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rotuts · Jan 24, 2009, 02:49 PM

bet that got your attention!

I have several LaCie 1 TB external HD in the 800 firewire configuration.

One takes a lot longer ( a few seconds) to mount and I hear a 'click-click, click-click' etc until it mounts.

is this an ominous notive that this drive will soon (eventually) fail?

what going on and should I move the stuff somewhere else?

thanks

turtle777 · Jan 24, 2009, 02:51 PM

Yes, it's very likely that the drive has a mechanical failure and that it might break down soon.

I'd make a backup copy ASAP.

-t

seanc · Jan 24, 2009, 02:52 PM

It's a sign that either the drive or the power adapter is failing.

You should ALWAYS have backups - the price of a set of extra drives is nothing compared to data recovery services.

rotuts · Jan 24, 2009, 03:10 PM

I agree w you all completely. Ill call Newegg and see if its under waranty.

unfortunately its very expensive to have double the 1 TB I have.

but youve convinced me to move the stuff to DVD-R

It will take for ever! but Ill do it!

Spheric Harlot · Jan 24, 2009, 05:17 PM

If you have several LaCie drives, swap the power supplies and see if it still has the same problem.

If it does, it's the drive.

If it doesn't, contact LaCie support on their homepage, register your hard drive serial numbers, describe your problem and your diagnosis, and have them send you a replacement power supply.

I don't know about where you live, but their support here in Germany was absolutely flawless (and I have so many LaCie drives that I have no idea whether the two (out of eight or so) power supplies that failed during the heatspell last summer were two or five years old.

They asked me to send them in, and a couple days later, I had new ones - no questions asked.

As for DVD-Rs: Ugh.

An extra backup hard drive is *WAY* cheaper than the equivalent in DVD-Rs PLUS your time.

turtle777 · Jan 24, 2009, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by rotuts

but youve convinced me to move the stuff to DVD-R

It will take for ever! but Ill do it!

Seriously, don't.

By the time you're done, you'll need a new DVD drive.

-t

Big Mac · Jan 25, 2009, 01:24 AM

When you can get a 1TB internal or external drive for $100, why would anyone think of resorting to DVD backups?

Simon · Jan 25, 2009, 02:34 AM

Originally Posted by rotuts

unfortunately its very expensive to have double the 1 TB I have.

Actually it's not. A 1TB disk costs $95.

A SATA docking station to use as many of these drives as you like is $30.

Those prices are nothing compared to the cost and hassle of data recovery.

Veltliner · Jan 27, 2009, 03:27 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

Actually it's not. A 1TB disk costs $95.

A SATA docking station to use as many of these drives as you like is $30.

Those prices are nothing compared to the cost and hassle of data recovery.

Is it true the HDD is "exposed" in this docking station, as one reviewer described? Exposed like open and exposed to dust? I can't believe that.

Simon · Jan 27, 2009, 03:38 AM

The back of the HD is exposed to your surroundings, yes.

Not much different than the disk inside a tower. The platters are sealed off from the surroundings anyway. Unless you plan on setting up a dock in a dusty workshop I don't see any problems with that.

seanc · Jan 27, 2009, 03:15 PM

I don't think there's anything wrong with having the drive exposed either, as long as you don't bash it.

I've sucked what looks like the entire fur coat of a cat out of a couple of computers, that and the dust is usually covering the hard drive.

As Simon said, hard drives are sealed units. The smallest amount of a dust particle on the platter of a disc would interfere with the drive heads reading the disc - so they HAVE to be sealed.

WishingDigiJosh · Jan 30, 2009, 09:30 AM

eeek! I wouldn't mess around with exposed docks like that... all sorts of things can go wrong. a really common problem would be something as simple as a static shock. really not a good idea. if your data is worth anything to you, spend a little extra money and get a high quality brand (perhaps like a Glyph, G-Tech, etc) or if you want to save some money, look at something with RAID1 and you won't really have to worry about it again. I'm not exactly a fan of LaCie drives, but if you get one of their RAID 1 units, at least you'll have data redundancy.

Simon · Jan 30, 2009, 10:04 AM

Static shock? The disk is grounded. If you discharge on the drive enclosure that's no different than discharging on your MBP's case. I have done that a lot with my MBPs and none of those disks ever stopped working because of that.

Now what I wouldn't do is actually touch the drive electronics on the back side. But there's no reason too either. And since it's on the back side, it doesn't happen by accident either.

rotuts · Jan 30, 2009, 01:21 PM

I finally got around to moving two of the power supply cables around out of the 4 drives and voila!

the problem went away!

many thanks for all the suggestions and help.

Doc HM · Jan 31, 2009, 03:11 PM

LaCie power units are notoriously shoddy. The tiny intermittent gap sin power supply of a faulty unit cause the disk mechanism to break.

You'll need to isolate which unit is faulty and swap it out or you will end up with damage to the drive it is now attached to.

Veltliner · Jan 31, 2009, 11:47 PM

I heard a lot of horror stories about the reliability of LaCie.

Storage space is no longer expensive. Even the once expensive G-Tech have come down in price.

tooki · Feb 1, 2009, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by rotuts

but youve convinced me to move the stuff to DVD-R

Just buy more hard drives. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are proving to have nowhere near the longevity they promised us.

Just use hard drives for backup, and copy everything to a new drive every couple of years.

Veltliner · Feb 2, 2009, 02:44 AM

I have my most important data on two back-up drives.

Storage got really cheap, so you can buy better quality drives.