My LaCie external HD is dying at the ripe old age of FOUR........

[Richard Steele]

I'd appreciate any suggestions for replacements.

I got this LaCie 180gb external HD at the "Apple Store"
4 years ago. I'm posting from a "beach ball" Imac with
a 60 gig internal HD; since we had no other firewire externals
back then, the LaCie firewire-only D2 disk seemed like a real
bargain at the time.

Until it started DYING- my entire iTunes folder is on there,
as well as about 35 gigs of JPEGs I've gathered for my photoShopping
work.

I think I can still revive it a time or two, to transfer its contents
to a new drive....

Any advice on WHICH new drive I should purchase?

[Poiuyt]

1. What are the symptoms?

Have you tried using any disk repair software on it? Something like DiskWarrior can do wonders.

That said, any hard drive is liable to fail. It's always smart to do regular backups. I've always had good luck with Hitachi (IBM) HD, and I hear that Seagate is pretty good too.

[Richard Steele]

2. It starts to spin up, then JUST as it gets to speed....

...it clicks and slowly winds down again. After ten seconds or so,
it will repeat the process; after a few tries it finally stays at speed
and its icon appears on the desktop.

It will continue working fine if it's being continuously accessed (I've
tested that by leaving my iTunes on shuffle & repeat all night- my
music library is on it)

But if it's idle for ten minutes or so, my iMac says it can't see it anymore.
So then I have to repeat the whole process.

I've run the "disk utility" software that came with it, and it keeps claiming
that the drive is fine (when it's accessible, anyway; when it ISN'T, it can't see it):shrug:

Since it's been taking more and more "tries" to start working, I'm worried that it
won't be long until it quits completely. So I've got it unplugged
right now, awaiting the day I can fire it up to transfer its contents to
its replacement. My internal drive is way too small to hold it all.

[Poiuyt]

3. Sounds like it's dying to me

I'm not sure if it's better to leave it running on iTunes or shut it off until you get a replacement. You may want to ask smarter people than I am. Unless someone else chimes in you should post at somewhere like the Apple support forums (http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa) or somewhere like Dealmac (http://forums.dealmac.com/list.php?4)

[Zensea]

4. Their support people are quite helpful

you should talk to them at LaCie at the very least.
I had a 500 gig Lacie that was just short of a year old completely die on me.
Before we were sure though, they talked me through various fixes on the phone and also did so through e-mails.
Ultimately none of the fixes worked for any length of time.
Fortunately it was still under warranty (actually, I called them maybe a week before the warranty ended and didn't determine the drive was permanently hosed until a week after it "ended") and they replaced it for free.

[htuttle]

5. Well, darn -- those are the most reliable drives I've ever used

I've had just about every type of firewire external HD die on me over the last 10 years EXCEPT the LaCie D2 model. Even other models of LaCie drives (like the little 'Porsche' ones) have died on me, but never the D2's I've used both here and at work.

I'd suggest along with the others that you contact LaCie tech support just in case they can do something to retrieve the files on it. Otherwise, that particular model of HD is the best one I've found so far.

:shrug:

[Richard Steele]

6. I know; I did a lot of research before I bought it........

I don't often have an extra $250 to spend; so I spent a lot of time
researching external HD's before I bought the D2, and had concluded
that it really was the best value I could get for my money.

Sadly, I did something stupid 4 years ago- I never mailed the warranty card.

So LaCie TechSupport would have every right to tell me to go pound sand.

But I reckon I should maybe call them anyway. I really can't put
my finger on it, but I still have a strong feeling that this may be
some sort of SOFTWARE problem. Maybe something they've seen before.

So I think I'll call them before I actually go looking for a new EHD.

[Captain Angry]

7. I built my own.

I found a 750 GB SATA drive for $180, and a Firewire/E-SATA/USB shell for $20.00.

Not bad. The HDD has a 3 year warranty.

[Poiuyt]

8. I did that too

Different configuration of course. I had a 120GB drive laying around, so I got a fanless, firewire enclosure for it. Nice, quiet companion for my Mini. In fact, I use the external drive as the boot drive.

[Captain Angry]

9. Nice.

My Mini has become my primary machine. I used to use a massive workstation. That has been relegated to gaming night.

My Mini is for daily driving, homework, etc. It's awesome, silent, and draws no power. It is a key factor in driving my electricity bills to $16/month.

The external HDD I spoke of before has a specific set of uses.

1: Backup old workstation
1a: Copy some data to Mac
2: Install Vista on old workstation
3: Once Vista is working properly, I'll move the big HDD over to my DVR. It has an E-SATA port, and supposedly will let me plug this in instead of the 200GB drive in there now.

I am on the lookout for an external HDD shell that is good enough looking to use with my Mini. Once I do that, I'll pick it up, and put a good drive in it. I'm hoping to do that in advance of Leopard's release. That way I can just boot straight to it, and leave Tiger on the internal 80GB in case something goes awry.

The rest of my desk looks nice. I won't have some nasty drive cage attached to it, now that everything else is so nice.

I also wish I could find a USB hub that looks as good as the Mini. I have a Belkin hub designed for use with the Mini, but it's not the same color, so it stands out.

[Richard Steele]

10. What else is involved in a project like that, beyond putting the drive in a case?

Would I need to install drivers, format the drive & etc?

I'm certain I could tackle a project like that, as long
as the computer end of things doesn't require too much
skill.