Lacie 250 GB harddrive

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

My LaCie drive was not showing up on my Mac, and making a soft clicking sound ....I thought i was in for expensive data recovery and worse...But I met a guy who told me that La Cie have had a lot of trouble with their POWER SUPPLY and that i should try their customer service. I did, and after a round iof idiotic scripted replies I got to a smart CSR who sent me a NEW power supply. Hey Presto! The drive is back and working perfectly, no data lost!!!

Right click "My Computer" and select Manage. In the window, select Disk Management on the left column. If the drive is not listed on the right column, then the BIOS has not detected the harddrive - it might have a harddrive password lock. You will need to go into the BIOS and unlock it with the password.

It will only effect thoes stores on the external harddrive. You will have to check the contents of the LaCie drive and see if it has any files you typically access from your Mac Book. Other then that no it will not effect files stored on your Mac Books drive.

Hi. Sometimes, there are compatibility issues on external drives. Most recent computers will read them while others may not. Either the external casing or the cable is causing this.

go in to add new hardware in control panel and run external drive ere from there use disc if u have one or go to vendor's support page and download driver's from there

If the green light on your LaCie power supply does not light, you likely have a bad power supply. You can buy a new one from LaCie. If you are purchasing a new power supply from LaCie ask for the higher wattage unit. LaCie upgraded this a while back.

Good News, Your data is probably still safe. Go to best buy or online and buy a new cheap external usb case for your harddrive. you can find them for about 7-25 bucks. Make sure you get the right one for the hard drive in your lacie. Take the hard drive out of the lacie case and put it in the cheap case and you will have your data back. I had this happen to me before. If you need help just ask me... Hope this helps you
George

If connected by "Firewire" and is unplugged while on, may have controller damage. The harddrive in side may be seagate, and maybe they could help trouble shoot it?

my only option to you is get file recover software for mac an recover data if no luck e-mail me on [email protected]