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Replacing 1 of 4 HDD inside a LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme Triple Interface 2TB

W

wilnin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 27, 2003
13
0
At the moment ATHENS, GREECE
Hi everybody and thanks in advance for any help you can spare.

I tried to find a previous post which would help me out but couldn't find any, hence my plea for help.

But first, in case it may matter, I have an Intel iMac running OS 10.5.7.

So here goes.
I have a LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme Triple Interface 2TB, which contains four 500GB Seagate HDD (in a RAID 0 I believe).
Last week it died on me.
Since the warranty had expired, I opened the case and checked the HDD by connecting them one by one to my iMac using a IDE->USB cable. Since these HDD were not recognized, and since I fortunately had a back-up, I used Disk Utility to format them to Mac OS X extended (journaled). One of the HDD was indeed dead, but the other 3 were, are still working just OK.
As I had a WD 500GB lying around, I figured that i'll just put them all back in and that should do it.... Wrong!

And before you ask, yes I did take care to put them back in the correct "order" (Master for the HDD near the card, and i guess Slave for the second).

Now, when I connect my LaCie to my iMac, all it sees is a 500GB HDD! :-(

As I also have a LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme 1TB, with therefore four 250GB HDD, I swapped them in orderr to see if the "enclosure" was working. And it is, because the LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme Triple Interface (2TB) with the four 250GB HDD is now recognized as a 1TB external HDD.

So I figure my problem is that I formatted the four 500GB "individualy" and I just need to reformat/unformat them for my LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme Triple Interface 2TB to recognize them as not one but four 500GB in RAID.

The question is: How can I do that?

And yes I did ask the LaCie support, but so far, after more than a week and a couple "reminders" nothing from them (by the way, LaCie really suck!).

So, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I can still use the four HDD with my IDE->USB cable, but you'll have to agree.. it's not the same :)
 
wilnin said:
As I had a WD 500GB lying around, I figured that i'll just put them all back in and that should do it.... Wrong!
Click to expand...

After you did this you rebuilt the RAID array right? You should* be able to throw any harddrive you want in there and be able to build a new array (which would wipe all data off of the other disks) and it will be good to go.

*So long as the harddrive interface and capacity is supported by the enclosure.
 
I think you just have to use LaCie's RAID utility. I think you just load the app and RAID the 4 drives together in RAID 0.
 
I think you just have to use LaCie's RAID utility. I think you just load the app and RAID the 4 drives together in RAID 0.

Oops, pressed "Post" twice.
 
You need to create an array with those drives. Either through LaCie's software, or possibly Disk Utility. RAID 0 is rather easy though, and quick as well. :)
 
Hi and thanks for the help. Unfortunately I am not sure HOW to do what you propose and that is my problem, I guess.

To reebzor: No I did not rebuild the RAID array. I guess that's what I'm trying to find out how to do.

To Macuser154: I looked everywhere in order to find this LaCie RAID utility but couldn't find it anywhere. Do you have a link or can you send it to me?

To nanofrog: How can I use Disk Utility in order to do that? When I connect my disk as is, Disk Utility sees only 1 disk of 500GB. The other 3 are simply not there. And I cannot connect all four of them directly to my iMac at the same time. Is there another way?

Anyway, in any cases Thanks a lot for your help. I'll keep looking, and who knows, may be LaCie will even send me an answer (not that i'm counting on anything of value coming from them...)
 
wilnin said:
To nanofrog: How can I use Disk Utility in order to do that? When I connect my disk as is, Disk Utility sees only 1 disk of 500GB. The other 3 are simply not there. And I cannot connect all four of them directly to my iMac at the same time. Is there another way?
Click to expand...
I wasn't sure if Disk Utility could, as the LaCie uses a Port Multiplier chip to switch between drives on a single data port.

The best thing to do, is use LaCie's software. You can download it if you can't find it lying around. Here's the documents section as well. ;)

Hope this helps, and good luck. :)
 
Hey Wilnin, I have encountered the exact same problem with my Lacie 2tb drive...how did you resolve this problem?

I have looked for the raid utility someone spoke off, but it doesnt seem to exist...any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
Well actually after having looked everywhere to find an answer, I decided to check up my disks once again one by one only to realize that in the meantime another one had died on me! Incredible but true!

So I changed it and Bam it's working! :)

But I have to tell you that in any case, the LaCie support was absolutely awful!!!

Anyway, good luck with your case...
 
You simply swapped out the bad drive for a new one? did u have to do anything else? use any software to have it get recognized as 2tb?

also...did u replace it with the exact same model of hardrive? cuz i've been told that the same model is unavailable.

And yes, i agree Lacie tech support is awful, i got no where with them myself.
 
Yeah that's basically it. Once I had replaced the bad drive with a new one it just worked as it should have from the beginning.

And yes I heard similar stories, but as far as I am concerned, I now have three different models (2 Seagates, 1 WD and the last one I don't remember exactly, but yet another model) and so far everything is working. :)

But I must admit after so many failures I am actually "waiting for the disaster". And when that happens I think i'll go the way of the Drobo :)

Good luck with your problem...
 
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