Lacie 'd2 quadra hard drive' failure?

kemurikat

kemurikat

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I have an 1.8 ghz powerpc G5 with osx 10.4.11. Attached as back up are two 500 gb Lacie external firewire hard drives: first one's a 'd2 hard drive extreme with triple interface', the other's a 'd2 quadra hard drive.'

I've had no trouble with either drive, until my newest acquisition (hopefully less than a year ago) the d2 quadra, started acting out of sorts. More and more often, while I'm working, the blue light indicator on the quadra starts blinking, and although it's mounted, the Disk Utility registers an error message or my system freezes when I try to eject the disk. It also blinks now when I turn on my system and it won't mount, and I've also noticed a hissing noise with the fan that wasn't there before.

My quadra started acting up when I began putting my iMac to sleep more often. Could there be a connection?

So far, the 'd2 quadra's' been working, despite the blue blinking light episodes, by my turning the thing off and on. But I want the episodes to stop.

I've bought Lacie drives before and they've given me no trouble, to see this one fail...well...is heart-breaking. (And that's on top of the big pile of repairs I've had to go through with my iMac ppc G5!)

Feedback's much appreciated!
 
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Although this sounds like more than a software problem it wouldn't hurt to try reformatting the troublesome drive (after backing up any important data of course). When reformatting using DiskUtility make sure you visit the 'Partition' tab and click 'Options' down the bottom. From the three options, choose 'Apple Partition Map' and click 'OK'. This should ensure full compatibility with Mac computers but won't solve your problem is you have a hard ware fault. Good luck :)
 
I've used Disk Utility to 'verify' the drive, and it's been passing every time. It still sputters, but does it more often when the Quadra's switch it set to 'Auto'.
I've completely powered off the Quadra unit, since it's pretty much useless now. But then I still heard this hissing noise. Turns out the hissing is coming from the big, ugly power bar! I've now unplugged all the Quadra's components, in case it becomes a fire hazard!
It's a holiday weekend right now, but come next week, I'm calling the local Lacie center to see what they can do for me. The Quadra's still under warranty.
Thank you for your feedback, Frida!
 
kemurikat said:
Turns out the hissing is coming from the big, ugly power bar! I've now unplugged all the Quadra's components, in case it becomes a fire hazard!
Click to expand...

Can we have more detail about that "power bar" please, perhaps a thumbnail photo? If it's one with a surge protector built in, this may be the cause of your LaCie's woes. Power 'flutter' (fluctuations in voltage of ± 12v or more) can play merry scratch with things like external hard drives because they operate on low voltage via a transformer (adaptor). Have there been any power supply issues in your area recently?
 
Hey,

I got this Lacie 2 BIG RAID hardrive. The blue light in the front is constantly blinking when I turn it on and when I'm working off of it. I think it might be the power supply, but not sure. It still works and its not giving me trouble. I just don't want to let this light keep blinking and then all of a sudden I lose my work. Anyone encounter this before.
 
Sorry, I haven't updated in so long!
Anyway, I ended up sending my Quadra back to Lacie. After a rather frustrating time of emailing back and forth--coz big companies just LOVE customer care--I finally sent it out to be repaired.
Lacie claimed to have done a 'thorough' diagnostic of the unit, and all they replaced was my burnt out power supply. (Yep. That nasty, black, fugly monstrosity I can't seem to hide...)
THANK YOU SO MUCH for everyone's show of support!
Just cross all your fingers with me that my equipment lasts, for as long as I need them to! (Coz, darn it, wish I had the money to update my technology!)
;D
 
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