Lacie Bigger Disk Extreme only showing 500gb instead of 2 TB

[Chparigi]

Hi everyone!

I recently got a 2TB BiggerDisk Extreme with triple interface used, to use over FireWire 800 with my mac. The first couple of days i only had a USB 2.0 cable and the drive worked fine with 2tb of total storage. Today i got my FireWire 800 9-pin cable, and i tried to plug it in. First, i couldn't understand why the device wasn't showing, and in the Disk Utility it apparently showed a total capacity of 500 gb, and that i wasn't formatted.

I tried to format it, with still 500gb of capacity, and when connecting to a Windows PC over firewire, it showed 500gb as well.

When i again tried to connect it with USB, the "old" drive with 2 tb showed up, and with the partition table i made then.

So it's as if im connecting the computer to two completely different drives when connecting through FireWire or USB. I tried to update the firmware, but the "Lacie update Tool for OS X" which i think is the only program that works with this old drive, is an application for PowerPC only, so that doesn't work either.

I've really run out of ideas on what to do - anyone who's had similar issues before, or just has more ideas?

 

[Weaselboy]

Are you sure you have the 2TB version?

What that device does is put two separate drives in the enclosure then sets them up in RAID 0 to make it look like one large drive.

So if you install two 500GB drives then set them up in RAID 0, the system would see the device as one 1TB drive, and I suspect that is what you have.

I'm thinking the RAID 0 setup is for some reason not showing properly under FW and you are only seeing one of the 500GB drives? I'm also wondering if you "broke" the RAID setup by reformatting and you may need to reconfigure it.

 

[Chparigi]

Are you sure you have the 2TB version?

What that device does is put two separate drives in the enclosure then sets them up in RAID 0 to make it look like one large drive.

So if you install two 500GB drives then set them up in RAID 0, the system would see the device as one 1TB drive, and I suspect that is what you have.

I'm thinking the RAID 0 setup is for some reason not showing properly under FW and you are only seeing one of the 500GB drives? I'm also wondering if you "broke" the RAID setup by reformatting and you may need to reconfigure it.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that it's the 2 TB version - if i connect the drive using USB, the whole 2 TB drive shows.

The Lacie Bigger Disk has 4 drives, so it's 4 times 500gb in the enclosure. I suspected the Raid setup to be broke as well, since it runs Raid 0, but there is no software from Lacie that I've tried, that's either a PowerPc-software (Since im running an intel-mac) or software that doesn't recognise the drive...

 

[Weaselboy]

Yes, I'm pretty sure that it's the 2 TB version - if i connect the drive using USB, the whole 2 TB drive shows.

The Lacie Bigger Disk has 4 drives, so it's 4 times 500gb in the enclosure. I suspected the Raid setup to be broke as well, since it runs Raid 0, but there is no software from Lacie that I've tried, that's either a PowerPc-software (Since im running an intel-mac) or software that doesn't recognise the drive...

Ahhh... that makes sense.

Can you dig up a manual for it on their webs site? I know with other RAID 0 setups you can just configure them with OS X Disk Utility. Maybe this helps?

 

[Chparigi]

Ahhh... that makes sense.

Can you dig up a manual for it on their webs site? I know with other RAID 0 setups you can just configure them with OS X Disk Utility. Maybe this helps?

I only see one 500gb drive, and not four, so i can't setup a RAID set using Disk Utility.

I tried to look in their manual, but there is nothing that can help. I've tried to install different applications, but none of them seems to be compatible with the drive

 

[g4cube]

Was this drive purchased new or used. It has not been offered by LaCie for quite some time.

If purchased used, I guess you got a defective drive since all the modes aren't working correctly. Inside is a custom hardware controller that simply concatenates the 4 drives. It is not RAID-0. This drive was offered long before there were low cost 1TB and 2TB single SATA drives.

I saw some inexpensive ones for low prices on ebay.

Strange how it works with USB 2.0 but not FireWire.

 

[Chparigi]

Was this drive purchased new or used. It has not been offered by LaCie for quite some time.

If purchased used, I guess you got a defective drive since all the modes aren't working correctly. Inside is a custom hardware controller that simply concatenates the 4 drives. It is not RAID-0. This drive was offered long before there were low cost 1TB and 2TB single SATA drives.

I saw some inexpensive ones for low prices on ebay.

Strange how it works with USB 2.0 but not FireWire.

I bought it used

I don't suspect the drive to be defective, since the it works just fine with USB. The weird thing is, that if i connect it with firewire, the system "sees" it as a 500gb Lacie - that's its name, so it is as if the controller only sees one of the four drives when it's connected using firewire.

 

[matreya]

I bought it used

I don't suspect the drive to be defective, since the it works just fine with USB. The weird thing is, that if i connect it with firewire, the system "sees" it as a 500gb Lacie - that's its name, so it is as if the controller only sees one of the four drives when it's connected using firewire.

Sounds like there's something defective with the firewire portion of the adapter board.... you should just stick with using USB2 :/

 

[g4cube]

I bought it used

I don't suspect the drive to be defective, since the it works just fine with USB. The weird thing is, that if i connect it with firewire, the system "sees" it as a 500gb Lacie - that's its name, so it is as if the controller only sees one of the four drives when it's connected using firewire.

OK. Makes sense as a name.

What does Disk Utility or Finder report as the total capacity?

It may just be under FireWire, the name of the overall drive reports as LaCie 500, but the actual capacity is correct.

Device name is independent of formatted capacity. I assume you are referring to name assigned in System Profile or top level of drive on left side in Disk Utility. Look below that for the actual volume capacity.