External Hard Drive Not Mounting/Spinning

[RunOrDie]

Hi everyone,

I have an external 4tb hard drive (Lacie d2) and it hasn't been mounting to my MacBook recently. It does power on but I don't hear spinning.

However, I notice that it is in fact showing up in System Report but it's not showing up in Disk Utility since it's not mounting. I also changed the USB cable but that didn't help.

I called Lacie/Seagate and they are willing to offer free data extraction but I'm concerned about how safe all of my files are. As a professional wedding photographer, I have all of my client's images on this hard drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I called Lacie/Seagate and they are willing to offer free data extraction but I'm concerned about how safe all of my files are. As a professional wedding photographer, I have all of my client's images on this hard drive."

Do you have this particular drive (with all your clients' stuff) backed up?
If not, better start think of keeping at least TWO drives for client material:
1. External primary storage drive
and
2. External primary storage BACKUP drive.

I'd recommend CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper) to "clone" the source to the backup once or twice a week. That way the backup is an exact copy of the source drive.

Having said all that...
If the drive won't spin up, there's probably not much you can do about it at your end.
If LaCie is offering free "data extraction", that might help, but then again, there's no guarantee that they're going to get ANYTHING off of it.

 

[RunOrDie]

I'm skeptical to ship it to them due to the confidential client's information. Do you think trying the hard drive in a dock or another enclosure can make the drive mount to the MacBook? (Not sure if it's the hdd that broke or the actual enclosure). I've definitely learned my lesson of being redundant.

 

[Fishrrman]

Can the case be opened easily, without breaking it?

 

[RunOrDie]

Yep, the enclosure can be opened easily, but I will void the warranty in doing so.

 

[Fishrrman]

"the enclosure can be opened easily, but I will void the warranty in doing so."

You have "a choice" to make here.
Choice #1 -- send it back to LaCie and let them handle it under warranty
Choice #2 -- open it, try the drive in a USB3/SATA dock, and see if it will mount that way (but trying this BREAKS the warranty).

You have to make the decision.

A couple of OLD "tricks" to get a drive with platters that won't spin... spinning again:
- Put the drive in the freezer for a few hours (in a plastic bag). Then take it out, connect it, and see if it will spin up. If it does, copy what you need from it right away.
- Hold the drive HORIZONTALLY (so that the platters are parallel to the floor). Now, "twist" the drive quickly back-and-forth a few times. The idea was that the lube could become "sticky" inside, preventing the drive motor from spinning the platters at startup.
TRY THE ABOVE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

[jerryk]

The more you play with this, the more you are likely to permanently lose the data.

I would send it in.

And in the future remember the old IT axiom about data backups. Data is not backup unless it is in at least 3 places. And one copy must be in a different physical location in case of fire, theft, or a natural disaster.