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S_J · Feb 3, 2009, 08:56 AM

Hi guys,

One my of 3 Lacie drives, a Big Disk Firewire 250GB, has just failed on me. I've read that many people have had issues with Lacie drives as a whole. To make matters worse (apart from being out of warranty), Lacie refuse to sell any replacement parts, or offer a repair service. I've already made up my mind to avoid Lacie products in the future.

I'm pretty sure that my drive's failure is due to a faulty Interface board. I've tried swapping the power adapter, but that didn't make any difference. Also the two internal disks themselves sounded fine just as the drive was dying, and now when I plug the drive in, the blue light comes on but it doesn't even attempt to spin up the disks.

My first question is, does anyone know where I could obtain a replacement Firewire Interface board? Or does someone have the same drive whose internal disks have died, and may no longer need the casing/internals?

Secondly, if the internal disks are still functioning as I expect, has anyone successfully inserted these into a Mac tower in order to recover the data? How does this work with regards to the RAID0(?) that these drives were run on?

Many thanks in advance!

// SJ

angelmb · Feb 3, 2009, 11:10 AM

Sorry to hear about it, I still have to get a faulty LaCie peripheral, fact that obviously means nothing.

Does the Big Disk FireWire sport the classic Neil Poulton d2 design, or is it its fat sibling? If it was the former (classic design) those are easy to open, so you can take the hard disk out and attach it to your Mac tower if the type of hard disk is suitable to the Mac's internal connectors, e.g. PATA instead of SATA…

This is how the d2 classic design looks,

S_J · Feb 3, 2009, 11:29 AM

Hi angelmb,

Thanks for the reply. It is indeed the model above, but to clarify it's not the 'extreme' version, meaning it has Firewire 400 and 800 only (no USB).

I have indeed opened it by now (after Lacie told me where I could shove my drive). I noticed that the drives have two ribbon cables that appear to merge into one, but I may be wrong. Obviously as this drive is raided, there must be a way of maintaining that raid. Unfortunately my G4 tower recently died (unlucky huh?), and other than that I only have an iMac and a PB. I'm trying to get another old G4 tower to replace the current one, in which case I may have to try the 'swap and pray' technique.

I'm still hoping someone may have a drive that's died and whose internals they no longer need... anyone?

// SJ

mduell · Feb 3, 2009, 05:49 PM

I'd take the drive out and buy a different enclosure for it.

ChrisF · Feb 3, 2009, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by S_J

I'm trying to get another old G4 tower to replace the current one, in which case I may have to try the 'swap and pray' technique.

I'm still hoping someone may have a drive that's died and whose internals they no longer need... anyone?

// SJ

The drives are indeed more or less a RAID 0 configuration. You will not be able to put them in a Mac and be able to get anything from them. Your only option is to find another housing, copy off your data, throw the LaCie junk away and format the drives as individual disks.

mduell · Feb 3, 2009, 07:04 PM

RAID0 for 250GB? Yow, must be ancient.

S_J · Feb 4, 2009, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by ChrisF

The drives are indeed more or less a RAID 0 configuration. You will not be able to put them in a Mac and be able to get anything from them. Your only option is to find another housing, copy off your data, throw the LaCie junk away and format the drives as individual disks.

Hi ChrisF,

If I can't move the drives to a tower and get them to work, how can I get them to work in a new enclosure? Is there no way to tell OSX that the drives are RAID0'd?

Thanks.

mduell · Feb 4, 2009, 04:18 PM

You'd need a LaCrap enclosure that does/supports the same RAID0 scheme.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 4, 2009, 06:25 PM

Just to weigh in: I've had excellent experience with LaCie's d2 products, and with their service, as well.

The Porsche design drives were...weird - mostly due to the fact that the power switch didn't actually turn off the enclosure (merely the drive), meaning that it had to be dis-/reconnected to work again, but other than that, I really can't see why some people have it going against LaCie...

S_J · Feb 5, 2009, 05:51 AM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

Just to weigh in: I've had excellent experience with LaCie's d2 products, and with their service, as well.

The Porsche design drives were...weird - mostly due to the fact that the power switch didn't actually turn off the enclosure (merely the drive), meaning that it had to be dis-/reconnected to work again, but other than that, I really can't see why some people have it going against LaCie...

Hi Spheric,

Normally I would've agreed with you. I have 5 lacie drives in my house, and I've always been a supporter of Lacie's 'build quality and reliability'. And, for the most part that's still true. For one drive to fail out of 5 may just be unlucky.

Here's my problem: as I'm out of warranty on this drive, naturally they don't want to repair it. But what pisses me off is that they refuse to do ANYTHING. They don't sell replacement parts that would allow me to repair the drive myself, and they don't offer a paid repairs service for out-of-warranty repairs. So in essence you're SOL if your drive dies after warranty expires.

So you invest a decent amount of money getting a 'good' drive and enclosure from Lacie... but if it fails, you can't repair it (so you've lost out on your investment), and unless you're technically savvy, you can't recover your data either! Non-technical users who are desperate to recover the data will have to send off the drive to a data-recovery center who will charge them three times the price of the drive... when it could just cost, as in my case, almost nothing to get a replacement interface board.

Almost all companies offer an out-of-warranty repairs service, OR, there are authorised centers that can do that for them. Neither for lacie. And support doesn't care in the least. I sure don't want to be put in the same position again in the future.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 5, 2009, 05:55 AM

Interesting experience.

To be honest, I don't know how the European support handles such cases - I've never needed out-of-warranty repairs on LaCie devices (I have six or seven of their drives, with another dozen or so used among friends/acquaintances).

S_J · Feb 5, 2009, 05:56 AM

Agreed, for the most part I still believe in their quality. It's simply the support mentality and arrangements that I don't like.

OreoCookie · Feb 5, 2009, 06:25 AM

I've had used quite a few Lacie products (at work, at my parents' home) over the years and I own a FireWire drive myself. I haven't had any problems with them so far. Their enclosures (at least the d2 enclosure and the Mac mini harddrive accessory) feel much more robust than my Icy Box enclosures.

ChrisF · Feb 5, 2009, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by S_J

Hi ChrisF,

If I can't move the drives to a tower and get them to work, how can I get them to work in a new enclosure? Is there no way to tell OSX that the drives are RAID0'd?

Thanks.

As the post below my original one indicates, you need another Lacie enclosure that supports the same configuration as yours. RAIDs are almost never interchangeable between different software/hardware. No, there is no way to tell OS X that the disks are an array.

S_J · Feb 5, 2009, 09:51 AM

So if I understand correctly, I need to find another enclosure that uses the same chipset (some Oxford semiconductor controller). So I guess this brings me back to my original thought of finding a replacement firewire interface board.

Now if Lacie don't sell them (and nobody else seems to), my only chance is to obtain one from someone who has/had the same drive.

ChrisF · Feb 5, 2009, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by S_J

So if I understand correctly, I need to find another enclosure that uses the same chipset (some Oxford semiconductor controller). So I guess this brings me back to my original thought of finding a replacement firewire interface board.

Now if Lacie don't sell them (and nobody else seems to), my only chance is to obtain one from someone who has/had the same drive.

There's no guarantee that Lacie isn't using some proprietary controller firmware. Your only option is to try and find another unit and swap your drives into it. That may work but who knows what variables there really are aside from Lacie.

S_J · Feb 5, 2009, 12:44 PM

I believe they are using an off-the-shelf chipset with non-proprietary firmware. One guy whose internal drives died outlines his repair attempts here:

http://wwward.typepad.com/blog/2007/...e-or-repl.html

Unfortunately, my issue isn't as simple as swapping drives, as my drives are fine, but the enclosure has died.

WishingDigiJosh · Feb 12, 2009, 12:48 AM

if you haven't done anything yet and are feeling unsure how to get your data back, consider calling the guys at Glyph .... their service department is pretty responsive and last i checked they had a "repair others" program... they'll probably charge you a minimal fee to get the data off your RAID back and will probably sell you a very high quality external for a very reasonable price for all your troubles.

S_J · Feb 17, 2009, 05:58 AM

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately at the moment I'm not comfortable sending my data to strangers for recovery

So I'm stuck with trying to resolve this myself. Does anyone know a place where one might be able to obtain a lacie disk enclosure from someone whose drive might've died?

firefly · Mar 6, 2009, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by S_J

So if I understand correctly, I need to find another enclosure that uses the same chipset (some Oxford semiconductor controller). So I guess this brings me back to my original thought of finding a replacement firewire interface board.

Now if Lacie don't sell them (and nobody else seems to), my only chance is to obtain one from someone who has/had the same drive.

This site sells bridge boards – could be of some use.

http://www.span.com/catalog/index.ph...01c73f64db2f37

Andrew Stephens · Mar 7, 2009, 06:03 PM

your best bet is to buy another lacie big disk. It's not going to be that expensive.

open it up and swap out the disks. That's your best chance of getting any data back. At least you'll have tow new disks from the new enclosure which you could raid in your mac tower.

lacie use western digital drives mostly which are really no better or worse than anything else. The weak point on all newish lacie kit is the power adapter.