External Hard drive stops being detected. Help! (RAID)

[watchmainspring]

My external hard drive is no longer detected by any computer. It is a LaCie Big Disk, with 2 raided 250gb PATA hard drives.

I strongly believe the problem is the enclosure, as the hard drives spin up and do not making clicky noises.

I really would like to take things off of the drives...possibly even salvage the drives. Does anyone have any idea how?

My first inclination is to buy an enclosure, but will it work if they are RAID? Will it work if they are RAID and I would need an SATA to PATA adapter for an enclosure, considering that PATA raid enclosures are few and far between?

Thanks guys!

 

[Makosuke]

Software or hardware RAID0?

If it's hardware, I don't know for a fact, but I'm pretty sure that you'd need another enclosure with the same RAID0 implementation for it to be able to read data off the drives. PATA RAID0 enclosures weren't that uncommon--I know I've seen them on the market for years--but again, if it's not the same RAID controller, I doubt that'll do you any good.

If it's software RAID0, they should work in anything that can bring up both.

However, you might consider trying to get your hands on another power brick for your LaCie enclosure; not sure about the Big Disk series, but I've read a number of reports claiming that when LaCie enclosures start failing to mount it's often the cause of a failing power supply--apparently they use(d) cheap ones. If that is the problem it's by far the most likely way to get at your data.

 

[watchmainspring]

Thanks for your response. I tried another power adapter and it didn't change anything. My 1st inclination was to get a new big disk, and switch in the drives, but they are so expensive...

Is there any way to tell how they are configured?

 

[brand]

Is there any way to tell how they are configured?

You could always call LaCie and talk to their support personnel. I guarantee you this would not be the first time that they had encountered this.

 

[SwitchingtoMAC]

this is a common issue i see alot with lacie drives, the raid is raid 0 and if the enclosure is bad the only thing to do besides send it to a data recovery company is to find another one of the same model and swap the HD in it to see if it works