My LaCie hard drive's light doesn't turn on or blink when I plug it into the computer

Inside the LaCie D2 250GB (300770) external harddrive's case, is a 250GB IDE (PATA) harddrive that is 3.5 inches across in width.

A desktop computer sized harddrive. (May be a Western Digital WD25000JB)

The harddrive plugs into a small circuit board, (Bridge board), and the circuit board has a USB port on it.

Using this Western Digital Passport for an example,

http://www.xbitlabs.com/misc/picture/?src=/images/storage/wd-passport-250gb/p3.jpg&1=1

Scroll down to the second photo, and left-click on it. The case of the external harddrive is shown open.
Inside is a 2.5 inch laptop sized harddrive.
An aluminum tape strip covers the small circuit board, attached at the back of the harddrive.

The second photo down on this page, shows you the small interface circuit board, that the harddrive plugs into, with the aluminum tape removed.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/wd-passport-250gb_2.html

(Another design has wires coming from the small circuit board, to an interface the harddrive plugs into )

It is this small circuit board that goes bad in a LaCie. QUITE common.

Solution?

Simple.
1) Obtain a 3.5 inch IDE external enclosure
2) Remove the 3.5 IDE harddrive from the LaCie's case.
3) Install the harddrive out of the LaCie into the external 3.5 IDE enclosure.

An example of a 3.5 IDE (PATA) external enclosure,

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1733195&CatId=2779

For additional questions please post in a Comment.
Regards,
joecoolvette

From the description you have a intermittent issue in the cord, if the unit has it's own power supply that is more than likely the problem. Go to www.lacie.com contact customer support for power supply replacement.

you may need to swap the usb port it's plugged in

- Open the disk utility application found in the applications folder, then open the utilities folder

- See if it detects the LaCie drive by looking on the right hand side where it lists all the available drives including your optical drive

- If it is just greyed out you might only need to re-format the drive or possibly repair the disk.

- If it does not appear in this list the drive has most likely failed and is not economically repairable

have you dropped it? it could be any number of disc errors, two of the most common errors are caused by viruses and dropping. try putting the hard drive in the freezer for a day or so in a moisture and static resistant bag. just a possibly remedy, if that doesn't work, try removing the casing on the hd and setting it as a secondary drive after you plug it inside a desktop computer.

what os do you have

A continuous flashing light on a Lacie drive is a notification of a problem. I do wonder if the light is flashing the same if the drive is plugged in to the Mac or unplugged.

Lacie external drives tend to have power-supplies which become weak/bad. Most users replace the supply and it will work again for awhile until the supply dies again. Try bringing the drive to a retail dealer with Lacie drives -ask them if you can just test your drive with another power-supply (if you do not have another). You can also try calling Lacie, it's always slightly possible they will be aware of this problem.

Alternately, IF the light is only flashing when the drive is plugged-in to the computer, try using a different USB or Firewire cable.

The problem is just external...Hdd is fine..Just buy new external couse there is no way to repair it

Hello

OK, at the link below you will be directed to a tip i wrote on this exact error.

Click HERE.

Feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind regards
Andrea