lacie external hard drive not showing up?

[strom]

I recently purchased a 500gb LaCie hard drive to use as as extra storage for media, not necessarily for back up purposes. I can not seem to find it either under disc utilities or in the finder window. Has anyone had this issue with a hard drive, and if so any suggestions? please talk to me like I am an idiot..... cause I am.

thanks in advance

 

[merl1n]

I recently purchased a 500gb LaCie hard drive to use as as extra storage for media, not necessarily for back up purposes. I can not seem to find it either under disc utilities or in the finder window. Has anyone had this issue with a hard drive, and if so any suggestions? please talk to me like I am an idiot..... cause I am.

thanks in advance

How is it connected, by USB or Firewire? Try unplugging the cable and plugging it back in.

Does it use an external power source?

Are you sure the drive spun up?

Report back

 

[strom]

I have used both USB and firewire. Currently trying firewire. It does have an external power supply, which is good. I am not sure what you mean by is the drive spun up?

I have unplugged, replugged, turned on/off, touched my nose and spun around, etc.....

 

[merl1n]

I have used both USB and firewire. Currently trying firewire. It does have an external power supply, which is good. I am not sure what you mean by is the drive spun up?

I have unplugged, replugged, turned on/off, touched my nose and spun around, etc.....

Try the USB cable first, maybe the firewire cable is bad. If that doesn't work then proceed...

Do the following:

1. I'm not sure what mac you have so one of these apply: PMU reset or SMU reset or SMC reset.

2. PRAM reset

3. Safe Boot and then log in and open Disk Utility. See if the actual drive is seen on the left pane.

Report back.

I have used both USB and firewire. Currently trying firewire. It does have an external power supply, which is good. I am not sure what you mean by is the drive spun up?

I have unplugged, replugged, turned on/off, touched my nose and spun around, etc.....

By spun up, I mean, when you power it on (put your ear next to it), listen to see if your actual disk inside spins up and becomes ready. When it does you should hear a faint click.

 

[strom]

I can hear the drive come on and spin yes. There is no obvious click that I hear though. It still is not visible in my disc utilities.

 

[yellow]

Does it appear in System Profiler?

 

[merl1n]

I can hear the drive come on and spin yes. There is no obvious click that I hear though. It still is not visible in my disc utilities.

LaCie drives typically have a "blue" LED in the front of the enclosure. When the drive is spinning up, the LED flashes. When the drive becomes "ready" the LED stops flashing and remains lit. Is this the case for you? Is the LED flashing or just lit up blue? Tell us what happens with the LED when you first power on the disk and afterwards.

 

[strom]

exactly as you say, it flashes while spinning, and then stops flashing and becomes quite. This is with the fire wire, if I use the usb it continues to flash.

 

[merl1n]

exactly as you say, it flashes while spinning, and then stops flashing and becomes quite. This is with the fire wire, if I use the usb it continues to flash.

I honestly think you have a defective drive or enclosure. If this is new drive, contact LaCie Technical Support and have them issue an RMA (Return Material Authorization) number and have them send you a new drive (especially if it is less than 30 days old).

 

[strom]

Thank you for your help. I will contact them now and see what they say.

 

[merl1n]

Thank you for your help. I will contact them now and see what they say.

Let us know how you make out.

Glad I could help.

 

[mac247]

Mine isn't either BUT...

Merlin or whomever...
I have the exact same issue as of Feb 4th. The only issue, my blue LED continues to flash.....the disk doesn't seem to spin up?
I am not much on being a tech person but can you provide any help?

thanks

 

[merl1n]

Merlin or whomever...
I have the exact same issue as of Feb 4th. The only issue, my blue LED continues to flash.....the disk doesn't seem to spin up?
I am not much on being a tech person but can you provide any help?

thanks

I haven't been on this board for a long time but I got an update to this thread via email.

Try disconnecting the firewire/usb cable from the drive and take the drive to a quiet place.

Power up the drive and put your ear next to it. Listen for the internal disk to speed up and then click (which means it's ready). At this point you should have a solid blue LED on the enclosure.

If not, either the disk is bad, the enclosure's controller is bad, or the external power brick is bad (put your ear next to the power brick and if you hear a faint clicking sound, the power brick is bad and you can order a new one from LaCie for about $16.00.

I stopped using LaCie drives a long time ago due to their lousy warranty (1 year) and cheap power bricks.

HTH.

Merl1n

 

[Yazdani14]

LaCie drives typically have a "blue" LED in the front of the enclosure. When the drive is spinning up, the LED flashes. When the drive becomes "ready" the LED stops flashing and remains lit. Is this the case for you? Is the LED flashing or just lit up blue? Tell us what happens with the LED when you first power on the disk and afterwards.

Hi, I was hoping you could help me out, I have a 320 GB Lacie external thats facing the same problem that the man in this thread, it's not appearing at all, in System Profiler, Disk Utility, I even tried attaching it to a Windows and it won't appear there either (MacDrive was installed) the only difference is when mine starts up it just lights up blue and remains stable, bright and stable.

Please Help?

 

[wanderingscribe]

For what it's worth, I have had the same problem this week. My 500 gb Lacie external is connected via USB, switched on and running (with a stable blue light visible underneath), but it doesn't show in Disk Utility and isn't accessible via Time Machine. I have unplugged, replugged and heard the tell tale clicking noise when it came on, but there's no sign of the thing where it matters most.

I bought it at the same time as my iMac (about three years ago) and it's worked perfectly until now. What's going on here?