Changing the HDD inside Lacie d2 extreme triple interface

[Bezbozny]

Hello,

i have the following drive: http://www.lacie.com/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10065
the 640GB model.

I have just purchased a new macbook pro and i am thinking of upgrading my external drive, instead of buying a new one and to connect it with my new computer with a thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter.
I am thinking of purchasing two 2TB 3.5'' HDD and to replace with these the ones that the drive currently have.
Does anyone know if this will work, or if there are any proprietary connectors inside the drive which will prevent this modification?
I know that a USB drive will be faster, but i really like the drive that i currently have, the looks of it etc and i can not afford to purchase a new lacie drive since these are extremely expensive.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Marty62]

Shouldn't be a problem, take a look inside, I have re-used 2 x Lacie enclosures
in this way.
One was SATA and one was ATA !!
Check before ordering the replacement HDD but should be SATA IMHO.

M,

 

[Bezbozny]

Thank you for your reply. A question that i have is if i am going to replace the drives inside (after having a look of course to see what drives are inside) will they still appear as one drive in my desktop as now (i think they are connected in RAID 0 interface now) or is it possible that the lacie controller inside the enclosure only works for the drives already installed and the 2 drives will appear as two separate drives in my desktop. This is important i think because being in RAID 0 will be much faster that being recognised as different drives.

Edit: I just came across this thread:
http://www.mactalk.com.au/28/38778-can-you-easily-replace-hdd-lacie-big-disk-extreme-case.html
it s getting a little confusing..

 

[Marty62]

Thank you for your reply. A question that i have is if i am going to replace the drives inside (after having a look of course to see what drives are inside) will they still appear as one drive in my desktop as now (i think they are connected in RAID 0 interface now) or is it possible that the lacie controller inside the enclosure only works for the drives already installed and the 2 drives will appear as two separate drives in my desktop. This is important i think because being in RAID 0 will be much faster that being recognised as different drives.

Edit: I just came across this thread:
http://www.mactalk.com.au/28/38778-can-you-easily-replace-hdd-lacie-big-disk-extreme-case.html
it s getting a little confusing..

I think the drive you linked to is a "Single HDD 640gb" correct ??
If so, then it's not a Raid configuration.
Would be a much larger enclosure for 2 or more 3,5 size HDD's

You sure that's the exact model that you have ?
M.

 

[Bezbozny]

Yes, i am sorry about the confusion. The quote is correct, i had read somewhere that the enclosure contains two drives.. i should have written two 2.5 drives, but i am not sure about that.... I ll open it up and have a look.

 

[Marty62]

Yes, i am sorry about the confusion. The quote is correct, i had read somewhere that the enclosure contains two drives.. i should have written two 2.5 drives, but i am not sure about that.... I ll open it up and have a look.

No problem, I have several that look the same and they are all single 3,5in
HDD's inside.
Carefully remove rear screws and back plate, the insides slides out.
Unscrew the 4 HDD screws and gently disconnect from pwr/data connection.
99% sure it will be a SATA type connection, if its one long set of 2 x 25 pins
then it's the older ATA connection ... I doubt it though !

Regards,
Marty.

 

[Bezbozny]

Oh well.... i just got a reply from Lacie, (i must congratulate the support there since i got the reply just a couple of minutes after posting the question... amazing!). It s disappointing though that the enclosure wont work with drives bigger than 2TB...

"We do not test or certify these units to work with drives of any other capacity than those they ship with originally.

While it is possible that this might work, there may be problems recognizing larger drives in the unit. Also, it's possible that replacement drives, even if recognized, might only enumerate up to the capacity of the original drives, even if you replace these with larger capacity mechanisms.

Given the firmware limitations on this type of device, I can virtually guarantee that the unit will never work with an overall maximum capacity above 2TB.

LaCie cannot provide assistance with replacing drives that are sold with the enclosure, or help to troubleshoot problems that arise when installing replacement drives."

 

[Marty62]

Ah - Interesting, I can tell you what does work :

Had a "Lacie Tripple" that was originally a 500gb, now has a 1 TB NO issues.

Had another that was only FW800/400, originally a 320gb and now has a 1TB
installed - again NO issues.

I think if you could keep their recommended 2TB limit, they "should" be OK.

I have not gone over 1TB ... so can't say 100%

M.

 

[Bezbozny]

Thank you very much for your help!