Mac users, lacie disk failure

[squirrel 0]

My lacie 500gb disk has failed. Called tech support, not under warrenty, they advise a new power supply, ok, got one, no luck. the green light on the power supply is flashing, disk is not turning on. They do not work on out of warrenty product, but suggested that the problem was then most likely in the power distribution board in the unit, and the proper tech would be able to find the problem fairly easy. I have briefly research getting a new drive enclosure and moving the hard drive over...hve never done this...before.

any lacie repair peeps out there?

should i go with the disk move option?

any suggestions? thanks.

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[1969912 0]

That sucks.

The problem you're having is pretty common with LaCie drives, and it often causes data corruption on the disc I can post some links and suggestions on what to do about both the enclosure and the data problem, but first a question: How important is the data on that drive to you? Is it backed up anywhere? If the drive is corrupted, a "pro" will charge ~$300 to fix it, or you can do it yourself if you have the time. Lemme know if you want to try to save the drive.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[squirrel 0]

the data is not at all crucial. i use the drive manly for making video, and then i burn them to DVD. i have talked to a friend, he says i may be able to move the hard drive to a new enclosure, as long as the controler is using the same OS as my current drive? I have a MAC with OS 10.4.1. i have look at enclosures at compusa online...but the seem to only go to 400gb. seen here:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=cat3&product_code=312100&Pn=USB_2_0_3_5_inch_External_Hard_Drive_Enclosure

my current set up is 2 250gb maxtor drives (sold as 500gb drive )..working as one? can the work independently?, is one dependent on the other to access the data, once in a new enclosure? thanks.

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[1969912 0]

Quote

the data is not at all crucial. i use the drive manly for making video, and then i burn them to DVD. i have talked to a friend, he says i may be able to move the hard drive to a new enclosure, as long as the controler is using the same OS as my current drive? I have a MAC with OS 10.4.1. i have look at enclosures at compusa online...but the seem to only go to 400gb. seen here:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=cat3&product_code=312100&Pn=USB_2_0_3_5_inch_External_Hard_Drive_Enclosure

my current set up is 2 250gb maxtor drives (sold as 500gb drive )..working as one? can the work independently?, is one dependent on the other to access the data, once in a new enclosure? thanks.

Glad to hear the data was not critical.
If the two 250 drives acted like one 500, it is because there is a special controller in the enclosure. The drives themselves are just regular drives. They may be formatted in a special way by the controller so they look like one drive, but that doesn't matter because you can just reformat them if the data is not important. If they got corrupted is doesn't matter either. You can use them together or apart depending on the enclosure. The case in your link looked like a single 3.5" drive USB case. Are your drives 3.5" and is the mac interface USB? I thought it would be Firewire (IEEE XXXX.x).

AFAIK, the enclosures are not specific to either mac or pc as long as the data connection (USB/Firewire) is right, but I'm not certain. I'll look around if there is time.

You might look here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216032 at a new 500g drive for $129. Also, is there space inside the mac case to install one or both of your old drives?


EDIT: What's giving our posts the "widebody" effect?


...

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[squirrel 0]

Quote

Quote

the data is not at all crucial. i use the drive manly for making video, and then i burn them to DVD. i have talked to a friend, he says i may be able to move the hard drive to a new enclosure, as long as the controler is using the same OS as my current drive? I have a MAC with OS 10.4.1. i have look at enclosures at compusa online...but the seem to only go to 400gb. seen here:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=cat3&product_code=312100&Pn=USB_2_0_3_5_inch_External_Hard_Drive_Enclosure

my current set up is 2 250gb maxtor drives (sold as 500gb drive )..working as one? can the work independently?, is one dependent on the other to access the data, once in a new enclosure? thanks.

Glad to hear the data was not critical.
If the two 250 drives acted like one 500, it is because there is a special controller in the enclosure. The drives themselves are just regular drives. They may be formatted in a special way by the controller so they look like one drive, but that doesn't matter because you can just reformat them if the data is not important. If they got corrupted is doesn't matter either. You can use them together or apart depending on the enclosure. The case in your link looked like a single 3.5" drive USB case. Are your drives 3.5" and is the mac interface USB? I thought it would be Firewire (IEEE XXXX.x).

AFAIK, the enclosures are not specific to either mac or pc as long as the data connection (USB/Firewire) is right, but I'm not certain. I'll look around if there is time.

You might look here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216032 at a new 500g drive for $129. Also, is there space inside the mac case to install one or both of your old drives?


EDIT: What's giving our posts the "widebody" effect?


...

The maxtor disks are "3.5 series", but the interface is firewire.

my main goal here is to find and enclousure, for the drives, (one at a time is ok too) plug them in, and see if my data is there. is the possible? (do you have to reformat drives when switching to a new (different brand) enclosure?

if not, i would be happy to reformat the drives if they work, and use them as a combined unit or as singles, or, scrap the drives and buy a new unit. primary goal though is to see if the data is there, without using a data recovery service. what do you think? thanks.

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[1969912 0]

I looked around a bit for dual-bay enclosures and they were all in the $120 range except for one, which was $90. Single-bay cases are $40-50.

If you buy enclusures, you'll need to know the phy. size, 3.5", and the capacity. You will need to know the interface that the drive uses between the drive and the circuit board in the case. It will be either ATA or SATA. There are different versions of SATA, so make sure they all use the same connectors on the drives; some SATA drives had different poer cables. See the Wiki writeup on SATA. If they are ATA, make sure the version of ATA interface on the drives are compatible with the enclosure. Your drives are either ATA/ATAPI-5 or -6 if they are not SATA.

I don't know for sure if the drives have special formatting, it was just a concern of mine. One of the case mfr's might know. I would expect dual-bay enclosures all use an industry standard method of managing the two drives, but that's something to ask the vendors. If you know soneone who has a mac with space inside to hitch up one of your drives, that might be a good way to test them, but if they are specially formatted you won't know if they are bad or not.

A recovery service would be a waste if the data is not important, and you can do it yourself. For windows it's pretty easy to find free software, but it may be different for macs. Lemme know how it goes.

..

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG