20 Most Recent LaCie 500GB USB 2.0 7200 RPM 8MB 500 GB Hard Drive Questions & Answers

Sounds like your drive has died; check this out to confirm;
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-to-tell-when-your-hard-drive-is-going-to-fail.html

Hardware failure. If you're really lucky it's just the case electronics board that has failed - take out the hard disk and connect it directly in a desktop. If it works there, copy all your files back while you still can. If even there it's not recognized it means that the hard disk itself has died - this is unfixable and all the data on it is lost.

try another cable

Windows XP can only see up to 120GB. If you can partition the drive in 4 X120GB and 20GB XP will see five drives. If you need to use the full 500GB, you will need to upgrade to XP with SP3 or Windows 7

you haven't mentioned your os, like windows7 or windows vista. but you goto computer management, by right clicking on the desktop "my computer" icon in win7

or through the start menu choices (which you have to enable with taskbar properties in vista)

or choose help from start menu and enter "open Administrative Tools" to get a quick link

or open the control panel and click on "Administrative Tools"

in any case
start menu, administrative tools, computer management, storage, disk management

once you are running disk management, you can see if the drive is recognized at all. you may be given a right click option to initialize the disk. sometimes, this erases disk data, sometimes it doesn't.

but i doesn't hurt to check out disk management

Your problem could be any one of these issues:

1. Faulty USB port on PC: Try a different computer or laptop

2. Faulty USB cable: Try a different Cable

3. Corrupt memory: Fix by an expert required such as www.SaveMyUSB.com

4. Faulty connections on main circuit inside the hard drive: Physical Fix by an expert required such as www.SaveMyUSB.com

5. Faulty controller chip (worst case scenario) : Direct flash memory read required by an expert required such as www.SaveMyUSB.com

Hope this helps and that it is 1 or 2 as 3, 4 and 5 will cost you money.

Good luck!

Which "disk utilities" did you use?
Ones that check the "file-system-integrity" (that every file on the disk is listed in the table-of-contents, and that no 2 files point to the same block on the disk)?
Ones that write data to every block on the disk, and read the data back, to confirm that the disk can _correctly_ store data ?

What computer? Desktop? Laptop?

How much voltage/amperage does each USB port supply to the connected USB device?

Are you connecting the devices to a USB hub, or directly to your computer?

Do the external disk-drives each have their own power-supply?

That's a very strange occurrence, I agree with you. The good news is that one of the standard administrative applications included with Mac OS X will doubtless fix what's happened on your disk, which is that a folder permission has somehow been messed up.
The program you need is Disk Utility and you can find it in Applications --> Utilities --> Disk Utility. Then simply select the drive you want to fix:

You could try removing the drive from its housing then plug it into a working pc's secondary hard disk slot, it may be just the casings's power supply which burned out. Alternatilvely buy a usb to ide or sata lead and plug the drive into an old pc power supply. then plug into a working pc via usb.

Maybe the drive shakes and looses contact. Observe this very well and then shock it with paper, or anything that can hold it firm to the system.

Or check the back of the drive to see if it is in a physically good condition (that is if nothing is broken or if well fixed)

Check also if any pin is well positioned from the system, that is, where the drive fixes into.

And probably the drive is not 100% compatible with the windows or drivers installed.

Just keeping trying, and you will definitely find a lasting solution to the problem.

Best Wishes.

did you check the jumper settings.

1. Disconnect all cables from the device.
2. Press and hold the "reset" button (located on the rear panel) for about 10 seconds.
3. Wait for the device to restart and initialize. This may take several minutes.
4. Reconnect the cables to the device and try accessing it again.

Note: It's recommended to backup all data stored on the device before performing a factory reset, as all data will be lost during the reset process.

Please check the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrhHzRDaXik

Check the data recovery programme used for an idea or start again now you have your data back by re initialising and formatting the drive as a new one.

Depending on your OS, use your disc utility and see if it has been initialised or not. If not initialise it and then you can format and use it as normal.

Did you get it fix ? Have the same drive and forget the password!! Need help

U should test for power at the connector that goes into the lacie with a voltmeter to make sure power supply and its wire are OK. If no voltmeter then use a automobile brake or turn signal bulb to see if it has power.