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kjacks52

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 30, 2007
37
0
I found a LaCie 1TB harddrive in the trash in the datacenter at my office today so I grabbed it. It won't mount and makes some strange clicking sounds. Has anyone ever replaced the drives in one of these? There are 4 250gig drives inside. Is it worth it to try and fix this? I've been meaning to purchase one of these drives and I'm hoping I can save some cash by replacing these bad drives.
 
Got a screwdriver? Seriously, check if it's under warranty first before you open it up. Otherwise just pop it open and put some new drives in.
 
I doubt even ALL the drives are bad. It's probably just one of them. Figure out which one and you're in business. :)

EDIT: Although, if it was THROWN in the trash, they might have subsequently killed the other three disks. Which would be a shame.
 
And yet another reminder:

If you are responsible for your company's data, and especially if that data includes private information on people, or trade secrets, or financial data...

Don't throw data storage devices of any kind in the freakin trash! Not even if you think it is "broken" or "reformatted" or "erased".

All it takes is one mildly motivated person to check and see what can be recovered from it, and you can have a major security breach, lawsuits, etc. etc.
 
Could Be the controller card !

I would definitely check the Hd's out individually, Odds are good to excellent that the controller card in the case went bad.
Fry's Electronics sells a USB Device From Vantech That plugs into IDE & SATA Drives & Goes to USB. It works well for checking this issue out. I believe it cost all of 20.00. If the drives are indeed good, Go get a cooldrives Sata or IDE case
that holds them for 50-60 bucks and you're off to the races!
 
Just wanted to say if this thing works, I hate you, why cant that happen to me.

Anyway grats on find. make sure you clean the piece since you don't know what its been through. Also keep us updated.
 
I work for a church and the drive was used by one of our editors so there was no sensitive data on it. I spent some time today tinkering around with it. Here's what happened:

- I took the case off and turned it on. It wouldn't mount and made some almost beeping like sounds.
- I listened carefully and figured out which drive was making the noise. I unplugged that drive and the noise stopped.
- I turned it off then back on and it finally showed up in disk utility.
- I reformatted it and now it mounts fine as a 701gig drive.
- It seems all I need to do is replace the drive I unplugged and I'll have a functioning drive. I'll let you all know what happens once I pick up a new drive!
 
I work for a church and the drive was used by one of our editors so there was no sensitive data on it. I spent some time today tinkering around with it. Here's what happened:

- I took the case off and turned it on. It wouldn't mount and made some almost beeping like sounds.
- I listened carefully and figured out which drive was making the noise. I unplugged that drive and the noise stopped.
- I turned it off then back on and it finally showed up in disk utility.
- I reformatted it and now it mounts fine as a 701gig drive.
- It seems all I need to do is replace the drive I unplugged and I'll have a functioning drive. I'll let you all know what happens once I pick up a new drive!

nice. and congrats on the awesome find!
 
I work for a church and the drive was used by one of our editors so there was no sensitive data on it.

Famous last words.... Even the subscription list of the newsletter would be considered private information. It could have unlisted phone numbers and addresses, for example, or info on donations and tax receipts.

This still falls into the "But I swear, the gun wasn't loaded when it went off" category.

Good that you have formatted it.
 
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