Retrieve files from Lacie external drive.

[lostinfo]

Hi there.
I hope someone might be able to help me out. I have a 2TB Lacie desktop external hard drive which stopped working about a week and a half ago.
The red light on the front came on (which i didn't even know was there until that point), and the drive gave off a light clicking sound. Not as loud as the evil click of death which I've heard on someone elses drive before.
Now the drive doesn't show up in windows, and the problem is.......
......I haven't the info backed up. D'oh!!!!
Lacie tech support want me to send in the drive, but then i will lose my files.
I hold more value for my files than voiding my warranty, so I opened the drive.
Turns out that there are 2 Samsung hd103uj 1TB sata drives in there.(i thought there was 1 2tb drive). When i plug the drives into my pc (one at a time), they spin up fine and don't make any dodgy sounds. They show up in the bios and in windows disk management as RAW.
I presume the drives were in some kinda raid(0?) array, but i know absolutely nothing about raid.
Is there a way i can retrieve my files??? I would be sooooo grateful to any help anyone might have.
Thanks in advance!!

 

[Emulex]

probably a bad power brick - or usb cable i've seen either cause that.
overloading a usb bus on your pc - believe it or not alot of the usb cases still draw 500ma even though the cage has its own bus power brick plugged in!

 

[lostinfo]

Wow, thanks for the fast response.
I did check out ebay for a replacement power supply.
The lacie website has them for sale anyway, i think ill try that.
Just as a matter of interest though, is it possible to plug those 2 drives into a pc and see the files through some kind of raid setup? or would this just wipe the drives?

 

[RebateMonger]

If Lacie was providing you with a single "2 TB" disk using two 1 TB drives, then it's RAID 0 (or, possibly, JBOD). If it's RAID 0 (most likely), that's not good from a data recovery perspective.

The problem could be one or both of the hard drives, it could be the Lacie power supply, it could be the Lacie RAID disk controller, or it could be the Lacie converter circuitry that converts the data to USB, eSATA, Firewire, or whatever other options it offers.

If the data is valuable, it'd be a good time to stop and get the whole assembly to a professional data recovery house. If the problem is a failed disk, it'll need to be repaired enough to get an image from it before the RAID 0 array can be recovered.

If the data isn't worth spending a lot of money for recovery, then I imagine some folks will come up with some things you can try. But if you have a failing disk, the more you run it the more damage that can be done.

 

[jimhsu]

If you don't want to spend thousands but you still somewhat value your data, you can always try the freezing trick (google for the hundreds of sites that discuss it). Warning: Make absolutely sure to seal the drive against any possible condensation - 2 ziplock bags minimum. Additionally, this is a "last resort" solution.

I've had two externals that started clicking (as you described), and recovered the data after several freeze cycles.

And I hope this experience has motivated you to start backing up . My past data failure incidents surely have.

 

[Blain]

If you don't want to spend thousands but you still somewhat value your data, you can always try the freezing trick (google for the hundreds of sites that discuss it). Warning: Make absolutely sure to seal the drive against any possible condensation - 2 ziplock bags minimum.
Additionally, this is a "last resort" solution.

Very true.

Scott Moulton, founder of My Hard Drive Died, says they see plenty of the LaCie external drives in for data recovery.
Their recovery prices start out at $800 and go from there.
Other data recovery services start much higher.

 

[RebateMonger]

To give a more complete answer about plugging the disks into a PC:

The data on a RAID 0 array is striped. Simplified, that means that half of each file is on one disk and half is on the other disk. So you need both disks, or an image of both disks, to be working to read your files.

Also, you need to know what sort of file system is being used by Lacie and other technicalities about how the disks are set up. There's tools for doing such things, but recovery of important data from a RAID 0 array on a proprietary RAID system is not the place to learn.

 

[Emulex]

yeah thank god for backups!

 

[lostinfo]

Well i have ordered a replacement power supply. I really really hope thats all that it wrong.

Jimhsu, the clicking only happens when the drives are connected to the external case. There is no clicking when the drives are connected to the pc.
I had an external drive a few years back that started clicking. When i took it out if its external enclosure and plugged it into the pc, it still clicked. It was a louder, scarier clicking than what i'm getting now though. The drive inside was a samsung, so i got one like it on ebay, changed the drives pcbs, put the drive back in the enclosure - and it worked!

I don't think the problem with my LaCie is with the actual hard drives themselves.
If it does turn out to be the Lacie Raid controller or the usb circuitry, I'm going to have to start learning more about raid set ups!!
Thanks to everyone for your help and comments.
I'll keep you posted...

 

[Russwinters]

Hello!

I am the resident DR tech.


I have seen many of these lacies as well.


I have a good version of each power adapter they used on hand in my office for this reason.


A lot of times the bricks go out, so it is good advice to try that first.


Otherwise, if the drives are spinning up and not making any scary sounds, You can use software like R-Studio, or UFS explorer and rebuild the RAID.

You just need to find out which order the disks go in (which is 0 and which is 1) and the stripe size, and in some occasions the offset. and you will have your data back in no time.

There is actual a video Scott does about RAID reconstruction using R-studio, google around for it if you need some help doing it.


Regards,

 

[lostinfo]

Thanks Russwinters, thats reassuring to know.
I have bought 2 more external hdd's and a shi-shed load of dvdr's to try and prevent this from happening again.
I am always telling people to back stuff up, if only i practiced what i preached!

 

[lostinfo]

Well the power supply arrived and guess what......
........It Works!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am creating a backup as this moment!
I'm going to check out R-Studio and UFS explorer in case they might be needed in the future.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[Russwinters]

Nice, glad it worked out.

I have seen many of those Lacie units with that simple power brick failure.


Great work!


Regards,

 

[danny_boy328]

I ran across your post and hoping that you can assist me. My drive start having the same problem as you indicate. Before I order the power supply which you had done, I want to know whether your drives had the same symptom. I know it's quite a while so hopefully you can help me.

Of course, when I turned on the drive which hooked onto either my desktop/laptop, it makes a clicking noise and blinking red light. One thing I noticed that if I don't hook up any device via USB cable and simply turn it on, it was fine. I monitored it by leaving it on for 30 minutes and it was fine until I start plugging it in. Did yours have that same symptom?

Thanks and look forward for your respond.
Dan

 

[lostinfo]

Danny_boy,
by the sounds of it, you have the same problem as I had, but I can't confirm for sure about turning it on while unconnected. (memory ain't what it used to be....I think)

 

[danny_boy328]

Thanks lostinfo. I placed the order for the new power supply. Hopefully I have the same luck as you so that I can back up the data from it.

 

[lostinfo]

fingers crossed danny_boy!