Resolved Lacie Porsche Design Drive Dying: What to do?

[JessicaSideways]

So, I am having a bit of trouble with my external hard drive - it is a 1TB portable Porsche Design hard disk. The issue is that the drive will not mount and even though I had a similar problem back in December that wound up resolving itself (it actually decided to mount one day) and even if it is just a transient issue, I am concerned that this might be a symptom of a bigger problem.

When I load up Disk Utility, it gives me the following error when I try to repair the drive:

Vérifier et réparer le volume «*LACIE SETUP*»
Vérification du système de fichiers
Réparation du volume terminée.
Mise à jour des partitions de prise en charge du démarrage pour le volume, comme requis.
Erreur*: Utilitaire de disque ne peut pas réparer ce disque. Sauvegardez autant de fichiers que possible, reformatez le disque, puis restaurez vos fichiers sauvegardés.

(In English:

Check and repair the volume "LACIE SETUP"
Checking file system
Repair volume completed.
Updated partitions support booting to the volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can not repair the disk. Save as many files as possible, reformat the disk, and then restore your backed up files.)

So, I guess the question is - what hard drive do you recommend that I buy to replace the Lacie drive? Additionally, do you know of any good data recovery places that deal with these drives?

 

[JessicaSideways]

Some additional info that may or may not be helpful (I dunno, but I guess any detail might cause someone to get a lightbulb...) So, sometimes the icon on the Finder doesn't have the time machine backup (but the regular USB disk icon) both in the sidebar and desktop. Also, sometimes backups don't start after plugging in the drive (and yes, my computer was plugged in to the wall).

 

[Macman45]

It's dying I'm afraid...as the message says, backup your files and if it's still under warranty get it fixed or replace.

I had the 4TB arrive DOA a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Giuly]

So, I am having a bit of trouble with my external hard drive - it is a 1TB portable Porsche Design hard disk. The issue is that the drive will not mount and even though I had a similar problem back in December that wound up resolving itself (it actually decided to mount one day) and even if it is just a transient issue, I am concerned that this might be a symptom of a bigger problem.

When I load up Disk Utility, it gives me the following error when I try to repair the drive:

Vérifier et réparer le volume «*LACIE SETUP*»
Vérification du système de fichiers
Réparation du volume terminée.
Mise à jour des partitions de prise en charge du démarrage pour le volume, comme requis.
Erreur*: Utilitaire de disque ne peut pas réparer ce disque. Sauvegardez autant de fichiers que possible, reformatez le disque, puis restaurez vos fichiers sauvegardés.

(In English:

Check and repair the volume "LACIE SETUP"
Checking file system
Repair volume completed.
Updated partitions support booting to the volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can not repair the disk. Save as many files as possible, reformat the disk, and then restore your backed up files.)

So, I guess the question is - what hard drive do you recommend that I buy to replace the Lacie drive? Additionally, do you know of any good data recovery places that deal with these drives?

The enclosure rather than the hard drive may be broken, so if you have an external enclosure laying around, you may put the hard drive in that and see if it mounts that way.

As for a replacement, LaCie still makes those Porsche Design drives in 2.5" and 3.5", however the number of people I can think of who would buy one boils down to 1.

LaCie also makes the Blade Runner. Maybe the heat fins help a bit with the reliability of the Seagate hard drives inside.

Other than that, maybe a Western Digital MyBook Studio?

If you remove the hard drive from the LaCie and the drive itself is defective, you may as well install a new drive in the Porsche Design enclosure.

 

[Fishrrman]

Is the drive old?

Is it out-of-warranty?

Can you get into the case?

It's possible the enclosure itself has a problem -- and that the drive itself might still be ok, or at least salvageable (to get your data from it).

If the drive -IS- out-of-warranty, I suggest you open the case and remove the drive.

If it's a SATA-based drive, you could try placing it into a USB3/SATA docking station like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Docking-...394375895&sr=8-1&keywords=syba+usb3+sata+dock

If you get it to mount on the desktop, try and get your important stuff off of it right away.

There are other ways to recover data from malfunctioning drives, as well, but they involve more work and it will cost money.

 

[JessicaSideways]

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for your assistance. I was able to get the Lacie drive to mount using Disk Drill. I contacted LaCie and they sent me a replacement but I'm thinking of moving over to a more... advanced backup strategy to stop this from happening in the future.