Hard Drive Disaster.

Quick Question?

My Lacie 500 gb USB Outboard Hard drive just stopped working.

Now, the blue power light won't fire up.

The tiny green light on the power supply is blinking
and beeping.

Is this a crashed HD?

Any insights on HD brands and what to get what to avoid.
I ask since I 've heard a few HD Horror stories ...

anton

ok, well first of all - you cant edit video on a usb drive. TOO SLOW

search the forum for "best firewire drive" we have covered this topic in excrutiating detail.

you will see lacie is one of the biggest offendors.

dont panic yet - your drives may be fine, it might just be the enclosure/powersupply. is it a raid or just one big disk? go to your local computer store and get an empty FIREWIRE enclosure. pull the drives out of your lacie and put them in the new box. there is a good chance all will be fine

Before you ditch the drive, look in System Profiler and see if the computer recognizes the drive. Also, hook it up with FireWire and see if you get a result. (The power supply blinking suggests a hardware problem, but you never know.) And Wayne is right -- never, ever use a USB drive for editing. And always back up your project files on a regular basis -- I'm talking every two to four hours.

Regardless of the editing speed, that's not why your drive does not work. The blue light does not come on, but do you hear the drives spin up? Does the drive power up when your computer is off (pressing the blue button)?

You didn't list your configuration so all my answers are just guesses...but try this:

(resetting Firewire bus fuses) Unplug the FW cable from the computer, unplug your LaCie drive and your computer FROM THE WALL & wait for 10 minutes. Plug them back in, turn on the LaCie FIRST then boot up your computer.

My LaCie "went to the Bahamas" on me one day and couldn't figure out why. Finally, a beautiful genius of a helper on the Apple Discussions forum told me about Firewire Bus Fuses and sometimes they trip themselves & have to be reset for the FW port to work. I got it to work...and got rid of that LaCie 2 days later (after backing it up, of course). Also...do not let your machine power up your drives - power them up FIRST, then power on your computer.

PS...welcome to the land of the Lost LaCies (I lost one once...never again). My G-Raid 320 is my newest bestest friend

- Joey



Post Edited (02-23-06 22:16)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

As mentioned above: it's very likely that the HD enclosure went bad. I bet the HD itself is still good. Get an inexpensive FW enclosure (some for under $40, with Firewire and USB ports) and put in the hard drive; if the drive is bad, you can get a new one for much less than what the LaCie sells its over-rated drives. It's really easy and you'll save a bundle.
Good luck!
Alberto



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"Prefiero pasar como ignorante cuando pregunto lo que ignoro, que pasar
como ignorante el resto de mi vida".
- A. Hauffen.
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Have you heard any strange noise from the hard disk ? Hope you not, otherwise you may don't have chance to recover it.

My iBook is dead recently when I worked in Egypt. No one could save me at that moment. After I back to Hong Kong for a month, I still don't have mood to send in back to the apple service. You know, it is even can't be start up by the boot CD=(

Good Luck and Bless You !
Antonio