Lacie ethernet big disk HD via Airport. No go.

I don't think the issue is specific to Leopard. Just bought a 1Tb LaCie Ethernet BigDisk a few days ago and have the drive connected to an Airport Extreme BS, using a PB G4 running the Tiger OS 10.4.11...and I'm having some similar connectivity problems as others have mentioned.

Haven't had any problems mounting the drive as a server when it's attached to the AEBS ethernet port but have not been able to see or mount the drive via USB regardless of whether it's connected through the AEBS USB port or directly to the USB on my PB.

I tried using the LaCie Backup app, connecting through Airport via the ethernet port on the AEBS. It did establish a stable connection but it took nearly 9 hours just to back up 30Gb. There's definitely something wrong with transfer rate. Couldn't figure out if it was running in 10base mode or higher...but there is clearly a speed issue there. Anyone know how to check what transfer rate, connection speed or have a fix to this slow transfer problem?

Anyway, I decided to connect the drive directly to my PB just to test the USB transfer speed...that's when I discovered that the USB connection wasn't working...at all. Played around with it trying different powering/connection tricks and disk utilities but nothing worked. Ended up getting angry so I went into LaCie's online Support page to get some answers. Their FAQ's are nearly worthless and there were no tech discussion forums so I had to do things the hard way. That's when I had the delightful pleasure of experiencing their "iron curtain" email-based tech support system...what a load of crap, I hate not being able to speak with someone direct!

Got the first email response back tonight...the tech rep's reply was polite and asked me to follow the recommended procedure in the user manual: connect the drive direct to computer USB, open Network preferences and a message should magically appear asking to create a new connection. Of course, I had already tried that procedure beforehand but no success. Must have taken the tech person a whole 30 seconds to think about the problem and then copy and paste that gem of helpful knowledge. >:-((

So now I'm waiting for a real answer. Hate trying to solve this through email...probably would take a decent tech rep 10 minutes tops to walkthrough and determine the fault.

Who knows how long it will be before I get the next "helpful" reply...so I'd greatly appreciate if anyone who figures out the fix to this problem would please post the information so we don't have to endure LaCie's sucko tech support.

If the drive is connected to the AEBS USB port, Leopard will not see it. It's a Leopard problem. It works fine with 10.4.11, and also works fine with Windows XP.

Nope that's not true in my case. I'm running 10.4.11 and can't see the drive when connected through USB on the AEBS or direct to computer.

Could be a problem with the drive itself but I doubt it.

[quote]
I tried using the LaCie Backup app, connecting through Airport via the ethernet port on the AEBS. It did establish a stable connection but it took nearly 9 hours just to back up 30Gb. There's definitely something wrong with transfer rate. Couldn't figure out if it was running in 10base mode or higher...but there is clearly a speed issue there. Anyone know how to check what transfer rate, connection speed or have a fix to this slow transfer problem?
[/quote]

Try deleting the 30 Gb, this'll take you just as long if not longer ... I have the same experience.

As I mentioned in an earlier post: there are BIG problems with the NAS software inside the LaCie (causing this and (maybe) some other issues I experienced with shares for example), this has even been confirmed by LaCie without too many words. The NAS software which is responsable for showing the two disks inside the ethernet BigDisk as one big disk has bugs and causes the speed issues!

I returned mine since I don't trust them to come up with a quick solution (the problem has been around for months it seems without any progress).

I would love to have had it working but it just doesn't and the solution isn't in sight 😟

Hmmm, the latest AEBS firmware update didn't do anything to improve the transfer speed. After reading some of the other posts here, it appears there are people having the same transfer speed problems except with different drives...that leads me to think it may still also be a problem with connecting an external drive to the AEBS.

I have a 1TB LaCie Ethernet Big Disk, and I have had no problems with it working properly. It has worked for me with both Tiger and Leopard.

My primary complaint is that it is very slow. My average transfer speed over a gigabit link is a pokey 6MB/sec. I typically see an average network transfer speed of about 30MB/sec when transfering data between my Mac Pro and my MacBook. So I'm pretty sure the slowness of the LaCie Ethernet Big Disk is not my network or configuration. This NAS device is a dog, but then its price point probably matches its capability. If you need speed, you'll probably have to pay more.

Does anyone know of a good, FAST and inexpensive NAS solution???

-AstraPoint

Musicmaker: Are you running the latest firmware (v1.1.1) from LacIe? And are you running Leopard using the "automatic" settings for Ethernet (see System Preferences -> Network -> (Built-in Ethernet) Advanced... -> Ethernet tab -> select Configure: Automatically)?

Did you do the 10.5.1 update? If so, that's what broke it. Broke mine too. Tiger and Windows XP can see and access ite airdisk just fine. 10.5.1? Same deal as you. If it sees the disk at all, which it never does unless i reboot, it will never connect to it. None of the fixs suggested in other threads works at all for me.

Probably doesn't help you but I ended up using a PowerBook G4 Titanium 400GHz, the first one and now very cheap on ebay, as a file, print, itunes, ftp etc. server. Just added a firewire HD to expand. Its been up and running for 2 years now and files are backed up nightly across the wifi network. I've tried the LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini but I think the PowerBook idea is a lot more flexible and controllable, and definitely more fun to admin, which I do via Remote Desktop.

I've also been using the same setup to batch capture DV files with FCP. I can control FCP via Remote Desktop and log the in and out points then let it capture remotely. Remote Desktop doesn't seem to make FCP drop any frames.

Hope this helps.

Same problem here... I went out & bought a Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini this afternoon. Set the thing up & connected it to my home network (by the book) & wham: nothing.

I have an AEBS with a Lacie disk connected to it via USB, which works fine, slow (transfer speeds of on anverage 4.5 Mb/s) but fine. I have numerous USB disks by Lacie which work just fine. I've always been quite happy with these products. The Ethernet Disk Mini is actually the first product I'm having trouble with...

Some observations:
the IPConfigurator software delivered in the box (version 2.0.2.3) did not work with Leopard at all. Kept on crashing...

Version 2.0.3 seems to work on Leopard (it doesn't crash on me) but I can't set up the Ethernet Disk Mini at all. The Ethernet Disk Mini doesn't even show up in the "Shared" section of the Finder sidebar.

When I check the AEBS log files, the Ethernet Disk Mini doesn't show up anywhere - at all.

So, in my opinion the problem could be the Lacie Ethernet Disk or my AEBS.

I'm going to take the Etrhernet Disk to my office tomorrow, I have Cisco router there, to see if the problem persists. If the Ethernet Disk works, then the problem is the AEBS. And if it doesn't work, I have faulty disk on my hands.

I'll keep you informed.

I've posted this in two other threads about Leopard not connecting to airdisk, but haven't recieved any respones on if it works for anybody but me. So here goes:

I've had the problem with Leopard not connecting - but trying - to a Lacie 320 Gb on Airport Extreme via USB. Both on 10.5.0 (clean install) and 10.5.1. I tried different things to solve it including installing the old airport software that came with my AEBS. Airdisk ran smoothly on my iBook running Tiger 10.4.10.

So, suddenly I noticed that the Airport Utility and the Airport Disk Utility figured on the Login Items list under Accounts in system preferences. Unchecked them, restarted, and haven't had any problems since. Full access and full speed.

Hope this helps 🙂.

I have several different macs on a home network. I just purchased an Imac 24 running Leopard 10.5. Initially one of my several LaCie disks connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station worked, but then it stopped working. My printer connected to the Airport Extreme Base Station works fine as does surfing the internet.

I tried the solution of removing the Airport applications from the Systems Preference Log In table, but it made no difference. I can "see" my Lacie Disk, but cannot mount it or use it.

Disappointing that this has been on the discussion board for so long without either Apple or Lacie explaining what the solution should be. Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.