Lacie harddrives All not showing up

a new computer? how old is the computer your using and how old is the external hard drive? chances are either the computers pulling every gram of memory out in an attempt to search the hard drive for what you want leaving nothing for you to do other work with. might be upgrade time if its getting on in age.

if the hard drives ageing your going to be better off turning your external drive back into an internal one if you have a tower. you should have room to mount at least 2 drives into the tower. just buy a new hard drive connector and plug it up. the older USB drives work a good bit faster directly connected to the system.

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

The problem that has been inherent with all LaCie external harddrives, is the interface in the case itself.

Interface:
All external harddrives have a Style of harddrive that is used in a laptop, or one that is used in a desktop computer.
Laptop harddrives are 2-1/2 inches across in width.
Desktops are 3-1/2 inches across.
Your LaCie will have a 3.5, (3-1/2) inch desktop style harddrive, inside the case.

There are two main Types of harddrives.
IDE and SATA. (There is also a newcomer. SSD. SSD isn't being used in LaCie external harddrives at the moment, to my knowledge)

Your LaCie will use a SATA harddrive inside it.
This is an example of an average SATA harddrive,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hdd.jpg
The photo of this harddrive is tilted at an angle, that doesn't readily show the interface connection, but it helps to explain.

At the bottom of this harddrive in the photo, and to the left, is the interface area.

Viewing the harddrive, look at the four metal pins on the extreme right of the harddrive. To the left of these pins is the Jumper pin area. (Has a white jumper on two of those pins)

To the left of the Jumper area is an opening, and to the left of that, is a long slot. The first small slot area is for the 7-pin Interface cable.
(Data cable) The next slot to the left, is for the 15-pin power cable.

This 7-pin Interface mates up to socket holes in a connector, of the case of the LaCie external harddrive.

It is this interface connector, inside the LaCie external harddrive case, that is the problem.
Solution?
Buy a quality, in-expensive External Enclosure, take the harddrive out of the LaCie, and install it in this enclosure.

Examples of 3.5 Sata External Enclosures,
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2780&name=3.5-eSATA-enclosure&Nav=|c:2778|&Sort=0&Recs=10
(From $15 to $35, is a good range for a decent external enclosure)

I have the same issue, however with my verbatim 500g its ok. i believe it is because the lacie is a desktop external and therefore is compatable with windows xp and 7 alone.
Verbatim is a "portable" external hard drive which makes it compatible with several different systems. I would suggest returning it, I just formatted my old verbatim harddrive and set up mediaasharing. Through my router. You can actually route the lacie harddrive by going to my computer and right click the icon. Next go to share with; advanced settings and allow all. Then when you turn your ps3 on search for media servers... I would suggest to google media server for ps3 to get it all seet up. GOOD LUCK

recheck to insure partitions rexcognized and reinstall unit driver.

This is a pretty old thread, but I just figured out the work-around for my Lacie drive with the same symptoms. I took the Lacie case apart to find a pretty standard 3.5" Seagate Barracuda drive inside the case. If you pull the actual hard drive out of the box, you can either purchase a new external hard drive adapter box ($30-80) or install it into a tower computer. I installed it into an older G3 tower and it mounted right up. I decided it wasn't worth investing in a six year old hard drive, so I will be purchasing a new drive and pulling the data off the old one.

With software and computers changing constantly-I use older software for older macs. You will continuously run into problems dealing with new software and old computers. See if you can find older versions that still run great rather than the creative suite. Stick with earlier system software as well. Now days 640 for memory is not much because of the increase in software space use. You can also allocate memory to certain software you use most.

A clicking noise from a harddrive is defenenly NOT a good thing. It usually means that the harddrive is going bad.

Back up display?
 Icon for the back up or restore your desktop?

Hi, have you used the same motherboard in the two towers? sounds to me like you may have a couple of faulty capacitors on the board. Open the case and study the capacitors closely [with a magnifying glass if need be] capacitors fail very often when heated. they are the round components that sit in sets of 5, 6, or more in a row on the board. if any are bulging from the top or bottom, then its time for a new board. Regards mistyman