LaCie SSD external not showing up

[DrLemur]

Hi just bought a LaCie 256GB external drive for my Mac Pro and it works fine on Mac OS but after reformatting with disk utility to Exfat and then booting into Windows 8.1 it doesn't even mount or show up in the "Computer" area as usual. Don't understand why. Do I need special drivers for this or a firmware update. I can't find any info on the site and the software that came with it seems to be merely backup software which I don't need as I am using it for a storage drive.

Any hint in the right direction toward solving this so I can use this drive under windows would be much appreciated. Cheers,

- D

 

[g4cube]

Did you install the Windows driver? Required for the Rugged SSD Drive if using Thunderbolt:
https://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10278

 

[DrLemur]

I tired that one but it just comes up saying "no Lacie devices were found" so it won't update firmware.. which is odd because not only is the drive connected but when I turn it off you can hear that little windows sound indicating a device has been disconnected.. so clearly on some level windows knows it's there it's just not being seen by even this updater. Weird.. Might be to do with the type of Lacie drive I have. It's not the rugged one it's a "little big drive" 256GB. Can't find any driver for that though.. specifically.

 

[g4cube]

Little Big Disk? The silver one?

The 240GB has 2 120GB SSDs inside, while the 500GB version has 2 250GB SSDs inside.

They would appear to Windows as 2 individual SATA drives.

If you formatted the SSDs under OS X, you would have used Disk Utility to make one RAID-0 volume that would be Mac OS Extended. If you reformatted the resulting volume as ExFAT, it would still be an OS X RAID volume, and Windows does not know how to read that. That connection sound only means that at the lowest level that the 2 SATA SSD devices have been detected, but Windows does not know how to mount the RAID volume.

So...if you want to read the Disk Utility created RAID volume, you would need to install MacDrive Pro from MediaFour. The cheaper MacDrive does NOT mount OS X RAID volumes.

Also, this is not a firmware issue. You would also need this Windows driver:
https://www.lacie.com/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10549

 

[DrLemur]

Ahh right.. Thank you so much. This makes a lot more sense now I have it explained. Does suck a little bit that I have to buy a program to get this to work but that's par for the course I guess. I'll get it and we'll see how it goes. Thanks again you have been very helpful. I've been at a total loss on this issue.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[g4cube]

It is possible to use Windows to create a RAID-0 volume, they call it striped. Problem is it won't be readable from OSX. The opposite issue.

You can use the drive non-RAID. Will just have 2 independent drives.