi arabia). All problems resolved. Restored partitions from disk images with no difficulty. OS X 10.5.6. Imac early 2006, 2GB memory. FW 400 connection to LaCie Disk.

]]> By: DavidS http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-194735 DavidS Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:51:18 +0000 1274509980#comment-194735 I've just had my LaCie 200GB drive fail. The disk justs stopped spinning. I was advised to try a different power supply, so I've ordered a replacement from LaCie. I'm encouraged by what I've read from others that often the issue is a power supply failure. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I bought a Seagate 1Tb for use as a backup disk and bought another LaCie disk (a d2 Quadra 500 GB) for external storage, to be backed up along with the internal drive on the 1Tb Seagate. I think if I'd read the reviews first, I wouldn't have bought a LaCie for the second drive. Too bad. I *had* always thought that LaCie was a great company. The 200GB drive that failed was almost four years old. I've never had problems with it before. I’ve just had my LaCie 200GB drive fail. The disk justs stopped spinning. I was advised to try a different power supply, so I’ve ordered a replacement from LaCie. I’m encouraged by what I’ve read from others that often the issue is a power supply failure. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I bought a Seagate 1Tb for use as a backup disk and bought another LaCie disk (a d2 Quadra 500 GB) for external storage, to be backed up along with the internal drive on the 1Tb Seagate. I think if I’d read the reviews first, I wouldn’t have bought a LaCie for the second drive. Too bad. I *had* always thought that LaCie was a great company. The 200GB drive that failed was almost four years old. I’ve never had problems with it before.

]]> By: jay http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-194663 jay Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:03:23 +0000 1274509980#comment-194663 Lacie Big Disk Extreme here, 2 months out of warranty. Started crashing after sleep and not mounting at all. I borrowed power supply made all the issue go away! Lacie Big Disk Extreme here, 2 months out of warranty. Started crashing after sleep and not mounting at all. I borrowed power supply made all the issue go away!

]]> By: Cameron http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/#comment-194332 Cameron Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:27:25 +0000 1274509980#comment-194332 Follow up note to the solution to my problem. I ended up searching ebay and finding the precise model I had and ordering it. I then used this for parts. In my case the controller board and power supply were bad. I was able to restore it, but had to update the firmware on the new board first. So I ended up spending $250 to recover my data and ended up with 4 nice SATA drives which will be the beginning of a new high quality RAID 5 NAS... Any brand but Lacie of course. Hope others are as lucky as I was! Good luck. Follow up note to the solution to my problem. I ended up searching ebay and finding the precise model I had and ordering it. I then used this for parts. In my case the controller board and power supply were bad. I was able to restore it, but had to update the firmware on the new board first. So I ended up spending $250 to recover my data and ended up with 4 nice SATA drives which will be the beginning of a new high quality RAID 5 NAS… Any brand but Lacie of course. Hope others are as lucky as I was! Good luck.

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