LaCie 1TB Big Disk Drive Failure....Or Not

We thought the battery/mobo on my wife's laptop was fried for the longest time because it would only run when it was plugged into the wall, no charging whatsoever. Then her power adapter broke and we ordered a replacement, and the damn thing started charging and working like a normal laptop.

Hi Foaks,

I had the same problem twice with my Lacie ethernet disk mini 500 GB. The device looked as it was working fine: ethernet connection leds lit up normally, harddisk was running smoothly, when connected to usb a device was found, but connecting to the device (finding it on your connected computer) was impossible.

Cause: some failure of the powersupply.

So I can imagine that this is pretty frustrating and will take a lot of time to find this out.

On the internet you will find this problem a lot, sometimes with various additional problems (sound from the powersupply, strange sound from the harddrive).

On youtube someone made a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTZ7EvSJnng

Lacie knows that the these powersupply's do not functional properly.

I hope this will help all other 'victims'.

Wow I thought it was the Lacie drive itself making the loud hissing sound. I'll be damned, its coming from the power adapter.

I tried my LaCie 1TB external hard drive yesterday, and blue light keeps flashing and the power supply hisses. Did changing the power supply fully fix the issue?

My Lacie 1TB extreme drive is also failing to power up. And my power adapter is also making a hissing sound of some kind. I guess I will also try getting a replacement power adapter and cross my fingers.

Hey guys I just ordered a replacement power supply from UnityElectronics.com for about $30. I'll let you know how it works out.

Hey guys the new power supply did the trick. The LaCie 1tb is back in action!

Hey,
I just wanted to say that Lacie's power supplied SUCK.
I have a 1tb Big Disk and on my 3rd power supply which a couple of week ago decided to die....so now trying to argue with lacie to get my hands on power supply number 4, recover all the required data and then moving to a more stable external drive!

It's like the old Zip Drive click of death all over again!

Not to mention those damned Jaz drives!

The same issue has happened to me. It has also happened in the past. I thought the Drive was fried. Luckily I own two hard drives and read this post and I used the power adapter from the other an it works great. Thanks so much for the comments.

Mine is hissing too. I unplugged it and rattled the thing around a bit while the platters were spinning up and the second half of the drive spun up! I'm going to replace the supply, but this got me back to work for at least a few hours this evening. Thx for the great tips!

I wonder if someone could help with a problem I am having with my LaCie 1TB drive. I had it running on a Mac but the Mac died and I bought a PC. I had the drive re formatted for the PC but it won't load. It shows in Devices and under Disk Management but has no letter assigned and won't let me click the option where I could add a letter...not sure what to do but desperately need to access the files!

Any advise would be appreciated
thanks

I am so glad I found this. My drive failed last week. Since the disks are in RAID 0 I figured one just died. However I was sitting around today and figured I could do some research on failures and possible recovery and I found this post. I had another LaCie power brick laying around, same model and swapped them. Instant drive recovery. This makes me wonder if my other LaCie drive that "Failed" a year ago had the same issue. More to the point, I just moved and maybe swapped the power bricks between the two when setting up. Hmmm. Anyway thanks again.

This post seems to have become the LaCie power supply support group :)

Glad the post has helped all of you get back up and running as well!

Never buy a Lacie peripheral with a power brick, or any drive with a power brick or wall wart for that matter. A proper drive has it's own supply built in with a removable 3 prong IEC power cord. I've had 4 LaCie devices and all the bricks burned out in under 3 years. At work we have a backup server with 6 Lacie 1TB drives. We have gone through a dozen or two of those damned bricks in the past 2 years. Each time one failed it froze the backup server. I'm sticking with Glyph external drives for critical uses. They cost a fair amount more but I have never had one fail and I've been using them for over a decade.

My power supply died as well. It started 2 weeks ago. My Lacie Big Disk Extreme+ 1 TB had some problems to speed up the drive. It took 4-5 resets before the drive came on operational speed. Today I didn't manage to get the drive working.

Send an email to Lacie without answer so far.

Looked at the website mentioned above, but found 2 power supplies (57W) with should work both with my HD. Somebody knows the difference between the P/N 710200 and the P/N 80040? The latter costs 2 USD more (is that maybe a newer version which is more 'fail-proof'?


No need to buy the supply with power cord included, you can buy the the supply unit without on that website.

I had the same problem with my LaCie drive, The drives make noises when they dont get enough power. I took the cover off and tried powering the drives from my PC, this didnt work out, i guess the powersupply were more damaged than i thought.
Ok, i'm a cheapscate, i didnt want to order a new PSU for an old drive ...
I took the two drives out and placed them in my PC.
I fired up Ubuntu Linux, this can be done from a live CD, not requiring installation.
Here is a small guide, i wrote this from memory but i dont think i missed out anything.
1. Download Ubuntu linux live CD and burn to a CD
2. Shut down the system and place both drives in your computer and connect them.
3. Boot the computer from the Ubuntu CD, you dont have to install anything, all "installations" will be done in memory only and lost after reboot.
4. Open a Terminal "Applications->Accessories->Terminal" and install a few tools:

Ubuntu:$> sudo aptitude update
Ubuntu:$> sudo aptitude install hfsplus hfsprogs hfsutils mdadm

5. You will need to find the right device files for the two drives.
This will output all known drives and partitions on the computer, two drives we are looking for have Unknown Partition.
Ubuntu:$> sudo sfdisk -d
# partition table of /dev/sdathe out
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 2048, size=122880000, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda2 : start=122882048, size= 3906056, Id=82
...
...
# partition table of /dev/sdc
Unknown partition
....
...
# partition table of /dev/sdd
Unknown partition
...
...

Ok, our drives is in this case /dev/sdc and /dev/sdd, this will be different on your system.

6. Build the raid md0 from the two drives (none of this write anything to the drives, its perfectly safe)

Ubuntu:$> sudo mdadm -B -l=0 -n 2 --chunk=256 /dev/md0 /dev/sdc /dev/sdd
This output nothing if nothing goes wrong, now check of the kernnel found partitions.
Ubuntu:$> ls /dev/md0*
/dev/md0 /dev/md0p1 /dev/md0p2 /dev/md0p3 /dev/md0p4 /dev/md0p5 /dev/md0p6

If the output show 6 partitions like this, then everything is ok, if only /dev/md0 and /dev/md0p1 is shown, then the drive order is wrong and you will need to switch them around in the raid, to do this, stop md0 "sudo -S /dev/md0" and build the array again with the two drives swiched around like this ... "/dev/md0 /dev/sdd /dev/sdc"

If you dont see all 6 partitions now, you should stop and get professional recovery help ;)

7. Mount the drive.

Ubuntu:$> sudo mkdir -p /media/bigdisk
Ubuntu:$> sudo mount -t hfs /dev/md0p6 /media/bigdisk

Congratulations, you should now be able to access all your data in /media/bigdisk.

I made the mistake of elimintating the partition tree of the last 500Gb drive (/dev/sdd).

Still I was able to mount the RAID arry, but now I only have:

$ ls /dev/md0*
/dev/md0 /dev/md0p1 /dev/md0p2 /dev/md0p3

Can you please send me the full partition information so I can create /dev/md0p4 to /dev/md0p6?

Can you help me recover the partition table of the /dev/sdc in any way?

Thanks,
Eduardo

Wow... My 700G began to have some problems to start up (as if the disk couldn't start spinning, same symptoms you describe). I changed to another power adapter from a 2nd LacieDisk, and voila!!!

You saved my disk :)

I was having a similar problem with my LaCie 1tb drive. It would try to spin up but not quite get there. I swapped the power supply and voila! it works.

Thanks for the interweb.

Yep, I'm on my 3rd power adapter now for the Lacie Big Disc Extreme 2tb. Be prepared to buy a new adapter about once a year.

Thank God for this article. Saved me a lot of hassle and data loss.

Lacie are obviously aware of this issue, and instantly agreed to send me a replacement power block. BUT, only after I returned the faulty one, leaving me a drive short for an unknown amount of time, forcing me to buy a new one at £35.

let's hope this is the same for me...same symptoms with my Lacie 1TB....about to put a new supply on order

that was it! thanks for this thread :-)

So, my power supply isn't hissing, but my drive keeps clicking trying to mount(or find itself), then once it does appear(as I open up my disk utility), it takes forever to see the folders and files within. Does this constitute a "power supply" problem?

Thanks.

After my 1TB Lacie Big Disk no longer booted giving me only a flashing blue light and hissing sound coming from the PSU, I did a bit of web research and came across this site. After reading other comments I decided to contact Lacie as my drive was still under warranty. Long story short, they sent me a new PSU. It arrived today. After installing it.... My drive works flawlessly with no loss of data! BTW Lacie customer support was great. Had the replacement PSU at my doorstep within 3 business days. They would do well by addressing the life span of their PSU's.

Thanks for the tip my lacie big disk over 2 years old and I leave powered on all the time. When the psu blew I read this forum and raise a ticket with lacie and next day got a psu free if charge with no quibbles now it's time to buy new naa and ditch the lacie since I don't trust them at all I ha e also a maplin mas enclose costing 40 with a bug drive in it it's only 10/100 speed but has a nice WOL feature which most nas don't have it's been going over 3 years and I will are if I can get another one in replacent of the lacie

I agree that it has to be the power supply.

But instead of dropping $30.00 on a new power supply I dropped $30.00 on 2 new Sata Drive enclosures, ripped the drives out of the Lacie brick and dropped them into the enclosures.

Drives work great!

$300.00 Lacie drive enclosure = FAIL!
$30.00 Sata drive enclosures = Priceless.

I'm dealing with a 2 year old LaCie 320Gb Quadra (which has a Seagate 320Gb, 3.5, 7200.10, SATA drive in it).

All worked well until the other day - won't power up at all . . . nothing!

Tried powering it with a different power adapter from my other identical drive - still nothing.

Noticed that the power adapter light is solid green like normal until I plug the apapter into the drive, then the green light blinks slowly. Unplug the adapter from the drive and it goes back to solid green.

There were never any noise issues from either the drive or the adapter.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
James

I too had two (2) 2TB Big disk go bad. I assumed drives as I tried oboth power packs, and then one from a STILL RUNNING 1tb (single drive) Lacie Ethernet Big Disk. It was running ok so i ASSumed it was ok. The second 2TB unit went bad (within days) So I got to thinking... Ethernet Big Disk has one drive in it, the 2tb have two(2), maybe voltage is low. Measuring the voltage on all four (4) power packs show that they ALL ARE LOW!! About 9.35 volts!!! Yikes!!!

SO I found an associate who had a newer 2tb Big disk and he lent me his power pack - BOTH UNITS WORK FINE AND ARE READABLE.

I made a work around until LaCie sends me back new power packs.

1. Standard ATX power supply WITH ON/OFF SWITCHIN BACK(old style non-ATX would be better).

2. Cut a chunk from a paper clip to short pins 13 (black) and 14 (green) as shown in this jpeg http://www.skylab.org/[…]/z_mbconatxmain.gif - THIS MAKES THE POWER SUPPLY BE ON SINCE WE HAVE NO MOBO CONNECTED TO TELL IT TO TURN ON.

3. Cut the power pack cable off and striped the wires back. BE CAREFULL !!! RED IS 12V!!! BLUE IS 5V!! ONE WOULD NATURALLY THINK THE REVERSE.
If you have different colors, use a meter to determine which is +5 and +12, legend is on the power pack body.

4. Put some heatshrink tube on wires, soldered, then shrunk. Those without the tools could twist well and tape, though soldering is recommended.

5. Connect>>turn Lacie power on>>turn on power supply switch and BINGO. My drives function fine.


Email me if you need more details. solarjdp@saber.net

John P.
Thanks to your suggestion I have stopped crying in the corner, over the lost of my precious...data. I hardwired my 2Tb LaCie Big Disk to an old PSU, who doesn't have five or six of those scattered around, and the drives spun up the proper way. Much obliged to you, sir.
Jack H.

Nice to hear it helped you.

Thanks for your response.

It definitely was the power supply....had the same problem

I can't thank you enough for posting this thread. I've been indexing a fairly large music collection on my LaCie TB drive for just over a year, all the while intending to back it up, when the exact problem happened to me. The drive clicked. The drive hissed. The drive got louder. The drive lit red and blue. The drive got louder still.
I don't watch television. I hate going to the movies. I listen to music. Lots of it. And the drive meant a lot to me. It had nearly all of Chicago Public Library's collection, not to mention my own and several of my friends'...so glad to have it back and running. I'd buy you a beer...nay...a case of beer if I could. Thanks so much, WYATT from Chicago/Austin

I would gladly accept payments in beer :)

Thank god for this post. Having the drive die and then being charged a hundred dollars by an incompetent computer store (Mac Enthusiasts in Los Angeles) to be told that it would cost upwards of 2000 dollars to recover the data - and then to have the problem solved by a two minute google search and a twenty dollar power supply.You made my day. Now if can just get those Mac people to give me my money back....

I was facing same problem and I was just about purchasing NEW LaCie drive when I was able to goggle your post.

With new power connector my drive is well and running.

Thank you very much !

Cheers
Jan

Whoah! That's freaky. My LaCie 700G is starting to get startup problems. I have to let it run for a while, then turn off and on again and then it mounts. So I thought, let's see what the internets have to say about this. And then I found this, and yes, my adapter is hissing as well!
Can't believe this happens with LaCie, I thought they were such a cool company...

what a great post. Thank you so much. I noticed a few times before the failure that the cord would make a popping sound and this explains that. Thank you! I'm so relieved. Going to look into the Drobo.

Thanks for posting this. My 1 TB Big disk Extreme I use in my studio as an audio/video drive started hissing on startup, or whenever the drive was under load requiring more power. This started making me nervous, so I've been backing stuff up. Did a little research and found this post. Sure enough, it wasn't the drive hissing, but the damn power supply! I will purchase a new one and safe a few bucks on a new drive!

I own 3 LaCie 2tb drives, 2 quadras and one Big Disk.

Well, the Big Disk (the oldest of the 3, has a different PS than the Quadras as well) stopped showing up as a drive, and noticed that the blue light was blinking steadily. EXTREMELY bummed...so I Googled and found this blog/thread.

I checked my PS for sound, and sure enough it's making a strange buzzing noise...and the system it's plugged into keeps doing the "insert/eject/insert/eject" alarm ad infinitum, and it never does mount the drive.

I can also tell that the drives aren't spinning up either as there isn't any gyroscopic resistance when I pick it up upon starting it up.

I've ordered my new PS for it from LaCie and am REALLY hoping this resolves the problem.

Thanks to the original blog author and to all those who responded, anxiously awaiting and I'll weigh back in to share whether or not this resolves the problem.

i bought a 1TB lacie quadra about 9 months ago, i use it maybe once or twice a week,last week i saw the light blinking so i turned it off and on and worked normal again,today it wont show up on my desktop, it makes the blue light blinking and also the clicking noise for about 15 seconds after i turn it on, however there's no hissing noise coming from the PAU,tomorrow ill go to the computer store to but one power adapter and hopefully this will solve my problem, i have about 800 Gb of music videos and dont have a back up, so im very nervous, ill keep u guys posted on this one, thanks for everyones posts!!

TA-DA!!

DRIVE IS BACK UP!!

I went out to LaCie today and picked up a new PS instead of paying for shipping.

Brought it home, plugged it into the drive, and it came right back up!!

Can't thank everyone enough for all the info!!

Best to all!

I have cured the Lacie PSU problem.
After 3 replacements I hot wired a normal computer PSU to run without a motherboard and cut the end off the Lacie box and wired it to the old computer power supply the voltages and pinouts are on the lacie PSU sticker.

I have a LaCie 500 and the power adapter went bad after about 2 years. All the classic symptoms mentioned above. Bought a new chord and now the drive works fine.

But I am paranoid about the thing going bad again, so no automatic back-ups; I only plug it in when I want to use it because I was told that sometimes when the power cord goes bad it can result in the loss of the drive itself.

Has anyone else heard that? Am I being too cautious?

Needless to say, I am no longer impressed with LaCie.

I wish I had the good news to post that most others have here. A while back, the power supply on my 1TB Lacie went poop. I replaced it and everything was fine. A couple weeks ago we had a bad thunderstorm and a nearby lightning strike blew our cable out (requiring a technician to come out) and several breakers tripped. A cheap cordless phone died, too. The Lacie was running still, but not mounting. I hoped that if I replaced to power supply again that could fix it. I had unplugged the Lacie and elf it sitting there until the new brick arrived today. I plugged it in and nothing happened. The drive didn't start up at all. It was running before I unplugged it, but now nothing. What happened during the past few weeks that would have made it completely dead, when it was running (or spinning, at least) even with a "bad" power supply? My next step, I guess, is to looking into putting the two 500GB Seagate drives into another enclosure and hope they still work. I have my whole iTunes library on it. The Lacie was a network drive, though, so I don't know if it's easy to get a replacement enclosure that will also let it run on the network. ARG!

Hi folks,
Seeing that this thread survived for over a year and there were so many happy stories, I thought I'd try to revive it in an effort to create one more.
My Lacie Quadra d2 stopped turning on too. I switched power cords from my other Lacie, which works, and it still doesn't power up. Just to double check, both power cords work on my other Lacie, but my 500GB still won't respond to either.
So following other suggestions, when I open it up, I can't tell if this is the sorta drive that I can pop into a SATA enclosure docking station:
http://www.newegg.com/[…]/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153066
or is this what works?
http://www.satadrives.com/[…]/usb-sata-ide-adapter-for-hard-drives.html
Any feedback would be great.
Thanks all.
Ben

Yes, I went through the power cord replacement recently and it did fix the problem on my 1TB big disk. But just last week the same issue occurred (blue light blinking, drive 'tries' to mount but won't) and laCie sent me another power cord. No joy. The new power cord does not help and I don't want to pay insane prices for recovery or hand the disk over to lacie for refurbishment. Was thinking I'd try to find an enclosure but need some guidance. What is inside the big disk?

The guy from Lacie told me "I've also seen certain models of UPS battery backup units cause the power supplies to fail. If you're using such a system, you might want to move the LaCie drives to run off a regular surge protector instead."

Cheap capacitors.

Thanks heaps - this post was the first I came to, and solved my failed drive immediately. Just swapped powers supplies, and all working agin.

thanks man!!! Two years on, this post is still saving time/money/hard work!!!

vincent