[spincrazy]

Hey all,

Got a Lacie D2 250 gig drive that no longer mounts on my G5 or elsewhere. Disk Utility sees it, but it's greyed out and it can't mount it either. Local NY apple specialist wants $1500 to attempt recovery. My client says "whoa...let's hold off" Drive makes no odd noises, spins and everything, but I can't access it.

Any ideas?

 

[BigMike]

$1500?! That seems a little steep for data recovery.

What format is the drive in, and how many partitions does it have? If its a FAT drive, try and hook it up to a Windoze computer and see if it will recognize it. If its an HFS drive, download the trial of MacDrive and see if a windoze computer will recognize it.

Its odd that disk utility won't mount it, I don't know what to try.

 

[spincrazy]

It's formatted for Mac OSX and has no partitions. It is an HFS drive I believe.

I am thinking of purchasing data rescue and giving it a whirl myself. I have another drive, freshly formatted to recover to.

My girlfriend's friend, an aerospace engineer who is quite good around computers originally stated that I should send it to him and he was sure he could get the files. He changed his tune a bit when he learned that it was a mac formatted drive.

 

[BigMike]

Try Macdrive and a windows computer, who knows, it may work...........and for free

 

[spincrazy]

my girl doesn't want me to touch her comp and its the only pc in the house. I'm more apt to remove it from its case now and either mount it inside my comp or get another generic case for it and see if I can get at the data. I'm thinking it may be a bridge that's bad. I tried different cables and power supplies to no avail. the drive is out of warranty so I've nothing to lose.

 

[Pau11y]

This is a really dumb suggestion, but have you tried to hook it up to another Mac? It could be your computer that's at fault (I'm assuming it's a USB device). If you do take it out and slap it into your system, check the BIOS detection first to see if it's even showing up there on boot. Also take a look in BIOS to see if somehow USB support was turned off.

Just some thougths.

 

[binary visions]

I'd tear it apart and mount it inside the computer. External cases are fairly cheap, if it turns out it was just the connection, you can buy a new one for $30. Hell, it doesn't work now, why not just take it out of the case - it won't hurt your data recovery efforts.

 

[spincrazy]

This is a really dumb suggestion, but have you tried to hook it up to another Mac? It could be your computer that's at fault (I'm assuming it's a USB device). If you do take it out and slap it into your system, check the BIOS detection first to see if it's even showing up there on boot. Also take a look in BIOS to see if somehow USB support was turned off.

Just some thougths.

It's a triple interface drive - USB, Firewire 400 and 800. It has been attempted to mount on other comps and my other Lacies mount fine. I have also tried other power supplies and an assortment of firewire and usb cords.

At this point, I am going to try to mount it internally or get another enclosure. It may be a bridge or power supply issue as the drive itself does not show signs of a mechanical failure.

binary, it sounds like a simple process to mount it internally, is it? Know anywhere I can get a step by step?

 

[binary visions]

binary, it sounds like a simple process to mount it internally, is it? Know anywhere I can get a step by step?

The drive itself is going to be a normal internal drive once you tear off the enclosure. Be careful when disassembling the enclosure, though, you never know how they bolt these things together.

Don't get another enclosure until you've got the drive issue sorted. First off, you could be wasting your money, and second, you want to eliminate a potential source for a problem. If you bought another enclosure that turned out to be DOA, you might attribute the problem to the drive instead of the enclosure.

Have you ever opened a computer before or installed, say, a CD drive?

 

[binary visions]

I don't know what Mac you have but this might help without me typing it all out :

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/hival52x/install.html

The only difference is that your hard drive will go into a smaller (3.5") drive bay instead of the big drive bays for the CD-ROMs.

You don't actually have to mount it in a drive bay, though, you can just install it and leave it hanging inside the computer as long as you put it on an insulating surface.

 

[Pau11y]

Know anywhere I can get a step by step?

Easiest thing to do is prob disconnect your CD Rom/DVD Rom drive (provided it's the only device on that cable) and use the cable to connect to your suspect HDD. Typically the HDD is pinned out to cable select so that will take care of itself. Just remember to take a look in BIOS once connected to make sure there's nothing weird there (ie. the channel is on - like secondary slave -> on or something like that).

 

[spincrazy]

The drive itself is going to be a normal internal drive once you tear off the enclosure. Be careful when disassembling the enclosure, though, you never know how they bolt these things together.

Don't get another enclosure until you've got the drive issue sorted. First off, you could be wasting your money, and second, you want to eliminate a potential source for a problem. If you bought another enclosure that turned out to be DOA, you might attribute the problem to the drive instead of the enclosure.

Have you ever opened a computer before or installed, say, a CD drive?

Good point about the enclosure. No, I have not installed a drive, but I've had the computer open for other reasons (ram, etc.)

What should I look for in the BIOS exactly? How do I look at it. Please excuse my ignorance.

I have an open bay, will the connectors, like the cd/dvd drive be there? I'm sure I'm being over the top with this and its super easy. Just like to get as much info as possible before mucking around.

 

[binary visions]

I wouldn't worry about the BIOS until you plug in the drive and it doesn't show up. In all likelihood, you'll plug it in and the drive will show up.

Here's what you do:

Open your case. There will be two plugs going into your CD-ROM drive, one ribbon cable and one with 4 thicker wires. Pull them out of your CD-ROM drive and insert them into the appropriate slots on your hard drive. Then, start up your computer.

If the drive is there, you're golden. If not, shut down your computer again. Look at the drive - on the back, next to the cable plugs, there will be a jumper with three or four possible positions. On the top of the drive somewhere will be a diagram that will tell you the jumper positions - there will be "Master" "Slave" and "Cable Select" or sometimes "MA" "SL" and "CS". Put the jumper into the Cable Select position, plug it back in, and power on again.

If the drive still doesn't show up, come back and tell us

 

[spincrazy]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to binary visions again.

Thanks a lot man.

 

[binary visions]

Oops, edited my last post. I meant, put the jumper in the "Cable Select" position.

 

[spincrazy]

Got another enclosure. Same problems..... sigh.

 

[binary visions]

You didn't try mounting it internally?

 

[spincrazy]

No. I didn't. I'd disrupt too much dust on the inside of my computer.
Other than making sure that the enclosure isn't the problem, what benefit would this have?

Know anything about Data Rescue II? http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php I ran their demo and could see the files. I worry that the software could fail and make things worse like everyone says about doing it yourself though..

 

[spincrazy]

Got the files, all 100gb. So far all seem ok and uncorrupt. Thank You Data Rescue II.

 

[binary visions]

Must have missed that post. Glad you got your files back!